UNEARTH: Week-by-Week Exercises
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OR
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UNEARTH ran during September to December 2025 and included 13 weekly guided creative writing hours on Zoom. I don’t record the sessions in order to create a space where people feel comfortable sharing. So here are the exercises for paid subscribers in case you missed a week or you’d like to come back to something we did.
Week 1 - Treasure Map
9 September 2025
Draw an outline of an island. Use big paper (A3 is nice).
Allow space for writing. Draw some:
mountain peaks
caves
a river
a waterfall
a treasure chest or X marks the spot
Then add any details or colours you want to.
Now I have some questions for you. Add notes to your map in the specific areas or freewrite first and then pick out words and phrases to add to your map.
Mountains
When did you feel strong and steady?
Which challenge are you ready for?
What are your lofty dreams?
Rivers
When did you feel in the flow of things?
Is your river fast or slow?
When did you float for a while?
Caves
What are you keeping hidden?
Do you have a fire at the entrance?
What are you keeping out?
Waterfall
What is or was overwhelming?
What goes too fast in a rush?
What is awe inspiring?
Treasure Chest
What jewels are hidden and waiting for you to find them?
Which one sparkles the most?
Give yourself instructions to get there to accompany the map.
Week 2 - Journey
16 September 2025
Imagine you’re going on a journey. You can go anywhere - a place from the past or one you’d like to go in the future or a place that only exists in your imagination. You can travel any way you like - horseback, train, on foot, by boat or unicorn. Can write from the point of view of a character.
Don’t think too hard about the answers. Write what comes to mind. It may not make sense straightaway. This is okay.
Where are you going?
What will you bring to give you courage?
What will you bring to help you find your way?
What will you need when all else fails?
Where do you begin from?
How are you travelling?
Who is there?
Which way do you go?
What do you see along the way?
What do you hear?
What do you feel/touch?
What do you taste?
What is your biggest challenge on this journey?
What makes you smile the most?
What gift do you bring back for yourself?
Where do you find yourself in the end?
Week 3 - Autumn Equinox & haiku
23 September 2025
Pick a moment - can be right now or a walk you took recently. Use specific images.
I notice…
I see…
I hear…
I feel…
I am grateful for…
If I asked my body, it would say…
My feet are…
I feel most rooted when…
If I dig a little deeper, I will…
Most of all, I treasure…
Pick some phrases from what you have written to write a haiku.
Haiku & Haibun Workbook
1.23MB ∙ PDF file
Week 4 - Lost Things
30 September 2025
Make a list of things you’ve lost or let go of; gained or feel grateful for. You could include…
objects
thoughts
words
ideas
ideals
chances
beliefs
abilities
memories
Use Brian Arundel’s essay: ‘The Things I’ve Lost’ as a structure to write your own.
Week 5 - Cosy Murder Mystery
7 October 2025
Setting: An annual antiques fair at the community centre of your local small town or a town you know well.
Victim: Billie - the centre caretaker/rare books dealer - found behind the tea and cake stall, at 4pm on the day of the fair.
Suspects:
An antiques dealer specialising in clocks
A costume designer looking to sell their vintage piece
Billie’s aunt who they hadn’t seen for twenty years
An apprentice barista, who is getting practice in by volunteering at the tea and cake stall
A volunteer steward who cancelled their holiday plans to help at the antiques fair
A vinyl record collector who is looking for a rare edition of Metallica’s Black album
Pick one.
Write an alibi/backstory/secret for your suspect.
Answer these questions:
What were they doing at the antique fair?
Where were they doing at the time of the murder/when the victim was found?
Who did they talk to?
What happened at the antique fair?
How was Billie murdered?
What could have been a motive for the murder?
Week 6 - BREAK
Week 7 - The Giantess
21 October 2025
We used this picture of The Giantess (Guardian of the Egg), 1947 by Leonora Carrington as inspiration.
Write what you notice about the picture and in the picture.
I am…
Around me…
Rising up, I will…
When I open up my cloak…
At last, the egg cracks…
Letting the birds fly free will…
Any other notes, things to observe…
Week 8 - Ancestors
28 October 2025
Maybe it means your blood relatives. Maybe it’s the most influential people in your life. Or even people you have never met but who have inspired you
My ancestors lived…
My ancestors were…
My ancestors did…
My ancestors did not…
My ancestors said…
My ancestors gave me…
If I listened to their wisdom, my ancestors would tell me…
I used an ode by Sharon Olds as a frame, but I can’t reproduce it here because of copyright, so I offer you a link to a different poem:
Liz Lochhead: For My Grandmother Knitting
Week 9 - Carrots
4 November 2025
Freewrite on the subject of carrots. Use an actual carrot to explore with your senses.
Describe and write with all your senses.
What do you know about carrots?
The World Carrot Museum (internet archive)
How do you feel about carrots?
What do carrots make you think of?
Any other thoughts.
Ross Gay wrote a short essay about pulling a carrot. Extracts here.
Write your own piece about carrots.
Can be a love letter to a carrot.
Begin with the particular, relate to personal feeling, relate to wider society or world issue.
Pick an emotion - paragraph 1 describe an ordinary carrot-related event through this emotion (chopping; pulling; peeling; sewing seeds etc)
Paragraph 2: relate the emotion to the carrot.
Paragraph 3: relate to a wider world issue.
Week 10: Museum of My Life
11 November 2025
I couldn’t live without…
Everyday, I use…
A time I return to often in my memory is…
Back then, I loved…
I wish I had a notebook for (a particular time in life)…
The notebook I will never throw out is…
In the museum of my life, I would put…
The collections or categories I would have are…
Then:
Either collate a list (collection) or pick one object to begin to write the story of…
Week 12: Found Objects
18 November 2025
·
21 Nov
Week 13: BREAK
25 November 2025
Week 13: Unearthly
2 December 2025
“Fog is my muse: when I am in it, I see things differently. The known becomes unknown, the familiar unfamiliar. Fog disorientates, blurring the edges of everything - changing landscape, altering colour and softening light. As I walk, I let my camera guide me, looking for shape and silhouette, for secret and story. I see fog as the visual representation of a dream. A foggy morning is rich with mystery and magic, but also with possibility — the everyday feels otherworldly. It is this world transformed that calls to me and I have started to feel that perhaps fog transforms me, too.” p. 3 - Chasing Fog by Laura Pashby
For each of these words from the extract, write three more that come to mind:
fog
muse
landscape
transform
mystery
magic
possibility
otherworldly
Then pick five words from your list to use in freewriting.
Week 14: Last Session
9 December 2025
Some reflection on this year.
In 2025, I have enjoyed writing…
What I love about writing is…
The thing I feel driven to write most of all is…
No matter what, I would still write…
Use this sentence starter from “Wintering” by Katherine May. It’s the start of the chapter called “Midwinter”.
“The alarm on my phone trills at a quarter to five and I climb out of an unfamiliar bed and pull on my clothes…” (p. 118)