The Write Spot Blog by Marlene Cullen

Tag: Writing freely. Just write. Writing Prompts. The Write Spot Blog.

  • Even Introverts Can Support Authors

    Charlotte Wilkins

    We had an interesting discussion in my Jumpstart writing group the other day about being an introvert and how hard it is sometimes to be around people.

    Well!

    As writers and readers, it’s important to support authors. One possibly easy way is to attend author events.

    Charlotte Wilkins offers suggestions on how to be a successful participant at author events.

    “I attended the two book readings to support these authors, yet I’m the one who learned so much from them: relax and be yourself; having a sense of humor about yourself puts your audience at ease; read short snippets that makes the listener wonder what’s to come (Woodson says you must have intention in every line to pull the reader forward); be generous with your responses; hope for the best, prepare for the worst; and stick a couple of questions in your pocket just in case. It seems literary citizenship is a win-win.”

    “Literary Citizenship: What’s in It for You” by Charlotte Wilkins, Brevity Blog, December 19, 2024

    By the way, I keep a note on my desk, “I am an introvert who can act like an extrovert.” From “A Reformed Introvert,” by Laurie Neveau, Chicken Soup for the Soul, July 19, 2025

  • Mistranslation . . . Prompt #855

    Playing With Abstract Poetry

    Abstract poetry is a form of poetry that prioritizes the auditory and emotional impact of words over their literal meaning or conventional grammatical structure.

    Prompt 1 – The Warmup

    Write for 2 minutes about something troubling or sad.

    Write for 2 minutes about something using the opposite emotion: joyful, hopeful.

    Write for 2 minutes on something from nature, something from the natural world.

    Keep that writing nearby for Prompt 2.

    Why write an abstract poem

    “Science has shown that when we engage in play, we increase brain activity in the prefrontal cortex, where creative thinking happens.

    “You are not striving for perfection. You’re striving for perfectly unpredictable.” — “Words Gone Wild,” by Dr. Finnian Burnett, Writers Digest, Nov/Dec 2025

    Prompt 2

    Write an abstract poem, using only the words you have written in Prompt 1. Write for 15-20 minutes. It doesn’t have to make sense. It shouldn’t make sense!

    Intro to Prompt 3

    Homophonic: Words that sound alike, spelled the same, different meaning

    Rose (flower) and rose (past tense of rise).

    Or, sound alike but different letters: carat, carrot, caret (blinking cursor)

    Examples

    Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood: “The shops in mourning” where mourning can be heard as mourning or morning.

    Thomas Hood, Faithless Sally Brown, birth & berth and told & toll’d

    Homophones of multiple words are known as oronyms.

    Examples of oronyms:

    ice cream and I scream

    depend and deep end

    this sky and this guy

    some others and some mothers

    night rain and night train

    my newt and minute

    Prompt 3 Mistranslation

    This exercise is homophonic translation: Changing text in one language into another language, with no attempt to preserve the original meaning.

    Translate one of the following poems any way you want. You can use the method of what it sounds like. Or what the shapes of the letters suggest to you. There is no wrong response.

    Your translation does not have to make sense. Have fun with this!

    1. Můj manžel a já jsme stáli společně v nové nákupní centrum
    která byla čistá a bílá a plná možností.
    Byli jsme chudí, takže jsme rádi projít obchody
    protože to bylo jako chůze přes naše sny.
    V jednom jsme obdivovali kávovary, modrá keramika
    mísy, opékače topinek velký jako televize.

    2.  my eggenoot en Ek het gestaan saam in die nuwe winkelplein
    wat was skoon en wit en vol van moontlikheid.
    ons was arm so ons gehou van om te loop deur die stoor
    sedert hierdie was soos stap deur ons drome.
    in een ons admireer koffie vervaardiger se, blou pottery
    bakke, toaster oonde as groot as televisies.

    Credit to writing teacher Terry Ehret, who first introduced me to abstract poetry and homophonic mistranslation.

    Contact Marlene at cullenmarlene – at – gmail if you want the languages and translations for these poems.

    Just Write!

  • Get Into The Habit

    “Forget about inspiration and get into the habit of writing every day. Habit has written far more books than inspiration has. If you want the Muse to visit you, she needs to know where you are: so stay at your desk.” —Philip Pullman

    Quote in “Write it All Down” by Cathy Rentzenbrink.

    #justwrite #amwriting #iamawriter

  • Zoom In, Then Linger

    Ethan Gilsdorf on Zooming In and Lingering:

    “In personal essay, memoir and creative nonfiction, we want to bring to our pages a sense of verisimilitude, of intruding upon someone else’s circumstances, of grasping someone else’s fleeting take on the world.”

    How to do this?

    Gilsdorf suggests:

    “The language of cinematography is a useful analogy: in a wide or medium shot, the viewer is distant from the subject; in close-ups and extreme close-ups, the frame of reference is tight.

    In writing, this means: rather than quickly cutting away, or keeping the viewer far removed, like a drone hovering high above, we can zoom in on the subject of our attention, or pan across it, slowly.

    We can train our writerly efforts to pause. To not skip over— but to linger, loiter, dawdle, stay put, wait.”

    Excerpted from “Stay a Little Bit Longer: The Art of Zooming In and Lingering,” The Brevity Blog, March 17, 2025

  • Hey! I feel like that too.

    “Be brave with it. Be brave with the thing that you are most scared to talk about, that is the thing you need to be able to talk about. There are so many tragedies in you and joy in you that need a voice, and you would be so surprised to see that when you voice that thing you are so scared of how many people across the world will go, ‘Hey, I feel like that too. Thank you for putting a voice to how I feel.’” —Nikita Gill

    Quote in “Write it All Down” by Cathy Rentzenbrink.

  • Write It All Down

    “Write It All Down” by Cathy Rentzenbrink

    Review by Marlene Cullen

    A friendly book encouraging people to write without worries.

    Easy to read with specific suggestions that inspire writing.

    My motto is “Just Write.”

    Cathy’s motto could be “Release your fears. Stay in your chair. Write.”

    #justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter

  • It’s a Jungle

    Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page.

    It’s a Jungle

    By Marlene Cullen

    It’s a jungle out there. I’d like to peg Bumbling Unreliable Gardener, aka Bug, on a hook and let him hang until cured.

    Except, I wonder, is he at fault for my jungle of a yard? Should I have been more forceful in not allowing him to install a plethora of plants in my pursuit of a peaceful place?   

    I discovered Bug on social media. He answered my gardening questions as if he was a landscaping guru. So, I hired him. Big mistake. Huge.

    He handed me an extensive questionnaire to compose my heart’s desire in a garden. Winding paths. Check. Whimsical. Check. Calm, serene. Check, check. I envisioned a landscape of pleasant plants flowing in meandering paths. No white plants.

    What I got was spiky plants here, there, everywhere. Festucas are so overgrown they barricade the path from the sidewalk to the storage shed. I need a machete to get to the innocent outbuilding. It stands sentinel, even though the fescue threatens to obliterate it.

    The sweet-sounding lamb’s ears look like aliens landed in my yard and vomited.

    Guara, taller than skyscrapers, threaten to overtake the clothesline with white flowers. White! Didn’t I say I did not want white flowers?

    Pause. Take a breath.

    I transplanted seven Guaras. They are majestic in their new location, waving their glorious flowers like a princess atop a float in a parade.

    I successfully transplanted three festucas. I was as excited as a rabbit in a field of carrot tops. But then, the green stalks turned yellow. When I pulled on them, they came right up, as easy as pinching a wad of cotton candy from its paper cone holder. I stared at the clump in my hand. It looked like something a scarecrow could use to stuff himself or herself with. The roots had disappeared from the universe like a black hole.   

    The irrigation system has misbehaved since Bug installed it. There were leaks in several places that spurted water like they were errant fire hydrants.

    One zone completely stopped squirting water, as if we hadn’t paid our water bill.

    The sad but not neglected yard is a gardener’s nightmare. To repair the leaky irrigation tubing my husband and I had to disturb the calm bark mulch, forming it into mounds, so we could access the misbehaving parts. We plugged them and prepared to move on to the next laborious step: Removing 27 plants that are overcrowding, overproducing, and just not wanted. Sorry, not sorry, plants.

    Step One. Sharpen the machete.

    Step Two. It’s hot in the jungle. Go inside. Get a cool drink. Check email. Check Facebook because, you never know, there might be something important there.

    Step Three. It’s the middle of the afternoon. Nap time.

    Step Four. Dinner Time.

    Step Five. Plan to tame the jungle another day.

    Epilogue: Twenty plants have been re-homed. The lamb’s ears became mulch to help other plants live long and prosper.

    Freewrite inspired by the writing prompt, Metaphors and Hyberbole on The Write Spot Blog.

    Marlene Cullen grew up in the Mission District of San Francisco where she visited the library weekly, carrying home as many books as she could carry. She has always been fascinated with words and language.

    Marlene Cullen is a writing workshop facilitator and founder of Writers Forum of Petaluma. Her Jumpstart Writing Workshops provide essential elements for successful writing.  She hosts The Write Spot Blog, where memorable writing is featured on the Sparks page.

  • My Heart

    Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page.

    My Heart

    By Karen Handyside Ely

    My heart is a newly uncluttered closet. Organized and cleared of discarded outfits that smothered the floor, made movement impossible, allowed no forward progress.

    The air, once static and heavy with body-image accusations, is now peaceful and fresh. Eerily quiet with a hanging row of color-coded dresses that don’t hurl recrimination and neatly stacked t-shirts, crisply folded and segregated. Controlled. Smelling faintly of the lavender sachet I’ve finally replenished on the bottom shelf… now that I can reach it.

    Favorite sweaters, unworn for ages, have been lovingly salvaged, gently removed from their hangers, and boxed for consignment shops and resale. Traitorous pants and blouses, once thought to be friends, are stuffed haphazardly into hefty bags to sit out on the sidewalk for donated pick-up.

    My heart is a freshly weeded garden, no longer raucous with errant fruit and thorny, overgrown blackberry vines.

    The vines must be cut back. They have overrun the garden. Sweet berries have been harvested, the memory of their syrupy tang still coating the back of my tongue. It is hard, punishing work, leaving bruised and bleeding hands inside scruffy gardening gloves. I love my berry bushes, but they put up a fight when I try to tame them. They take up precious space. They have run their course.

    I’m sad but content in this season of my life – rethinking, regrouping, reprioritizing. A process that is painful but cleansing. A surgical and focused attempt to remove what doesn’t serve. Saying good-by to illusions of “what was” that have piled up on the closet floor. Illusions that are now choking new growth in the garden.

    This is not a personal rebuke of friends and family, who have disappointed my idealistic expectations. Just a reshuffle of who and where and how I spend my time. I’m saying good-bye to my own hurt feelings and the painful disconnection that is muddying my water, over-running my closet, dominating my garden. I am losing my fear of letting go of what has already changed to make space and sanctity for what is to come.

    “My Heart” was inspired by the writing prompt, Metaphors and Hyberbole.

    There are some who say that Karen Handyside Ely was born with her nose firmly planted in a book. She is a life-long lover of unusual words, lilting phrases, and absurd stories.

    After a brief stint as a credit analyst in San Francisco and New York City, and a 30+year career as a mom and “professional” volunteer in Scottsdale, AZ, Karen retired to her beloved hometown of Petaluma, CA.

    She delights in difficult crossword puzzles, singing with the Petaluma Choir, and anything baked by her husband James.

    Karen has been published in “The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Discoveries,” “The Write Spot: Reflections,” “The Write Spot: Possibilities,” “The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing,” and “The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year.”
    The Write Spot books are available from your local bookseller and on Amazon (both print and as e-readers)

  • Metaphors and Hyperbole . . . Prompt #853

    Prompt One

    Make a list of things that surprised or astonished you or made you feel uncomfortable. Something from a long time ago or recently.

    Just a list for now.

    Prompt Two

    Using your list, make a list of emotions you felt either during what you experienced or emotions you felt today or are feeling right now.

    For example: Fear, anger, surprise, annoyance, joy, angst, acceptance

    Prompt Three

    A metaphor compares two unlike things to show a relationship without using “like” or “as.” Metaphors imply that one thing is another.

    Examples of metaphors:

    Chaos is a friend of mine. —Bob Dylan

    You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, cryin’ all the time. —Elvis Presley

    Darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream. —Taylor Swift

    My heart, a church where no one prays. Lonely pews and smudged stained glass. The Forever Workshop

    Writing Prompt: Choose an emotion from your list.

    Write what happened that caused these emotions.

    Use sensory detail.

    Sight. Sound. Touch. Taste. Smell.

    Use metaphors.

    Just Write!

    Prompt Four Hyperbole

    Use hyperbole to describe an emotion. You can expand upon something you have written or use a new topic to write about.

    Hyperbole is exaggeration to the extreme.

    No one is going to judge you nor your writing. So you can exaggerate as much as you want.

    Examples of hyperbole:

    Cry me a river              

    Enough food to feed an army

    He has the memory of an elephant

    I could sleep for a week

    I died of embarrassment 

    I had to walk to the ends of the Earth to find it

    It’s a jungle out there

    It’s so hot, you could fry an egg on the sidewalk

    Writing Prompt:

    Choose something from your list. Write what happened as if you are telling a gullible listener.

    Or:

    Expand upon one of the above hyperbole examples.

    Or:  

    Write whatever is popping up in your head.

    Idea for this prompt inspired from The Forever Workshop.

    The story of Pinocchio, as metaphor:

    Gepetto, a woodcarver, prays that a puppet he carved could become a real boy. According to Phil Romo, a “real boy” is a metaphor for being an autonomous individual, not bound to ideologies or to existing institutions. “To think for yourself . . . Don’t be bound to the strings you are born into.”

    The Blue Fairy grants life to Geppetto’s puppet. This is a metaphor for human birth, the ‘miracle of life.’

    Excerpted from “Life is a Beautiful Ride” by Phil Romo.

    Future writing: Choose something from one of your lists and Just Write!

  • Customer Service

    Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page.

    Customer Service

    By Su Shafer

    Mr. Wright came hobbling in today

    Leaning heavily on a cane

    He needed to pay his bill.

    His good knee has gone out

    His bad knee has been watching from the sidelines

    Still wondering about the replacement

    Promised a few years ago.

    But he had to have bi-pass surgery

    On a heart which has been hobbling along too.

    He had come straight from the dentist

    But was smiling anyway

    The droopy smile of a weary man

    “Getting old is so hard,” he said,

    Stroking the sparse fuzz on his head.

     “Is it really worth it?”

    “It is today,” I said smiling back.

    In the way someone

    Who is really glad to see you smiles.

    He nodded,

    his mouth drooping a little less.

    Su Shafer is a creative crafter, fabricating bits of writing in poetry and short stories, and other bits into characters that appear in paintings or sit on various bookshelves and coffee tables. She lives in a cottage on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, where the tea kettle is always whistling and the biscuits freshly baked. One never knows who might stop by to share a rainy afternoon. And all are welcome!