Today I celebrate . . . Prompt #500

  • Today I celebrate . . . Prompt #500

    Today I celebrate Prompt #500 on The Write Spot Blog.

    That’s a lot of prompts!

    I didn’t know what would happen when I started this blog September 24, 2003. That seems so long ago, and yet it’s only 17 years. A life-time for some, a blip for others.

    Since that first blog post, my daughter married, both my sons married, two granddaughters were born, we renovated our yard, bought tons of groceries, did umpteen loads of laundry, and so much happened locally, state-wide, nationally, and internationally.

    And I learned to Zoom.

    There are 1,252 posts on The Write Spot Blog: Places to submit your writing, book reviews, quotes, and guest bloggers sharing their thoughts about writing. Hopefully some of the posts have been inspirational to help you and your writing.

    Since 2003, five Write Spot anthologies have been published.

    I’ve given talks about freewrites, blogging, and how to write about traumatic events at workshops, college classes, and writing communities.

    I continue to read about writing and attend writing workshops, furthering my education about writing.

    Yep, I am passionate about writing.

    Today, I celebrate you.

    I’m raising my glass in a toast to you.

    I hope you are writing and keep writing.

    If you want to write, but haven’t started yet, maybe you will find inspiration in one of these Write Spot posts.

    Here are some prompts that might inspire your writing.

    What happened for you these past seventeen years?

    What will you celebrate today?

    What will you celebrate in the future?

    Marlene C

    ,

  • Uneasy? You’re not alone.

    Today’s Guest Blogger Lara Zielin:

          I often have the feeling I’m in trouble. 

          It’s this pervasive unease, like I’m doing something wrong.

          The problem is, I don’t know WHAT I’m doing wrong. Which means that if or when I get in trouble, it’s going to be a terrible surprise. 

          Because of this, I have my antennae up all day, scanning, looking, wondering what I could be doing that’s awful. I mind my P’s and Q’s and I try so hard to do everything right. I try to stay busy.

          I try to be so, so good. 

          But some part of me knows it won’t be enough. Trouble is still a-comin’. 

          Which means by the time I get to the end of the day, there is this exhausted part of me that is BEYOND READY to feel safe. To feel good enough. To feel comforted. 

          That part of me wants to eat ALL the carbs. And drink. And scroll Facebook. And numb, numb, numb. Because it’s painful out there, people. 

          This feeling has only gotten worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

          Without regular face-to-face check-ins with colleagues and friends, the gnawing unease that I’ve done something wrong only grows. My hankering for carbs only grows. My addiction to Netflix and my phone only grows. 

          That is, until I stop running and face the darkness. Until I open my arms to the fear and to the pain of thinking I’m not enough and just … sit with it. 

          I’ve been doing a LOT of writing around this lately. And I’m here for you if you want to do some writing around this, too.

          Instead of trying to run from the darkness, let’s invite it in. Let’s listen to it. And let’s meet it with love. 

          Because that’s the ONLY thing that’s going to help us feel better, feel lighter, and feel whole. If we run from the darkness, it will only continue to chase us. But if we embrace it, we can let it complete us. 
          To help us do just that, Lara is leading a free one-hour online group writing time on Thursday, April 23. 
          

    Note from Marlene: If you need ideas for relaxing and de-stressing, here ya go. You might already be doing some of these.

    I’m working on the next Write Spot book and will include these self-care tips and more!

    Creativity Coaching

    Alisha Wielfaert 

    Suzanne Murray

    Hypnotherapy

    Ted A. Moreno

    Inspiration

    Hands Free Mama – Rachel Macy Stafford

    Meditate

    Gaiam

    Headspace

    Insight Timer

    Mindful

    Movement

    Dance

    Ten minute Qi Gong

    Yoga

    And, of course. Write. Write what you know. Write what you want to know. Just write. If you need writing prompts, take a look at The Write Spot Blog.

    Marlene C

    , , , , , , ,

  • Infuse Your Writing With Earth Imagery . . . Prompt #448

    Photo by Marlene Cullen

    Excerpt from Poetic Medicine, by John Fox, “Giving Yourself Permission to be Wild and Magnificent”

    Earth offers us powerful images and metaphors with which to tell our stories. Rather than thinking of the earth’s resources as commodities like oil and wood . . . consider the more intangible qualities which nature offers us, such as beauty and spectacle, turmoil and order, mystery and predictability.

    A sense of beauty – wild and terrible or lovely and breathtaking – can be healing.

    Infusing your writing with earth imagery will help reveal your unique voice and imagination. The stories of earth – and our stories – are interwoven, constantly changing in the cyclic process of birth, growth and death. A language for expressing these deep changes in your life can be found by tuning to the language of the earth.

    Poem-making and the natural world give you permission to be wild and magnificent. Your poetic musings of connection with the earth can take you beyond conventional ways of looking at yourself.

    We are often so busy conforming to traditional notions of success that we miss this joyful opportunity to cut loose and feel our lives – to express our highest potential and explore our true legacy.

    Prompt:  Using inspiration from the natural world present an outrageous, yet honest, picture of yourself . . . or paint a word picture about anything you want, perhaps something that happened over the weekend, or during this past week.

    Marlene C

    ,

  • Myths and Realities of Blogging

    I recently spoke at a meeting of the Writers of the Mendocino Coast, a branch of the California Writers Club, on the subject of blogging.

    I recommend the blogs and books mentioned below. And of course there are many other blogs, books, and information about blogging on the world wide web.

    Highlights from my talk on “Myths and Realities of Blogging”

    If you don’t have a blog, but think you should, something to think about is why?

    Why should you have an author blog?

    “Blogging is simply a medium that allows you to connect with people who love the same books, hobbies and activities you do.”  — Gabriela Pereira, May/June 2018, Writer’s Digest magazine

    Author Blog

    Find Your Target Audience: Read the reviews of books in your genre on Amazon or Goodreads. Use words from the reviews for your headlines and tags in your posts.

    What to Post

    Stories about you: Your interests, hobbies, pets, hometown. Interviews.

    Platform

    One way to build your platform is to be a guest blogger. I welcome your essays about encouraging writers and writing tips on The Write Spot Blog. Go to “Guest Bloggers” to see what others have done (800-1200 words).

    Book reviews are also welcome on The Write Spot Blog.

    The Benefits of Blogging for Writers by Nancy Julien Kopp

    • Name recognition in the Writing World
    • Helps promote your books
    • Connections with other writers
    • Can exchange guest posts with other bloggers
    • Makes you write regularly/inspires other forms of writing

    A few blogs for writers:

    Marlene Cullen, The Write Spot Blog

    Nancy Julian Kopp, Writers Granny’s World           

    Jane Friedman, Blog for Writers                 

    Books on Blogging

    How To Blog a Book, Nina Amir

    The Author Blog, Anne R. Allen

    The Write Spot Anthologies: Prose, poetry, and prompts to spark your writing

    The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Discoveries

    The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Connections

    The Write Spot: Reflections

    The Write Spot: Memories

    Should you host an author’s blog to build your platform? You don’t have to, but it’s a good idea . . . as long as you stay focused on your “main” writing . . . your fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoir. And if you love posting on your blog . . . do it! Just write!

    Marlene C

    , , , , , ,

  • What writing brings you joy?

    “I write because I believe my words can change the world. Every paragraph, every sentence, every syllable I construct is written with the express intention of changing people and their families. I hope as you read this you are in fact changing and I hope you’ll let your families read this so they can change too.

    Of course I’m kidding.

    I write for cash and because as a child I was told I had excellent penmanship.”

    “What’s the writing that makes you happy? That’s the writing to do.” 

    Doug Ellin, Creator, Executive Producer, “Entourage”

    From September 2005 issue of Writer’s Digest magazine

    Marlene C

  • Shhhh . . . Prompt #428

    Today’s writing prompt:

    Opening line from Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts:

    “You must not tell anyone, my mother said, what I’m about to tell you.”

    Or: You must not tell anyone . . .

    Or: My mother said . . .

    Marlene C

    , , ,

  • Word Problems . . . Prompt #422

    Remember math word problems?  If x = a + c, then what does b equal?

    If Johnny and Tony want to end up at the same place and at the same time, why didn’t they just travel together?

    Prompt: Word problems

    Marlene C

    , ,

  • What would you do, if . . . Prompt #418

    What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

    Marlene C

    , , ,

  • Betrayal. Prompt #410

    “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Write about a time you were betrayed. Or a time you betrayed someone.

    You could start with: I felt betrayed . . .

    Or write about a time you were silent and now wish you had spoken up.

    Or write about a time you could no longer remain silent.

    You could start with: I want to tell you about what happened . . .

    Marlene C

    , , ,

  • A lie . . . Prompt #409

    Write about a lie someone told you, or a lie you told.

    White lies, bald-faced lies, untruths, falsehoods, fabrications, whoppers . . . whatever you call ‘em, you have experienced ‘em . . . Now write about ‘em.

    Marlene C

    , , , ,