Writing with Rox WEEKLY—Do You Dare?

Last week in Wednesday Writers, one of my longtime deeply awesome, majestically brilliant (and creative! unfair!) students was leading us through our first writing exercise, "I forgot to write about..." and off and writing went we.

As always, the mixture of story and sentiment was take-your-breath-away-and-knock-you-over. Some of us wrote about our fathers, some of us went to the country. Some of us wrote about not remembering what we did this morning, let alone what we forgot to write about. 

We had no idea where it would go when we started writing, but we had faith that it would go somewhere if we just stayed with it. If we lingered long enough. We knew it would go here and go there and then at some point, something would catch like wildfire and the pen would go burning up the page. 

This is a type of Intuitive Writing Prompt that is more open ended and less topic focused than the ones I often send out about a specific topic, theme, or memory. For example, last week's prompt was write about something retro, which might bring you back to your record collection or dancing beside the jukebox or wearing saddle shoes or... it may have got you thinking about the word itself, inviting more of an analysis or rant. 

The Intuitive Writing prompt, while more open, has a more rhythmic flow, more about process than product (though I'd argue most writing is process first, product later) and will ultimately open up a dozen or more prompts easily as you write. A few others (among the infinite) like it are: 


What I really want to tell you ...
I remember...
And the truth is...
By the way...


At the end of our sharing one of the students remarked on what a great prompt it was and complimented our leader du jour, to which she said "well it was just like something Rox had done before..." 

Well... yes and no. I may have done something like it. But not exactly it.  Something like "I don't want to forget to write about..." which is close, but not the same.  The thing is that every prompt, even ones that are similar, will entirely make a difference in what comes out. There is a certain pitch, tone, rhythm we all respond to, resonate with perfectly—perhaps developed in the womb or shortly thereafter—that will provide an opening when we dive into Intuitive Writing. It's like a melody or song, poem, language  or any other thing we latch more easily onto than others. Of course any prompt will and can ultimately get you to your hot spot, your writing prana, your word chi, your writing ju ju, your...

Once you have been writing a while, you begin thinking in prompts. You begin to realize that everything is a prompt. Any word, phrase, song... Anything you see, hear, taste, smell, touch and linger in will invite something. You may think "oh, no, I have nothing to say or think about tofu!" But that is just your head getting in the way of the best poem or memoir or whatever you are about to write. Go ahead try it: Tofu.

So what's this about "do you dare?" Do you dare go deeper, that is. In writing. In your life. What does that look like? Mostly allowing yourself to explore and open to your vulnerability on and off the page so you give live and write more freely because what are you waiting for? 

A few Intuitive Writing Prompts, going deeper into vulnerability are:


I'm afraid to write about...
I'll never write about...
If only I could write about...
I've never told anyone this, but..
I'm waiting for...


If you want more on that I still have a few openings in my Wednesday Writing Vulnerably class which meets monthly, beginning this Weds at 9:30-noon. Let me know asap if you want in!



In the meantime, Write with Me? "I forgot to write about..."



Thanks beautiful student and friend of mine for this inspiration. You know who you are. xoxoxo