“Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.” — Cesar Chavez Write about your culture. Write about food, customs, clothing. Write about nuances, sayings, prophecies. Write about your culture’s beliefs, social customs, traits, religious beliefs. You can write about the culture you grew up in, or write about a culture you have adopted. Write about shared attitudes, goals, values. Write about your culture’s music, art, ways and methods of communicating. Just Write! Photo by Jim C. March
Suzanne Murray: Using imagination for creativity
Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray writes about using imagination with a quote from Thoreau. This world is but a canvas to our imagination. – Henry David Thoreau We use our imagination all the time, whether we realize it or not. When we are worrying about a future event we are imagining the possibility of a negative outcome. When we are thinking about our next dream vacation we are imagining the place and what we may be doing there. When we are being creative we are imagining scenes as we write, the cake rising as we mix the ingredients for baking, or the blank canvas giving rise to color. Yet most of us don’t think much about the ways we use our imagination and the mystery of how it works. Most of us hold tight to the confines of the mind, living from its repeating pattern rather than being open to the infinite…
Describe a task. Prompt #376
Tillie taught me how to fill a pen, or, as she said, “How to properly fill a pen.” One: Turn the filling plunger counterclockwise as far as it will go. Two: Dip the nib completely into the ink. Three: Turn the filling plunger clockwise until it stops. Four: Hold the nib above the ink bottle and turn the plunger counter-clockwise again until three drops of ink fall back into the bottle. Five: Turn the plunger clockwise to stop the drops. Six: Wipe the excess ink completely from pen and nib. When I told Tillie that six steps seemed a lot to have to do before you begin, she said, “You must think of those six steps not as preparation for the beginning but as the beginning itself.” — The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg Prompt: Desribe the steps to accomplish something. Or: Write about preparing something. Just…
Imagination is . . . Albert Einstein
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” — Albert Einstein Let your imagination soar. Come on, you can do it. Look at the little box to the right on your screen. Click on “Prompts.” Choose one and Just Write!
The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections
Even if you do not consider yourself a writer, Connections is an enjoyable escape. Reading a variety of short personal stories left me smiling, laughing, sighing, and contemplating. Editor Marlene Cullen cleverly includes over 25 authors with different writing styles in this anthology. At the end of each story there is a writing prompt, advice about life, and pictures of the authors when they were children, including some vintage photos. The section on Writing Resources includes details about freewrites, writing prompts, and websites for writers. Marlene is generous with her ability to share her passion of writing in hopes of inspiring us to just start writing! It was the “Jumpstart” I needed to start writing again! — Janet Journeys across time and place, Connections is an anthology that spans decades, generations, and homes that range from farm to town to city to sea and back again. Written by mothers…
Patterns Prompt #375
Take a mental trip down Memory Lane. See yourself at five years of age. Picture that child. See him or her. Grab some detail. Smiling? Serious? Able to sit still? Has to move around?’ Now, see yourself at twelve years of age. Take a moment to really see that image of yourself as a young teenager. Notice the clothes you wore, your hairstyle. What did you like to do? Who were your friends? Were you a serious student? Were you frivolous? Care free? Fast forward to twenty-five years old. How do you see yourself? How did you move . . slow paced, bustling around, steady, focused, scattered? Were you scaling corporate ladders? Were you climbing walls, anxious to get going, to start your career, start your life? How about thirty or forty or fifty years of age . . did you shine your light on projects or people? Where were…
Paint a rich picture. Roger Lubeck
Guest Blogger Roger Lubeck: The importance of details in memoir to enhance your story. There are people and events in our life that shape who we are. What we value and the lives we lead. The events and people can be big and small. Stopping for cigarettes and the car accident that followed. Taking the last United flight out of New York on September 10, 2001. Growing up in Michigan, water was a part of my life. Swimming and boating, lake cottages, and fish frys; frog legs, whitefish (pike) and perch were staples in that culture and still are. The same was true in Minnesota, except the preferred fish was Walleye caught while ice fishing. Sometimes in telling a personal story we get lost in the wrong details and back stories. In telling a personal story we forget about plot and pace. Often, I have found myself saying, “I guess you…
Just another day, or something special? Prompt #374
Prompt #1: Does Father’s Day have a special meaning for you? Or is it just another day? Prompt #2: What about Mother’s Day? Special or just another day? Write whatever comes up for you. Prompt #3: Write about Memorial Day or Fourth of July. Anything special about them for you? Any traditions you follow now, or as a child?
Reaching for the stars. Prompt #373
Write about reaching for the stars.
What money can’t buy . . . Prompt #372
Write about what money can’t buy.