The Write Spot Blog by Marlene Cullen

Tag: just write

  • Mini memoirs unfold naturally

    Remember the joke: “How do you eat an elephant?”

    “One bite at a time.”

    Same with writing memoir . . . one incident at a time.

    “Whether your life story has an over-arching motif or you plan to cobble together a montage of more diverse meditations, the project can seem less overwhelming if you approach it as a series of mini memoirs—two-to three-page essays . . . pivotal points. . . in the broader portrait of your life.” Richard Campbell, January 2017 Writers Digest

    “The beauty in approaching your life story in terms of mini memoirs is that when it comes to themes, you don’t have to pick just one. Write scenes or vignettes on each theme that speaks to you.

    You may find that mini memoirs unfold more naturally than the more unwieldy, longer story you have to tell—and that they build momentum strong enough to carry you through the manuscript.”

    More on How To Write Memoir:

    How To Write A Memoir – Part One

    How To Write A Memoir – Part Two

    However you decide to write . . . Just Write!

  • Smaller stories within larger stories – set the scene. Prompt #319

    Whether you are writing memoir or fiction, it’s all composed of people and things that happened. It’s smaller stories within larger stories.

    Today’s prompt is in two parts.

    Part 1:

    Make a list of people and factors that shaped you, during your childhood, teen years, young adult years. What has happened in your life that makes you who you are? We’ll be using these lists later.

    During your childhood/early years:

    Who helped shaped you? Who was influential in your life?  Who was important in your young life?    Family, family friends, teachers, your friends.

    Where did you grow up?

    Did you walk to/from school?

    What did you do after school?

    Who was home when you got there?

    What were weekends like?  Be brief. You can expand later.

    Anything else you want to add – important people and events in your childhood.

    During your teen years.

    Who was important during your teen years?  Family, family friends, teachers, your friends.

    Where did you live?

    Did you walk to/from school?

    What did you do after school?

    Who was home when you got there?

    What were weekends like?  Be brief. You can expand later.

    Anything else you want to add – important people and events during your teen years.

    During your young adult years:

    Who was important in your life during your young adult years?

    Where did you live?

    Did you work, go to school, volunteer?

    Did you have hobbies?

    What did you do for entertainment?

    Anything else you want to add – important people and events in your young adult life.

    Part 2: Write.

    Choose something from one of your lists and expand upon it. Write as much as you have to say about it. Use sensory detail:  What you saw, heard, felt, tasted, smelled. Write with vivid details so this scene can be seen.

    Note: You can expand these lists and use them any time to inspire your writing.

  • The missing piece. . . Prompt #318

       Write about . . .

                       The missing piece.

     

     

  • Success in writing means . . .

     If you have attended a Jumpstart Writing Workshop, you may have heard me say, “There are two kinds of writing I like. One is when the writing speaks to universal truths—something we can all relate to. The other is when the writing speaks to me personally.”

    This excerpt from “The Review Rat Race,” a “5-Minute Memoir” by Barbara Solomon Josselsohn expands upon that thought.

    “To me, success meant having readers who felt that my novel articulated something important, something they had felt deeply inside but had never been able to express or fully understand before my book came along.” —Barbara Solomon Josselsohn *

    That often happens in Jumpstart . . . the writing touches us deeply as the writer articulates in ways that we hadn’t been able to express or understand prior to hearing their freewrite.

    * Excerpt from January 2017 issue of Writer’s Digest Magazine.

  • What comforts me . . . Prompt #317

     Today’s writing prompt:

     

    What Comforts Me.

     

     

     

  • Relax To Enhance Your Creativity

    The Write Spot Blog is all about writing: Writing Prompts to inspire you; Just Write tidbits to motivate you; Quotes to let you know others are in the same boat as you; Places to Submit to get your work out there; Book Reviews to share authors’ work; Guest Posts for all kinds of writing-related things.

    Today’s Guest Blog Post by Suzanne Murray talks about increasing your creativity by relaxing. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But what about cortisol, adrenaline, and epigenetics? Factor those in, and it becomes apparent that relaxation isn’t as easy as drifting in a hammock.

    Fortunately, Suzanne Murray offers strategies to help us learn to relax. 

    HOW CREATIVITY CAN HELP US RELAX

    We all know that relaxation makes us and our bodies feel good whereas stress causes us to tense up and feel less that optimum. New scientific research shows just how important relaxing our bodies and minds is.

    The emerging science of epigenetics shows that our genetic expression is not permanently fixed at birth, but actually evolves as we grow and learn. Environmental factors including nutrition, stress and our emotional responses can affect how our genes express themselves without changing the basic blueprint of our DNA, the genetic material in our cells.

    When we are stressed our genes produce hormones associated with fight or flight like adrenalin and cortisol that are associated with aging and making us more susceptible to disease. When we are relaxed and feeling good our genes produce chemistry that boosts our immune system and helps with cellular repair and growth. 

    A study looking at mindfulness practices like meditation, yoga, breath work, and other relaxation techniques, showed that we can actually “turn on” disease-preventing genes and “turn-off” disease-causing genes through relaxing. Research on the energy psychology modality EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), an easy to use self-help strategy that combines western psychology with Chinese acupressure, found that an hour session of EFT lowered cortisol levels by 24 percent.

    I’d like to add creativity to ways we can relax as well as develop more of our potential.

    Creativity is really a form of mindfulness since it puts us in the flow of the moment and feels good. Adult coloring books have been shown to reduce stress. I like doodling or free writing where you just let the words flow out of the pen with no thought to what you are writing.

    Bringing play to whatever process you are working with and letting go of attachment to outcome is important.

    Stress so often stems from the fact that our mind has leapt ahead with worry about the future or is chewing over something that happened in the past. When we do things that bring us into the moment we naturally relax.

    Find what works for you. Play with it and see if you feel better.

    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. She works with simple, powerful techniques to help clear whatever gets in the way and creates a safe and sacred space for your creative and soulful life to blossom. She provides an experience of the joy and beauty that comes from embracing your gifts and expressing them in the world. With a lifelong connection to the natural world, she enjoys sharing the grace and wonder that Nature can bring to your life and creativity

     Writing and Creativity in Nature
    One Day Workshop Point Reyes CA
    April 22, 2017, 10 am to 4 pm
    Spending time in nature is good for our health, enhances our creative capacities and increases our general sense of wellbeing. It can help us enter the flow. Join me for this one day workshop where we will work with our creativity in the beauty of nature.

    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. Sessions are available by phone and Skype


         Original posted on Suzanne’s April 2, 2017 Blog

     

  • No matter how hard I tried . . . Prompt #316

    The best way to respond to a writing prompt is to just write. You can set a timer for 12 or 15 minutes. Twenty minutes, if you have that much time to write. The length of time isn’t important. The important part is to let go of your inhibitions, your fears and your worries. Just write.

    Today’s writing prompt:  No matter how hard I tried . . .

  • The bigger the issue, the smaller you write.

    “The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance.” —Richard Price

  • The thing that bugged me . . . Prompt #315

    Today’s Prompt:  The thing that bugged me.

    Set your timer for 15 minutes.

    Write whatever comes up for you.

    Just write!

  • Why should you use strong verbs?

    Action words

    “A French research team found that action words (kicked, stomped, raced) fire up the motor cortex, which governs how the body moves. Even more specific, describing body parts, such as an arm or a leg, activates the part of the brain that controls arm and leg movement. Using evocative language also wakes up a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which activates long-term memories and plays a significant role in how a reader’s mind turns language into a meaningful experience.” Writer’s Digest, Sept. 2016

    And that’s why it’s important to use strong verbs.

    Make a list of strong verbs and action words. 

    Keep your list handy.  Use it like a thesaurus when you are stumbling for that strong verb that’s on the tip of your tongue, within your grasp, but not quite accessible.

    Or, use a thesaurus.

    To learn more about using strong words to convey emotion, action and memorable characters, click on the following topics. You will end up on another page, here on The Write Spot Blog.

    Use sensory detail and be specific  

    How to be a better writer  

    Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch  

    Just write!