Volume XI, Issue 19
May 11, 2022
Word of the Week: photograph
Dear ,
As I work on my memoir, I often turn to photographs for inspiration. I learned to do this from one of my favorite memoirs, which I've often used in teaching classes on memoir, Lois Lowry's Looking Back: A Book of Memories.
If this interests you, here's an interview with Lois Lowry from the 2016 National Book Festival in which she describes how this process works for her. (When I watched it, the video and audio weren't quite in sync, for some reason. But it's so helpful, I recommend
listening anyway!)
Here's a photo of me at three that brought back a wonderful memory of my mother that's included in my memoir, called, at least for now, Feast, Famine, and Forgiveness: A Mother/Daughter Story.
If you're ready for a really good laugh, you'll love this week's featured writing from Lois
Lowry's Looking Back! And don't miss the prompt—it's one many WordPlayers have found really useful, a twist on my "Magic Ingredients" list that I shared in a recent Word-Zine.
Wishing you love, light, and delight in this lovely month of May,
Maureen
P.S. Check out the two workshops below if you're looking for support with your writing this summer! One of them was inspired this very afternoon as I remembered how much I
love Looking Back.
Upcoming WordPlay
EVERY PHOTOGRAPH HOLDS A STORY
(Using Photographs as a Writing Springboard/
Creating New Writing/Tools for a Writing Life)
Would you enjoy using photographs (your own and/or those of others) as writing inspiration? Come learn—and practice!—fun, easy methods to capture treasured family stories. They're also great to use to create memorable fiction, memoir, and poetry.
A variety of images will be provided via Zoom and handouts,
or use your own photos. Or mix it up. In other words, follow your own heart and intuition.
WHERE: In the comfort of your own home, using Zoom.
WHEN: Wednesday, June 9th from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
COST: $39
TO REGISTER:
-
Click here to
pay with a credit card through PayPal
-
Send Venmo payment (@wordplaynow)
-
Pay via Zelle online banking (704-756-4641)
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Email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions to pay via check.
THE HEALING POWER OF WORDS
(Writing as Renewal/Creating New Writing/
Tools for a Writing Life)
What benefits can writing provide – physically, mentally, spiritually? Are some ways of writing more healing than others? And can we create quality literary work as we heal? In this workshop that incorporates Dr. James Pennebaker’s ground-breaking ideas, we’ll discuss and implement ways to use writing as a
transformational tool. And, if you’re looking, you’ll find the genesis of new poetry, creative non-fiction, and/or fiction. Warning: Laughter likely. Inspiration guaranteed.
Read more about this program here.
COST: FREE!
WHERE: 7015 Carnegie Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28211
non-fiction, and/or fiction. Phone: (704) 416-5400
Get Directions.
WHEN: Thursday, June 23rd from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
More WordPlay opportunities here.
Featured Writing
an excerpt from
Looking Back: A Book of Memories
by
Lois
Lowry
Absolute Innocence
One chilly day when I was in first grade, walking home alone from school, taking a shortcut through an alley behind my house, I found what I thought was a very cold mouse, asleep.
I felt sorry for him and thought that if only I could get him warm, he would wake up, do cute little mousy things, and perhaps I would be allowed to keep him as a pet. I had never had a pet. My baby
brother had just been born and was something of a disappointment as a playmate, so I yearned for a lovable creature who would scamper about at my heels and learn tricks.
Very carefully, I picked him up. At the time, I had not yet read Stuart Little; so I was not expert at mouseology. I did realize that he was rather large for a mouse; but The Rats of NIMH had not yet been
written, so I hadn't read that either, and didn't know that there were other, larger rodents in the same general family as mice.
I carried him home cradled in one arm, and his tail, long and bare and very stiff, stuck out. He looked vulnerable and homely, with two visible front teeth—my own were missing at the time—and as I walked, I began to think of names for him and to picture how he would come when I
called.
Warming him against my heavy jacket didn't waken him. Clearly my jacket sleeve wasn't warm enough. So when I entered the house through the back door, into the kitchen, and heard my mother
busy upstairs with the baby, I carefully turned on the oven. I knew enough to set it to a low temperature so that it would warm and waken my mouse gradually. Then I laid him gently inside the
oven.
I guess I got busy with my paper dolls and forgot to check on him for a while. I don't remember, exactly. But that would explain why it was my mother who first noticed that there was something baking.
I always felt that if I had only had a chance to explain, and to prepare her a bit, it wouldn't have been such a surprise to her when she opened the oven that day. I felt that if she had just looked at my
very innocent face, my wide-open, completely uncriminal eyes— instead of screaming at me, for no reason whatsoever—the whole incident would have been handled better.
I have always felt that she overreacted.
~ Lois
Lowry
Looking Back is available here.
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 "photograph."
PROMPT:
This week, try writing about a memory by using a photograph and an "Ingredient" List.
Choose a photograph that you'd like to write about. Create a list of ingredients for it by listing at least one item for every one of these ingredients. In other words, if you don't have an immediate association, make one up. Often, good metaphors are made this way! (Each ingredient is followed by a few examples from Lois Lowry's piece.)
1. A “Who”: EX: baby brother, mother
2. A “When”: EX: one chilly day, first grade
3. A Where: EX: an alley behind my house
4. A “What” (any "thing"): EX: mouse, oven, paper dolls
5. A “Sound” word: EX: screaming
6. A “Smell” word (vanilla, pungent): EX: baking
7. A “Touch” word: EX: cold, stiff, warming
8. A verb of motion: EX: walking, scamper
9. A way a person can be: EX: sorry, lovable, innocent
Once you've finished your list, write about this memory, including some or all of the ingredients you gathered. Feel free to write in any genre, even fiction!
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, two grief, healing, and gratitude workbooks entitled How Do I Say Goodbye? and Praying You Goodbye, and three collections of poetry,
Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, 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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