The night before Halloween, I wanted to watch a Halloween movie. I chose “Hocus Pocus.” Around 7:40 pm I began to search how to view it for free on TV. I couldn’t find it in the free movies category and didn’t want to pay for it. I looked at the TV Guide. “Hocus Pocus” would be playing on a major channel at 8:00 pm. The time at this point: 8:00 pm. Writing Prompt: What are the chances? Or: Has this ever happened to you? Or: Hocus Pocus
Tag: Writing freely. Just write. Writing Prompts. The Write Spot Blog.
Offer It Up
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. Offer it Up By Tracy L. Wood It was a catch phrase of my mother’s. Whether our sweater was itchy, or our new church shoes gave us blisters, or a sibling was teasing us, Mom’s standard reply was Offer it Up. As a young person, this response was unsatisfying. It didn’t fix anything, and it felt dismissive. More often than not, I wanted her other catch phrase, which similarly didn’t fix anything. But at least Oh Honey came bearing sympathy. This was before Mom got involved in Al-Anon where she learned about the Serenity Prayer and to Let Go and Let God. In many ways those adages offer the same comfort, or challenge depending on one’s state of grace, and were simply another way of saying Offer it Up. I like Mom’s version better. I often hear Mom’s voice nudging me to…
Making Kindness The Norm
Did you know . . . November 13 is officially World Kindness Day? I just heard about this, so I researched: “The purpose of World Kindness Day is to raise awareness of acts of kindness in the community, emphasizing the power of positivity and the compassion that unites us all. A fundamental aspect of the human experience, kindness transcends racial, religious, political, gender and geographical boundaries.” Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Every Day were Kindness Day! Let’s make it happen! Please go to Marlene Cullen’s Write Spot Facebook Page and add your ideas on what we can do to Be Kind. Random Acts of Kindness Foundation has ideas on how we can “make kindness the norm.” Thank you, Diane D. for letting me know that November 13 is World Kindness Day!
River Walk
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. River Walk By Cheryl Moore As its tides ebb and flow following the moon’s journey across the sky—egrets, herons, sand pipers wade in the shallows on muddy banks mallards, coots, grebes paddle in the river flow, a night heron rousts on a birch tree branch. In the distance fog slowly evaporates revealing the huge hump of Sonoma Mt its golden slopes patterned with dark green trees. To and from my river walk I meet and greet dog walkers at Wickersham Park I pause to watch a dog sprinting after a ball his human has thrown he leaps in the air—a spirit of joy. The park’s stately trees seem to smile to see such active exuberance. Cheryl Moore grew up in the mid-west, went to college in San Francisco, then lived in foreign…
Cavorting With Words
Guest Blogger Grant Faulkner: Since it’s National Novel Writing Month, I wanted to share my thoughts on the creative process that is at its core: writing with abandon. This is a reprint of an essay that originally appeared in Poets & Writers. A few years ago I grappled with a simple question I had never before bothered to ask myself: Did I decide on my writing process, or did it decide on me? Despite an adult lifetime of reading innumerable author interviews, biographies of artists, and essays on creativity, I realized I’d basically approached writing the same way for years. And I didn’t remember ever consciously choosing my process, let alone experimenting with it in any meaningful way. My approach formed itself around what I’ll call “ponderous preciousness.” I’d conceive of an idea for a story and then burrow into it deliberately. I’d write methodically, ploddingly, letting thoughts percolate, then marinate—refining…
What makes you anxious? . . . Prompt #763
What makes you anxious? What do you want to do about that? What can you do about that? #justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter
Enduring Awe
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. Enduring Awe By Karen FitzGerald What brings me joy? Riding my bike brings me joy. The wind in my face on a warm day, sailing through traffic jams piled up at those long, stop lighted intersections like Farmer’s Lane and Highway 12. I love it. I always feel child-like when I’m riding my bike. Recently, I’ve taken to singing while I cruise. Not too loud, but loud enough to feel the vibration of my voice ripple through my body, from throat to sternum to stomach and right on down my legs to my ankles as I pump my way up the Chanate hill. I especially love going off trail. That is, I am not a mountain biker. Oh no. Too hard on the back. In fact, any more I’m thinking mountain biking people are not fundamentally joyful people….
Creativity Is A Practice
Suzanne Murray writes about the rewards of engaging our creativity. There is a growing awareness that creativity is a capacity that everyone has, though they may not understand what is involved in accessing it. One of the main things that gets in the way of people embracing their creative gifts is a belief that creativity should be easy; that it should just flow out. They think they should be good at it immediately. If they are not and it’s not easy, there is a tendency to think there is something wrong with them and it’s never going to work. Yet creativity in whatever form you choose to pursue is a complex process that actually asks a lot of us. This is why is feels so good to engage since it helps us discover that we are capable of more than we thought possible, including working from expanded abilities. It is…
Favorite thing to do . . . Prompt #760
Write about your favorite thing to do . . . now . . . or in the past. #justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter
Halloween Special
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. Halloween Special By Graham Chalk I am posting this for the edification and diversion of fellow travelers. I wish for no observations regarding my syntax or your tin tacks. I do not wish to hear about your grammar or my grandpa. I thank you. Halloween Special I have not written this story down before, although I have told it before. Told it as if I were at confession and the listener was a priest. But there will, I believe, be no absolution. How much of this story is true? I will let the reader decide. Schools are scary places. And when they are empty? Then they are very scary places indeed. Full of dead echoes. Generations of ghostly, silent feet disturbing the sleeping dust of generations My very first ever job was working as a lab…