Volume IIII, Issue 2
January 12, 2015
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Dear ,
Sometimes what we need to forge ahead is to narrow our attention
and focus on what is straight ahead of us. And we just may find our narrow path suffused with light and possibility. At least that's what this photo (and life) is saying to me right now. What's it saying to you?
You'll get a chance to play with it in this week's prompt. So scroll on down, and be sure to check out National Book Award winner Barry Lopez's short short story "The Trail" on the way. The narrow path his character walks is nothing like the one
depicted in the photo above. Or does it share some similarities? What do you think?
(If you enjoy writing from images, check out the free "Every Picture Holds a Story" workshop coming soon. This week's prompt is a sample exercise.)
What can you learn from the word "narrow" this week?
Love and light,
Maureen Upcoming WordPlay
UNDER CONSTRUCTION - Starts in two days!
It's not too late to nab a spot... (Fulfilling Writing Dreams & Goals; Creating New Writing; Revising & Polishing Your Writing) This class is designed to fulfill your writing
dreams and projects. You’ll set goals and support structures and watch your writing flow! You’ll also get feedback on your work (any genre) and learn revision tools. Jumpstart your pen and receive the knowledge and inspiration you need to write, whatever your preferred genre. Each week, writing prompts will generate material for new writing or further a piece in process. Through examples of accomplished writers, you’ll learn techniques to aid you right where you are in the
process. WEDNESDAY MORNINGS WHERE: Covenant Presbyterian Recreation Center, 1000 East Morehead Street, Charlotte, NC 28204. Click here for
map. WHEN: Wednesday mornings from 10 am to noon.
January 14th, 21st and 28th, February 4th and 18th, March 4th, 11th and 25th, April 8th, 22nd and 29th, and May 13th.
COST: $395 for 12 classes
TO REGISTER: To register online, click here. Or email info@wordplaynow.com for details on registering in class. -----------------------------------------------------------------EVERY PICTURE HOLDS A STORY Would you enjoy using visual images as writing inspiration? Come learn fun, easy methods to capture
treasured family stories and create memorable fiction, memoir, and poetry. A variety of images will be provided; bring your own photos if you like. (Check out a sample exercise in the prompt below.) WHERE: South County Regional Library, in the Community Room.
WHEN: Monday, January 26, from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
COST: Free
TO REGISTER Click here to follow the link and register. More WordPlay opportunities here.
When Barry Lopez, National Book Award winner, was the Irene Blair Honeycutt Distinguished Lecturer at CPCC's Sensoria Arts Fest several years ago, he posed with my friend and mentor Irene
after reading the audience, among other pieces, "The Trail", a story about a man walking a narrow path in the Sierra Madre. I was so glad to be there to hear this remarkable writer! And so glad to find an online video of him reading this story to share with you.
This beautiful, thought-provoking, very short short story appears in Orion's
January/February 2010 issue. Originally written for 350.org, co-founded by Bill McKibben, this piece about restraint is precisely 350 words, 350 parts per million carbon dioxide in our atmosphere being the upper limit beyond which, scientists say, the damage the Earth is sustaining will accelerate. (The load of CO2 in the atmosphere first passed 400
ppm in May 2013.) Dave Eggers selected "The Trail" for Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010. Paul Moxon of Fameorshame press designed, printed, and assembled a limited edition broadside of "The Trail" while he and Barry Lopez were at the Penland School for Crafts in November
2011.
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt This is WordPlay -- so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's "narrow." PROMPT:
Select a visual image. I suggest this image, or the one at the top of the zine, but anything will work—a painting, a post card, a magazine illustration, a photograph.
Study it for a few moments. Let the image speak to you. As you gaze at your image, write down words or phrases, at least one for each of the categories below, that this image brings to mind for you. These should be words that are beautiful to you for sound and
meaning (meaningful to you personally in some way). Be specific (sassafras, not tree). I've listed some examples for you, some of them pulled from Barry Lopez's "The Trail":
- One or more “who"
words (characters): (man, daughter, Steven)
- One or more "when" (timeline, chronology) words: (winter afternoon, 1948, yesterday, April)
- One or more "where" words: (a trail in the Sierra Madre, thicket, Schenectady, home)
- One
or more “what” words: (volcano, coral, cat's fur)
- One or more color words: (obsidian, lapis lazuli, blue)
- One or more “sound” words or phrases: (“the molten interior of the earth,” Niagara Falls, whistle, lullaby)
- One or more “smell” words: (dust, garlic, honeysuckle, moldy)
- One or more “taste”
words: (sharp, raspberry, sweet)
- One or more “touch” words or phrase: (palm, prickly, leaf, fossil)
- One or more verbs of motion: (turned, bend, glisten, glide, canter, lope)
- One or more ways a person can be: (deeply imperfect, bold, happy, lonely)
- One or more abstractions (things that cannot be experienced through the senses): (obligation, forgiveness, hope)
Now, create a piece of writing, any genre, any subject, using as many as the words you listed as you care to.
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MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and two collections of poetry, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another."
Maureen also believes that serious "word
work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best learn -- and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours! |
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