Tag Archives: artists date

Weekly Writing Prompt — August 12, 2015 Edition

August 12, 2015Weekly Writing Promptartists date, journaling, morning pages, NaNoWriMo, sketchbookadmin

Writers!

Artist’s Date Alert: Sketchbook Project is here in Seattle. Several of our members, including myself, participated in this. You can see it beginning tomorrow night through Saturday. Olympic Sculpture Park, 2901 Western Ave – Seattle, WA 98121, August 13: 5:00 — 8:00pm

August 14-15: 11:00 — 3:00 pm. More details here: https://www.sketchbookproject.com/events

I also wanted to share with you that I did a little experiment this summer. I didn’t journal for nearly a month. It was terrible. My creativity was off. I was cranky. Once I started doing my morning pages again, I felt better. If you want to ground your writing life and feel the creative rush, do your morning pages. Don’t know what those are? You need to come to a writing cafe or an upcoming workshop to find out! If you’ve been good about doing morning pages, good for you! You could try your own experiment, except I would say, don’t skip more than three days, instead of three weeks. You’ll see what I mean.

Today’s prompt is about patterns. One of my favorite novels is Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. My husband just returned from a massive ten days amongst his Hacker Tribe with back-to-back conferences in Las Vegas. They talked a lot about patterns and he brought me home all these pattern cipher quizzes and the like. Also, yesterday while on my own personal artist’s date, I began to see patterns I hadn’t noticed before. Clearly the universe is speaking to me. So your prompt is about patterns. What patterns does your protagonist notice, or the antagonist notice. Do you want to wax romantic in a poem about patterns. Just take that word and run with it. Write non-stop for 30 minutes.

As a reminder our dates for workshops with their descriptions are below:

September 16: NaNoWriMo Prep Workshop 1:
Have you always thought about writing a novel but don’t know where to start? This month SnoValley Writes will discuss: How to find a topic and develop it into a plot. Where characters come from and how to get them to do what you want in your novel. How to make time to write in your already busy schedule. And how to do it all in 30 days or less.

October 17: NaNoWriMo Prep Workshop 2: This month SnoValley Writes welcomes you to meet with us to sign up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) Meet your Snoqualmie Valley Region Municipal Liasons (MLs). Ask your questions about the NaNoWriMo website, how to plan your novel, etc. and get answers from other writers – some who are starting their 8th NaNo this year. We’re here to help you get started and give you info on local events coming in the 30 fabulous days of November!
As always the workshops are at the North Bend Library Meeting Room from 10:30 a.m. to Noon.

And now your moment of Writing Zen:

“All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.” ~Bruce Lee

—

—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

Weekly Writing Prompt — April 11, 2012 Edition

April 11, 2012Weekly Writing PromptAffirmative Reading, artists date, creative recovery, feedback, morning pages, The Artist's Way, Word Jazzcasz

Greetings Writers!

We will depart, as they say, from our regularly schedule program today to allow those who participated in or attended Word Jazz to reflect on the experience and provide feed back. It will also give everyone a chance to actually catch up on work we’ve been doing on our creative recovery journey ala The Artist’s Way. There were a good chunk of exercises in last week’s prompt, so I hope everyone will go back and work on those exercises.

So today’s prompt is to do a check in:

1. How many days this week did you do your morning pages? How as the experience for you? I’m bad this week — yes I have bad week’s, too. And I notice my creativity suffers for it. I’m 3/7 this week. I could blame illness (2/3 kids sick this week), crazy schedule (conference, Word Jazz), but they really aren’t barriers, when I think about it; I’m just being lazy. But today is a new day.

2. Did you do your artist date this week? What did you do? How did it feel? I had three artist’s dates in a row, since I went to NorWesCon. I love conferences, it always fuels the creative fire, even if physically they wear me out.

3. Affirmative reading? Were there any other issues this week that you consider significant for your recovery? Describe them. As for me, I’ve had two separate epiphanies as it were this week. I will blog about my thoughts later today and you can read them there, if you’re interested.

Now onto comments, questions, concerns, suggestions, etc. for Word Jazz.

Please tell us (via email here) what you liked. Please tell us any suggestions for improvement you may have. Those who keep blogs, I encourage you to write about your experience either as participant, volunteer or audience member.

Our next regular work session will be April 22 at the North Bend Library Meeting Room at 3 p.m. Until then …

Friday: DayTripper’s @ Toad’s in North Bend 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. (ish) (if you’re the first one there, please secure the large table in the very back).

Monday: Midday Muse @ Toad’s in North Bend 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. (ish) (if you’re the first one there, please secure the large table in the very back).

Tuesday: Writers’ Cafe @ Carriage Insurance House – 6:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. (byo-beverages and snacks)

Keep writing and send it out!

—
—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron

Weekly Writing Prompt — March 14, 2012 Edition

March 14, 2012Weekly Writing Promptartists date, artists way, basic tools, daily reading, homework, moment of writing zen, morning pages, SnoValley Writes!, weekly writing prompt, Word Jazzcasz

Happy Pi Day all. Be sure to get some Pie today as well. Treat yourself. Apple-pie making in the happening over in these parts.

**********

So how many days this week did you do your morning pages? What? You haven’t been journaling? You haven’t been getting that mental debris out — the stuff that keeps your creativity blocked?

Have you given yourself an artist date this week? Even just a trip to a favorite retailer for some fun stickers and a new journal? How about to a book signing? A new art exhibit? Hear a new band? If you did, how did it feel? What did you do? What do you plan to do this week?

For those that missed the work session on Sunday, we’ve started the journey of The Artist’s Way (A path to higher creativity). Having done the formal program twice personally, beginning it with a group is fabulous. It has that much more meaning. For those that have had a hard time making time for your creativity — or spending too much time on your shadow art as opposed to the art you’re impassioned about (e.g. writing), this will be a great exercise for you. It will take us many months to do, but I hope that you will see this as a course in discovering and recovering your best creative self yet. A self who is generative and prolific and a creative life that leaves you feeling satisfied.

The major tools in this journey are:

1) Morning pages: three hand-written, stream-of-consciousness pages you write every morning as soon as you wake up (before you do anything else). Write them in a notebook or journal so you can have them all in one place (currently, I have two completed Morning Page journals sitting on my bookshelf). I set my alarm :15 early to do this. My handwriting is not pretty; but, it clears the mind and is like a writing meditation. I can’t recommend this practice enough.

2) A weekly Artist Date: A commitment of time spent on yourself once a week; Time spent solely on you — no companions allowed; A date with your inner-artist, or your inner-child. For me, it was yesterday and getting a multi-flavored slurpee at 7-11 and to sit in the sunshine (albeit brief as it was in Seattle yesterday) and just watch the world go by. Oftentimes I walk down to the river and do yoga or just sit and watch the inner workings of the water, the trees, the birds and critters. I have also been known to pull the blinds and get out the kids coloring books and crayons and just color in superheros or Hello Kitty. It’s freeing and lets your brain recharge for productive creativity.

3) Daily Reading (which can be accomplished on Wednesdays by undertaking your weekly writing prompt from SnoValley Writes!) I do no less than :30 of reading a day. Non-fiction, fiction, it doesn’t matter. I have books everywhere — my car, the bathroom, my bedroom, my purse, my desk, the living room, even the kitchen. There’s no excuse for not reading every day.

Therefore your prompt this week is to try to accomplish these goals. I can’t recommend or encourage you strongly enough to really take these tasks to heart and do them. Reward yourself for each day you accomplish your morning pages; the artist date is a treat in itself. Do not turn out the lights at night until you’ve gotten in your :30 of reading.

Let me know by next Tuesday how you’re doing, too. Yes, I’m giving homework. Report back, please. I promise no tongue-lashings, just honest encouragement and understanding and all-out cheerleading-praise when appropriate.

**********

Sometimes I carve out my artist date on either end of one of the Writing Cafes we host. The next is Friday’s DayTrippers from 9:30 a.m. to about noon-ish. Our dearest Takako Wright sends out the reminders for that. DayTrippers are tripping all over the valley for the next few weeks until the Black Dog returns to normal hours on Fridays. So, get the Email from Takako to find out where this week’s location is (her email is in the to line above).

Following that will be Mid-day Muse on Monday at Toad’s in North Bend. This is your reminder about that. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (ish). Hope to see you there.

Then Tuesday is Writers Cafe at Carriage Insurance House in North Bend. The Incredible Sheri Kennedy will send out the reminders for that. 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.(her email is in the to line above).

**********

Make your reservations for Word Jazz now. April 10 at 7 p.m. at Boxley’s. It’s going to feature some of our best work yet. Be there or make us all very sad.

*********

I am still in need of local literary legends for our first Literary Salon. Send me your suggestions now, please.

**********

And now your moment of Writing Zen:

“You need to claim the events of your life to make yourself yours.” ~Anne-Wilson Schaef

—

—
What did you Write today?
~Casz

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron