Phenomena

Consider these for your freewrite today:

l.    A limitation that leads to freedom.
2.   An Imaginative surrender that enables a breakthrough.
3.   A healthy shock to the system to tenderize emotions.
4.   A tough task that fine tunes or clarifies an ambition.
5.   A last chance that leads to a fresh promise through your vigor and creative willpower.

Dismiss your outworn fears and move ahead with ideas in response to the above.

Write on!

National Book Week

It's National Book Week. The rules: Grab the closest book to you. Go to page 56. Copy the 5th sentence.

Then write from there for fifteen minutes.

Here's a start:

It was like standing at the edge of a cliff.

Circumstance

A train arrives at Midnight. After a long day's journey into this town, a woman walks off the train with a maltese dog in a carrying case and a backpack.  The only place open at this hour is the Jackalope Lounge.  Sarah has just arrived to  . . .

And then what . . .

Write Your Success

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."   -Ralph Waldo Emerson


What does success mean to you in your writing life?  How would you compare your philosophy with Emerson's wording of success?


Creative Write: Write your ideals for writing and life in four lines.

How to Spell Curiosity

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.     - Albert Einstein

During childhood, I asked so many questions my father created stories he thought would satisfy my curiosity. Even then he often fell asleep before my questions stopped arriving like thunderbolts.

He never said, "I don't know." Even when I had him perplexed, he'd launch into an explanation to cover the topic. Many years later I learned a bidet really wasn't a footbath.

Recently at the Seattle airport, I followed a school of metal fish embedded in the floor that led to my gate.  One fish appeared with a suitcase. How many travelers have noticed this fellow? I had to take a photograph.

Endowed with curiosity, everything in life becomes possible. Linked with optimism and creativity, curiosity pushes limits.

Ways to heighten your natural gift of curiosity:

1. Stay open to possibilities. Nurture the ability to change your mind, unlearn and relearn.

2. Ask questions like a reporter: Who, What, Why, When, Where, How? Don't feel content with easy answers. Ask more questions.

3. Curious individuals never feel bored. Take advantage of 'empty time' like standing in line. Observe what's going on around you. Notice people's choices and listen. Writers always carry notepads.

4. Become a perpetual discoverer and learner. Make learning fun and seek beyond the obvious.  Find that fish with the suitcase.

5. Read diverse publications and books. Explore what you don't know with a free mind.

Creative Write:
Describe in detail your first memory of curiosity. Recall it with all your senses.

Life Story Writing

"Within each of us is a tribe with a complete cycle of legends, dances, songs to be sung. We need only to write these stories to claim our unique birthright. -  Sam Keen


Listen to the voices that travel through you: mother, father, siblings, children, friends, enemies, teachers and heroes. Notice how they act out their dramas on your life slate.  They will help you celebrate your myths, sing your songs, and tell your legends.

Memory becomes a trickster who picks and choses scenes.  You may recall a punishment for something you did not do.  When you tell the story for the hundredth time, you remember that you did commit the act and the whole scene changes.  Memories of what happened in one year will be different when retold five and ten years later.

Creative Write:  Begin with an unpleasant memory that has faded. Bring it to life by describing the situation in detail.  Write about the story. Enter it and explore the ragged edges. Change its focus and reveal a lesson learned.

Show your memory with a moving camera's view.