The Furniture Game

This is a favourite game for many writers. It involves thinking about a character in terms of other things. You can try it with a person you know, or a character you’ve made up. Think about them in these terms: If they were a [ ? ], what kind of [ ? ] would they be?

If they were a season

A weather

A piece of furniture

An animal

A plant

A food

A piece of music

An item of clothing

A book

Be as descriptive as possible – your aim is to really get under the skin of that character or person. So for a weather, maybe your character might remind you of rain, but what kind of rain? The rain that soaks you slowly, so that you don’t notice you’re wet until you are soaked to the skin? Or the rain that thunders down in knives from a black sky?

Once you’ve answered all these questions (you can add your own, too), look at the sentences you’ve written. Pick your favourites, write them into a poem. Here’s one of mine as an example:

He is a leopard, hiding in the trees

A rainsoaked hillside, winter bitten and raw

He is the grey dawn of a new day

Waiting for the wind to rise

He is waves, growling into a cove

Pounding against the steadfast rocks

Mustard on beef

Vinegar on chips

Worth the moment of sharpness

For the warmth that follows