“I just want to stay authentic and keep dreaming my dreams.” — Katy Perry

  • “I just want to stay authentic and keep dreaming my dreams.” — Katy Perry

    “A lot of times I write these songs because I need to reinspire myself,” Katy Perry, in the July14, 2014 issue of People magazine.

    “I need to find my voice again. I need to be heard.”

    How about you? Are you writing to be heard? Is anyone paying attention? We are. . . here at The Write Spot Blog.

    Choose a prompt and then write. Post your writing on The Write Spot Blog. Maybe the person who most needs to hear what you have to say will be reading.

    Katy Perry“I just want to stay authentic and keep dreaming my dreams.” — Katy Perry

    Me too, Katy, me too~!

    Let’s gather ’round the table, put pen to paper or fingers on keyboard and Just Write!

    Marlene C

  • What should you throw away but just can’t? Prompt #86

    Write about something you should throw away but just can’t.

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    Marlene C

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  • Reject A Hit. . . Have you seen this?

    Reject A Hit . . . Writer’s Digest Magazine, Rejection Letter column is a hit with local writers.

    Sonoma County Writer Amy Marincik’s spoof rejection on Great Expectations was selected for the March/April 2013 issue of Writer’s Digest magazine.

    Writers Forum presenter, Daniel Ari, wrote a pithy rejection letter to e.e. cummings, published in the July/August 2014 issue of the magazine.

    Reject A Hit.Daniel Ari

    You, too, can be featured on the last page of Writer’s Digest magazine’s, Reject A Hit column.

    300 words or fewer. Submit via email to wdsubmissions@fwmedia.com with “Reject a hit” in the subject line.

    Go for it!

    Here is a list of books that have been spoofed rejected.

    2012

    September       The Godfather by Mario Puzo

    October           Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

    Nov/Dec          How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss

     2013

    January           Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

    March/April    Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, spoofed by Amy Marincik

    May/June        Burning Down My Masters’ House: My Life at the NY Times Jayson Blair

    July/August    The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

    October           The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

    Nov/Dec          The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

    2014

    January           The Road by Cormac McCarthy

    February         The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

    March/April    Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

    May/June        Tess of the D’Urbevilles

    July/Aug         Tulips & Chimmeys by e.e. cummings, spoofed by Daniel Ari

    Your Turn!  Write your 300 word Spoof Rejection and submit to Reject A Hit, Writer’s Digest magazine.

     

    Marlene C

  • Guest Blogger Marjorie Richardson corrals the chatter and invites creativity.

    Guest Blogger Marjorie Richardson writes about waking our consciousness through gentle yoga.

    Want to calm your nerves, quiet your mind, decrease anxiety and heighten immunity? How about having more comfort and ease in your body? Developing a feeling of fluidity in your body? Accessing your creativity? All these things can and do take place through slow and gentle movement accompanied by focused rhythmic breathing. Gentle yoga enhances our ability to hear ourselves, to listen to the inner cues we are constantly being given. In deeply concentrated states of mind, restlessness calms down. Synchronizing breath and movement train the mind to sense the subtle layers of well-being below all the surface chatter.

    Hatha Yoga is a tool discovered thousands of years ago to be used to awaken consciousness and unite with all the levels of our being. When attention is directed inward, your body receives messages that you are safe and secure; your self is being looked after. Muscles relax, blood pressure drops, the nerves calm, the mind quiets, anxiety decreases and immunity heightens.. Our fast-paced busy lives tend to stimulate a high level of stress that runs our immune systems down as they try to cope. A Yoga practice is a counter pose to that life style.

    The gift of yoga is multifaceted. Through our yoga practice we break through and loosen old patterns of feeling and being. We develop a new relationship with ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Yoga deepens our understanding of who we are and how we choose to be in the world. Yoga expands us, opens us to new territory, releases stuck places that were previously unavailable. Through our yoga practice we attune to our alignment at the core of our being. We increase physical strength, flexibility and balance. We develop non-judging acceptance and open heartedness. And through all of this we experience a calmer and more peaceful state of mind. We cultivate an ability to listen to our body, to hear what it really needs for well-being. We begin to move away from the push and the struggle and breathe into the little releases and insights that are revealed to us through our body as we learn to listen with curiosity and trust. In this way, yoga can enhance our writing.

    The body, mind and spirit responds to and loves the oxygenating benefits of deep rhythmic breathing and the balancing of all the body systems through the gentle stretching and relaxing into the poses. The true work of our yoga practice is cultivating self acceptance, kindness and patience, developing and integrating body mind and spirit. Our physical need is health, our psychological need is knowledge and our spiritual need is inner peace. Cultivating all three produces harmony and who the heck doesn’t want that?

    Marjorie Richardson.1Marjorie Richardson is a certified Integrative Yoga Instructor & Massage Therapist who has been teaching yoga in Petaluma, California since 1997. Her gentle style supports the process of letting go of tensions, worries and habits by using breath and movement synchronized together.

    Note from Marlene:  I just love serendipity. I’ve had this post ready for awhile, waiting for an “open spot” on the guest blogger calendar.  Today is The Day. There is a good article about “Yin yoga: A fascia-nating practice,” by Hana Medina in the July 2014 issue of The Costco Connection. Don’t you just love it when serendipity happens?

    Marlene C

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  • Follow your heart and intuition . . . Steve Jobs

    “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” — Steve Jobs
    Click here for more Steve Jobs quotes.
    Map by Romain.Steve Jobs PlacesMap of “Steve’s Places” by  Romain Moisescot, Webmaster, all about Steve Jobs.com

    I love what Romain has done with his blog, especially the January 26, 2013 post, since I love catching movie gaffes.
    And being a writer, of course I love stories. Here’s the story behind all about Steve Jobs.com:

    “My name is Romain Moisescot and I am the webmaster of all about Steve Jobs.com. By webmaster I mean the owner, designer, developer and editor of the website, which is a one-man operation. I started it on February 24, 2006, Steve Jobs’s 51st birthday… and my 19th.

    The website was named all about Steve back then, but its objective was the same as today’s: to bring you (and me) the most complete online resource about Steve Jobs. Although I had been an avid Mac user since my early teens, I had become a huge fan of the man after reading his biography by Alan Deutschman, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, in 2004. After trying to gather more information about him, I was desperate to see that no good website was dedicated to him: so I decided to build one.”

    Note from Marlene:  I love this. . . love Romain’s Can-do attitude.  Create and build what your heart desires.

     

    Marlene C

  • Your intangible treasure. Prompt #85

    What is the one intangible thing you treasure above all else?

    Intangible, meaning: you can’t touch it, feel it, smell it, hold it, see it . . . it may be a character trait, a personality trait, a quirk. . . a feeling. . . .

    Prompt:  Write about something intangible that you treasure.

    LifeJanePhoto by Jane Person

     

    Marlene C

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  • The Kathy Myers “Book in a Box” Method (patent pending)

    Guest Blogger Kathy Myers writes:

    Computers are great and all— without them, this blog wouldn’t exist and then what would I do? But when I was younger, my image of a writing life was less technical and more romantic: Jo in Little Women, writing her books in a drafty attic wearing fingerless gloves against the winter chill, or Jane Austen dipping her nib and contemplating her next chapter, while her parents plan a ball where she can meet eligible bachelors. Ah, the good old days.

    At a Jumpstart Writing Workshop in May, I wrote a fictional scene on the prompt “It happened because . . . ”  Marlene Cullen, always benevolent and encouraging to writers said, “That would be a good beginning for a romance novel.”

    Jumpstart was on hiatus for the month of June, and this coincided with a flirtation I’d been having about trying the fabled “sit-your-ass-in-a-chair-and-write-a–thousand-words-a-day” method I’d heard so much about— a discipline that so many writers (who actually have books published) swear by. So I thought what the heck, if Marlene can drag herself to her exercise boot camp, I can drag myself into the kitchen: make some toast and coffee, go back to bed with my fully charged laptop, and write until it runs out of juice. This averages about three hours and about a thousand words. I am no worse for wear for the effort, and I have the rest of the day ahead of me—fully charged with a great sense of accomplishment. I press print, and then put my day’s work into a lovely flowered document box (Home Goods $7.98). My box is fancy and romantic—much nicer than poor Jo’s manuscript—wrapped with brown paper and twine. It might not be as nice as Jane’s satin lined box inlaid with elephant ivory, but hey—now I’ve got something to buy with my future royalties.

    It’s July now and I’m thirty thousand words into my first novel. I have to tell you: The ass in a chair/ book in a box method works. You are free to do as you wish with your writing, of course. Do it on a whim or when the muse strikes. But get a fancy box to put it in. Remember that everything you write is a legacy of sorts. You can have a time capsule where your stories, journals, or Jumpstart notebooks can be collected—honoring your efforts with a neat and lovely testament to your creativity. Your voice in the form of your words can reside there in style.

    Kathy M. + boxKathy Myers is a big fan of Jumpstart and Writers Forum. She has waded into the submission pool this past year and been published by Every Day Fiction, Petaluma Readers Theater and Redwood Writers Anthology. She has done several guest book reviews on The Write Spot Blog and is an advocate for fancy boxes everywhere.

    Marlene C

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  • Fourth of July . . . Prompt #84

    July 4th is coming up. . . . what does this mean to you? Do you consider yourself patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

    Which reminds me of one of my all-time favorite “brain teasers.”

    Fourth of JulyDo they have fourth of July in England?

     

     

    Yes. . .and third of July and fifth of July.

    Writing Prompt:  What does July Fourth mean to you?

    Marlene C

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  • Terrain is an online journal . . . writing plus multimedia.

    Terrain is an online journal of fiction, poetry, essays, photos and multimedia, currently looking for more fiction. June 2014 issue of The Writer magazine: “Readers are welcome to comment below Terrain’s pieces, and the online format allows them to share favorite writing through various social media outlet.”

    Terrain accepts general submissions from September 1 to May 30, and contest submissions year-round (with a September 1 deadline for mid-October publication). We do not accept regular submissions in June, July, and August. With the exception of accompanying artwork and queries, all work must be submitted online via Terrain.org’s Submission Manager, requiring the creation of a user account.

    check mark.1Note: From Marlene. . . flag these contest and submissions dates. Start writing now and be ready to send during submission dates.

    Marlene C

  • Establishing a practice can help you move forward in magical ways.

    Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray writes about: The Power of Establishing a Practice.

    Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen events, meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come their way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!” – W.H. Murray The Scottish Himalayan Expedition

    Whether it’s for writing, meditation, or exercise, establishing a practice can help you move forward in magical ways. Having a practice means that you show up every day, no matter what. You are going to want to release all expectations of outcome or where you think you want things to go. It doesn’t matter how good you are or what you accomplish or what happens with the practice. You sit down to meditate and your mind goes wild with chatter the entire time, that’s fine. You show up to write and find yourself whining on the page, that’s okay. The point is to show up and practice.

    A lot of things are happening when you show up consistently to something. You begin to forge the neural nets in your brain needed for the task and strengthen them so that whatever you are committed to actually becomes easier to do and you are able to increase our level of skill. In writing your subconscious mind is working 24/7 on whatever you give it to focus on, so showing up everyday allows you to access new insights and ideas arising from your expanded mind.

    You commit and take the action. The universe responds in kind to the power of your willingness and the force your commitment. Free from expecting that you need to accomplish something, you relax and open up to allowing. In this receptive state, the your subconscious mind aligns with the workings of the Universe and you find support, synchronicities and inspired ideas coming to you.

    Establishing a practice helps you move beyond any resistance that has been in the way. When you release the need for instant gratification you slip into a sense of satisfaction from the simple act of showing up for yourself. You learn to find joy in the practice itself and this allows you to expand your creative capacity.

    To begin, start small. When I coach writers who are having a hard time showing up,  I ask them at first to commit to writing ten minutes a day. This helps you cross the threshold of resistance and move past the associated voice that tells you that you don’t have enough time. Once you have established the habit of showing up you will find things flowing with greater ease.

    Suzanne MurraySuzanne Murray is a creativity and empowerment coach and offers healing work with EFT.  Her eBook contains material that she has used for more than twenty years in her writing classes. Her ebook helps followers to show up to write, find their voice, deepen their experience with the writing process and surrender to the creative flow and let the magic happen. The portable book is like being in one of her workshops and allows participatns to establish writing as a practice. Suzanne offers her book with a 14 day money back guarantee. For information about Suzanne’s ebook and her coaching packages,  please click here.

    Check out Suzanne’s inspiring Blog, Creativity Goes Wild, for ideas on writing, creativity and life coaching.

    Marlene C

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