For the next couple of posts, dear readers of this blog, I will exercise the vocab lobe of the brain. For too long I have felt my vocabulary lacks tone. Its hit me whenever I try to make a point, but the point falls blank. Meanwhile, when I hear someone […]
Take 2 minutes to describe your “daily ideal” for writing. Relevant to your life, particular to you. Manias: quiet or music, closed space, uninterrupted. Long stretch of time or at least two hours (minimum 1 hr). Completely for myself first drafts, with reading option. Email sharing not until full […]
You probably guessed my last post featured the pattern of revenge. Today’s exercise asks us to do the activity again — pick a pattern, sketch a plot — but this time to mix two different patterns. I want to mix a love pattern, with another kind of pattern, one that […]
Mr Bell suggests we get a feel for plot patterns by picking one of the ones mentioned in his book. And then to sketch out a whole new fresh plot around it. Boy oh boy, I’m excited. Here is goes. Can you guess what pattern I’m using? . . […]
It’s been a while! I was on an adventure with the Mrs. A get-away. A vacay. Anyway . . . I missed completing these exercises. A part of me is so ready to start writing Awake & Asleep, but I really want to get through my semester of plot. That […]
Has it ever happened to you where you get the same message three different times, in three different ways? Your stomach growls, you’re hungry. But it’s better to save money, hold off until dinner. And then you see an ad on your computer for ice cream. No, you say. Then […]
Ms Suskin has already urged us to make meaning out of the little things, the big things. But what is the most important of all the meanings? Our own meaning. In today’s episode, the poets gathered to explore their own purpose. People will always ask you why you do […]
Today’s exercise asks us to utilize our senses when we write a poem. I’m here watching this video, smelling my sweat, greasy hair stuck to my brow, thinking, duh. But, Ms J Suskin, let us honor the gods with our five senses! Below are my five and a bonus […]
These exercises feel easy and doable (during working hours! Opps). I am grateful for them. They really inspire. Especially with how I tell myself I should be training more. Be more of a champion. Practice daily, all the time, every moment I get, religiously. Today’s exercise features purpose. In […]
My mother is super into webinars, and in daily meditation, and daily practice. So, here I am, sharing in her delights. She sent me a series hosted by a longtime poet and motivator of words within us: Jacqueline Suskin. Now, when I read her name out loud (in my head, […]
What if I told you a story? Breakfast with mamá, galleria area Houston, 2014 — the year I came back home to live with my parents. She hints at my finding a job as casually as she stirs the sugar in her coffee. I ruffle my nose. It […]
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White rests on my bookshelf like a couple at the beach. Eyes closed, enjoying the sun, a tan, the sounds of the literary world tossed at sea, though thoroughly relaxing. We have all, in our mission for clarity and acuteness, turned to […]
∀ Art by Scott Gustafson ¶ Prompt from Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. Cameron ends her Stakes chapter with a quote from Shakespeare’s character, Polonius: “To thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any […]
∀ Who better to symbolize the extrasensory than a writer who wrote extrasensory? JJ. ¶ Prompt from Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. ESP: perception (as in telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition) that involves awareness of information about events external to the self not gained through the senses and not […]
∀ Seed leaders making roots rise, Euralis Semences ¶ Prompt from Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. Look over your life. Find a choice you made for yourself that had a positive outcome. “This assignment,” says Julia, “is a celebration both of freedom and of courage.” I’m hella […]
∀ Image pulled from this inactive twitter account… ¶ Prompt from Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. 1. My first pet dog 2. The sun and the beach 3. My first kiss 4. Walking around New York City 5. The pleasure of brewing tea This exercise calls for […]
∀ Photo of dream pop duo BEACH HOUSE ¶ Prompt from Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. My favorite sense. We are asked to take a moment to note all the sounds in our immediate area. A settling in. Then to write expansively on the following areas: Spirituality, […]
∀ Pasolini in his film Decameron ¶ Prompt from Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. Julia Cameron mentions in her chapter Practice that the consistency of writing everyday makes the writing life worth it, empowers us to live for the page, enables us to connect to life more readily. […]
∀ “We feed all — we work for all!” ¶ Prompt from Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. A heavy cocktail of blockage: perfectionism, formulas, performance anxiety. The cure? “Write five circumstances in which you could use writing.” The point here is to acknowledge that there are things […]
∀ Bobby! ¶ Prompt from Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. We all have a voice. We just have to take in some air and as a breath our voice is born. Writing works the same. We all have something to say. We just have to give ourselves some […]