The Sentence Project is about personal writing and visual expression. Always there is the hope that the sentences we draft will reveal thoughts hovering beneath the surface, bringing form to unexpected ideas. Writing is an individual act, often a difficult one. But even a single phrase can spark something, if only we can get to it. When writing in a community is possible, new ideas emerge, sometimes suddenly.
The Sentence Project is rooted in community writing sessions. People assemble based on common interests or at random. Handcrafted journals are provided. We write (and sketch) in response to a set of prompts designed to be simultaneously pointed and open. There is some conversation about the writing and an invitation to read parts of it aloud. As the session wraps up, writers are asked to contribute a piece of something that they generated—a sentence, a sketch, a swatch, anything—to the online archive. The journals stay with the writers, hopefully seeding future work.
Writers can be any age, gathered from anywhere. They might be local citizens linked by a common social interest, such as healthy living or shared data about their city. Maybe they’re together at an art fair. Or there could be a class of college students pursuing writing or design.
Participants can expect that writing in a community will have benefit for all of their creative work. Prompts are designed to help everyone balance personal stories and other material of interest.
Contributions become part of the digital archive housed at sentenceproject.org.