The Write Spot Blog by Marlene Cullen

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  • Trust your intuition for creative writing.

    Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray inspires our writing to flow from a dream-like state of consciousness and to trust our intuition.

    Suzanne writes:  How Do We Allow Creativity to Flow?

    When we get lost in a good book it’s because the writer got lost in letting the story come through as they wrote.

    I remember the first time when I got on a roll with my writing, where I knew I was writing something good. I stopped and looked around the room to see where it was coming from because I knew it wasn’t coming from my everyday self.

    Since then I have come to understand writing comes from a dream-like state of consciousness of allowing what wants to be written to unfold. It doesn’t involve thinking or trying to figure it out but rather feeling and sensing what wants to be born and following that golden thread.

    All creativity comes from this place of allowing something beyond our understanding to lead us. We can even create our lives from this place of expanded awareness. The trick is to let go of our need figure things out with our mind and our need try to control things to make things happen the way we think we want. Rather we let ourselves be surprised by what wants to unfold. We let go of the resistance we feel to letting go and letting our creativity and life flow.

    We focus more on our heart and intuitive knowing. We pay attention to the inspiration that comes from that place and take action from there. We relax into being and let go of the need to push to complete our to do list.

    We are more present in the moment, paying attention to the world around us.
    From this place we can pick up on the clues the universe or our creative self is giving us. Life becomes
    an adventure in allowing, an exploration of infinite possibilities. What if we think of our creativity and lives as a good book that we get lost in, where we can’t want to see happens next.

    About Suzanne Murray:

    EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)
    I’ve been working with EFT in new ways that allow us to laser in on the issue and shift it at the core. We often make significant shifts in a single session.

    CREATIVE LIFE COACHING

    Would you like to live from an expanded place of grace, ease and flow? Would you like to tap the wisdom and power of your heart and soul? We work with soul based ways to let go of limitation and gaining clarity of the next steps to living a more joyful, authentic life.

    CREATIVITY COACHING

    Do you want to experience the pleasure and joy that comes from adding satisfaction and meaning and a sense of well being to your life through creative expression. I will offer practical, emotional and soulful strategies to help you fully uncover your creative gifts and support yourself in expressing them. I will provide encouragement and support in understanding of the creative process and its stages and exercises for accessing the wisdom of your imagination. I’ll help you set realistic goals and support you in achieving them. We will work with tools for coaching yourself through the issues that get in the way of your creativity including career concerns, blocks, limiting beliefs, relationship issues and the existential and spiritual questions that can arise from wanting and needing to create.

    The Heart of Writing eBook
    Jumpstart the Process, Find Your Voice, Calm the Inner Critic and Tap the Creative Flow

    I have been working an exercise a day through your The Heart of Writing eBook. I love it! It’s like being in class again. – Tonya Osinkosky

    Now available on Amazon Kindle!

    and available is a pdf download from my website (includes a one hour mp3 interview about writing process)

     

     

  • The real summer vacation. Prompt #331

    Write about your summer vacation.

    Not the “My Summer Vacation” essay you wrote in school in September.

    Write about what really happened.

  • So, what is a story?

    Today’s post is by Lisa Cron, author of Story Genius and Wired for Story.

    We think in story. It’s hardwired in our brain. It’s how we make strategic sense of the otherwise overwhelming world around us. Simply put, the brain constantly seeks meaning from all the input thrown at it, yanks out what’s important for our survival on a need-to-know basis, and tells us a story about it, based on what it knows of our past experience with it, how we feel about it, and how it might affect us. Rather than recording everything on a first-come, first-served basis, our brain casts us as “the protagonist” and then edits our experience with cinema-like precision, creating logical interrelations, mapping connections between memories, ideas, and events for future reference.

    Story is the language of experience, whether it’s ours, someone else’s, or that of fictional characters. Other people’s stories are as important as the stories we tell ourselves. Because if all we ever had to go on was our own experience, we wouldn’t make it out of onesies.

    So, What Is a Story?

    Contrary to what many people think, a story is not just something that happens. If that were true, we could all cancel the cable, lug our Barcaloungers onto the front lawn, and be utterly entertained, 24/7, just watching the world go by. It would be idyllic for about ten minutes. Then we’d be climbing the walls, if only there were walls on the front lawn.

    A story isn’t simply something that happens to someone, either. If it were, we’d be utterly enthralled reading a stranger’s earnestly rendered, heartfelt journal chronicling every trip she took to the grocery store, ever—and we’re not.

    A story isn’t even something dramatic that happens to someone. Would you stay up all night reading about how bloodthirsty Gladiator A chased cutthroat Gladiator B around a dusty old arena for two hundred pages? I’m thinking no

    A story is . . .

    A story is how what happens affects someone who is trying to achieve what turns out to be a difficult goal, and how he or she changes as a result. Breaking it down in the soothingly familiar parlance of the writing world, this translates to

    “What happens” is the plot.

    “Someone” is the protagonist.

    The “goal” is what’s known as the story question.

    And “how he or she changes” is what the story itself is actually about.

    As counterintuitive as it may sound, a story is not about the plot or even what happens in it. Stories are about how we, rather than the world around us, change. They grab us only when they allow us to experience how it would feel to navigate the plot. Thus story. . .  is an internal journey, not an external one.

    Articles by Lisa Cron:

    “Ten writing insights from brain science guru, Lisa Cron.”

    2 Ways Your Brain is Wired to Undermine Your Story – And What To Do About It

     

  • Submit to Politico Magazine

    POLITICO Magazine is always looking for smart, timely journalism aimed at a broad, but well-informed audience with a deep interest in politics. We publish both original reporting and distinctive opinion journalism that illuminate the people, ideas, and institutions that matter most in American politics and government. We’re much less interested in garden-variety op-eds, especially on narrow subjects or those with a limited shelf life.

    What works: Big swings at big subjects. Deep dives on the hidden forces shaping politics in a key state. Timely, original reporting on matters of national importance. Well-targeted book excerpts. Profiles of the major players influencing the political debate – or the backstage players who soon will. Unique data or new findings that challenge the conventional wisdom. Smart, elevated media criticism.

    What doesn’t: Op-eds on committee hearings, obscure pieces of legislation or highly specific regulation. Clichés. Talking points and predictable partisan rants. Your random thoughts on politics. Anything boring.

    If you think you have a story that will enlighten, challenge and surprise our readers, check out the How To Pitch Page.

     

  • Go on a rant . . . Prompt #330


    What are you mad about?  Write about it. Let off steam . . . Pour out your emotions on paper.  I suggest using pen and paper for this one rather than computer. Okay, use a computer if that works better for you.

    Plan to destroy your writing after. Crumble the paper and toss it . . . throw it into the trash. Burn it. Or, keep it, if you want.

    Get the angries out . . . Just write.

    Definition of rant:  To speak or write in an emotionally charged manner.   Source: The Free Dictionary

    Photo by Karen Bobier.

     

  • Go With The Flow

    What do you call it when your creativity just seems to flow?

    Alison Luterman had an epiphany:

    I was singing in a little pop-up chorus this past month. It was a tricky classical piece, and the other women were all looking intently at their sheet music. I don’t really read music, so I ignored the paper and gazed at our teacher, trying to meld my brain with hers. Okay, I know this is going to sound woo-woo, but that night in chorus, watching the teacher’s hands on the keyboard, hearing her sing the parts, my body understood the music on a level my mind couldn’t.

    In Interplay we call this “ecstatic following” and we often do it as a group in dance. I remember being introduced to the concept and having an immediate suspicious reaction to it: “Ecstatic following– you mean you surrender your critical thinking? That’s how we end up becoming good Germans and supporting Fascism!” I’m very attached to my critical brain that helps me do crossword puzzles, solve murder mysteries, and participate in spirited debates.

    But when I go to sing or to dance or play theater improv games, if I worry too much about what I’m doing, or try to figure it out ahead of time with that same busy brain, I freeze up. I’ve seen some of my students try to scheme and strategize their writing and in the process block their own flow. The writing becomes stiff and wooden, and it feels like a burdensome task rather than an exploration.

    On the other hand, it’s good to know some technique. Thanks to an extremely patient musician husband, I can now find middle C on the keyboard and navigate around from there. I know what a scale is. I know the difference between a third and a fourth and a fifth, and on a very good day I can sing them. And all of that is helpful.

    So it’s not like Intuition Good, Technique Bad. It’s more like Left Foot and Right Foot, and then Left Foot and then Right Foot again. We need them both.

    In many ways I’m a left-brained nerd who loves crossword puzzles, dramatic structure and logical arguments. But that evening in chorus I remembered that my intuition is a resource that I can call on when I need it. I actually do this all the time with poetry, where the leaping and magic that the unconscious supplies are an essential part of the magic. I just didn’t realize that I could also do it with music which I think of as “hard” and something I’m not good at.

    We all have this ability to let the energy of doing the thing we love lead us, and that, combined with a deep abiding commitment to love and clarity and truth, can create great work. I just don’t know how to put Intuition on a syllabus or a lesson plan along with handling dialogue or story structure, or metaphors and similes and figurative language. But it is part of the package.

     

  • The deepest level of desire . . . Prompt #329

    You have probably heard this: Stories are about a character desiring something and the things that prevent character from getting what he or she wants. This is true for both fiction and memoir.

    Another word for desire is yearning, suggesting the deepest level of desire.

    “Fiction is the art form of yearning.”

    “Plot is simply yearning challenged and thwarted.”

    — Ryan G. Van Cleave, “The Art of Yearning,” May 2017 The Writer magazine

    How to write fiction or memoir

    Give your character a problem, add some obstacles. How does the character overcome problems? Mix and stir.

    Get started by interviewing yourself (for memoir) or interview your fictional character by answering the following questions.

    You can answer every question briefly, or go into detail using one or two questions to focus on.

    Something most people don’t know about you.

    If you could change some things in your history, what would you change?

    Describe a perfect day.

    What makes you happy?

    What prevents you or your fictional character from:

    ~Having a perfect day

    ~ Doing what makes you happy

    ~Getting what you desire

    More prompts to inspire deep writing that might get to the art of yearning, the deepest level of desire.

    The Trouble Started When, Prompt #3

    Your Character Has a Surprise Secret, Prompt #7

    I am From, Prompt #52

    Who Will You Interview?  #320

     

     

     

  • Why There Are Words Press

                                                                       An independent publisher of exceptional literary books​

    WTAW Press publishes full-length books of prose (novels, memoirs, creative nonfiction, collections of stories and essays, etc.).

    Additionally, opening chapters, stories, or essays of full-length manuscripts that show promise may be selected for publication in the WTAW Press Features Chapbook Series.

    Submissions are welcome from writers unpublished, extensively published, and in between.

    “We don’t privilege one aesthetic over another: we want to publish books that show us more things on heaven and earth than we have dreamt of.”

    The 2017 reading period will open June 15, 2017, and run through Sept. 15, 2017.

     

  • Finding Magic in the Mundane . . . Prompt #328

    Today’s writing prompt and title for this post is inspired by Suzanne Murray.

    “I have many favorite poets but, the Nobel prize winning Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda tops the list in his elegant celebration of common things. These poems help me find beauty and wonder in the everyday and give me a fresh perspective in the face of the difficulties in the world.

    Early in his writing life wrote serious political poems . . .  One line from his poem I’m Explaining a Few Things written in 1935 during the Spanish Civil War has long stayed with me capturing the intensity of Neruda’s work, …and the blood of children ran through the streets/without fuss, like children’s blood…

    Later in his life, as if weary of the burden of protesting atrocities and political corruption, he began to write Odes about everyday things: salt, cat, dog, dictionary, tomato, to name a few. His Odes celebrate the ordinary in an extraordinary way. I have a hard bound collection of Odes to Common Things . . .  I cherish this book because, beyond the fact that the poems are an exquisite, playful honoring of the everyday, those things we take for granted, the things we no longer really see; they remind us to pay attention and look at common things with new eyes and imagination.

    You could do this too in whatever form your creativity takes. Play with it and see if it doesn’t brighten and expand your world. Consider using poetry as your inspiration, fuel for your creative spirit and to uplift and lighten your life.”

    Writing Prompt, suggested by Marlene:  Look up . . .  write about the first thing you see.
    Or:  Write about something on your kitchen table, or coffee table, or on your desk, or on the wall.  Choose an everyday thing and Just Write.

    “Celebrating Common Things Through Creativity,” by Suzanne Murray.  

    Suzanne Murray is a gifted creativity and writing coach, soul-based life coach, writer, poet, EFT practitioner and intuitive healer committed to empowering others to find the freedom to ignite their creative fire, unleash their imagination and engage their creative expression in every area of their lives.

     

     

  • Rewrite your past.  Prompt #327

    Today’s writing prompt is inspired by something Susan Hagen wrote.

    “A seminal moment in my life occurred when I was barely three years old. I remember sitting on the kitchen counter, pouring chocolate chips into Mom’s cookie dough. In a nod to our teamwork, my very pregnant mother said, ‘Two heads are better than one.’

    A few months later, she gave birth to twins. All I could see was that they had two heads, and she had told me that ‘two heads are better than one.’ So instead of being happy that I’d gotten a baby sister AND a baby brother, I set myself on a lifelong mission to prove that my one head was as good as their two. That showed up as a double major in college, having two jobs throughout most of my life, and constantly battling an inner voice that said ‘you’re not good enough’ (because I only had one head).

    Then I began to rewrite my childhood.

    The first thing I did was rewrite that memory with one simple change: as I poured the chocolate chips into the cookie dough, my mother said, ‘I love doing things with you. You are so smart and helpful. You will make a great big sister.’ And when I wrote it, I felt it. When I read it out loud to my writing circle, it became my truth. And since then, I’ve been remembering more and more of my childhood as being happy.

    Your mind doesn’t know the difference between what actually happened and what you imagine.

    That’s why this works. Rewriting your story from a different perspective lays down new memories in your brain. When you read that story aloud in a safe, supportive circle of listeners, and we witness it and mirror it back to you, the new story gets installed in your memory and felt in your body as a different, more pleasant experience. You also get to see (and feel) things you couldn’t before. I promise you, there are a lot of surprises. Like compassion. Gratitude. And love.”

    — Susan Hagen

    Suggested Writing Prompt From Marlene

    Did a scene from your childhood pop into your head as you read Susan Hagen’s story? If yes, write about what happened as you remember it. Then, write the same story with whatever changes suit you.

    If a childhood vision didn’t emerge, recall a time when you felt put down, frowned upon, scowled at, belittled. . . remember a time when you felt bad because of something someone did or said. Write what happened as you remember it. Then rewrite with tweaks that suit you.

    Susan Hagen is a past contributor to The Write Spot Blog: “What I Want To Tell You.”

    She is co-author of Woman At Ground Zero: Stories of Compassion and Courage