Writing About an Experience Using Quadrants

Quadrants

List ten moments in your life that you keep coming back to, that just won’t let you go. These do not have to be huge momentous turning points in your life. Actually, no moment is too small to be a subject for writing.

When you have your list, I would like you to eliminate five of these that you don’t want to write about today. You can place a small x by the side, so that you will have these in your notebook for later.

Now eliminate two more. Now eliminate two more, until you are left with the one that you will write about today. Remember, you can always come back to the others.

Now, before we begin to write about that moment, I would like you to engage in some brainstorming.

Fold your paper into fourths.

Setting	Characters
Time/Era	Meaning

In one section, note or draw everything you can about the setting where the event took place, including as many details as you can. It might help to close your eyes to visualize the scene.

In another quadrant situate the event in time.  What can you remember about the year when this took place, think of social/political history, cultural history, as well as personal history? 

In the third quadrant, make notes about or draw the characters involved in the story.  Consider both physical and personality characteristics.  Look for details that reveal character.  

In the final quadrant, put your thoughts about why you think this event might be memorable or significant. What do you think it means? This should be tentative and exploratory.

Select a detail from one of the quadrants to use as an entry point into the piece.  Write a few opening sentences. Repeat with a detail from one of the other quadrants. Continue until you have done one from each.

Choose one of your beginnings and write from that (10 minutes)