Write about a dream you have or have had. Could be a night time dream. A day dream. A dream of something you long for. Turn your dream into a poem: haiku, pantoum, or any form of short piece that works for you. Share your dreams. Writing them, posting them, might help shed light on questions you have. Giving your dreams “air” . . . letting them see the light of day might help manifest them. Go for it. Just write!
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.
Rubbing Aladdin’s Lamp
“The past,” Phillip Lopate says, “is an Aladdin’s lamp we never tire of rubbing.” Guest Blogger Norma Watkins studied with Phillip Lopate. The following is what she gleaned working with the master of the personal essay. The hallmark of personal essay and memoir is its intimacy. [Links below on memoir writing.] In a personal essay, the writer seems to be speaking directly into the reader’s ear, confiding everything from gossip to wisdom: thoughts, memories, desires, complaints, whimsies. The core of this kind of writing is the understanding that there is a certain unity to human experience. As Montaigne put it, “Every man has within himself the entire human condition.” This kind of informal writing, whether a short piece or a book of memoir, is characterized by: self-revelation individual tastes and experiences a confidential manner humor a graceful style rambling structure unconventionality novelty of theme freshness of form freedom from stiffness…
33 Ideas You Can Use for Sensory Starts Prompt #278
I bet you have heard “Show. Don’t tell.” What does that mean? And how does one do it? Answer: Sensory detail. As described in Imagery and Sensory Detail ala Adair Lara Prompt #277: Make a list of images Expand into sentences Use sensory detail Not interested in making a list? You are welcome to use any of the 33 ideas listed below to start sensory writing. Or just look around, choose items within your view, and write, using sensory detail, of course. Scroll to bottom of this post for links about using sensory detail in writing. Expand these images into full sentences, using sensory detail. Write as if you had to describe these visions to someone who has never seen or experienced these things. What do these things look like? How do they sound, taste, feel, smell? Answer these questions and that’s using sensory detail in writing. Write a sentence…
InfectiveInk wants you to have fun and submit.
Do you have a snippet of writing, more than one snippet, longer than a snippet? And you just want to submit somewhere. InfectiveInk.com may be the answer. InfectiveInk: “Instead of focusing on genre or style, we inspect themes and universes . . . all based on the same prompt.” “A haunted house doesn’t have to be a horror story, in fact a haunted house could simply refer to a memory or a family that has endured a tragedy. Zombie tales can be hilarious, and the word ‘zombie’ could refer to any number of things. Mysteries can find their way into any situation. Be creative, push your boundaries, have fun, write great stories.” “Write to the prompt and HAVE FUN!” Please read Submissions Guidelines and Author Agreement. 2016 PROMPTS: Submit by July 28, 2016: Little mistakes, big trouble We all make mistakes, usually small, and usually inconsequential, but sometimes those little things lead to surprising and…
Imagery and sensory detail ala Adair Lara Prompt #277
“Write five images every day, for seven days, using as many of the senses as possible.”— Adair Lara From Adair’s book, Naked, Drunk, and Writing: “Writing is turning your thoughts, abstractions, generalizations, and opinions back into the experiences you got them from.” Adair’s example: “Not ‘women my age become invisible,’ but ‘they handed drinks around and forgot me, again.’” Using imagery involves the details about what happened. Show what happened so that readers can see the scene, hear the sounds, feel the sensations, taste the elements, and smell the aroma. Adair advises, “. . . every time you write a sentence, ask yourself, How can I show this? Try to get image and detail into every sentence. ” Tidbits from Chapter Six, Using Images and Details: “We want experience, not information. ‘Joan was distressed’ is information. ‘Joan looked away’ is an image. The reader notices Joan looking away, and has…
Vegetables – Not Just For Eating . . . Prompt # 276
What are vegetables good for, besides eating? Some gardens are bursting right about now with zucchini, green beans, summer squash, cucumbers, yellow squash, kale, rhubarb, patty pan squash, lettuce, have I mentioned squash? Here in northern California, growing squash is easy and so abundant that we don’t leave our car doors unlocked, or we might find a bushel of zucchini on the seat. Write about other things that vegetables can do. Inspired from Adair Lara‘s writing workshop. Write about new uses for vegetables.
Grist, The Journal For Writers
From the Grist Website: Grist seeks high quality submissions from both emerging and established writers. We publish craft essays and interviews as well as fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—and we want to see your best work, regardless of form, style, or subject matter. We read between June 15th and September 15th. Please note that we do not accept snail mail submissions. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable as long as we are immediately notified if the piece has been accepted elsewhere. Please do not mix genres in the same submission. We do not consider previously published work. Our submission fee (waived for current and new subscribers) is $4 for three to five poems, for one work of fiction up to 5,000 words, or for one work of non-fiction up to 5,000 words. The bulk of our reading fee goes to paying our writers; the rest covers our Submittable fees and a portion of our print…
I just don’t feel like it. Prompt #275
Write about something you do not want to do. Will you end up doing it anyway? Will you be bitter, annoyed, resentful? Will you do it with grace, composure? Or will you rant and rave the whole time? Maybe you just won’t do it. Maybe it’s too silly to even think about. Or too petty, not worth your time. Write . . . just write about something you don’t want to do.
What do you pretend to not care about? Prompt #274
Excerpt from I Could Do Anything . . . If I only knew what it was, by Barbara Sher Rescuing Your Past Something inside you is too loyal to permit you to turn your back on everything you loved and simply walk away. No matter how many times people tell you to let the past go, it’s never possible. You’ll never move wholeheartedly into the future unless you take your beloved past with you. And that’s exactly as it should be. There’s no reason to turn your back on a happy past. Sometimes we try to turn away from the past because we feel it somehow betrayed us. It’s as though we loved our past, but our past didn’t love us. So we go on strike and pretend we don’t care, as if to punish fate for being unkind. Fate never cares, of course, so we only hurt ourselves. Prompt:…
Carve Magazine offers a unique take on declined submissions.
Carve Magazine Submissions Guidelines sound pretty friendly, like they are just waiting for your manuscript which they might read over blackberry pie and coffee. “We accept short story, poetry, and nonfiction submissions year-round and from anywhere in the world. Send us your best work. We’d love to read it.” A partial list of Submission Guidelines: FICTION Carve seeks good honest fiction in the form of short stories, with emotional jeopardy, soul, and honesty. POETRY Carve seeks poetry that is both quiet and expansive; elicits an authentic emotional connection. Every word should purposefully add to the voice, sound, and imagery. NONFICTION Carve seeks nonfiction that reflects the honest place of literature in our lives with experiential reflections and literary overlays, inlays, or even underlays. ‘Tell us what happened and how we, as literature lovers, connect to it.” Unique to Carve: DECLINE/ACCEPT We want to support all writers, even the ones we…