NEW PARIS BOOK IN PROGRESS IN 2024: THUNK IT THROUGH – Blog # 18.
My in-progress Paris book needs a shake-up. Who would have thunk it? The idiom, usually said in jest, means to express surprise at something that is not in the least surprising, says the Cambridge Dictionary. So, what’s so surprising about that? Nothing, of course, except that, in creative writing workshops (and other places too), to thunk something is to brainstorm an idea, but in a specific way.
To thunk, the verb, means to use flexible thinking to question ideas – to push the boundaries of conventional thought – to challenge the belief that answers or thoughts are binary; that they are either right or wrong.
Thunk is also a noun. It’s like a thought or an idea, such as choosing a thunk to shake-up ideas in my Paris book in the process of writing it.
Here’s what I mean:
Thunk ideas to debate:
Thunk: If the main character does X, a day after Brexit is enforced, is she breaking the law (French law, British law, European Union law, any law)?
Thunk: Can the main character leave France and enter Australia in March 2020 without breaking a pandemic regulation or law?
Thunk: Is the pandemic travel surveillance and scientific information the same as George Orwell’s 1949 book 1984?
Thunk: Would life be better under a libertine government during a global disaster?
Thunk: Do people know the difference between libertarianism and libertinism?
Thunk: Do two simultaneous unprecedented events necessitate unprecedented actions?
Thunking Task:
Aim: To facilitate new ways of thinking by examining yes/no creative challenges (note: there may not be a “correct” way to respond).
For each thunk, do the following tasks:
Find someone willing to argue the “yes” case for 10 minutes.
Find someone willing to argue the “no” case for 10 minutes.
If you are doing the thunking task in a group, take a vote to determine which case the group found to be more convincing or more persuasive.
The thunking exercise is designed for writers to gain flexible, innovative, unconventional, or even opinionated views, unlike their own, to push the boundaries of thought.
During the writing of my Paris book, I could thunk and thunk and thunk for a long time, constantly debating thunking ideas with others until I’m all thunked out. Who would have thunk it?
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Photographer: Martina Nicolls
