Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. You Think You Know Me By Karen Handyside Ely You think you know me, but you don’t know… that I am struggling with a powerful bout of depression. I’ve battled it before. I’ve been in deeper, darker, more dangerous pits. This current episode has rolled over me slowly. Not a storm, but more a dense, thick, cloud cover, wrapping me in the heavy humidity of numbness and ennui, pinning me to the ground with a listless, languid, low-grade despair that makes me want to sleep all day. I’m suffocating one breath at a time… in slow motion. This time around, my depression isn’t a raging sea, which has been my usual experience, but an ebbing tide that creeps back over the sand as the fog rolls in to smother the beach. I could cry, just writing…
Month: June 2022
You Think You Know Me . . . Prompt #663
Writing prompts inspired by the June 5, 2022 interview with Kevin Powell and Dr. Adrian Arancibia. Prompt #1: You think you know me, but you don’t know . . . Prompt #2: Same as first prompt, but this time write in your parent’s voice, or from your parent’s perspective, Or: Write from the point of view of Someone Important in your life. Write as if your mother or father or Important Person were writing, “You think you know me, but what you don’t know . . . #justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter
The next chance I get . . . Prompt #662
Writing Prompt The next chance I get . . . #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter
Illuminating The Essay
Guest Blogger Arletta Dawdy’s reflections on Susan Bono’s talk, “Illuminating The Essay.” Remember the bogs of Ireland or those on the moors of England in old romance novels? The one where the heroine comes to the lonesome manor to be a governess, nurse, or maid only to fall for the moody master, his neighbor or maybe the groundsman. She’s lost in the mire of boggish emotions until HE comes to her rescue. Well, I don’t see HIM rescuing this writer from her blogger’s mind-bog. If you noticed, I’ve been absent for, low, these many months and then I thought there might be hope showing on my horizon. Marlene Cullen, producer of Writers Forum, invited local heroine/publisher//teacher Susan Bono to inspire an October gathering by “Illuminating The Essay.” Susan has published personal narratives in her famed journal, Tiny Lights, for nearly twenty years. She is an expert in the form and…
What fascinates you? Prompt #661
Write about what fascinates you, or what you are obsessed with. #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter #freewrites
Meeting My Father
“Whether you have a fractured relationship with your dad or family, or you have untold stories of your own, now is the time to bring them out of the darkness and let them shine and be a beacon to inspire and move others. You never know who you can possibly help until you share pieces of your own heart through writing or by showing up, fully present, with a heart full of love.” — Shawn Langwell “Father’s Day has ALWAYS been hard for me BUT I decided to write a short poem forgiving my father, finally, fully. Thank you to The Good Men Project for publishing the poem. It is called, simply, MY FATHER.” — Kevin Powell Note from Marlene: Thank you, Shawn and Kevin, for giving me the courage to post My Father story. “Meeting My Father,” by Marlene Cullen. When I was seven years old, I was embarrassed…
Waterwheel Review
Waterwheel Review publishes three pieces of writing each month, September through May, with accompanying companion pieces selected or solicited by the editors. “We hope authors will take advantage of our refusal to define what we publish, and send us un-name-able bits and pieces. A fiction that has no shape but feels complete and leaves a hole in your stomach; a nonfiction layered in obvious lies; a recipe that works like a poem. If you’re looking for a home for a sonnet or a realist short story, or any piece that happens to wear a traditional outfit, we want to see it. If the writing is fresh, artful, and engaging, if we’re moved (to cry, to clench a fist, to laugh), we want it.” Guidelines
I’m not sure . . . Prompt #660
Use any of these sentence starts to inspire writing: I’m not sure if . . . I’m not sure about . . . I’m not sure when . . . I’m not sure why . . . I’m not sure how . . . I’m just not sure. #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter
The Joy of Creativity
By Suzanne Murray Years ago I heard Nobel Prize winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney give a lecture at the University of Washington. In the middle of this very academic speech, he paused, threw up both his hands and said, “Oh, just write for the joy of it” and then dipped back into the lecture. I don’t remember anything else from the talk, but Heaney’s sudden burst of inspiration stayed with me because it really captured an essential element in being creative. Whether you are cooking a great meal, growing a beautiful garden, writing a poem or singing in the community choir, you likely feel a deep sense of satisfaction and a joyfulness that comes with being creative. Creativity draws on the best of human nature: perception, imagination, intellect, inspiration, courage, intuition, and empathy. The urge to create asks us to bask in the experience of the world, to see, feel, taste,…
Never would I ever . . . Prompt #659
Writing Prompt: Never would I ever . . . #iamwriting #iamawriter #justwrite