music and writing

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East 70th Avenue

for Wednesday, July 23, 2014  •  Prompt #70

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Today’s  Prompt: 

  1. Someone  just walked out of this door.
  2. Write about it.

 

 

 

Options:

  • Describe the person.
  • How are they dressed?
  • Are they rushing out, strolling, running, moving briskly in a wheelchair?
  • What are they thinking?
  • Do they live in this building?
  • Where are they going? Will they be coming back?

Additional Writing

  • Write about two people walking out together or one shortly after the other.
  • Write about someone walking in.

Writing Group Variations

  1. As a group, sit near a busy building. Create a background and story for someone walking in or out. (Don’t be stalker-ish. If people seem uncomfortable, move elsewhere.)
  2. Later, develop your observations and turn it into a piece of flash fiction (under 300 words.)
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Summer Band

for Tuesday, July 22, 2014  •  Prompt #79

On Monday, I listened to the Boulder Concert Band play in our local Foothills Park.  My favorite moment was lying back on my blanket and looking up at the clouds as the band played Amazing Grace. It was a divine moment.

Today’s Prompt:

  1. Write about a time when you were able to put aside the horrors of the world and life’s daily problems and immerse yourself in a moment of bliss, contentment or joy.
  2. Use specific description and include sensory details.
  3. Write for 15 minutes.

Additional Writing

  • Write about attending an outdoor musical event when something — benign, odd, or slightly menancing — disrupts the concert.
  • Write about a piece of music that affects you strongly.

Writing Group Variations

  1. Together, attend a musical event, preferable something low-key and informal. Perhaps a street performer, middle-school concert, or free event in a local part.
  2. Take notes.
  3. Listen with your eyes closed for a few minutes.
  4. Later, write your observations.
  5. Did anything surprise you? Do you connect more (or differently) to music as compared to visual arts?

 

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Sensory Week: Touch

May 13, 2014  Prompt #12

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Our sense of touch is so important that when we want to establish if something is real, we reach out and try to touch it. What does touch tell us?  Hot. Cold. Hard. Soft. Wet. Dry. Smooth. Sharp. Rough. Ridged. Sticky. As writers, where do we go from there?

 

Instructions

  1. For today’s exercise, find an item to use as your “touchstone.” It might be an actual stone, or a tree trunk, a nail file, a wool sweater, a rough wash cloth, a ridged drinking class, or an old table.
  2. Touch the object with your fingers. Wrap your hand around it or bring it to your cheek.
  3. For 5 minutes, write not only about how the object feels (for instance, rough, dry and splintery) but also how the object makes you feel emotionally. Does a smooth table feel welcoming? Does a studded belt make you feel bold and exuberant?
  4. For the second step, associate the object with another object, perhaps one from your past. Bumpy ridges on a vase might remind you of hair curlers you wore as a teenager (or your aunt wore, tucked under a scarf.) The rough of a nail file might conjure up an unshaven face, the softness of a silk shirt might remind you of a long line of silk scarfs that a magician drew from a black top hat.

How This Prompt Can Strengthen Your Writing

  • Helps build sensory details in your work.
  • Gives you practice adding complexity through associations that link time and space.

Further Writing

  • Work in a simile. (The rock is smooth as the water that shaped it.  The feather is as insubstantial as this morning’s dream.
  • Choose a second item and write about it.
  • Write about a familiar item, then an unfamiliar one. How do these experiences differ?

Variations for Writing Groups

  1. Each member brings in an object in a small paper bag.
  2. Without looking into the bag, each member feels inside, jots down what they feel and tries to guess what it is. (Curved, sticky, slightly prickly — pinecone!) From there, follow Step 4 above. Write for 15 more minutes.

Preparation for Friday

Remember to find a fruit that you like or are willing to taste.

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Sensory Week: Sound

May 12, 2014  Prompt #11

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Welcome to Sensory Week here at The Writeous Sisters.  Each day, Monday through Friday, will focus on a different sense.  Today: Hearing.

Instructions

  1. Start with a selection without words, such as a piano concerto, jazz, Big Band, or other instrumental work.
  2. Play your selection and write down whatever words, phrases, and ideas come into your head.
  3. Write for 10 minutes.

 

Notes

  • This is a good opportunity to loosen up. Try writing single words or short phrases. Or writing one very long sentence. Be experimental.
  • Listen to music you don’t normally listen to. If you are an opera fan, try Country Western. If you like New Age, try Rap. And visa versa.

How This Prompt Can Strengthen Your Writing

  • Offers inspiration from another creative source.
  • Works with a different part of your brain. (I have no scientific proof of this, just seems that way…)

Further Writing

  • Read what you have written.  Circle a phrase that stands out for you. Write it on top of a fresh sheet of paper. Without music, write in response to it for 15  minutes.
  • Listen to music with words.  Write in response to that for 10 minutes. Are the words distracting or helpful?
  • Write to music with words in a language you don’t know. How is this different?

Variations for Writing Groups

  1. Bring in selections of music for each other.
  2. Share what the group has written after listening to the same piece of music.  Any overlaps in thought or language?
  3. As members share their work, write down the last sentence of the writer sitting to your left. Write that sentence or phrase on a new sheet of paper. Write in response to it for 15 more minutes.

Preparation for Friday’s Prompt

Friday: Buy a fruit that you like or are willing to taste. Suggestions for good writing include an orange, mango, banana, grapefruit, tangerine, grapes, or strawberries.