WriteSpa #43 – Assonance
As a writer, you may be hardly aware of the rhythm and sounds that emerge in your writing – but for any good writer it’s instinctual. In this writing practice, make it conscious.
Category: WriteSpa (newsletter)
WriteSpa #42 – Put Your Creative Work in the “Urgent” Folder
“When you’re constantly trying to fend off the alligators, you have no time to drain the swamp”: How do you find time to write?
WriteSpa #41 – Why I Dance
This week’s task is to enter this state of effortless concentration, where you as a writer become one with your inner self, your pen, your time and space, and the words you write.
WriteSpa #40 – Stream of Consciousness
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers I know it’s summer, and today it’s particularly hot and drowsy, but it occurred to me that deep thinking and drowsy summer afternoons are not necessarily incompatible. Stream of consciousness: Basically, it’s eavesdropping on the heart and mind of a character – being privy to his or her innermost Read more about WriteSpa #40 – Stream of Consciousness[…]
WriteSpa #39 – Lost in Thought
For about a third of our waking day, our minds are lost in a world that has little or nothing to do with the task at hand. That’s about five hours a day of daydreaming, and if that’s really the case, I figure it had better be good for us. Read more…
WriteSpa #38 – Lunar Eclipse
When the Earth stands between the moon and the sun, obscuring the light of the sun from the moon, a lunar eclipse occurs. An eclipse marks endings, surprises, or culminations, loss. There’s going to be one this Saturday, June 26, 2010.
WriteSpa #37 – Janusian Thinking
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers Studies involving fifty or so Nobel prize winners in physiology, chemistry, medicine and physics, as well as Pulitzer Prize-winning writers and other artists, reveal a surprising similarity in their creative process. Called ‘Janusian thinking’ after the Roman god Janus, it involves holding two opposing ideas or images in your Read more about WriteSpa #37 – Janusian Thinking[…]
WriteSpa #36 – Writing about Clothing
Wonder Why When You Read About Someone Wearing
a Pretty Blue Dress You Want One Too?
My husband went through a Perry Mason phase a while back. He’d be dozing through the pages, then he’d suddenly jump up and pour himself a glass of Scotch. Or he’d have an urge to make a steak. Or he’d glance over at my bare legs on the couch, and I’d know that Della Street had just stepped out of the cab and Perry was eyeing her ankles.
Any avid reader knows the power of a book to transport you into another world, be it a magical realm in a fairy tale or a fast-paced thriller. […]
WriteSpa #35 – Message in a Bottle
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
I was thinking about bottles recently and what an extraordinary invention they are. Bottles are beautiful. There are green glass bottles. Tiny cobalt blue bottles. Clear bottles. Short squat amber ones that you’d find in an apothecary. Hand blown bottles from Venice. Chianti bottles from Italy. Stainless steel bottles. Exquisite perfume bottles. Round, thin, long-necked, wide-bottomed… bottles come in just about every shape, color, size imaginable. And their purposes are inexhaustible. […]
WriteSpa #33 – Sitting Is Deadly
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
Scientists have discovered something new! Sitting is deadly. Spending most of your days with most of your weight resting on your delicate lower spine is dangerous, even if you regularly exercise.
WriteSpa #31 – Elemental Beings
When I was around seven years old, I remember visiting my grandmother, Ethel Cook Eliot, at her home in western Massachusetts. One night she sat on the edge of my bed and told me about some rain goblins she’d seen. She described them to me as about eight inches high, skinny, wrinkled, brown-skinned, and rather Read more about WriteSpa #31 – Elemental Beings[…]
WriteSpa #30 – Simplify
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers Simplicity is one of the finest things in life – right up there with love, ‘doing nothing,’ and walking in the woods. The empty plot of earth that doesn’t have anything planted yet is one of the most magical things in the world. So is the moment before the Read more about WriteSpa #30 – Simplify[…]
WriteSpa #29 – Biography
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
It always amazes how little we know about each other. When I lived in New York City, I remember looking up at the hundreds of windows in a random apartment building and imagining the real live stories going on within each apartment. Or watching my fellow subway travelers and wondering where they came from and where they were going. Who were they going to meet? Why did that young man wear a secret smile? How did that old woman feel when she had to push through the crowd to emerge onto the platform? Where were those dressed-up teenagers headed and what were they whispering about? […]
WriteSpa #28 – Murder Your Darlings
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writing Writing requires skill, as does painting, or playing an instrument. You practice and practice, and eventually phrases, sentences, words, paragraphs, and eventually chapters and books take on a life of their own, because you don’t have to figure out how to finger a chord or shade a cloud; you Read more about WriteSpa #28 – Murder Your Darlings[…]
WriteSpa #26 – When You Come to the End of a Rope…
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers A long time ago, during a low point in my life, someone tried to advise me: “When you come to the end of a rope, tie a knot and hang on.” I remember snapping back: “When you come to the end of a rope, you should let it go Read more about WriteSpa #26 – When You Come to the End of a Rope…[…]
WriteSpa #25 – A Game of Chess
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers From the time I was eight till around sixteen years old, my father and I used to play chess practically every night. I used to become absorbed not just in the strategy, but in the characteristics of the pieces. Pawns were brave but not very skilled. Bishops were clever. Read more about WriteSpa #25 – A Game of Chess[…]
WriteSpa #24 – Doing Nothing
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers People who know me well have had to listen to my emphatic discourse on the value of ‘doing nothing’ for a long time now. I’ve claimed – without much support – that doing nothing is a vital activity in our busy lives, not only for children but for all Read more about WriteSpa #24 – Doing Nothing[…]
WriteSpa #23 – Love Letters
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
Many great writers were inspired by a real-life muse (like Dante’s Beatrice – who didn’t have a clue) or even a fantasy (Keats was crazy about a prostitute, who also didn’t have a clue). But the fact that they hardly knew each other did not make their love any less poignant, rich, and inspiring.
Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning – famously the most romantic couple ever to fall madly in love before they met – used poetry and letters to get to know each other. One wonders what their emotions were like when they first set eyes on each other after having written letters and poems like the ones they did! Was there worry? Curiosity? Disappointment? Or was there really just sheer bliss and joy and an immediate determination to run away together?
WriteSpa #22 – Writing Prompts
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
For many years, every morning I write down three phrases that I call my ‘daily happinesses.’ These are simple – usually appealing – images that help me peek into another, more objective, reality.
In a way, they are also writing prompts. Each one of these little phrases conjures a vignette, a mood, a story, a person. For example: “Planning for a garden of rare and wild roses.” “Penguins diving into the sea.” “The silence before applause.” […]
WriteSpa #21 – Writing about Weather
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers When I moved to England at age eleven I remember being amused by the amount of conversation people spent discussing the weather. The reason was that it hardly ever seemed to change. The weather was pretty much misty and drizzly and sometimes it might rain harder, other times it Read more about WriteSpa #21 – Writing about Weather[…]
WriteSpa #20 – Satisfying Conclusions
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
I love conclusions. I remember a friend saying that she dreaded coming to the final chapters of a novel because she couldn’t bear the story to end. I’m the opposite: I love the moment the story draws to a close; the conflict over; the exhausting seeking ended; the relationship resolved; the tears drying; the murderer found…
WriteSpa #18 – Pictures, Scissors, Glue
WriteSpa – An Oasis for Writers
It may be just too hard to write this week. This feels like an out-of-kilter time, this week just before the New Year kicks in, and before we’re back to the routine of daily life. So instead of writing, try this instead…