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  Target idea 2: ­­­­­­­­__________

  Magnifying glass → Linking quality 3:________ →

  Target idea 3: ­­­­­­­­_________

  Okay, use your first linking quality to find a target idea. Then take ten minutes to explore your target idea through the lens of magnifying glass.

  STAN SWINIARSKI

  Magnifying glass → Linking quality: Starting a fire by focusing sunlight → Target idea: Bully

  A bully is a magnifying glass.

  From a distance with the daylight shining on you, you’re just like any other dorky kid around here. But I’ve got a way with light. I can shine it on you, find the one thing about you that you hate so much, that makes you different than the other dweebs. I can focus it with pinpoint accuracy on that singular place on you until I see the smoke, feel the heat rising and watch you squirm, all but bursting into flames with embarrassment. Your tears will be like gasoline, they won’t put out the flames. And all the other kids will look on with morbid fascination, because what kid doesn’t enjoy a good fire? And maybe a few will even join in on the laughter, proving that I am cooler, more popular, and powerful.

  Starting a fire by focusing sunlight is something most people associate with a magnifying glass—an essential quality. It leads Stan to bully, and he takes an interesting look at it from the bully’s point of view. As usual, a fine group of magnifying glass’s family shows up for the fun. The poor kid doesn’t have a chance with all that heat.

  Now use your own first linking quality to locate a target idea and take ten minutes exploring your target idea through the lens of magnifying glass.

  YOU: Magnifying glass → Linking quality 1:_______ → Target idea 1: ­­­­­­­­_______

  CAROLINE HARVEY

  Magnifying glass → gets you up close and personal with the object of your desire → Target idea: strip club

  A strip club is a magnifying glass.

  The customers hold mugs of beer and lean crooked in their seats at the edge of the small stage, they’re glaring at Destiny, the dancer on the 3 a.m. shift. The club, once glittering and clean, is now scuffed at the seams and dingy, the fake black-brown leather of the overstuffed bench seats tearing at their overworn corners. Too many fat middle-aged asses sitting here and ogling, peering at the dancers with drooling eyes, hungry hearts, desperate bodies. No matter the layered cake of makeup, no matter the sparkle of that sequined bikini, the flash of hundred dollar bills, the clitter clatter of somebody’s last quarters thrown onto the floor like a hopeful toss of the dice, no matter the fake names and pocketed wedding rings, the deep truth of it all shows through. The lights flash, the disco ball blushes, nobody can hide here because there’s no pretending you’re here for something else, nobody goes into a strip club by accident, nobody ends up dancing on a stage in a thong bikini as a mistake—the brutal reality of the moment is all right here, inside the thump thump of raunchy music, in every swirl of hip and shake of tit, in every lean forward and stuff a dollar bill in a bra strap, in every backroom champagne party there is the fact of humanity looming large.

  Caroline’s work here is interesting: A magnifying glass magnifies. Though magnifying glass’s family stays in the back room, hidden from view, they allow Caroline to paint the scene in clear and disturbing detail. Without knowing the terms of the metaphor, you’d think it was just a marvelous description, but her linking quality, gets you up close and personal with the object of your desire, which took her to the strip club, asks, indeed requires, that she magnify everything. She certainly does.

  Now use your second linking quality to find a second target idea. Then take ten minutes exploring your target idea through the lens of magnifying glass.

  YOU: Magnifying glass → Linking quality 2:______ →

  Target idea 2: ­­­­­­­­________

  PAT PATTISON

  Magnifying glass → Linking quality 2: Focuses light to a heated point →

  Target idea 2: Having an argument.

  Curled in bed, back to back, the air seething, hissing. Sharp tick of the second hand slowing, penetrating the hanging silence, a stabbing. Months of letting it slide, focused to a flashpoint in a few minutes, magnifying, burning like sunlight brought to a point on the back of an ant, cringing, then smoking to an ashed corpse in seconds. All the times you looked away, didn’t touch me. All the days I drove home on side roads, delaying, the knot in my belly tightening, hardening the closer I got to home. My footsteps hesitating up the sidewalk—the wineglasses enlarging your eyes.

  Okay, use your third linking quality to find another target idea and take ten minutes to explore your target idea through the lens of magnifying glass.

  YOU: Magnifying glass → Linking quality 3:______ →

  Target idea 3: ­­­­­­­­________

  DAY #9

  FINDING LINKING QUALITIES: WORKING ONE DIRECTION

  Prompt: Swimming Hole

  Once again you must find your own linking qualities. Then you’ll find your third qualities and, in one direction, explore your target idea through the lens of your first idea (swimming hole).

  Try this. First, find three interesting qualities (linking qualities) for swimming hole.

  Swimming hole → Linking quality 1:___________

  Swimming hole → Linking quality 2:___________

  Swimming hole → Linking quality 3:___________

  CHANELLE DAVIS

  1. Swimming hole → Linking quality 1: Entertaining

  2. Swimming hole → Linking quality 2: Isolated

  3. Swimming hole → Linking quality 3: You can drown in it

  Using these linking qualities, supply the target idea for each of them. Then take ten minutes to explore your target idea through the lens of swimming hole.

  1. Swimming hole → Linking quality: Entertaining → Target idea: Busker

  A busker is a swimming hole.

  The busker entertained people on the street, underneath a canopy of tall city buildings stretching up towards the summer sun, his music attracting the people until there was a crowd, songs flowing down the street, a river of melody, people diving in and tossing coins, some just lazing around on the park benches, basking, enjoying the day …

  Chanelle turns a city street into such a lovely place to hang out, inviting swimming hole’s family to sit around and hear “songs flowing down the street, a river of melody.” Nice job, linking quality! She wouldn’t have gotten to busker without you.

  2. Swimming hole → Linking quality: Isolated → Target idea: Poet’s mind

  A poet’s mind is a swimming hole.

  The poet’s mind is a calm swimming hole, peaceful and deep, he pulls words out and splashes them onto the page in a quiet secluded setting, lines comes to him, rippling along the water like a summer breeze …

  Wow, how do you turn a poet’s mind into a swimming hole? You link them using isolated.

  3. Swimming hole → Linking quality: You can drown in it → Target idea: Spring

  Spring is a swimming hole.

  Strip off my layers of heavy winter clothing, dive into the pools of daffodils in the park, splashes of pink cherry blossoms and new life flowing through the tree trunks, pouring out the tips of every branch, the weeping willows are ancient green waterfalls, take a big breath of crisp cool air and sparkling smiles …

  Sounds a lot like spring at the Victory Gardens in Boston. Look at all the members of swimming hole’s family spreading their blankets for a lazy afternoon picnic. Chanelle takes an extra metaphorical step to get from drowning to the expressed identity, “dive into the pools of daffodils.” Nice.

  JESS MEIDER

  1, Swimming hole → Linking quality 1: Refreshing

  2. Swimming hole → Linking quality 2: Fun

  3. Swimming hole → Linking quality 3: Cooling

  Using these qualities as linking qualities, supply the target idea for each of them. Then take ten minutes to explore your target idea through the lens of swimming hole.


  1. Swimming hole → Linking quality: Refreshing →

  Target idea: Telling the truth/interacting in love

  Telling the truth/interacting in love is a swimming hole.

  Your cool wet words swirl around me like schools of fish, fluttering fast like some low voltage of electricity. I am thrilled by your honesty, it’s drinkable, this secret place. At first I sit like a tree, stretching my roots slowly through the soft earth compact and giving way to my gentle push, like fingertips, toe tips, they touch the water that lays languid and deep like your body on my bed, laying there coagulating energies, naked, label-less, pure water, clear, we are transparent, all perception visually shining like puddles in moonlight on the asphalt and sidewalks, glistening emotions that ratify and fortify what we say. Love is the subtle undercurrent that moves around us in a slow whirl, the caress so tepid and freshly aromatic we are swept into its direction, it dances us around, our bodies speckled with diamond splotches of star lights that dangle and float on the surface of this intensely gentle water.

  Another victory for our superhero, linking quality, wearing a big scarlet LQ on his chest and cape. LO dives in and refreshes the relationship, a tough thing to do for a relationship without a waterproof costume.

  2. Swimming hole → Linking quality: Fun → Target idea: Square dancing

  Square dancing is a swimming hole.

  His lip corners pull back wide across the face as the primal YEEEEEEE slithers thru his teeth at high velocity and dives deep into the HAW and the skip and bounce begin the undulating current of the upright bass woodily humming short quick bomp bomps, limbs stretch wide like swans and then swoop across dancing, kicking legs like a choreographed doggy paddle. Eyes gush with laughter the shine divinely, careening around the room like schools of tiny fish that happily frolic in this space. The caller coaches us into hypnotic patterns that weave and morph in a kaleidoscope, rockets in a swimming pool, the balls of laughter cuckle-ing up and out as heartbeats race in joyous countenance the upheaval of the soul bedazzling the room, an energetic disco ball.

  Fun is a pretty abstract linking quality and could take a writer almost anywhere. Jess apparently thinks square dancing is fun and dives in with gusto. The floor is flooded with relatives. Whether you think she’s invited too many or not is a matter of personal taste. The point is, third cousins are always in play, whether you want to send them wedding invitations or not. That’s the power of the linking qualities.

  3. Swimming hole → Linking quality: Cooling → Target idea: Mos Def’s song “Creole”

  Mos Def’s song “Creole” is a swimming hole.

  His voice is softly cupping the bounty of a gentle water inside, the words are painting a fortune of poems that flutter around me like a warm current, like fingertips underwater smoothly running under and above my skin, energetic waves soften and pond in my heart space. Slow mellow burn of the groove like the hot light of late June, laying its lavish luscious lips all over my face and tangled wet hair curls washed wet then tears pouring out of the strands they retake their original spirals. Words dangle like long limbs from the tall kind thick tree then drop into gentle tensions melodically fall weightless into the pool of his message that continues to sway us back and forth, front against front, swimming in a long kiss in the dark heavy heat of a Beijing August.

  What a lovely way to look at a singer’s voice. See how important finding a strong linking quality becomes? And you can do it. Easy, right? Okay, do it.

  Swimming hole → Linking quality 1:___________

  Swimming hole → Linking quality 2:___________

  Swimming hole → Linking quality 3:___________

  Now, using these qualities as linking qualities, supply the target idea for each of them. Then take ten minutes to explore your target idea through the lens of swimming hole.

  Swimming hole → Linking quality 1:______ → Target idea 1: ­­­­­­­­____

  Swimming hole → Linking quality 2:______ → Target idea 2: ­­­­­­­­____

  Swimming hole → Linking quality 3:______ → Target idea 3: ­­­­­­­­___

  DAY #10

  FINDING LINKING QUALITIES: WORKING ONE DIRECTION

  Prompt: Afternoon Nap

  Once again you’re on your own to find your linking qualities before you find your third qualities. Then move only in one direction, as you explore your target idea through the lens of afternoon nap.

  Try this. First find three interesting qualities for afternoon nap.

  Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1:___________

  Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2:___________

  Afternoon nap → Linking quality 3:___________

  Using these qualities as linking qualities, supply the target idea for each of them.

  Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1:______ → Target idea 1: ______

  Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2:______ → Target idea 2: ______

  Afternoon nap → Linking quality 3:______ → Target idea 3: ______

  CHANELLE DAVIS

  Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1: Everything slows down

  Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2: Recharge your body

  Afternoon nap → Linking quality 3: Close your eyes

  1. Afternoon nap → Linking quality: Everything slows down →

  Target idea: Autumn

  Autumn is an afternoon nap.

  Leaves curl up, slowly sinking into the ground knitting themselves together like a warm blanket, white pillow-shaped clouds hanging in the sky, the earth wrapping itself ready for winter dreaming, soft snoring of crickets outside my window …

  Great picture here, with a very effective linking quality. Note how useful simile is in connecting these families. As you saw in day 14 of Challenge #2, simile lets you make a comparison without totally committing to the idea. It keeps you focused on the first term of the comparison rather than sending energy and commitment through to the second term. Much of the family introduction in this challenge has been through the use of simile. Chanelle doesn’t commit to a knitted blanket with “Leaves curl up, slowly sinking into the ground knitting themselves together like a warm blanket,” but she does introduce you to the family member. Simile lets you have it without committing to it. And note her “white pillow-shaped clouds,” which aren’t real pillows, but hand the pillow a glass of wine to drink outside on the porch, rather than actually coming into the party.

  2. Afternoon nap → Linking quality: Recharge your body → Target idea: A holiday

  A holiday is an afternoon nap.

  Escape office life, under the palm trees and sunshine, no alarms as hours close their eyes, drifting into each other, dreaming, breathing slowly …

  I like how the hours close their eyes rather than a person actually taking an afternoon nap on a holiday.

  3. Afternoon nap → Linking quality: Close your eyes → Target idea: Kissing

  Kissing is an afternoon nap.

  Move my tongue slowly in your mouth, soft dreamy lips relaxing and letting me in, eyes shut tight, feeling your waist with my hands, warm and wrapped in each other like a cocoon …

  Only through close your eyes can you turn kissing into an afternoon nap. Nice job, linking quality!

  SARAH BRINDELL

  1. Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1: Feeling safe

  2. Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2: Relief from stress

  3. Afternoon nap → Linking quality 3: Waking up after dark

  1. Afternoon nap → Linking quality 1: Feeling safe → Mother’s smile

  My mother’s smile is an afternoon nap.

  She glides into the room as sunbeams pour through the open door, soft words breeze the afternoon dust particles around, as they swirl in the golden light toward my pillow. My mother’s fluffed gray hair hangs shoulder length in wisps as it tickles my cheek, she whisks it away with her hand and kisses me, accompanied by her famous “muh” sound, gently tugs at the comforter till it tautly binds the bed into a cocoon shape, and there, amids
t the luminous beams of floating powderlike dust only visible when daylight hangs low in the sky, her face transforms into an effortless orb of laugh lines surrounded by her hair like a glowing atmosphere. Straining to see it amidst the blinding shafts of sunlight, my eyelids slit, and then close. I am safe and warm in my mother’s smile.

  A great mom tribute. Linking terms seem almost magical in their power to transform one thing into another, but of course, as you’re discovering, there’s no magic involved. It’s a step-by-step process that almost always yields fresh, interesting discoveries.

  2. Afternoon nap → Linking quality 2: Relief from stress →

  Target idea 2: Drinking cold soda on a hot day

  Drinking cold soda on a hot day is an afternoon nap.

  You feel that first bubbly froth meet your tongue cold and sweet it lulls your thoughts in a lullaby of sips, swallow after swallow, the liquid sputters on a bedlike raft made of lime rinds bound together by sugar, racing toward a misty waterfall that begins at the edge of your throat, catching speed as it drops off past the tonsils, steering through the rapids of your intestinal walls till it settles and collects in crackling pools funneling toward your bladder, assimilating into your sweat glands and bloodstream and as you let go of all worry and drift off into a careless dreamlike sugar buzzzzzzz. The sun melts into the frothy Pacific as the soda melds your muscles into the folding chair, free of the steam and muck that had incessantly risen from the pavement and beaten your throat dry all afternoon. A cold carbonated liquid time-out session that leaves you satiated, finally at peace with the waning heat.

  I like “a lullaby of sips.” There’s a party in your body, and so many of afternoon nap’s friends and relatives are invited, courtesy of engraved invitations from relief from stress.

  3. Afternoon nap → Linking quality: Waking up after dark → Target idea: Realizing that your lover has left you

  Realizing that your lover has left you is an afternoon nap.

  He awoke to find all aspects of her gone. The bed was made on her side only, there wasn’t even a crease in the sheet where her naked body had been writhing in ecstatic pleasure just a few hours prior. All that light twinkling as it caught the glitter on her cheeks, all those soft words her hips and lips had woven on his chest now unraveled and disintegrated into the night air. The bedroom did have a faint smell of jasmine after dark, when its pungency permeates so heavily that it overwhelms any man within nose-reach, demanding him to indulge in a fantasy for a woman not there, perhaps a one-night-stand woman he could never forget. His bare feet padded across the cold tile floor and toward the door, offering up a few hopeful steps that suggested she might have just slipped into the bathroom for a moment or perhaps was making tea in the kitchen wrapped in that silk wine-stained robe, and soon would return to his side. All rooms revealed nothing but darkness, a hollow dark that somehow enveloped the space and expanded it while he wasn’t noticing. Under her spell, he lost himself until there was nothing left of her. He had awakened too late, only aware of her fleeting presence because it didn’t exist anymore. The jasmine smell unfurled and escaped out the left-open window, which now emitted a frigid gust of wind as he reached for his evening slippers.