The Write Spot Blog by Marlene Cullen

Month: February 2018

  • Write A New Story . . . Prompt #356

    Ready to explore? Today’s writing prompt invites you to look at your old stories in new ways. Perhaps you can rewrite your story.

    Excerpt from October 2016 Reader’s Digest, “Down Off The Cross,” by Debra Jarvis, a chaplain and cancer survivor.

    “Let’s say I meet you on a bus. We really hit it off, but I’ve got to exit soon, so you’re going to tell me three things about yourself that help me understand who you are, that get at your essence.”

    Note from Marlene: Prompt:  List three things that define you.

    Back to the article:

    “Of those three things, is one of them surviving some kind of trauma, like being a cancer survivor, a war survivor, or an abuse survivor?”
    Note from Marlene: Or perhaps you are currently experiencing a difficulty or a trauma.

    Back to the article:    “Many of us tend to identify ourselves by our wounds.

    Claim your experience; don’t let it claim you.

    The way to cope with trauma, loss, or any other life-changing experience is to find meaning. But here’s the thing: No one can tell us what that meaning is. We have to decide what it means. And that meaning can be quiet and private—we don’t need to start a foundation, write a book, or work on a documentary. Instead, perhaps we make one small decision about our lives that can bring about big change.

    If you find yourself repeating your survivor story: Get down off your cross.

    When you repeat your survivor story, you aren’t processing your feelings—you are feeding them.

    Let your old story go so that a newer, truer story can be told about who you are.

    Claim your trauma as an experience instead of taking it on as your identity.

    It could mean the end of being trapped by your wounds and the start of defining yourself by who you are becoming.

    We’re all on this bus together. What story are you going to tell?”

    Note from Marlene: Prompt: Write a new story about what defines you.

     

  • Only You Can Tell Your Story

     

     

      Note from Marlene:

    Just something to think about. No one can tell Your Story except you.  🙂

  • The Common Literary Journal

    The Common is an award-winning print and digital literary journal published biannually, in the fall and spring. The Common includes short stories, essays, poems, and images that embody a strong sense of place. The Common Online publishes original content four times per week, including book reviews, interviews, personal essays, short dispatches, poetry, contributor podcasts and recordings, and multimedia features.

    MISSION

    To deepen our individual and collective sense of place through bold, engaging literature and art.

    VISION

    To serve as a vibrant common space for the global exchange of ideas and experiences. To be an essential destination for creative work that embodies particular times and places, both real and imagined. To mentor and promote the next generation of writers, editors, and publishers.

    Finding the extraordinary in the common has long been the mission of literature. Inspired by this mission and the role of the town common, a public gathering place for the display and exchange of ideas, The Common seeks to recapture an old idea. The Common publishes pieces of literature that embody particular times and places both real and imagined; from deserts to teeming ports; from Winnipeg to Beijing; from Earth to the Moon: literature and art powerful enough to reach from there to here. In short, we seek a modern sense of place.

    In our hectic and sometimes alienating world, themes of place provoke us to reflect on our situations and both comfort and fascinate us. Sense of place is not provincial nor old fashioned. It is a characteristic of great literature from all ages around the world. It is, simply, the feeling of being transported, of “being there.”

  • A time you felt free to be you . . . Prompt #355

     

    Write about a time you had no worries . . .

    a play-filled time . . .

    a time you felt free to be you.

     

    Does this scene look familiar?  You know where it’s from if you’ve been to Maria’s Out West Garage in Petaluma, California.

    Hi, Maria. 🙂

  • Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray

    We are lucky to have Suzanne Murray as today’s guest blogger, encouraging our writing.

    Excerpt from Suzanne Murray’s Post, 2/14/2018

    Are you feeling uninspired? Has your got-up-and-go got-up-and-went?  Say that three times!

    Then read Suzanne’s inspiring message:

     

    FALL IN LOVE WITH CREATIVE PROCESS by Suzanne Murray.

    A lot of people think that when it comes to creativity, inspiration is the key. Yet those moments of insight or revelation never occur without the willingness to commit to the work and continue to show up. This perseverance is just as important. You get a creative flash. You show up to the work and what wants to be born becomes more clear.

    Nobel prize winning Canadian short story writer Alice Munro once said, “I threw away all my early writings and it wasn’t because I was the mother of three small children. It was because I was learning my craft and it took a long time.”

    It was the same with David Guterson who wrote the award winning novel Snow Falling on Cedars. When critics acclaimed that a brilliant new writer had just come out of the Pacific Northwest as if he and his book had arrived by magic, he responded “excuse me but I’ve written in the early morning hours for 25 years before going to my job.” It took him ten years to write the novel.

    Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet, Mary Oliver wrote for twenty five years before putting her work out into the world. She refused to take an interesting job because she didn’t want to be distracted from her work. It was only a few years after she started publishing her work that she won the Pulitzer. Her perseverance clearly paid off.

    One of the favorite essays I’ve ever written is 13 pages and it took five years to write. I started from a clear place of inspiration but then I had to do the work. I needed to do research. I needed to continue my writing practice. I had to put the draft away for a couple of years while I developed my skill as a writer because this essay was very complex and when I started it I didn’t have the level of ability to finish it.

    This is why as a writing teacher and creativity coach I teach people to fall in love with the process. It is true for any form of creativity. You show up, you start playing around and you find yourself in the flow where time stops and you taste of the joy of being creative. This allows you to persevere. Even when things aren’t going well, you can find pleasure in showing up and being willing to play with what wants to be born out of your effort. This provides its own deep sense of satisfaction and working the process is its own reward.

    An award-winning writer, Suzanne Murray’s work has appeared in literary magazines including Orion and The Sun. Author of “Love Poems to Nature,” she has kept a journal for forty years and is currently at work on a collection of essays about her connection to Ireland.

    Suzanne also has creative experience in photography, dance and design. She is trained in EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), Access Consciousness the Bars, Psych-K & Theta Healing. She works to empower clients to clear energetic limiting beliefs that hold them back from living their full creative potential. She also has a background as a biologist and professional naturalist and has worked of Yosemite Institute and the National Park Service.

    Suzanne Murray offers:

    Writing Coaching, Creativity Coaching,
    Ireland Journey
    Creative Life Coaching & EFT Sessions

     

  • Wrong Number . . . Prompt #354

    Today’s writing prompt:

    Wrong Number.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • If you could invent something . . . Prompt #353

    If you could invent something to make your life easier, what would it be?

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Obsessions . . . Prompt #352

    What are you obsessed with?

    Write about your obsessions.

     

     

     

    Photo by Christina Gleason

  • Favorite time of year. Prompt #351

    Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter.

    In-between seasons.

    Write about your favorite time of year.

  • You think you know them . . . Prompt #350

    “You think you know them,

    these creatures robed

    in your parent’s skins.”

     

    Writing Prompt: Read the excerpt. Copy it in your notebook, if you want. Then see what comes up for you and Just Write!

    Excerpt from the poem, At the Lake House by Jon Loomis