Unveiling Secrets: Karen Palmer’s Shocking Journey Behind She’s Under Here
LL: I was delighted to discover the floor plan of your childhood home in the book. You’re a writing instructor and you’ve often had students participate in an exercise in which they draw a floor plan of their childhood home, then pick a room and write about a memory or event that occurred there. Responses have been rich and deeply detailed. I love this! It reveals so much. Can you speak into this, please?
KP: This is my favorite exercise to give students. After they’ve sketched a floor plan, I have them label individual rooms and add some detail: beds, sofas, tables, people. Out in the margins, they jot down a line or two about things that happened in various rooms. Then they select a memory that really speaks to them and write about it for 15 minutes. This may be a good memory or a difficult one. Drawing the space first gets at events from a different angle. It’s nonverbal, less threatening, and can be playful, filled with sensory information that helps the writer access emotion.
