Jump Write In

After I graduated from college with my first bachelor’s degree I went to visit my mother in California.  Tears welled up in my eyes as she took me into her office and opened her keepsake trunk.  She gently pulled out a large, yellowed piece of paper and handed it to me.  When I unfolded it, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that what she had kept hidden away for many years was the first story I had ever written. After my visit, I took it home, had it carefully framed and it now hangs on my wall above my writing space, a constant reminder of my writing origins. When I wrote that story, I was six years old and had written most of my words the way they sounded:

Blackie flew on a tree. It was poysn ock. Blackie got etchus all ovir.

For today’s writing warm up, write about the first story you wrote. How old were you? What grade were you in? What was your teacher’s name?  Who was your best friend at the time? Rewrite the story now, adding more action, description and details to the story, OR write a story about the little boy or girl who wrote the story. Enjoy a walk down memory lane.

Have fun!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

Writing A Letter the old fashioned way can help release writers block

I have a confession to make. I have been fighting writers block for quite awhile now.  When I sit down to write, it feels as if my fingers are no longer attached to my hand, they just type on their own. It has felt as if there are no feelings or thoughts flowing from my brain and down through my fingers and onto the keyboard.  So early last week, as  I was typing an email to a friend, I suddenly thought about how much typing has dominated my life.  I suddenly felt a longing for my childhood days when I was writing a letter to a pen-pal in Yugoslavia, or to my brother’s friend who was serving in Viet Nam. I thought about the airmail stamp, of licking it and putting it on the airmail envelope then dropping the letter into the mailbox.  And then I thought about the the time I wrote a story in the sixth grade when I felt proud of my penmanship, and my wild imagination that took me to the planet X where I flew an X-15 rocket around the planet to the far side and saved the planet from destruction.  My inspiration back then was a brand new television show called Star Trek, and another show in which the Robinson Family continued to be “Lost in Space.”

So as I finished typing the email to my friend and clicked send, I vowed it would be my last personal email for one week.  For me, typing a letter has become a detachment from everything that is important to me.  In that moment I suddenly longed for the act of  writing. For my own sanity, I needed to get back to basics. I needed to hold a pen in my hand, put it to paper and form the letters that make the words to convey my feelings and thoughts to the recipient of my letter.

I posted my intentions to my wall on facebook. I made a declaration that for one week, my response to everyone who sends me personal emails will be a hand written letter from me.  “Yes, it will take longer”, I stated, “but I need to get in touch with my writer self again.”   I also requested they also include their mailing address, just to make sure I had the updated information.

Five of my friends responded to my post, sounding rather excited about receiving something in the mail that wasn’t a bill. When I sat down to write the first letter, I thought, “Why not encourage others to hand-write a letter as well?”  So I did.  In each letter I wrote, I included a blank stamped envelope on which I put their name and address in the return address corner. I asked them, in the letter, to use that envelope to hand-write a letter to someone they care about and include a blank stamped envelope in their letter, asking their  friend to do the same thing.  My dream is to get the whole country to hand-write one short letter. The cost is one stamp, two envelopes, and the paper on which to write their letter.  (No, I don’t work for the post office.) After this one week of hand-writing letters, I feel better.  I feel like I have reclaimed the writer within.  I found the part of me that had moved out of the way for the sake of technology.  For me, this past week has been a rebirth.

I know there are probably many of you shaking your head and saying, “What the heck is the big deal? I can type my feelings just as well as I can write them!”.  Perhaps others of you are stuck in a writer’s block mode right now, struggling to get in touch with the act of writing again. Why not try hand-writing a letter to a friend. You may find yourself experiencing an “aha” moment (along with a little writer’s cramp) as you put your pen to paper and discover that writing a letter for old time’s sake, is just what you needed to help you move forward with your story or poem. Write a letter to a friend about the first letter you ever wrote. How old were you when you wrote it? To whom was it written?  What was going on in your life at the time that you couldn’t wait to write the letter and tell that person all about i?

Have Fun!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

Did you ever have a pen pal?

What country did he or she live in?

Have you ever written a fan letter?

Timing is everything when writing a story with suspense and intrigue. For your writing warm up today, write a memoir or poem about a childhood experience in which you felt scared and excited both at the same time. Maybe it was the first time you used a ouija board, or took your first roller coaster ride,  or walked home at night through a graveyard.  Describe in detail what the fear and awe felt like. Did you have a lump in your throat, a dry throat, lose your voice, or scream loudly? Did your body shake, or did you run as fast as you could? Embelish the suspense, keep the reader on the edge of their seat as long as you can before concluding your story. Have fun!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

The names for our English days of the week are derived from Germanic, Norse, and Old English languages.  Some are named after Gods, and some from heavely bodies. Most cultures have their own names for the days of the week, created out of their own stories and myths, and some are numbered days such as day one, day two, or named for it’s meaning such as the day after work day.

For your writing warm up today, write a description of  an imaginary culture. You are an ancient story teller, passing down the wisdom of your culture to the next generation. You and your tribe are huddled around a fire on a chilly night. To pass the time, you are asked to tell the young ones the origin stories of your culture.  Here are some ideas to get you started:

What are the days of the week and how were they named in your imaginary culture?

What does your imaginary culture believe about how time began?

What are the spiritual beliefs and practices of your imaginary culture?

Are there holidays and how did they come into being?

Does your planet have seasons what are they called?

How were the seasons named?

After writing your story, gather some friends or a writing group and read it out loud. To challenge yourself further, memorize it and perform it for the group.

Have fun.

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

For today’s writing warm-up try writing a poem or short story about the letter T. Make every sentence begin with the letter T (and nix on using the word THE for every sentence).

Include the following words in your story:

Ti-pi       Tornado     Tonsils     Trip    Trapeze    Trick       Treat     Two

Twenty    Travis     Tina    Tan     Turtle     Tuesday     Touchdown     Troll

Tweet     Twister     Tank     Tulip     Tomato     Tootsie  Temper  Tommy

Halloween is coming.  It is the night when ancient cultures believed the veil between worlds becomes thinner.  Witches and ghouls, goblins and faeries, pixies and trolls run amok in our earthly realm, performing acts of mischief and leave chaos in their wake.  Halloween is a time for you, as writers, to pass through the veil of writing deadlines and proper grammar, release your imagination, put your pen to paper and let the magic flow.  Go ahead, release your inner critic, give it a day off and then allow yourself to free-write a halloween story just for fun.  Let it be full of magic and mischief,  mayhem and madness.

For today’s writing warm up, write a Halloween short story. For those of you who may need a little help getting started, I have provided some  lead in ideas below.

1. On a restless night when the moon was full they saw____________

2. Trixie the pixie knew she needed glasses when __________________

3.  The witch threw her______________

4. The gaggle of gueese heard the faerie shouting____________

5. The reluctant troll didn’t know_____

One of my favorite memories from childhood is when my mother read stories to me from a book called Animal Stories. Within it’s pages, elephants talked to mice, puppies talked to rabbits, and birds and cats were best  friends.   These stories combined with our country living, spawned my love and appreciation for wildlife and the world of nature.  For those of you who feel adventurous in your writing today, warm up first by making a list of stories you remember in which the animals spoke and lived like people do. Choose five to seven of the animals I’ve listed below,  give them names and describe them. What kind of clothes do they wear? What does their voice sound like? What is their personality.

Now, imagine the animals have been called to a special emergency meeting.  What is the emergency? Who is in charge and why?  Write the dialogue for the animals attending the meeting. What is their final solution for the emergency situation?

Dove, coyote, tarantula, Gila monster, quail, javelina, stinkbug, skunk, possum, robin, hummingbird, fire ant, rattlesnake, Eagle, centipede, bee, jackrabbit, bobcat and, burro.

I recently returned from a short visit to Portland, Oregon.  As I shook off the drab grey skies of the Pacific Northwest to bask in my gratitude for the bright sun and blue skies of Arizona, I thought about how frequently the color blue is used in the lines and titles of  songs.  “She wore blue velvet“, “Mr. Blue,” “I guess that’s why they call it the blues,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” and “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Blues,” just to name a few.  Okay, so these date me as a baby boomer, but at least you get the idea.  Blue is a mood, a color and a style of music.

For today’s writing warm up, make a list of ten things within your immediate line of sight that are blue or have blue in them. Use these words or objects in a short story. If you are not a big fan of the color blue then use your favorite color instead.

Here are some starter sentences for your story. Pick one and go for it.

The blue curtain waved like_______

His/her large blue sedan___________

The blue bottle _________

She walked into the blue___________ as if___________

They both wore blue ______________

Grandfather looked out the window and saw a blue_____________

The entire___________ was blue.

Have Fun!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

What is your favorite color?

What is your least favorite color?

Are there any songs with your favorite color in the title?

Going to the fair was always an exciting time for me when I was a child. I was fascinated with the glitter of the lights and the barkers calling out to the passing crowds.  I always avoided the rides where the excited screams and yells of the passengers warned me that it was not a ride for the faint-hearted.  For your writing warm up today, imagine an exciting amusement park for writers only.  Describe the rides that would make a person scream with delight and fear at the same time. Perhaps the buckets in the Ferris wheel are shaped like inkwells, and instead of an octopus ride there is a ride that takes you through a maze of  paperwork,  and the house of horrors is full of agents saying, “Needs more work. ” What type of games would one find along the midway? What are the barkers calling out to the crowds of writers as they pass along the way.  Create a character to attend the fair. What is his or her name and which rides would he or she be attracted to? Who would he or she meet along the way?

Use creative license and most of all HAVE FUN!

Until next time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion!

Are you horrified at the thought of eaves-droppingon someone? It might help to know that practically everyone does it, though usually not intentionally. How many times have you been in line at the grocery store or sitting in a coffee shop, or waiting for a haircut, and accidentally overheard a sentence or two of someones conversation?  I love to sit in a coffee shop and write in my journal, and one time I wrote down the little bits of conversations I overheard around me and made a poem out of them.  Now, please don’t get me wrong.  I don’t purposely eavesdrop on other people, but when you are writing, and pause to think, and are in the close quarters of a small shop and the acoustics permit, the volume carries. Then there are the people who talk louder to out-do the volume of the background music playing.  I consider conversations that happen to float my way on the waves of sound as public domain and excellent fodder for poems, short stories, or character development.

For those of you brave enough to try, here is your writing warm-up for this week: go to a coffee shop and write down the tidbits you hear from accidental eavesdropping and then include them in a story.  Or pick one and write a back-story leading up to the tidbits you over-heard.  For those of you who may feel a little guilty about recording what you accidentally overhear, I have provided some below for you to use. (By the way, these are the real tidbits I used as material for a poem.)

1. “I have an appointment to get the valves adjusted…”

2.” okay three minutes…”

3. “Monica how are you….”

4. “I had to go the speed limit…”

5. “Did everyone leave early…”

6. “I’m not looking forward to my classes today…”

7. “hi…”

8. “my mom was in the middle of paining my room…”

9. “I got to sleep on the couch anyway…”

10. “yes two green ones…”

It just goes to show, you never know who may be listening. Have fun!

Until Next Time,

Walk in beauty, write life with passion! (and enjoy your next cup of coffee)

I’d like to know: What’s the strangest tidbit of conversation you have overheard?