Photo Credit: Erin VonRuden Guest Blogger Mary Kole writes about the creative journey: As much as I wish this wasn’t the case, the creative life is full of ebbs and flows, highs and lows, and any other image you want to ascribe to the push and pull of the artistic temperament. Whether you admit or not, you are a writer, a creative, and an artist, whatever that means to you. If you find yourself grappling with writer’s block or struggling to reignite your passion for writing, fear not. This is perfectly normal, and every writer faces these challenges at some point in their creative journey. And it is a journey. Some writers are only interested in publication, and I can absolutely see where they’re coming from. But they will be in for a long and disappointing ride if they can’t derive pleasure, satisfaction, and fulfillment from the act of writing…
Something no one knows about . . . Prompt #777
Writing Prompt: Write about something no one knows about you. “The Write Spot: Memories” available from your local bookseller and as print and ebook from Amazon. Just Write! #amwriting #justwrite #iamawriter
Identify with Trees
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. Identify with Trees By Cheryl Moore Looking at the Chinese Zodiac, I don’t find an animal I can identify with. Why are there only animals? Why not plants? If there is a living thing I mostly identify with, it is a deciduous tree. Trees are tall, stand upright. They reach up to the heavens; I am tall, upright (at least most of the time). I reach up to the sky doing my morning exercises. Trees are more silent than most animals—no barking dogs or yowling cats, trees only whisper when they sway in the wind. Their annual cycle ranges from quickly budding in spring, like childhood, then full glory in summer like the energy of early adulthood, until their final flash of color, ageing until their bare branches in winter resemble skeletal bones. A bit rough…
Bold Step . . . Prompt #776
Write about a bold step you took or are taking. #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter
Role Model . . . Prompt #775
Do you have a role model? Write about a person who inspired you, encouraged you, didn’t ask for anything back in return. Someone who enhanced your life. Or: Write about someone you mentored or were/are a role model for. Photo of my role model: My paternal grandmother showing my sister and niece how to make noodles circa 1974.
Magic by Rebecca Evans
Rebecca’s writing and her workshops are magical, showing what happens when we let go and are open to making discoveries. Magic by Rebecca Evans: I am an AI Rebutter. I am a Long-Hand-Writer Endorser. I pen pages each morning in a journal, jot a list of tasks to (almost) complete, scaffold essays and poems across composition notebooks. In separate journals, I copy beautiful lines from artists I love, wishing to transfer talent by osmosis. For me, magic begins within this first planting. I lean into an unfolding. Instead of writing towards an idea or theme or popular topic, I follow the words where they lead. It is from this space in my first drafts, I discover seedlings. Tiny sprouts. Sometimes one piece feels as though it could be in conversation with a piece of work I developed earlier. Other times, I might recognize the start of the poem. I rarely…
What? . . . Prompt #774
What door do you need to walk through, but don’t want to? What is nagging at you? What do you really want to do? #justwrite #iamawriter #iamwriting
What bothers me . . . Prompt #773
Writing Prompts: What bothers me . . . Or: I don’t care about . . . Or: I’m tired of . . . #just write #iamwriting #iamawriter
Best Writing: From the Heart
Guest Blogger Sarah Chauncey writes about increasing energy, exploring ideas, and preventing burnout: You’re driving on a long stretch of highway when you have an insight about your main character’s childhood. Or you’re mid-hair-rinse in the shower, when you suddenly understand how to bring together the braided strands of your novel. Or you wake up at 2 a.m. with the resolution to that thorny plot issue you’ve been wrestling. Have you ever noticed how many ideas arise when you’re not sitting at the keyboard? As writers, we’ve all experienced the law of diminishing returns—the point at which our writing stops being generative and begins to feel like we’re pulling each word from our synapses by hand. I spent the better part of a decade investigating how to create what I half-jokingly call a “law of increasing flow.” How might writers support our writing practice in a way that doesn’t leave us mentally…
From The Roots
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. From The Roots By Su Shafer I need to let go of the uncertainty That I am anything else but a dragon. Just a little dragon A little wood dragon Hatched from a little crystal egg As green as the nest of moss it was laid in Carefully built in the cool leaf mould Gathered in the crook of Granny Maple’s Gnarled old roots. There is a fire in my heart But wood dragons are careful Creatures of the trees Where fire is seldom welcome. Shy as a brown creeper, Hiding in plain sight, Few people see me And the ones who do Can hardly believe it. Su Shafer is a creative crafter, fabricating bits of writing in poetry and short stories, and other bits into characters that appear in paintings or sit on various bookshelves…