Internet Writing Workshop's Practice for 9/5/10

The Other Side of the Story


Prepared by: Florence Cardinal
Reposted on: Sun, 5 Sept 2010

Exercise: In 400 words or less, rewrite a scene from a story familiar to most of us from the point of view of someone other than the main character. Tell us the name of the story you have chosen and who your viewpoint character is, and then show us what is different about the way that character sees the action and personalities involved.
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Every character in a story, from the main character right down to the dog, has a reason for being included, a reason for his or her actions, a point of view. Yes, some characters are just part of the machinery of the plot--the butler announcing the arrival of the Duke. But once that butler gets back to his pantry and starts gossiping with the housekeeper, he becomes part of the story, and we get a different perspective on what's going on in the house. The way all of the characters interact, the way each one views the action, deepens and enlivens the story. In the best stories, the characters, good and bad, act for clear reasons, their interactions providing the conflict and narrative tension that makes for a good read.

Some examples:

-How might Rhett Butler or Melanie Wilkes see Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind?

-See Stephen King's Cujo, where we watch the thoughts of a dog as he goes mad.

-What would the wolf have to say about Little Red Riding Hood?

-Some writers have already rewritten a known work from another point of view. Tom Stoppard, in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, showed us Hamlet through the eyes of two minor characters.

...brought to you by The Internet Writing Workshop

The Internet Writing Workshop: this week's exercise

I didn't get the Internet Writing Workshop's exercise up last week. But here is today's!

I will not be posting the next two weeks' exercises from the website, either, as I will be on vacation. And in a place where I am totally disconnected from all things internet and telephone related (I'll be rafting the Colorado River in the bottom of the Grand Canyon).


Idiom Insight

Prepared by: Charles Hightower
Reposted on: Sunday, June 20, 2010
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Exercise: In 400 words or less, create a story that might explain the origin of an idiom.

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An idiom is a phrase that does not make literal sense. Idioms may be among the most difficult concepts in English for foreigners to understand...For example, the phrase "kick the bucket" is interpreted as the act of dying. Taken literally, though, neither the kick nor the bucket has any apparent relationship to the meaning of the phrase.

Select an idiom. Then make up a story that could explain the idiom's origin, or show how it came to be. Use your imagination--the tale need not be true. Show, don't tell. Be sure to identify the idiom at start or finish.

If you need ideas, you might refer to http://www.eslcafe.com/idioms/id-list.html

or http://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idioms_proverbs.html

 
I like this: a story about how an idiom came to be. Hmmmm.

Internet Writing Workshop 5/30/10

Animal World

Prepared by: Alice Folkart
Posted on: Sunday, May 30, 2010
at The Internet Writing Workshop

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In 400 words or less write a scene from an animal's point of view, have the animal want something from either a human or another animal.
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Is a dog waiting and waiting for his walk? Is a cat plotting to catch and eat the canary? Is a deer being hunted? That does the fish, swimming back and forth in his little aquarium, think of what he sees? The hamster--where does he think is he going in his running wheel? Perhaps the thoughts of a pet in a carrier on the way to the vet or going on a trip . Is this the voice of an old animal, tired, ready to die? What about the pampered 'accessory' dog who goes everywhere in his mistress's purse? Tame or wild, your choice.

Razor's Edge 5/28/10

originally posted at The Writing Vein
on 5/28/2010
with additional introduction

This week's prompt set is about ... COLLISION

It has three parts:
[1] Listen to the Andreas Mavrides video first and just write what comes to you as you listen. The goal this week is to just write. Don't edit. Don't wonder what it's about. Let it flow out of the pen or through your fingers on the keyboard.
[2] Read my freewrite as I was listening to The part Transcending part 8/8.
[3] Watch & listen to the Anna Oxygen video. Write a response to either your freewrite from part one above, or to my write from the Transcending video.

[1]


[2] freewrite 5/28/10 by Dot
Walking to the edge of the outline, wondering where it came from and who put it there, she dared to look up. She hadn't intended to do anything but look at the figure on the ground. To see if she could see from the outline who this person was when they inhabited a body, when they could walk and breathe and smell the air just like she was doing now.

A shadow.

Left behind a shadow on the earth of a life that has ended.

How or why or who, she had no idea. This remnant drawn by someone else's hand the only acknowledgment in this place of this other life which was now gone.

That shadow crossed her eyes and she looked up and she saw. Not a beacon of light nor the glow of a soul. What she saw made her stop, pause, reconsider her own senses. The energy this other being left behind reflected back to her herself. The energy magnetic and luminescent with mirror-like qualities that let her see inside herself. Against the backdrop of the other's breath.

She put her right palm against her cheek. Glided her fingertips over her lips, across her chin, down to her throat. Felt the pulse of her heart in the right dip of her neck.

Alive.

The other was not.

Alive and seeing her essence floating in the detritus of another being's life.

[3]

....

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4328744595477170984#

Internet Writing Workshop prompt 5/23

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Thank you productive members of The Internet Writing Workshop for this week's prompt:

It's a deal.

Prepared by: Alice Folkart
Posted on:
Sunday, May 23, 2010
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In 400 words or
less give us a scene where two characters make a deal. Show us what the stakes are for each, what he or she stands to gain or lose.
-----------------------

Parents make deals with kids. Kids make deals with each other. Husbands and wives, friends, make deals. Bosses make deals with employees. In other cultures fathers strike bargains over the worth of their daughters as wives--how many goats is she worth? The colorful ways to drive bargains and make deals are endless. Have fun.

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mid-week prompt

This is a previous post from WOW! Women on Writing --

I've been saving it to do and decided to post the link here. It's an exercise for Creating Dynamic Characters.

Anne Greenawalt's post starts :

"Writers know that creating strong, memorable characters is one of the most (if not the most) important part of writing a story. ..."

Ah, yes, we know that. And sometimes we need reminders or boosts in the process. The exercise she posted works for writers of all ages and is a great way to work on creating a character who lives and breathes. Give it a try!
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weekly feature: Internet Writing Workshop prompt

I've been missing the daily poetry prompts.

"So, write some more," I say to Myself.

"Good idea," Myself says to I.

And a day goes by. Two days. Three. Then it's a week later. Plus a day or two.

Sigh.

The time allotted to creating daily poetry prompts has passed and there was no more time to create and post. I've been struggling to keep up with my weekly prompts, Razor's Edge, on Fridays at The Writing Vein. But it was such a good idea and I loved having them ready.

I will build some time into my schedule to post prompts ahead, like I did for NaPoWriMo. But, for now, I have another solution.

In my blog reader today was another installment from The Internet Writing Workshop. I've seen them before, read most of them. One of their features is a weekly writing practice. The title of today's is "Wake Up".

And I thought, "ah ha! This is my temporary answer."

Myself replied, "Yes, why re-invent the wheel when you're still driving the old one? Let those who've been doing this for many years help out a bit."

I said, "Deal!"

So here is the first of their weekly prompts here. Well - not THEIR first, but my first posting of their prompt! With a space to add your stories in the comments below. One prompt a week. And make sure to click on over to their website to check out previous posts. Good stuff there, including some interesting historical information.

Thank you productive members of The Internet Writing Workshop.

Without further ado, here is this week's prompt:

Wake up
Prepared by: Charles Hightower
Posted on: May 16, 2010
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Exercise: In 400 words or less, your character awakes in an unexpected location and you must show how the character reacts.
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Your character comes to consciousness and is surprised by the surroundings. Show your readers what the character experiences, how he/she behaves.

The tale should begin the moment the character wakes up. Remember, this is not to be a story about a dream, but about a real event in your character's life.
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Return here to post your story in the comments!
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missing the daily poetry

It has been a week since the end of NaPoWriMo. And I miss it. I've had brief discussions with the other two writers I was doing this "with." We all three miss it. But the month ended and so did the daily poetry.

Today, in a text message exchange, one writer and I wondered at this sudden absence of poetry writing. And why the month of April, that someone dubbed NaPoWriMo, made a difference.

My conclusion? It's because, as with NaNoWriMo, there is this giant pool of interpreters who have agreed to participate in this big "shared field of writing energy." For whatever reason, when we put our collective heads together in our separate writing spaces, the energy and time and creativity is there. We may be writing alone or in small groups - but the energy field we create encompasses the whole earth.

What if?

What if we could access that every day? Or most days. Not just in special months?

What. If?

napwrimo: april 30

..and your final NaPoWriMo prompt for 2010...

napowrimo: april 29

.



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napowrimo: april 28

One day on the corner near home, you see a large green bag. Suddenly, the bag begins to shake.

napowrimo: april 27

use these words/phrases in a poem:

Whole-Hearted
transitory
kindness
human beings
Adventure

napowrimo: april 26

I found the strangest thing in my pocket...

napowrimo: april 25

In the streets of summer the spirits mourn...

napowrimo: april 24

.

philip glass

for Sesame Street

1979

.

napowrimo: april 23

Inside the meaning of longing the women echo...

napowrimo: april 22

.
.

napowrimo: april 21

In the dream of discord the old ones wander

napowrimo: april 20

the day returns too soon
incorporate a sheikh and cowboy gear

napowrimo: april 19

napowrimo: april 18

A brass door handle, a glass of root beer, and someone's grandmother

napowrimo: april 17

today's prompt is a

song

(click to listen)

by Julianna Waters

of Heart and Hammer

Razor's Edge for 4/16/10

Richard Foreman has been a playwright, director, creative advocate, and more for decades. He has a specific style and has a theater in New York City, where many go to intern and learn and develop their own plays. It is called the


Of the amazing work he does, one thing is the creation of his "notebooks." Every day, he writes dialogue. This dialogue is not in any particular order, nor is it attached to any characters or scenes. And these notebooks are available online, for anyone to use (read the use guidelines).

I first found out about the notebooks a few years ago when a friend told me about The Richard Foreman Festival right here in Portland, Oregon. The concept was fascinating and I had to go. How it works here is that Linda Austin selects a section of one of the notebooks. Various artists/performers are given this piece of Richard Foreman text, along with specific instructions - such as which parts have to be used (they can use all of the rest of it, some of it, add, change, and so on - but specific words or phrases must be used), and one or two props that must be included. Then each performer/performance group has (I think) 10 days to prepare something from that. There are two days of performances. I enjoyed it and had to learn more about Richard Foreman's work. Then, a year later, I went to New York City for three weeks for work. I stayed with a friend in Brooklyn, worked during the day, rode the train back to my friend's house to change and go back into the city for theater/dance/dinner - whatever I found to do that day. Of course I went to a performance at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater. Wow. And I love that this famous writer/director/playwright/performer puts his ideas out into the world for people to use.

So - today's Razor's Edge includes a section from one of his notebooks (Dismember) to use as a prompt or to include in a story. Read the outtake below, then click on the video for relaxing sounds and write until the video stops.

(from Dismember notebook, by Richard Foreman)

Instant of careful attention

The hallucination chamber

The dark space in which I hurt.

The bright sun inside the dark space.

The five fingers, flying into the brain.

What's to be seen

What's to be crossed out

As the eyes erase with attentive looks

Swiviled on glass.By passed, all normal channels.

naprwrimo: april 16

when she walked in wearing blue-shadowed silk

napowrimo: april 15

from art.com

napowrimo: april 14

A steak knife, a garbage pail, and a delayed letter

napowrimo: april 13

a picture prompt

Cornwall 1865

(click the title of the painting
by Serena Barton to view)

napowrimo: april 12

write a poem that includes these words:

slither
globe
wooded
wade

napowrimo: april 11

pick one of these headlines as your poetry prompt:

Running Cats of the Week

Ten Ways to Help

Bomb Threat Cancels Friday Classes

napowrimo: april 10

.
.

photo by Dot 6/2009
Mt Tabor Park side stairs

napowrimo: april 9

click HERE to listen to the music, then come back here and write from this prompt:

... the familiar story begins like this ...

napowrimo: april 8

... in my hunger and excitement I knew ...

napowrimo: april 7

artwork by Serena Barton

from "Transfered Secrets"

napowrimo: april 6

Wet Woman (full Ver)
Sylvie Guillem

napowrimo: april 5

photograph by Serena Davidson
at "We Are Conduit"
benefit performances
July 2009

napowrimo: april 4

What piece of junk are you keeping? Open the 'junk' drawer in your life...it's probably in your kitchen, your garage or your desk. Take one item out of it that's been there for a long time. Write a piece that explains why you haven't thrown the item away yet.

with special thanks to WritingFix

napowrimo: april 3

the terrifying songbird went to another dimension...

Razor's Edge for 4/2/2010

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Today's prompts includes two videos. In keeping with my personal theme of "slowing down," the first video is what I watched prior to writing my editing post for today. I know some of you weren't yet on this earth when the song first came out - and some of us were. The first video is
The 59th Street Bridge Song by Simon and Garfunkel. More commonly known as the "slow down" or "feelin' groovy" song. It was one of those songs that got stuck in my head earlier today, so here it is for your listening pleasure and creative inspiration - after you read the instructions, of course.

Your instructions:

step one:
Click on the Simon & Garfunkel video to listen to the song, while
step two:
letting your eyes rest on the Miksang photo by Julie DuBose (found on Facebook via friend, writer & photographer Rooze). When the song ends
step three:
click on the Queen Juliana video and watch, listen. When the video is done, select at least one of her questions to respond to (all will be clear after you watch the video; trust me).
step four:
Go - write, paint, draw, compose, move. Create for 8 minutes. Let it rest. Share what you've done with someone else.

.....
Simon and Garfunkel



.....
Miksang photo by Julie DuBose

.....
Queen Juliana Luecking



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napowrimo: april 2

an iPod, a silver spoon, and a slug

napowrimo: april 1

.
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Razor's Edge for 3/26/10

Today's theme is Strength of Women/Strong Women.

Being strong is more than physical ability. It is more than being able to stand firm in the face of adversity. It is about being honest within yourself and in your encounters in the world. It is about being willing to be vulnerable sometimes and being willing to open to yourself and follow where your heart and soul lead you. It is about letting go of the societally imposed images that don't fit you, that restrict you, that smother you. About listening to your inner wisdom.

Women are still often not encouraged to go within; to listen to ourselves; to be taken seriously - especially if we cry or feel strongly or want too much. But we still do.

And "strong" does not look the same in all cultures and all countries. Strong for me may very well be different than strong for you.

Below are images of women in different states of strength. And a video of a dance performance, called "Wet Woman."

Take a minute or two to look at all of the still pictures. Then watch the video. When the video is done, look at the still pictures again; one to two minutes.

Set a timer for 8 minutes and ... write. Move. Draw. Build something.

If word prompts help, try this: "A strong woman..........."

Modern Dance - Wet Woman (full Ver) - Sylvie Guillem

XXXX

Razor's Edge: 3/19/10

Before you look at the prompts today, let your mind drift. Close your eyes if it helps, and let your mind drift to a place of calm, quiet, and reflection. After you have let go of the things that fill your mind or pull your attention away from your creativity, inhale deep and release it slowly and steadily.

Start the music video, keep your relaxed mind open, and take in the pictures. When you feel ready or when the song has ended, let your creativity flow. Put pen to paper or fingers to keys, pick up the brush/pen/pencil, put notes on the clefts, dance.

Create.

Go - for 8 minutes. Express what is inside of you and ready to come out.




xxxx


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[music by Philip Glass]

Razor's Edge for 3/12/10

In honor of Oregon's Poetry Out Loud state championship competition, this week's theme is, you guessed it, poetry!

One of the poems on my list to interpret is "What Kind of Times are These" by Adrienne Rich. There are about 70 poems on our list that the students will be performing (with five or six being done twice). This is one that stands out for me and fitting as a prompt.

So -take a moment to center yourself. Or go for a walk or a bath or a bike ride and return. Then read the Adrienne Rich poem below. Next start the Ani DiFranco video, Evolve, and look at the picture.

Take 10 minutes to write. Or paint. Or move about. Or sculpt. Create what you see and feel in this week's trio.

What Kind of Times Are These

by Adrienne Rich

There's a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill

and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows

near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted

who disappeared into those shadows.

I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don't be fooled

this isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here,

our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,

its own ways of making people disappear.

I won't tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods

meeting the unmarked strip of light—

ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise:

I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear.

And I won't tell you where it is, so why do I tell you

anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these

to have you listen at all, it's necessary

to talk about trees.

What do you know about this place. Who or what goes there? Why? Tell me a story of those who are in the place and what they do.

photograph of Cukang Taneuh

Razor's Edge for March 5th, 2010

Today's theme is TRUTH.

The thing about "truth" is that there is very little that can be said to be absolutely 100% true 100% of the time. I know there are those who would argue otherwise and I know there are those who can find things that are always "true." But an individual's truth is often relative. And the truth of a statement or an event or a look or an action depends on who experiences it and where and when.

Instructions:

Take a couple minutes to center yourself, breathe, relax. Closing your eyes is optional - only do it if it helps you enter the place where you are and be present with what you are about to create.

When you're ready, look at the set of prompts and let them guide you to your creation. As a suggestion, look at the painting, watch the music video (it is both sound and visual stimulus), and the read the word prompt.

Notice what bubbles up to the surface for you.

Then create: write, draw, dance, cook, plant a garden. Follow where your heart takes you.


the painting:

Truth Wanders Alone
by Andy Kehoe

the music video:

Cynthia Hopkins,
of Gloria Deluxe.

the words:
Put two characters in a restricted space. One is content to be where they are because that character understands the importance of this meeting. The only negative thing is that there is no food and that character hasn't eaten since morning. The other character is anxious to go home, but can't do it without the first character's assistance, due to a physical limitation.

What is their relationship? Where are they and why? How do they resolve the conflict and both feel satisfied? Show me a story.

Razor's Edge: 2/19/10

Earlier this week I went to the staff copy machine at the community college where I'm adjunct faculty. It's mid-term time and I needed to run off the scripts of the source texts for the students' mid-term interpretations for feedback and congruency.

In the efforts to go green and decrease the amount of trees we kill every term, the college staff and faculty all do our best to reduce our paper usage and to recycle the extra pages and ink-smeared errors. There is an ever growing stack of these unwanted or unneeded pages - handy for notetaking or test scratch paper or whatever other use a one-sided piece of paper can be put to.

As the machine did its magic and pushed out the two-sided scripts, I leaned against the cupboard on which the stack sat. Right there on top was a Lynda Barry cartoon on the left half of the paper and some questions for an in-class assignment on the right half. I have no idea what class this was for and it doesn't really matter.

I am a Lynda Barry fan - so it would have probably caught my eye, anyway. But the picture of the giant 'don't know' octopus enveloping the writer, and her beginning of "that strange floating feeling" and I knew I had to find a use for that scrapped piece of insight.

And so, here, below, is a copy of Lynda Barry's drawing. And, below that, is this week's Razor's Edge. Yes, they are related.

cartoon by the incomparable Lynda Barry
awesome writer and artist (and instructor, though I've never directly taken a class from her)

PROMPTS

First: take three minutes and will yourself to forget what you know. Forget it. Find that quiet place where you don't know and it's okay that you don't know. Let it go.

Second: what are your two questions? The two things that, when asked, will hook you in and wrap you up in knots as you search for the answer, or as Lynda Barry put it: "hold you hostage." Write them on a piece of paper and then (a) flush it down the toilet, or (b) thrown it the garbage can, or (c) burn it with a piece of your favorite incense, or (d) even better: tear it into strips and toss it into your recycling - the place from where this prompt was born!

Third: listen to this song, Time Flies, written by Julianna Waters, of Heart and HAMMER.

Fourth: imagine your own version of the "don't know" octopus. Let its arms envelope you and hold you safe in the space of not knowing. Pick up the pen or crayon or ball of clay or move and ... create ... Follow your body and put thoughts down on paper, or put up marks on the canvas on the wall, or walk tall on your toes, or crawl on the floor like the fuzzy caterpillar you saw last spring on the budding tree - create in whatever way feels right in that moment.
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Razor's Edge response for 2/12/10

Razor's Edge response from 2/12/10

The spoken word artist talks about what women deserve. I am a woman. What do I deserve?

If I woke up in the morning and I said to anyone who would listen that, today, I am going to play hookie. What would happen? Do I deserve a day of, as Emi Ha said, loafing?

What would happen if - for just one day - I was not responsible? If I said: this is My Day and I claim it as my own and I will be there for me, first. What would happen?

Sometimes I know I act as if I can hold up the world all by myself. Or at least this corner of the world where I dwell and work and love and don't sleep enough. I think that I can keep going and maybe I should just paint myself pink and attach a puffy bunny tail and carry around a big majorette's drum - just like the energizer bunny.

Only the bunny does run out. Sometime, s/he will. I know it. I know it keeps going and going and going. But one day. It will. Stop.

I don't want to stop.

But maybe I need to rest.

My body is telling me now that I need. To. Rest.

I have a little irritating rash that my body. Can't handle. It's stress induced. I've been told. And my adrenals are running on high although they are still following a circadian rhythm, which is good. I've been told. Or they're kind of stuck or vacuum locked - like my car the one day we had a few hours of snow and ice and I was stuck in traffic for 5 hours going about 5 to 10 MPH and then my car wouldn't get out of low gear. Except my adrenals are in the fight or flight mode. Still. Too much cortisol.

I don't want to get stuck in low gear.

So what do I deserve? What is it I need?

Sleep. Down time. Rest.

The supplements to help my body heal the rash make me tired. I was warned. Tired and a little cold- or flu-like. But not sick. Though the feelings are very similar.

Rest. "You may have to slow down to get over this," my Naturopath warned. And she may be right.

Rest.

What a beautiful four letter word.

Razor's Edge #4

For this week's prompts, something just a little different.

Below are two videos. Start the blue (music) video first: Hip Hop Violin. When the music begins, press play on the pink (spoken word) video: What Women Deserve.

Turn up the volume on the pink video a little higher than the blue video, so that you can hear her over the music.

When the poet is done, you can choose to stop the music or let it play out the additional 3 or so minutes. Read the prompt underneath the videos - and write... or draw / paint/ dance / sculpt...





prompt:

The one thing I must tell you, is ...
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Razor's Edge #3

Today's inspiration is from the Twyla Tharp book, The Creative Habit, which I've was able to read a little bit more of on the plane to Dallas today. I'm reading the section on preparation for creativity and establishing a creative habit. There are so many good nuggets in this book, I feel content to read a little bit, grab a bite of inspiration and go explore. Then return later when I can.

I posted the specific content yesterday, which led to today's topic. There is much more about it in the book, but that sentence is the one which really sticks with me.

Today's topic is

solitude

Take a couple minutes to center yourself, breathe, relax. Closing your eyes is optional - only do it if it helps you enter the place where you are and be present with what you are about to create.

When you're ready, look at the set of prompts - or just pick one - and let them guide you to your creation. As a suggestion, read the character sketch, start the music video (it is really lovely; I'm going to see if Music Millenium has the cd in stock when I get home), and look at the picture.

Listen to what bubbles up to the surface for you.

Create: write, draw, dance, cook, plant a garden. Follow where your heart takes you.


character sketch:
He walks tall in his Levi's 501 jeans, the straight-legged pants loose around his calves. The brick red t-shirt is loosely tucked in , except for just above his left back pocket, where the end hangs out and I can see a piece of his white undershirt. One leg seems to lag half a second behind the other, but the little hiccup in his step. The ends of his blond hair peaks out from underneath the straw hat that is held on by a strap running underneath his chin. He hooks his thumb in his right rear pocket, staring at the road ahead.


music: (Antoine Dufour & Tommy Gauthier - "Solitude" from Still Strings)




picture:

photo of Rezidence Lundborg, Prague

Razor's Edge response 1/30

In The Midst
by Dot


follow me along the river to the banks of
bluebirds and walls of
coreopsis
let me drink in your wonder and wash away
your sullenness
the sadness that makes you hunger

instead
sit with me by this path to the sea
and sip contentment from this cup
of wheatgrass emerald energy

hold my hand
and we will skip unabandoned
through boughs and sun rays and
wallow in the waves lapping all around
us pulling our feet forward

strangers on the bank smile
at our folly and giggle with
our magnitude which bubbles up
from our inner core
foams across the water to the boat waiting
for us to row together
content
to be you and me
content
safe together
in the midst of
this storm

Razor's Edge 1/29/10

The theme for today's Razor's Edge is Happiness.

I don't mean the giddy, forget everything, ignore all suffering and just put on a smiley face, happiness. I mean the kind that come from deep inside. From confidence that you are resilient, you are resourceful, you are worthy of being alive and here. You are creative. And in your creativity you can find or make that place of calm and joy and vibrance in the midst of the storm or at the edge of the shore or sitting alone in the quiet at home.

With a thank you to Ariel Gore and celebration of her recently published book, Bluebird: Women and the New Psychology of Happiness. Her recent writings about happiness and others' responses are worth reading.

So I decided, today's Razor's Edge would give us an opportunity to explore Happiness, in our own way.

Again, the instructions are simple. Take a few minutes to clear your thoughts. Breathe. Close your eyes if it feels right and breathe, feeling where you are right now. Then look at the prompts below and go with whatever first presents itself to you. Paint or write or sketch or get up and move. Whatever you feel pulled to create in whatever medium.

Happiness. You deserve it. You have earned it. You get to have it and be present in this life, in this place, here and now.

Give yourself 10 minutes to write (paint, dance, hum...) and then let it rest for a few minutes before you review what you have created.

Feel free to share them with me.

photo:

music:
Joanna Newsom: "The Sprout and The Bean"






words:

As I stepped through the door, I realized .....

Razor's Edge 1/22/10

Each Friday I am going to post a set of prompts for you. This may include videos, music, words, puzzles. Use one or all to create something - it may be a response to what you see or the prompt may be lead you far away from where you are now. Each week there will be a different theme, and I will aim to touch different senses, the spirit, the body, the mind. The prompts may be intended to provoke or soothe or challenge or merely raise your muse to guide you further on your creative path.

Today I'm starting with the concept of Wabi Sabi. I wasn't going to go there with this first issue. But, there you are. That is where my muse led me and so, I am following her today.

Architect Tadao Ando described Wabi Sabi as

The Japanese view of life embraced a simple aesthetic
that grew stronger as inessentials were eliminated
and trimmed away.

With that in mind, I offer you the following as inspiration points to leap with:


PHOTO...
..... ......... ....... As I approached ....



VIDEO ....

......There was a sound behind me as I sat down...



CHARACTER ...

She stood taller than almost everyone around her
Straight blond hair, wispy on the edges, lifted by the wind against her cheeks
The first hat she ever knit for herself tugged tightly onto her head
Sand colored khakis, with a carpenter's loop at her left knee
Pockets bulging with coins and receipts and photo ID

If you're coming up blank, look at each prompt above for a couple seconds. Then gently close your eyes and let your head roll forward to a comfortable position. Let the images and words sweep past you, enter you, choose one. Then open your eyes and write. Or draw/collage/paint if your hands and spirit take you in that direction. Or stand up and dance; manipulate the keys on the piano; run your hands through the clay.

The only "rule" is to let your self be guided and don't force. Creativity will happen.

Take 7 -10 minutes. Then pause and look at what you've done. If you feel you need to keep going - by all means do.

And if you'd like to share what you've created, send them my way and I will add them in.

Enjoy!