In poetry classes I've taken, one of the exercises is to write flat-pack poems. You take a few specific lines, words or phrases, specify the number of lines or syllables per line, and use them to create a poem.
Flat Pack Poem Exercise:
For instance, use the following to write a poem:
Take a line from one of your favorite songs as the title to your poem
Write one stanza of 10 lines
No specified syllable count per line
Use the word fearless twice
End the poem on a question
It's fun and non-threatening and just a way to play with words. I started thinking about this because of a thread in the forums on how to write haiku, assuming you can actually write haiku in English, which I'm not certain is possible. And then I remembered I had to write 2 annual reviews for colleagues of mine.
The annual review is the perfect venue for flat-pack writing. First, I only have three boxes to fill in. (I'm not their manager - it's peer-to-peer review. Complete waste of time, but be that as it may....)
How to Write a Flat-Pack Annual Review
3 questions:
What impact did she have?
What ways can she grow and improve?
Any other feedback?
I always find these reviews problematic so I decided to create a flat-pack process. I know the structure: 3 boxes to fill in. There are four characteristics in my company, and I need to focus the review on one, in this case collaborative, so that limits what I will write about. Then I searched out 2 websites that literally provide lines you can use that reflect "collaborative" or whatever word you've chosen. And then I write! I also used my thesaurus extensively as I wanted collaborative to be the underlying theme without repeating collaborative 15 times, so I needed to find synonyms.
This was the most fun I've had writing a review - ever! I have one more to-do and will use the same technique. Who knew creative writing could be so well applied to my corporate existence! Hah!
Flat pack annual review
In poetry classes I've taken, one of the exercises is to write flat-pack poems. You take a few specific lines, words or phrases, specify the number of lines or syllables per line, and use them to create a poem.
Flat Pack Poem Exercise:
For instance, use the following to write a poem:
It's fun and non-threatening and just a way to play with words. I started thinking about this because of a thread in the forums on how to write haiku, assuming you can actually write haiku in English, which I'm not certain is possible. And then I remembered I had to write 2 annual reviews for colleagues of mine.
The annual review is the perfect venue for flat-pack writing. First, I only have three boxes to fill in. (I'm not their manager - it's peer-to-peer review. Complete waste of time, but be that as it may....)
How to Write a Flat-Pack Annual Review
3 questions:
I always find these reviews problematic so I decided to create a flat-pack process. I know the structure: 3 boxes to fill in. There are four characteristics in my company, and I need to focus the review on one, in this case collaborative, so that limits what I will write about. Then I searched out 2 websites that literally provide lines you can use that reflect "collaborative" or whatever word you've chosen. And then I write! I also used my thesaurus extensively as I wanted collaborative to be the underlying theme without repeating collaborative 15 times, so I needed to find synonyms.
This was the most fun I've had writing a review - ever! I have one more to-do and will use the same technique. Who knew creative writing could be so well applied to my corporate existence! Hah!