Write about something someone thinks about you, but it’s not true.
A misconception.
Just Write!
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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
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The challenge of freewriting . . . Prompt #765
The challenge of freewriting is getting Self out of the way.
Let your writing flow with no judging.
Release your worries about your writing.
Allow your creative mind to play with words.
With freewrites, you are writing for yourself, not for an audience.
Give yourself permission to be open to whatever comes up while you are writing.
A freewrite is a way of writing freely, with no worries about the outcome.
Choose a time when you will not be interrupted.
Select a prompt. Set a timer for 15-20 minutes and write without pausing to think.
If you run out of things to say, write “I remember” and go from there.
Or, write “What I really want to say . . .”
Give your inner critic time off during this writing.
Lists are a great way to inspire freewrites.
~ Make a list of issues and experiences, important or trivial, in your life right now.
~ What frustrated you in the past month?
~ What made you laugh or cry?
~ What caused you to lose your temper?
~ What was the worst thing that happened?
~ What was the best thing that happened?
~What was the most disturbing or weird thing that happened?
Choose one thing from your list and write about it. Write whatever comes to mind.
When you are finished writing, take a deep breath in and release your breath out.
Next prompt: Write about the same incident from the other person’s point of view.
Next prompt: Think back to when you were a teenager or a young adult and respond to one of the questions above as your younger self would have responded.
The Write Spot series of books, edited by Marlene Cullen, features a variety of writing, all ending with a writing prompt, to inspire your writing.
There are over 700 prompts on The Write Spot Blog, plus places to submit your writing, Sparks (memorable writing), and guest spots.
Just Write!
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Offer It Up
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page.
Offer it Up
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 rise above and connect with a higher spirit, even without itchy sweaters or ill-fitting white patent leather shoes. When I am on a hike, her words are as pertinent while I battle a swarm of mosquitoes on the way up as when I finally glory in a spectacular view from the top. Then, on the way down, when my knees ache and I grow frustrated at my 56-year old body for sometimes just sucking, I again remember Mom’s words (and pop a couple ibuprofen).
Offer it Up doesn’t just mean to “get over it.” Rather, it acknowledges our current state of discomfort, pain, or joy, and reminds us to share it all. Offer it up keeps us humble and centered as we ride the waves of emotions that come with our humanity.
Similarly, Offer it Up does not absolve us of action; it does not tell us to sit idly and suffer silently. It is just a step, a breath, a moment, a prayer.
Tracy L. Wood is a former Marine and retired secondary English teacher. She currently teaches writing workshop classes near her home in Newbury, New Hampshire where she writes a weekly newsletter “My Mother’s Piano: from stuff to stories.”
“Offer it Up” was originally published Tracy’s Substack, “My Mother’s Piano.”
Tracy’s mother’s piano is one of the many things that did not move with Tracy and her husband when they fled their suburban home near Boston, where they raised their family to ride out the pandemic in rural New Hampshire. It has come to represent the things we cherish but cannot keep.
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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 lands before returning to settle in Sonoma County.
She enjoys her garden where deer nibble on roses, raccoons dine on fallen figs, and the bird feeders are busy.
A nearby river offers opportunities to observe waterfowl.
Seeing and writing about these miracles of nature are adventures in living.
Cheryl enjoys writing about nature: September Light
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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 a muscle that we need to work with to develop, just like if we decided to run a marathon, we would understand the need to run daily for shorter periods to build up to the full distance.
Creativity is a practice that you have to stay with even when doubts arise.
It tends to progress in a stair step fashion. We spend time showing up to the work each day for weeks, maybe months and we don’t seem to be getting any better. Then one day we have crossed a threshold to a new level where we can do things we have been unable to. We will need to work on that plateau for a while before being boosted to the next level.
Being creative also involves studying our chosen form of expression.
Long before I wrote my first personal essay, the writing form that almost seemed to choose me, every time I went into a bookstore, I was drawn to the essay section. Those were the only books I read. I was learning to write in that form by reading it.
So, when I started to write, my creative mind already had a sense of what to do. Sort of.
I then had to practice, writing pages and pages that never went anywhere but taught me a lot. I learned to trust that things were cooking on the level of my subconscious and super conscious minds.
The more I showed up to practice, the more I had a sense of what to do and how to work with the material on a conscious level. The more I stayed with it, the more the wonderful, magical state of flow would occur where I was definitely operating in an expanded state.
Being creative feels like a beautiful dance. Engaging in the process feels good, so I never really thought about all the time and work I had to put in to become an accomplished writer. For me the act of creativity has always been its own reward. That has allowed me to stay with it through the doubts and slow going.
Now more than ever we need to resist the distractions like social media and the internet that give us a sense of instant gratification, making it more difficult to go the distance with our creativity.
Keep in mind that you can make great progress with small steps taken day after day.
Try this: Pick a creative project. Then show up ten minutes a day to play with it.
I did this recently in a form new to me, nature collage.
I asked a painter friend about the best materials to use. Then with acrylic paint, glue and objects from nature, I let myself be intuitively guided in what to do. It took a bit before any of them turned out in a way pleasing to me. Yet each one taught me something.
As you play with your project, resist the urge to judge. Put it away and look at a few days later when the critic has quieted down.
Keep showing up, ten minutes day after day and see if you don’t feel the deep satisfaction that comes with opening to your creativity.
Wishing you the deep satisfaction of being creative, Suzanne Murray.
Suzanne’s website: Creativity Goes WildSuzanne 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.
Other posts by Suzanne on The Write Spot Blog:
Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray and the power of commitment.
Suzanne Murray: Using imagination for creativity
Note from Marlene: Just Write!
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Changing Seasons
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page.
Changing Seasons
By Julie Sherman
My garden is feeing anxious. The hydrangeas are protesting with powdery mildew on her large leaves. The yellow stargazers are shrinking back into themselves refusing to open. The last of the white roses are reluctantly peeling back one petal at a time, objecting to the assault of cold temperatures after having owned a sunny resort for the past 4 months. The plumbago has given up altogether, and the sweet peas are trying their best to climb the trellis. The last few pink ballerinas are hanging precariously to their brittle fuchsia branches before folding in their tutus, turning brown, and falling to the ground. Only the chrysanthemums are welcoming the morning chill and pale gray skies.
The veteran plants know what’s coming and are bracing themselves, feeling tough enough to survive. They look to me for protection and comfort, knowing I will gently shroud them in netted mesh when it dips below 40.
Some of my beauties will not last. The nasturtium and alyssum will die, but their seeds will stubbornly stay hidden below the rocks and dirt until spring, then surprise me by showing up in different corners around my house. I never know where those flowery renegades will appear, but they always do.
The hummers, so brazen and audacious, are beginning to retreat. The six feeders filled every Sunday due to the hummers’ gluttony have been full for the last 10 days, only an occasional daring flutterer visiting while the others huddle together for warmth in the tree across the street.
Fall. My favorite time, my garden’s fearful time. We shift the balance and she tries to hang on another day, waiting for warmth and light to come, only to concede and brace for months of brisk, biting temperatures and darkness to come three full hours sooner than just a month ago.
I move my sleeveless cotton tops to the back of the closet pulling forward my sweatshirts, long-sleeved tops and jeans. Like my garden, I pull in, nestle, protect, and try to keep my tutu from falling to the ground.
Julie Sherman is a native San Franciscan and long-time resident of Petaluma, California. Raised in a family of readers, writers, performers, musicians and political activists, Julie followed her dream of singing professionally.
While working on “The Love Boat” for Princess Cruises, she met her husband, bassist Jeff Sherman. After a 20-year career as a professional singer, Julie worked in education and technology.
Now retired, Julie enjoys writing, baking, gardening and worldwide travel, most recently having visited Viet Nam, Ireland, and Thailand. She is the mother of twin girls, opera singer Camille Sherman and music producer Emily Sherman. Julie resides in a little house with her husband, a dog and two cats while enjoying reading, writing, eating well, and tending to her garden.
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Seasonal Considerations in 14 Stanzas
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page.
Seasonal Considerations in 14 Stanzas
By Christine Renaudin
Yesterday’s rain was announced,
yet came as a surprise,
we’ve grown so used to dreading drought and fire.Yesterday’s rain was a gift
early for the wet season,
tardy for the thirsty and parched.Yesterday’s rain relieved anxieties,
expectations, released myriads of winged
insects dancing in today’s afternoon sunlight.Some are termites, I think, roused by the premature sprinkle.
They flutter aimlessly as if lost in the midst of dream.
In two hours, I hear, their wings will fall and drop them home to thrive or die.Yesterday’s rain took us inside
trading shade for shelter
to share a Sunday lunch with friends.
Today the sun glistens over puddles,
the air feels clean, cobwebs glitter,
alive with earthy fragrances.Breath deepens, heart quickens,
there is a bounce in the season:
I want to catch its tune.
Soon the grass will grow green again
before the first frosty mornings,
as usual I wish for a drizzle on my birthday.Inside, a child wonders,
tracing California with a finger on a blue rug:
“the world does not fit on a rug.Too many maps crowding Wikipedia
telling stories of migrations
—atoms, animals, tectonic plates, people—Over centuries and beyond
six thousand years old for some,
several billion years for many, many, most others.The world is worth a million maps before one rug is born
out of the weaver’s hand or the machine that replaced it,”
the child pursues aloud within mother’s earshot.My child has grown, she thinks,
like grass on October Sundays
between new and full moon.I see the fruit of the buckeye dangling like tiny lanterns in the dusky sky;
soon persimmons will hang round and orange in naked branches,
like ornaments out of season glowing through morning fog or against bright blue skies.Christine Renaudin’s writing has been featured in several of The Write Spot’s Sparks, as well as in The Write Spot anthologies: “Discoveries,” and “Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year,” available at your local bookseller and on Amazon (print and as an e-reader).
Christine lives, writes, and paints in Petaluma, CA. She is also a dancer. Her most recent performances in 2022 include Sunset in Spring (Fort Bragg, May 2022), The Slow Show (San Francisco, September 2022), Run, Or Don’t (San Francisco, April 2023).An avid practitioner of Contact Improvisation, she facilitates the monthly West Marin Contact Improvisation Jam at The Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station. She loves to see these various practices interact and inform her art-making process.
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Caring and sharing . . . Prompt #756
Caring and sharing make emotional journeys bearable.
Write about a time someone made you feel cared for.
Or, a time you showed care and concern.
Bonus points if it was a surprise.
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Birth Day . . . Prompt #749
Remember self-care when writing about difficult topics:
Get up, walk around.
Take a sip of water or herbal tea.
Choose something in your surroundings to look at when the writing gets difficult.
Look at that focal point as a reminder to breathe.
Take a deep breath in. Hold. And release.
Take a few more calming breaths.
Write this in your notebook or on a piece of paper.
What I really want to say . . .
I remember . . .
I don’t remember . . .
If you are stuck with writing, you can use one of these phrases and go from there.
Writing Prompt: Birth Day
Think about your Birth Day.
Maybe you had many birthday parties.
Maybe you had a handful of parties, or one or two.
Maybe your Birth Day is a big deal and you wildly celebrate.
Or, maybe you are the quiet type, preferring not to call attention to yourself.
Maybe you think of your Birth Day as “just another day.”
Whether you celebrate or not, you travel around the sun once a year in your personal orbit.
Let’s visit our Memory Bank and go back in time.
Think about your birthday when you were 16 years old.
Think about your birthday when you were 8 . . . 6 . . . 4.
Go back farther, to when you can’t remember your birthday.
Go back to your actual Birth Day. A miracle of a birth.
You were born.
Maybe it wasn’t a planned birth. Maybe there was some discord.
That happens.
Take a deep breath in. Hold. Let it out.
Take a few minutes to think about, to reflect, what your Birth Day meant to your parents, your grandparents, you aunts, uncles. Your family.
Write about the day you were born. You could write about the date, or the time of year, the season you were born.
You could write about what the weather was like or the facility where you were born, as you have been told or as you imagine.
Who was there, during your birth?
You can write fact, or fiction based on fact, based on stories you have heard.
Just Write.