Yesterday at my “Finding Theme and Structure in Memoir” workshop, we talked about using writing prompts to stir memories. I mentioned that never-fail memory stirrer-upper I first learned from Natalie Goldberg’s book, Writing Down the Bones. Just start with “I remember…” and follow the pen where it leads.
Category Archives: Writing Practice
Can I make a writing retreat at home?
It’s July and I’m taking most of the month off from my regular routine of classes and workshops. It’s time for my annual writing retreat. This time I’m staying home rather than packing it up and going off somewhere as I’ve done for several years. Instead of settling into a different and dedicated retreat space, I’ll still sleep in the same bed as every other night, I’ll still look at my same self in the same morning mirror. It will be the same view out the window, same chair, same writing table, coffee cup, notebook, computer.
Poetry is having its way with me
We’ve been observing National Poetry Month at Thursday Writers, a weekly drop-in writing practice group I’ve been part of since the mid-90s. The last two Thursdays, before the prompt that sparks the writing, we read a poem. Though generally writers write all over the place—narrative prose mostly—I’m finding that reading the poems before we write seems to have an influence on the writing, at least with some of us. It certainly is having its way with me.