Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray suggests walking to inspire creativity. WALKING HELPS YOUR CREATIVITY When you are engaged in a project and feel the creative inspiration has dried up, take a break. Anything that occupies the consciousness mind in a physical way can open you to the flow of fresh ideas and insights. Doing the dishes or taking a shower are good ways. One of my favorites is taking a walk. You could simply stroll around the block or walk deep into nature. I have not been alone in my awareness that walking opens creative channels. There is a long list of well known creatives who walked to allow ideas and connections to flow. Charles Darwin, Virginia Woolf, William Wordsworth, Nikola Tesla, Aristotle, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Jefferson, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Beethoven to name but a few. Scientific studies have now found that creative problems can indeed be solved by walking,…
Tag: Writing freely. Just write. Writing Prompts. The Write Spot Blog.
I would never . . . Prompt #729
Write from your personal experience, or as your fictional character would answer. Prompt #1 Write a list of things you, or your fictional character, would never do. Prompt #2 Choose one item from the list. Imagine you have accomplished that item. Write about it as if you have done it. What happened? Did that accomplishment lead to something interesting? Did you win an award? How did you feel writing as if you accomplished it? #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter
1000 Words A Day Summer Project
“A two-week intensive writing push with an accountability partner.” “Craft Talk” by Jami Attenberg is the home of the #1000wordsofsummer project, a community of writers of all levels who are all supporting each other to write 1,000 words a day for two weeks. This project has been in existence since 2018. The next round starts June 17, 2023 and ends June 30, 2023. When you sign up, during the project, you will receive an email from Jami Attenberg encouraging you to write. Sometimes another published author will contribute their thoughts on creativity, productivity, and inspiration. Your mission, should you decide to accept: Write 1000 words a day for two weeks. “Craft Talk” is a community of writers who are accountability partners: that is the magic of this project. At the end of this challenge, you will have a big pile of words and a sense of accomplishment and hopefully the…
Acceptance . . . Prompt #728
A writer and writing teacher I admire, Rebecca Evans, talked about an Entry Point as an opener when writing. Rebecca asked us to think of comfortable things. Things you’re wearing and you don’t even know you’re wearing, like eyeglasses. I thought that was interesting because I don’t like wearing my glasses. I usually take them off as soon as I get home from going out. About a week after Rebecca’s workshop, as I drove to my first errand, things looked blurry. I couldn’t read signs clearly. I thought, “I need to get my eyes checked.” I accomplished my errands. Got home. And did my usual, took my glasses off first thing. That’s when I noticed . . . I was not wearing my distance glasses. I was wearing my computer glasses. I guess the moral is things can be comfortable without our even noticing it. Or, maybe the moral is…
Comfort Food and more . . . Prompt #727
Excerpted from the May 2023 issue of the Sonoma County Gazette: Research over the past 20 years shows the same result time and time again: when we’re stressed, we want what researchers call high energy and nutrient-dense foods—those snacks, treats and meals that are high in fat and sugar. Comfort foods improve mood, reduce loneliness and connect us to cherished memories, often linked to childhood. A craving for comfort food typically stems from an extreme emotion, including happiness, meaning we reach for comfort foods even to celebrate. Comfort foods often trigger our reward system by releasing dopamine, a hormone and neurotransmitter. When we take a bite of that comfort food, whether it’s a hot fudge sundae, peanut butter and apples, tikka masala or a double bacon cheeseburger, dopamine floods the brain and gives us a huge boost of pleasure feelings. Any negative feelings we may have been experiencing before—stress, anger,…
Writing
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. Writing By Cheryl Moore A silver tongue would be nice A pen that wrote golden prose Or poetry would be better. How would it feel to be Billy Collins Whose books sit On my bedside table? His small journeys Make magic of the mundane Of ordinary daily events One poem describes Sitting at his desk words flow Seemingly without his bidding I sit at my desk Pen posed over paper Nothing comes out I could doodle a picture Make it look like a word And start from there Would it be like opening a tap With words pouring out Given enough time? My words wouldn’t be golden Nor even silver Probably just tin Maybe Billie’s don’t flow golden Until he works and revises As most good writers must…
I wish I had known . . . Prompt #726
I wish I had known . . . Response by Muriel Ellis: I don’t think I would really want to have known what my life would bring. Of course, I wish I’d done some things differently, made more time for the family I loved. I wish I hadn’t abandoned writing for so many years, over and over again. I certainly wish I’d known when I heard the grim news “malignant,” when it applied to lungs that it did not mean horrendous surgery with scant hope of recovery. And I wish that, before I knew all would be well, that I had actually written all those letters of accumulated love and wisdom that I planned to leave for my family—maybe even a page or two for assorted nieces and nephews and their offspring. Well, I didn’t. And, yes, I know it’s not too late, but that’s another story. Life is full…
If . . . Prompt #725
Writing Prompts inspired from “The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections.” If I had my life to do over . . . What I Know Now . . . Note To Self . . . Notes To My Younger Self . . . Choose one or more and Just Write!
April . . . Prompt #724
April 1, 2023. April Fool’s Day. April: In like a whimper? Or, in like a bang? How was your April? Amusing? Charming? Frustrating? Anything new or unusual happen? What did you like about this month of April? What didn’t you like? #justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter
Someone Who Helped You . . . Prompt #723
Write about someone who has helped you. Or maybe it was Some Thing that has helped you. Write about someone or something that has helped you. #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter