Do dreams come true? I think they can. I’ve had a dream since 2005, an item I can now cross off my bucket list: Produce a series of books to inspire writing. The recently published, The Write Spot: Reflections is the third book in The Write Spot Series. Today’s Prompt: Write your bucket list . . . things you want to do. Your dream wish list. Take a few minutes for this. Next: Choose an item from this list and write as if it were five years from now and you have completed your dream. A sort of cheerleading note to yourself. Go on . . . Dare to dream! For more inspirational writing on this topic: Prompt #212: What is on your bucket list? Prompt #216: Portals, Dreams and Promises The Write Spot: Reflections is available for $12 at Amazon, Copperfield’s Petaluma, and JavAmore Café .
Author: mcullen
Marlene Cullen is enthusiastic about encouraging people to write, even those who think they can’t write. Her series of books, The Write Spot anthologies, features writing that entertains as well as inspires writing. Every story, vignette, and poem in The Write Spot books include writing prompts motivating readers to become writers.
Marlene hosts The Write Spot Blog, a treasure chest of inspirational gems for writers.
Fulfilling her passion for writing and sharing with others, Marlene has created unique writing environments such as Jumpstart Writing Workshops, where participants often experience transformational changes. Her workshops provide essential elements for successful writing.
Marlene is the founder of Writers Forum of Petaluma, a monthly literary event featuring presenters talking about the craft and business of writing.
Marlene's awarding winning short stories and essays have been published in literary journals, anthologies, and newspapers, including Tiny Lights, Building Bridges, More Bridges, Redwood Writers anthologies, and The Write Spot anthologies.
She is a member of the California Writer's Club.
About Anthologies
What do you think when you hear a book is an anthology? Some people may be delighted with thoughts of reading from a variety of authors. Others may groan, remembering antiquated stories in outdated books. Me? I’m excited to produce anthologies so that a diverse group of writers can be introduced into the writing scene. My third anthology, The Write Spot: Reflections was recently published with the help of two authors who didn’t even know they were cheering me on. Eleanor Henderson and Anna Solomon, co-editors of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today’s Best Women Writers, wrote an article, “Labor of Love,” printed in Poets & Writers magazine, May June 2014. “Labor of Love” was my steadfast companion on my journey from “What am I doing?” and “Will this work?” to the completion of three anthologies. Excerpt from “Labor of Love” “We’ve always loved anthologies. As new writers, we…
Autumnal glow . . . Prompt #393
Finish the sentence and keep writing: The autumnal glow, chilly afternoons, and crisp nights . . .
Ignite Your Creativity
Today’s post is inspired by Creativity Coach Suzanne Murray. Photo by John Pierce. Suzanne writes: CREATIVITY COMES FROM BEYOND THE MIND All the things that truly matter – beauty, love , creativity, joy, inner peace – arise from beyond the mind. – Eckhart Tolle Once years ago when someone asked me what we did in my writing workshop I laughingly responded, “I’ll teach you to lose your mind.” I was delighted when they signed up on the spot. One of the reasons most people don’t think they are creative is that the mind doesn’t understand how creativity works. I remember early in my writing life when one of my personal essays won a significant award, including a grant to support my work, I went into a bit of a panic because I wasn’t completely sure how I had written the piece. I was…
Midsummer’s Day . . . Prompt #392
It was a sultry midsummer’s day . . . You can finish the sentence or use the photo to inspire your writing. Write whatever comes up for you.
Prized possession. Prompt #391
What is your most prized or cherished possession? Why?
Mental Snapshot . . . Prompt #390
Our minds register events like snapshots, especially stressful or shocking events. Our minds take a snapshot as if we need to remember that point in time. For example, you probably remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard about John F. Kennedy being shot or September 11th or the October Northern California fires. For this prompt, I’d like to make it more personal. Yes, you can write about a global event. Or, you can use this prompt as an opportunity to take a deeper look at something that is personally meaningful to you. Something that was a type of surprise or shock so you took a mental snapshot. It could be good or surprising news. It could be something that was upsetting or disturbing. I invite you to go inward and write about a mental snapshot you carry with you. When writing about difficult experiences, take…
45th Parallel is looking for . . .
45th Parallel is looking for original, previously unpublished fiction, nonfiction, poetry, artwork and comics. Currently accepting submissions. Deadline: November 30, 2018. If you miss this deadline, check back for the next submission period. Why 45th Parallel? The 45th Parallel, the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole, marks the Earth’s in-between space. 45th Parallel, too, indulges in in-betweenness — the convergence of seemingly disparate content, forms, genres, and styles.
Yo-Yo Ma . . . Prompt #389
Today’s writing prompt is a poem. You can write on the theme or mood of the poem, a stanza, a line, or a word to inspire your writing. Just Write! Yo-Yo Ma by Donna Emerson He played twenty years ago at Tanglewood. We sat in the first row, still as the moment after rain. Air full of ozone under an enormous white tent for his perfect baroque bowing, for his move into the music, his calm, restrained stroke. People stood in the aisles. Yo-Yo’s strong bow arm reached front, his body tilted back. His face, shoulders, then body transformed into his cello and song. His excited strumming. Plucking like a mad man. His confident leaning, his fond embrace of his old cello. We stopped breathing in the piano parts, our breaths pure when they burst out during the double fortissimo. Fully felt notes. Deep bells on tops…
A Letter to My Sister During Drought . . . Prompt #388
Today’s writing prompt is a poem. You can write on the theme or mood of the poem, a stanza, a line, or a word to inspire your writing. Just Write! A Letter to My Sister During Drought by Donna Emerson In this fourth year of drought, California trees begin to fall. Orchards of almonds lie on their sides near Fresno. Rows of apricot trees black, bent. Remember when we listened to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons? Only one season here: red summer hum. Our cedars shrivel. We are ankle-deep in flat brown leaves. Even my wrists are wrinkled. I’ve heard about your illnesses, which you said your guru would protect, though he died five years ago. It’s been fifteen years since Dad’s memorial, twenty since mother’s, when you changed your name, wrote your last letter “releasing me from your life.” I know you can’t see the water…