An object that “speaks” to you. Prompt #430

  • An object that “speaks” to you. Prompt #430

    Picture the house or apartment you grew up in. If there was more than one house or apartment, choose one to focus on for this writing.

    Imagine standing outside, looking at the door you usually entered. Stand outside for a moment.

    Walk in and wander until you see a piece of furniture that speaks to you.

    Describe the object.

    Write about the memories and feelings it brings up for you.

    Write until you feel done with this object.

    Another time write about another object from your childhood or adolescence.

    Marlene C

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  • Secret Anniversary. . . Prompt #429

    From Simple Abundance, by Sarah Ban Breathnach

    From the June 15 page:

    “The Secret Anniversaries of the Heart”

    The holiest of all holidays are those

    Kept by ourselves in silence and apart,

    The secret anniversaries of the heart  . .

     —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    This is the traditional month for orange blossoms, lace, and rice, but wedding anniversaries aren’t on my mind. Today I am thinking of singular rites of passage, the secret anniversaries of the heart. These are the anniversaries we never talk about, kept in silence and apart. You might remember a first kiss, while I can’t forget the last time I held my father’s hand.

    I was speaking to a good friend this morning on the telephone. She was enjoying the preparation of a special dinner for a marvelous new man in her life. Last year her marriage of twenty years ended and she says she’s grateful her husband told her he was leaving in late summer, when everything was withering on the vine. She says that she never would have gotten over it if he had left during the holidays. I think I know what she means, but I pray I never find out for sure. As she reminds me, it’s the “feel” of the year that can trigger a secret anniversary of the heart. Another friend recalls the ritual of her mother braiding her hair whenever she walks out into her backyard in the spring and the first lilacs are in bloom. There was always a bouquet of lilacs on her mother’s dressing table.

    Secret anniversaries of the heart are not restricted by the passage of the years.  . . . I need to share what I’ve held in my hart for so many decades but have never expressed. It took a secret anniversary of the heart to remind me that there is always time enough to remember. But there is never time enough to commemorate what we cherish, unless we pause to observe, when they occur, the holiest of all holidays.

    Prompt: Write about a secret anniversary. 

    You can write about your personal experience, someone else’s

     experience, or respond as your fictional character would respond.

    Marlene C

  • What writing brings you joy?

    “I write because I believe my words can change the world. Every paragraph, every sentence, every syllable I construct is written with the express intention of changing people and their families. I hope as you read this you are in fact changing and I hope you’ll let your families read this so they can change too.

    Of course I’m kidding.

    I write for cash and because as a child I was told I had excellent penmanship.”

    “What’s the writing that makes you happy? That’s the writing to do.” 

    Doug Ellin, Creator, Executive Producer, “Entourage”

    From September 2005 issue of Writer’s Digest magazine

    Marlene C

  • Shhhh . . . Prompt #428

    Today’s writing prompt:

    Opening line from Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts:

    “You must not tell anyone, my mother said, what I’m about to tell you.”

    Or: You must not tell anyone . . .

    Or: My mother said . . .

    Marlene C

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  • Cross new thresholds into being creative.

    Today’s Guest Blogger, Creativity Coach, Suzanne Murray, asks:

    DO YOU RESIST ENGAGING YOUR CREATIVITY?

    Suzanne’s thoughtful answer:

    Recently I got a note from one of my writing students saying that she was really enjoying writing when she managed to find the time. The three top reasons that people give for not being able to fully show up, move forward or change some area of their life are, “I don’t have enough time, I don’t have enough money or my health isn’t good enough.”

    On the surface these excuses appear valid and hard to argue with. In truth they always cover up some deeper resistance. When we really want to do something and commit to it we can always manage to find the time, the resources and a way to work around any physical limitations.

    Robert Olen Butler who won the Pulitzer Prize for his collection of short stories A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain worked full time and had a difficult home life so he wrote everyday on the train computing into New York City. J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, was a single mother struggling on state aid in Edinburgh Scotland where she sat every day in a local cafe writing the first book in the series that would turn her into a multi-millionaire. These stories point to the reality that you don’t have to have everything together or know exactly what you are doing or how you are going to make something work to begin whatever it is you want to create. Beginning opens you up to new possibilities.

    With my writing coaching clients, I start by asking for a commitment to write a minimum of ten minutes a day. It would seem like everyone could find ten minutes, but if there are some unconscious beliefs and fears around expressing yourself or being creative then you will put it off until the end of the day and then say you are too tired. This is what resistance looks like.

    If you are having trouble showing up to your writing, painting, music or exploring your creativity in some way, stop and get quiet. Take some deep breaths. Ask your deeper or higher self:  what’s in the way? Then just see what comes to you. It may be a memory of your third grade teacher humiliating you in front of the class by criticizing a drawing you did or your father’s refusal to let you take the dance class you so much wanted.

    Such events really can impact the tender, vulnerable, innocent part of us that is our creative self and years later have us not wanting to risk being creative. If something comes up for you, honor your feelings around it. If you feel sad or angry feel those feelings as a way of allowing them to shift and release their hold on you. Then send love to that part of you. 

    We also resist our creativity because it can take us into unknown territory and our mind, which is committed to keeping us safe, will put the brakes on when we veer from the routine. Becoming aware of what’s in the way of your desire to create and being mindful and patience and kind with your self will help you cross new thresholds into being creative and finding time to show up.

    Check out Suzanne’s new website.

    Work with Suzanne Murray:

    Creativity Coaching, Creative Life Coaching, Writing Process Coaching & EFT Sessions

    EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)

    Combining Western psychology with Chinese acupressure work together to rewrite subconscious patterns and limiting beliefs that keep us stuck. I’ve had miraculous results and have been working with EFT in new ways that allow us to laser in on the issue and shift it at the core and change your life from the inside out. We often make significant shifts in a single session.
    Sessions are available by phone and Skype.

    CREATIVE LIFE COACHING

    Would you like to live from an expanded place of grace, ease and flow? Would you like to tap the wisdom and power of your heart and soul? We work with soul based ways to let go of limitation and gain clarity of the next steps to living a more joyful, authentic life.

    More about Suzanne Murray.

    Marlene C

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  • When I was a teenager . . . Prompt # 427

    Today’s writing prompt:  When I was a teenager, I especially loved to . . .

    Or: When I was a teenager, I hated to . . .

    Or, simply: When I was a teenager. . .

    Just start writing and see where it takes you.

    Marlene C

  • Green Hills Literary Lantern Submissions

    Green Hills Literary Lantern is published annually, in July, by Truman State University, Kirksville, MO.

    GHLL welcomes work from established writers as well as from less experienced writers.

    Historically, the print publication ran between 200-300 pages, consisting of poetry, fiction, reviews, and interviews, and was printed on good quality paper with a glossy, 4-color cover. 

    The digital magazine is of similar proportions and artistic standards.

    GHLL reads submissions year-round, and published a new edition in June/July. Reporting time 3-4 months. 

    Writers are strongly urged to read several sample issues in order to learn what sorts of things GHLL prefers. 

    GHLL Submission Details:

    “What do we like? There are stories I read thirty years ago and still remember. We try to find that sort of thing and publish it. Sometimes it’s a compelling dramatic situation that grabs us by the throat in the first paragraph and won’t let go till the end: Frank O’Connor’s “Guests of the Nation” asks us to imagine what it’s like to be a basically decent sort of person who takes hostages and kills them. We’re not much for alt-worlding, but really good fiction can and does get set in realms that do not exist: you wake up one morning and discover you’ve been transformed into a large insect. Deal. Might be a poignant character we can’t forget, like the protagonist of Joyce’s “Araby,” even if what we remember is profound dislike (“This is My Living Room”). Maybe a setting, like the town in Lardner’s “Haircut.” And maybe it’s style, or a philosophical conundrum given intense emotional embodiment. LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” scores high on both. We’re not crazy about the Big Reveal and the Twist Ending, mere cleverness. Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” endures in spite of, not because of that stunt. Very unlikely to publish overtly inspirational material, or genre stuff that doesn’t do anything particularly interesting with the conventions and stage-machinery. We like craft; Alice Walker’s classic “Everyday Use” has everything, including a genuine MacGuffin.” 

    Marlene C

  • Worries

    Do you write personal things in your journal?

    Are you able to write what you are really thinking?

    Do you worry about writing something too personal? What if someone finds your notebook and reads it?

    Yes, someone could find your notebook and read it and . . . what? Think lesser of you? Find out what you are really thinking? Would that end your relationship? Or, perhaps change it?

    You could go through life worrying and not doing what you really want to do for fear of what others might think.

    Or, you can trust that your need to express yourself through writing is more powerful and more important than these worries.

    You can burn or destroy your notebooks every so often. But then you wouldn’t be able to access these precious memories that you archived.

    Simple solution: Keep your notebook in a safe place. And trust in the process.

    I’m in the process of reading through twenty years worth of journals. When my daughter heard that I was going to destroy then, she protested. “No, keep them. We’ll want to read them.” Oh. Really? Um . . . about that . . . I wouldn’t want anyone to read everything I’ve written over the years.

    I reached a compromise. I’m tearing out pages I don’t want anyone to see. The tame stuff, the creative stuff, are available for others’ perusal. But the personal stuff? Going, going, gone. Like the dandelion seeds that disperse and float in the wind.

    After all, in my journals, I’m writing for me, not for an audience. But I do understand and agree with my daughter, some things should be written, remembered, and in a way, memorialized. These precious memories are to be shared. But the writer gets to choose what is shared.

    So, keep writing and share only what you want to share.

    Marlene C

  • Doorway and light. Prompt # 426

    Picture yourself standing in a doorway.

    What kind of light is in front of you?

    What kind of light is behind you?

    Set a timer for 15 minutes. And write.

    Marlene C

  • Comparison is a threat to joy

    “Comparison is a threat to joy. We tend to move through life comparing ourselves to others, and it’s anti-creative and pointless.” — Tony Goldwyn. actor

    Marlene C