Clockwork - Exercise technique: Phrase Manipulation

They stomp on his command
On his command they stomp
Command they stomp!
On his command they rattle
Rattle and stomp on his command
Command they rattle, they stomp
Rattle they demand, he stomps
Expanding rattle and chomp
On his command gears turn
Turning gears at his command
Turn, they command, he hears
He hears the clicking gears
They whirr, they stomp, they rattle
Clockwork, ticking, turning
Clockwork monsters whirring
On his ears they churn

Phrase Manipulation

This exercise consists of three aspects, Phrase Permutation, Word Substitution and Addition and Subtraction. I recommend it for anyone who is feeling stuck for ideas or feeling stale. It’s another technique to explore the endless shades of grey in phrase structure and meaning. It’s like stretching before you play sports, limber up those literary muscles. The more you do it the easier it will come whilst writing, you will start mixing up your phrasing without even thinking about it, and choosing what best conveys your intent. As you play with words, new lines of thought will present themselves, multiple referents, layers of meaning.

Phrase Permutation :
Just change the position of the words in the phrase.

Example:
Death of the Author
The author of death
Or
The rolling landscape
The landscape rolls away

Substitution means replace a word

Example:
the Death of the Author
The death of Autumn
The death of the daughter
Deleting the author

Adition and subtraction can open the process up by adding words from your word pool (see Word Association)

Example:
Reversing the death of the author
Death in the fist of the author

You can mix these aspects to whatever degree you wish, just at first, note what technique you are using.

Note: Phrase Manipulation works equally will for poetry and prose.

See Hazel Smiths "The Writing experiment; strategies for innovative creative writing" for more details.