Grateful Writer? Relax your way to writing!

As I gaze out of my office window, pondering over my next phrase, I am thankful for the California open space behind our house.  If you have a little patch of nature, or can walk to one and sit under a tree with a notebook, you’ll discover how freeing a few trees, a bit of grass and the smell of fresh earth can relax the writer or artist within any of us. 

Next, I am gratified by the room around me, filled with my most precious possessions:  books and creatures writing and reading, and lovely cards given by wonderful friends.  I remember when several years ago my writing area was a small retreat between our bedroom and the hallway.  My son and his friends ran back and forth between his room and the backyard deck, while I rolled my chair away from my computer as they whooshed by, a stream of boy-noise and action.   

Who can forget a best friend by my side, encouraging my writing?  Zoie will be sixteen-years-old at the end of this month.  When she was a puppy, I barely wrote at all.  Once she was out of baby-hood, I resumed my normal schedule, with walk breaks, of course.   Within the last year she has lost most of her sight and hearing, so she doesn’t feel comfortable outside without one of us by her side.  She is more impatient with my writing time.   It MUST be time to go out NOW, she seems to say with her big brown eyes.  I agree.  We must remember time with our loved ones is important, too. 

No matter if you write for a few minutes now and then or hours every day, be grateful your passions have led to toward this path.  

Writing Prompts:

1. Where do you hope your writing will lead you?  What do you wish to discover about yourself, your past, present or future?  Write an essay about this adventure.

2.  Interview yourself.  What is your favorite word?  (I have several – – most of them I make up.  Since I happen to be starving right now, I think my favorites are hot fudge sundae.)

Where do you write most productively?  (Me – my office.  Although any classroom or library with individual desks works well, too.)

Do you have any favorite moments of inspiration?   (Just before I fall asleep or as I awake.)

What are your favorite writing books?  ( I love What’s Your Story by Marion Dane Bauer.  Although it is marketed for middle grade students it is wonderful for everyone.)

How did you find writing?  (I found it in school but a guidance counselor said the only option was working for a newspaper.  So I dropped that idea until my son was born.  Then I took a pen in hand and began again.)  

What is your biggest conflict with writing?    (It is often harder than it looks.)

What do you enjoy most about it?   (It drops you into another world entirely.) 

3.  Write a poem, song, or personal narrative on gratefulness. 

4.  Have you ever been inspired by nature?  Where?  When?  Write about this inspiration.