Today we wrote some favorite song lyrics and from there wrote memories, intuitive writing, etc, associated with those lyrics. I say "some" because we couldn't possibly get to them all; they breed and they're elusive. Still, a lyrical warm up into deeper writing, which lead to, naming a very few:
Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Show me the way to go home
Thursday, November 9, 2023
Dolphins
Who knew there was so much to write about dolphins? Who knew that some of us are dolphins? Do you remember Dolphin Shorts? We didn't write about those, but we sure could have.
Thursday, November 2, 2023
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Losing Control
We wrote about that today, especially losing control of our bodies, and how hard that can be when having to go out in public out of control
we could all relate to that one
There's more, but that's enough
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Happy Halloweeeeen! Prompts
Happy Halloween! Why does that tickle the tummy? Must be all those eeeees. Something instantly wonderful about that. That's my instant bliss: e's in a row. You?
Today we wrote about: (naming a few)
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Today we wrote about
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
How is your getting together going?
All to soon, we will look back and remember on these reunion-ing times by the narrative we'll use to describe them and leave it at that:
"Sweet. Overwhelming. Quenching. Confusing. Amazing. Like it's 1999. Underwhelming. Exhausting....etc etc."
But how is it going right now? On the inside, intimate experience of this unprecedented time? What are the details for you? The teeny tiny details? Are you still crossing the street on your walks? Are you judging? What did it feel like to unmask at Target? Go to your friend's house again? Gather with others? Has hugging changed? What is it really like for you? What are your post lockdown getting together stories?
For history, for human evolution, for you and your people, all people, you'll want to remember. You'll want to be the voice that's there for you when you forget and you get lost and swept up and feel a little disconnected from the dominating vernacular and narrative written and spoken in hindsight.
Write your truth, here, now, for you. For the record.
You might disagree with it, all those years later. You might be grateful. But there it will stand, in writing, a map from where you've come.
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
LockDOWNstairs day 22
Remodeling always takes longer than planned. Longer than they say. Longer than the promise our confidence grants in the rosy beginning, all eyes on the finish line. I ought know this by now, all the nights I've spent sleeping on the floor for whatever reason, whether by necessity, choice, or in the Bardo, waiting and remembering, of two worlds, but not quite this one.
The good news is that it has yielded some great prompts about sleeping on the floor... so many places across the ages: the barn loft at Camp Bar 717, the plush wine-pink carpeted floor at CC's—my French nextdoor neighbor growing up—in my Smokey the Bear sleeping bag, at the foot of my brother's bed when Ma was out too late, beneath stars, beneath rain, wide awake, through an earthquake, beneath the unfamiliar ceilings of friends and lovers all only writing can help me remember.
The best news and happy ending (or unexpected twist if we're talking writing) is that it dawns on me just now, at day 23, how comfortable I've become sleeping on the floor. How easy it is to get up and down. How quickly I fall asleep and how ready I am to rise. Like so many things in the every day details, another reminder that so much life is to be found where and when you least expect it.
So try writing about all the places/times you've slept on the floor. Or sleep on the floor and write about it. Or both. The point is, do both.
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
WWRW—Be also proud of what language you didn't learn and other Pandemica* you planned to do but didn't
*Spare-time accomplishments during the Pandemic
One of the great prompts to come out of Wednesday Writers today was "Things I meant to do during the pandemic, but didn't." We ran out of time to write it, though I can't wait to write it and see what happens!
I might just discover it's ok that I didn't:
Learn German
Start Learning German
Call everyone I know to check in
Write everyone I know to check in (but does this count?)
Follow through on teaching my son to juggle
Paint a mural in the group room
(Yet) Clear my table in the group room
Watch Spanish soap operas in Spanish
Blog everyday
Write back
Call back
That damn closet upstairs
Finish painting the upstairs walls
Give up sugar
Make hand-made cards
Submit writing
Start another writing group
Memorize the Hanuman Chalisa
Om every day
Learn valuable new skills by choice (not by necessity)
Attempt fixing the upstairs burner on the stove
Caulk (man, why does that very word incite so much ire?)
Develop a webinar
Write more lists like this
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Movie review of your life
Hello Writers!
It has been fun to remember some favorite writing prompts I did in high school, many of which keep on giving to this day. One of them, offered by my awesome journalism teacher, Montsy, was to "write a movie review of your life." Who would play you (Jo from Facts of Life)? Where would it take place (LA; at the beach, mostly)? What would the main conflict be (hmmm....who am I?) Who was the antagonist (er.... my brother?)? What was the soundtrack (Led Zeppelin, of course)? Supporting characters? How do you most change? What does it take to change? On and on... you could play and play with this one.
What makes it especially cool is how much you'll discover by taking liberties with direction, scenes, sunset shots, long shots, cut scenes, director's cuts, close-ups, and of course good for dialogue, main scenes, music, lighting, tone, costumes, "bad scenes," 'famous scenes," praise and critical analysis, etc. You could compare it to other reviewers, who would say it much differently, and other movies for that matter. Be fair and give praise! A very generous prompt.
I loved it then and I've been wanting to do it again ever since. A great way to get inside and outside yourself to remember or expand upon a particular time and situation. You could try writing one of your entire life, your childhood, or just for a day or an afternoon. It's just a wild prism of cool and creative in every which way. So have fun with it! Be into it. Because if you're not, who's really writing your words? Who's telling your story? Who's in charge?
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Garden Greens
Monday, May 25, 2020
Long time, no see...
I guess I mean that literally, as well! It's been a long time. Here at the Beach. Here on the page. Hope you are all safe and healthy and managing as best you are able and that your writing practice is offering some respite and refuge amidst all this. For me, yes. Writing continues to be my daily prayer and the calm I feel as soon as I start writing you is the ripening of that prayer. It's hard to explain, but you know what I mean, I think.
Wanted to let you know that I am blogging over at "What I Really Want to Tell You" from time to time and would love any and all of your posts to publish there. As you know, creating a living document right now is so essential, for so many reasons. There are so many things we will soon block out, little details, with everything changing so fast day-to-day. Even the most mundane details are fascinating. Please share if you are moved to do so.
Also, I am still holding all my classes via Zoom, So if you are wanting to get back to your writing practice, please let me know. I am also doing private writing retreats if you just want some time to write together and share.
Missing you all and hope to see you soon. Please keep writing, especially if it feels life giving and grounding to you. 💙
Monday, December 23, 2019
"I’m going to take some time and write down all the good I’ve seen in people and the universe"
So tonight, or as soon as possible, take some time to write down about the good you've seen.
Like the cat's white paws on your heart and
all the pretty holiday lights
and your son saying Mama, can I have a hug?
and Ma sending a text saying how sorry she is about Ram Dass and do you want to talk? Because I'm around, she says
And all the love that went around today all over the world because of Ram Dass dying yesterday
And everyone saying Merry Christmas whether they mean it or not because
It's a start and a start counts for a whole lot of good I've seen
And I could go on and on about all the good I've seen.... every day, every hour, every moment...
So write and spread the good! It goes especially well with all the perty lights.
So much love to you all! ✨💙🌊✨🎆🙏💙💙💙
Friday, August 30, 2019
Writing with Rox WEEKLY—Close encounters with kindnesses
It had been a while since we'd all been together (nothing rallies writers like a pontoon!) and so much to write about, given the pace of summer. What struck me most during check-ins was the mention of kindness: directly, indirectly, subsequently, in hindsight, humbling, life changing, and most importantly, the essential detail to every story.
On and off the page, we thirst for kindness; the offering and receiving, knowing and recognizing of said human elixir changes protagonists and antagonists alike. And subsequently, though rarely intentionally, changes the world.
So we wrote out our memories of recent encounters with kindness. I wrote about water, the way my Zumba teacher smiled at one of her students as they boogied in tandem, a fellow hiker patiently waiting for us slow walkers to take our time, offering words of encouragement to us all, small hands at summer camp offering high fives to bigger hands and vice versa. Someone offering an arm to steady a fellow walker on an incline. A peaceful walk with new friends. Loud hoots of encouragement to everyone on stage. The raw writing written and shared with others. A student offering her pontoon and lake for the day for all to enjoy. And on and on. It's endless. It's infectious!
Try it. Write out your recent kindnesses. You'll like it. My dad used to say, quoting someone, that petting a cat lowered your blood pressure. And of course! A reciprocity of kindness, a self generating energy of the heart, poetry in motion. So try it. It's good for you!
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Writing with Rox WEEKLY—Dear Amber...better late than never...
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Writing with Rox WEEKLY—Another reason why I love writing
Monday, May 13, 2019
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Writing with Rox WEEKLY—We are all rooting for you Landen
Friday, April 5, 2019
Writing with Rox WEEKLY—Why chanting is good for writers
Last weekend me and TCF drove to Madison to see our favorite HindJew Krishna Das (KD) who we've been following all over the place for years because, like yoga, like writing, it works, which for me means it brings the love, opens the heart. And open the heart it did.
But it also opened up something unexpected, something I'm not used to opening much because "I'm a writer" and I let the page do the talking: my mouth.
As a writer for so many years, I tend to tell myself "Oh I'll write about that" whenever something happens or when I know I need to release something; in other words, I tend to save it for the page, which is a well intended, often fruitful practice. However, years and years of writing and editing and shaping words in my head—while deeply beneficial to the page—has gotten me into the habit of withholding my speech, rushing the details, or minimizing its place in the oral tradition. As a quick wit vulnerable to intoxication by repartee, often accused of relying to heavily on "yeah, yeah, yeah," I struggle to embrace the longwinded fanfare of storytelling, especially my own. I've been writing for so long, in fact, I've nearly forgotten the curative power of talking. Don't get me wrong; one of my all time favorite endangered species is long, deep conversation, which is a prompt for another day. I'm just saying when it comes to telling my stories, writing is my telling of choice.
No wonder my chanting went hog wild, renegade. This was not my comfortable key of C. I embraced my uglier tones, pushing through vocal ranges ordinarily way out of range, ones I'd rather not tread. I sang it out. I sang off key. I sang out a voice I kept hidden. I sang out a voice that came out sounding like my mother's. I sang out creaky cranky corners of my body that hadn't ever been offered melody. And while it wasn't easy, (an ugly voice brings up some gnarly darkness, shapeshifting memories, rejected and neglected parts of self), I felt like I had no choice: I had to sing through it.
After 3 hours of chanting with KD, we headed back to the hotel and before I knew it, I was talking nonstop, telling TCF all these stories about childhood and college, some rather difficult things. I forget how it came up, but out came the story about my brother's friend Jason, that irresistible combination of gorgeous and bad seed who stayed over night too frequently, or my boss Steve at Venice Beach who I still try and purge with each word I write or the guy who threw glass bottles at my bike as I rode home in the night or my mom's boyfriend or the "slow" girl and blonde boy on the block I took it out on and all the wrong things I had done and been done to. And as I talked, I could feel these things happening again as though it was happening now, moving through, the same way I feel when I write, in perfect flow.
And I wished I could call all those people up that I'd hurt, intentionally or not, and apologize for what I'd done. And I also realized that there were also people out there, perhaps ones I'd forgotten who were also sitting in hotel rooms at this very moment wishing they could call me up and apologize too. And I realized that it felt so good to talk it out. And that if I hadn't talked it out, it might not have ever surfaced at all, page or otherwise. In fact, once I was done talking I realized I had some great stuff to write about, which I may have never found if I kept saving it for the page. And then it was done and we ate some yogurt and strawberries. Where had those stories been my whole life? What had they been? Unnamed blockages of driftwood? That dissonant wordless song?
So don't be so writerly all the time, writers. Talk a little. Don't save it all (for better or worse) for the page. It's good to talk.