Welcome to the Writers’ Collective’s creative writing blog. Here we’ll be posting snippets – a word, a phrase, a picture, a song lyric – to get your creative juices flowing. When you’ve squeezed those juices down to the last drop, post the results as a comment to the inspirational prompt.
Please note a few ground rules before you hit the “Comment” button:
let’s talk imagery! imagery, arguably vital to any good piece, is roughly defined as the representation of one thing by another thing.
this representation is most often constructed by either a simile or a metaphor.
a simile uses “like” or “as” eg: “i wandered lonely as a cloud” (william woodsworth),
and a metaphor, does the same thing but the language is implicit, or simply said, does not use “like” or “as” eg: “her song trembling the twigs and small branches” (theodore roethke).
recently came across this term, and me likey …
elan vital, sometimes called “the life force that makes things make themselves” was a term coined by “French philosopher Henri Bergson in his 1907 book Creative Evolution, was translated in the English edition as “vital impetus” … see more on our dear friend WIKI …
i like this concept of a vital creative life force, this “current of life” in a literary, poetic if you will, context. it goes further than your typical inspiration or your run-of-the-mill muse, it is an actual force, an energy that flows through you and can then make the writing make itself.
i know. i’m late. i vowed to get these posts up every sunday but alas. i’m always late. what can i say? i’m a poet. only songwriters can keep good time. har har
ok now for a quick writing prompt to get your midweek juices flowing -
- grab a book, a favourite if you want
- open a page at random
- read a sentence at random
- use this line as your starting point and just go….
or, if you are really lazy, use my selection randomly selected from Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist:
i like pictures as writing prompts – they are worth a thousand words a piece after all! that’s alot of words! so how’s this?…
it’s eleanor roosevelt and marion dickerman, circa 1935, in the white house master bedroom. they looked unimpressed i think. just imagine what they were talking about?!?!
photo cred goes to the white house museum, for full post click, here
As you might have gathered, I like quotes. I like that there’s always a tasty maxim to use to any given situation, and it’s an easy way look smart but not actually have to think or anything….
So, here’s a quote for this Creative Blog Post:
“For a creative writer possession of the “truth” is less important than emotional sincerity.”
- George Orwell
Well, my immediate thought for this one is that to the creative writer – emotion sincerity IS the truth!
Perhaps a little solipsist, yes, but who else but the writer believes in her own thoughts above everything else.
“Self-trust is the first secret of success.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
when i talk to writers, novice and professional alike, about their writing, one thing always rings clear – no one is certain they have what it takes to be a writer!! everyone has doubts!! but sometimes i think we let those doubts get so huge they get in the way of our successfully writing anything.
it’s the romanic image of the writer, is it not? that tortured poet a la elizabeth barrett, locked in her third floor bedroom wrestling her feisty, elusive muse. i wonder how much of that image is pure bs. i wonder how much writing could actually happen if we just believed in ourselves and left the self torture to the masochists.
i think this picture is funny ’cause it’s what i say to myself every time i’m knee deep in the editing process and feeling low self esteem!
hopefully, it can help you write something marvelous. because you are the best, and you should just write something right now!
more on this topic next post.
sorry folks – been slacking on this blog lately haven’t i? well here’s something to get you by ’til the next post. ..
a pretty little list of rules for you.
it reminds me of the best writing advice i ever heard -
the secret to writing is here…. all you need is a.i.c – arse in chair!
who cares if it’s good, who cares if its even legible,
be like michael jordan and JUST DO IT!
and have fun,
so i don’t think i’m 50 million dollars richer.
i didn’t get any calls from my co-workers/lotto pool buddies or from lottery officials, so i’m thinking i didn’t win. hmph!
but hey, what i did get is a good idea for this week’s creative writing prompt – winning the lottery.
i don’t know about you but it’s always a good source of fantasy material for me.
oh the places i would go.
oh the things i would get.
oh the restrictive force of materialism, or lack there of.
june already can you believe it! yay summer! found this online and had to share it with all of you,
isn’t that nice?! writing is healthy! writing makes you feel good! so go write about something hard and feel better!!!
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