Write about your favorite food or drink and the last time you had it/them.
Photo of fruit salad, prepared by Meals From The Heart at the French Market in New Orleans. If you go there, go to this Cafe. Seriously good food. The BEST gluten-free crabcakes!
I facilitate Jumpstart writing workshops in Petaluma, California and here, online, with you. People new to writing have a hard time saying “I’m a writer.” So did I, until my writing teacher, Pat Schneider, made me say it out loud.
And now I’m encouraging you to say it out loud. Come on. I’ll say it, too.
I am a writer.
Again, louder. I AM A WRITER.
There now. . . and if you weren’t able to say it louder, fake it until you make it.
No need to fake your writing. . . Just fake having confidence in your writing.
And now . . . select a prompt and Just Write!
Today’s prompt: Life is just a . . .
Set your timer for 15 minutes and finish the thought. . .
Write about something that seemed so wrong but turned out right.
Photo by Breana Marie
Today’s writing prompt is inspired from the September 2014 issue of Writer’s Digest magazine.
“A man opens his mailbox to find an envelope containing a set of instructions.”
Set your time and write for 20 minutes. Set it aside for twenty minutes. Then read. Tweak, make a few changes, but not too many. The energy from that first and fast writing is usually spot-on.
Write a short story of 750 words or fewer based on this prompt and enter Writer’s Digest Contest #60.
Send your story using the online form at writersdigest.com/your-story-competition or send via email to yourstorycontest@fmedia.com (entries must be pasted directly into the body of the email; attachments will not be opened).
~ You see something you can’t live without, but you don’t have enough money to pay for it. What do you do?
~ You see a neighbor, alone, weeping. What do you do?
~ You see an acquaintance shoplift. What do you do?
~ You see two married acquaintances, without their spouses, heads and bodies close together, in a suggestive position. What do you do?
~ You are a young child and smile up at the grown-up whose hand you are holding but you don’t recognize the grown-up. What do you do?
Pick one and write for 20 minutes.
Note from Marlene: You can tweak prompts however you want. For example, with this prompt, the setting could be a deserted walkway near water, in a park, at a crowded Saturday market. You choose the setting and Just Write!
Photo by Sasha Oaks Photo by Jim C. March Photo by Kent Sorensen
Write about an article of clothing, shoes, or jewelry. . . something you are wearing right now.
Photo by Breana Marie
“How’s the weather?”
It’s a question often asked. And sometimes we really want to know the answer.
Right now, Summer 2014, Northern California where I live, is experiencing a drought. Lawns are brown, cars are covered with layers of dust and dirt, flowers and plants are drooping. But I’m not complaining. We have plenty of water to drink and the public pool is a great place to cool off.
How’s the weather? We want to know!Photo by Breana Marie
There are more how-to-write books than we have time to read. IF we tried, we would spend all our time reading about writing and not writing. But there are a few especially good how-to write books. Here are some of my favorites. What are your favorite writing books?
Dorothea Brande was an early proponent of freewriting. In her book Becoming a Writer (1934), she advises writers to sit and write for 30 minutes every morning, as fast as they can.
Peter Elbow advanced freewriting in his books Writing with Power and Writing Without Teachers (1975), and freewriting has been popularized by Julia Cameron through her books The Artist’s Way and The Right to Write.
A few more writing books:
Aronie, Nancy Slonim – Writing From the Heart
Baldwin, Christina – Storycatcher
Barrington, Judith – Writing the Memoir, From Truth to Art
Baty, Chris – No Plot? No Problem!
Bennet, Hal Zina – Write From The Heart
Clegg, Eileen M. – Claiming Your Creative Self
DeSalvo, Louise – Writing As A Way of Healing
Epel, Naomi – Writers Dreaming
George, Elizabeth – Write Away
Goldberg, Natalie: Living Color, Long Quiet Highway, Wild Mind, Writing Down the Bones, The Great Failure
Heffron, Jack – The Writer’s Idea Book
Kabat-Zinn, Jon – Wherever You Go, There You Are
Keene, Sam and Anne Valley-Fox – Your Mythic Journey
Kelton, Nancy Davidoff – Writing From Personal Experience
King, Stephen – On Writing
Lauber, Lynn – Listen to Me
Lamott, Anne – Bird by Bird
Lara, Adair – Naked, Drunk and Writing
Nelson, Sara – So Many Books, So Little Time
Rosenfeld, Jordan – Make a Scene
Saltzman, Joel – If You Can Talk, You Can Write
Schneider, Pat – Writing Alone And With Others
Smith, Michael C. and Suzanne Greenberg – Everyday Creative Writing
Ueland, Brenda – If You Want to Write
Walker, Christine – A Painter’s Garden
Walton, Todd & Toomay, Mindy – The Writer’s Path
Zimmerman, Susan – Writing to Heal The Soul
Just a few of my books on writing. Yes, I have two copies of Jordan’s Make A Scene: One for my personal use and one for lending.
