Synchronicity

Synchronicity is described in good 'ole Webster's as the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of the unexpected event before it happens)....and more.

You know you're in the flow of synchronicity when:

1) you take a yoga class and the thought flits through your mind that it would be a great place to hold writing workshops

2) the next week at lunch you mention to a friend that you're entertaining the idea of holding writing workshops again, but it's a hassle to find a good location

3) you arrive home from said luncheon that afternoon and there's an email from one of the instructors at the Danville Yoga Center (www.danvilleyogacenter.com) asking if you'd be interested in teaching a writing and yoga month-long workshop

4) you meet the owner a few days later and agree easily that it's the right thing to do

5) you come home from your meeting and decide to listen in on a free teleseminar through the National Association of Memoir Writers (www.namw.org) and it's all about journaling. You don't know who the speaker is, but something she said rang a bell. You turn around and look and the book she's speaking about is perched on your bookshelf, right in front of you--and it's a great foundation for your upcoming class in July!

There's something so powerful when we state our intention/hope/wish out loud and without attachment....

and sit back to watch the breathtaking beauty of its' manifestation rolling in like a California fog~

Amazing world we live in, amazing life, if we choose to let it be, huh?

So, here's two prompts for you:

What I love about synchronicity is ----
The last time a synchronistic event happened, I knew that ----

Have fun!
(above photo taken by my husband Rick)

Here's a picture prompt~

I love this picture. My husband took it during one of our visits to Sedona.

Prompts:

Write about the first thought that came to mind when you looked at this picture.
What sort of conversations could take place on this bench?
What if it were a magic bench?
What if the person who sat on it last dropped something underneath the bench -- and you found it--what would make a good story???
You could begin with: I sat on the bench thinking about...
or The man poured himself onto the bench, his lips blue, his face gray and chalky...

CWC article Tri-Valley Branch

Here's the article I wrote for the Tri-Valley branch of the California Writer's Club this month-a little condensed. Hope you enjoy it.

Before I started this month’s article for the newsletter, I mulled over various topics to write about and settled on how to become a better writer. Just for fun, I googled online writing classes. There are literally 35,000,000 including creative writing, journaling, poetry, boot camps, college classes, well-known writing communities and more. I didn’t google in person classes, workshops, seminars, week long or writing retreats, so you can imagine how many places there are to learn and grow your writing life.

With the plethora of choices, where do you begin? With so many directions it can be a daunting.


Read a lot. A lot. Read authors you’d like to write like, read genres you like to write in, read for fun, read to educate, read to get new ideas, read books about craft, plot, character. Many of these books suggest exercises so that you can put what you’ve read into practice. Remember, library books are free (unless you keep them too long and then it’s a nickel a day!)

Practice. Practice may not get you to perfectionism when it comes to the written word, but you’ll get a lot closer if you put pen to paper every day. Julia Cameron suggests three hand written pages each morning. Carolyn See suggests one thousand words a day. If you do this, Julia Cameron guarantees it will change your life. My own experience is that if you do it in the morning it’s done.

Can’t think of anything to write about? No excuse! Start with a phrase: Right now I am, and take it from there. There are a number of writing books that offer phrases or sentence starters to get your engine started.

Join a critique group or meet informally with friends to read each others’ works. It helps. We learn by sharing, that’s why good facilitated writing groups are so successful. You benefit from the critique of each member’s work.

Look for opportunities to publish your work even if it’s for free. Why? It builds confidence, gets your name out into the writing community, and helps you build a platform. If you choose to ‘specialize’ in a particular topic, find a newsletter that might need help, build up credentials, then start to query magazines.

Join a writing community. You receive this newsletter because you’ve joined the CWC Tri-Valley writing community. There are also associations, for example, that specialize in romance writing, journalism, memoir. Check them out. They might lead you down a path you had no idea could be so much fun.

Writing prompts are everywhere

This morning I got out of bed and did my usual routine of feeding Jake and then getting to the task at hand --

reading the newspaper and writing my morning pages.

I decided that before I poisoned my mind with the news of the day, I'd write my 1000 words. I felt sleepy and wanted to throw an afghan over my legs to warm myself right back to sleep. Instead, I lit a candle and turned the TV to Soundscapes...

soft, full, flute notes floated through me, (peppered with sleeping Golden Retriever Jake's, occasional snore).

And I couldn't think of one thing to write about. Nothing. I looked up at the TV screen hoping for inspiration--and I got it. The instrumental playing was titled something like Desert Peace. I don't exactly remember right now what it was, but it was so simple to take my writing from there. Try it -- write about the desert (or desserts!), peace or a combination of both. If that doesn't work try using these five words in a story:

desert peace blustery ink Kleenex.

Writing prompts are everywhere, we just have to keep our eyes open to find them!

Happy morning pages~

Hinge

Today I began reading a little powerhouse of a poetry book, Hinge, by Kathleen Lynch. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who can make a meaningful poem about bacon and eggs, has my attention.

I heard Kathleen speak recently at the California Writers Club, Tri-Valley branch luncheon and while I am not a poet and don't know much about it, I'm more of a fan these days. I love the economy of words that good poetry offers and the vivid images they offer.

In his book, Poetic Medicine, John Fox says, "Poetic language expresses what plain language cannot, and thus helps us heal in a very unique way." He referred to a poem written by a student and went on to say that sometimes poetry expresses feelings best.

A few years ago I wrote a poem about writers...but before I share that, I thought the picture that my husband took (above) when we were in Sedona would lend itself to a wonderful writing prompt sentence starter, so here goes...


Somewhere between light and dark...
Perhaps the hills were too hard to climb because ...
The rocky path through the red rock gave me plenty of time to think about ...

And here's my poem....

WRITERS
By Cindy Luck

I believe writers
Love colored pens and pencils, prefer
A medium or fine point and
Notice the texture of paper

That writers …
love the smell of
Books and bookstores
Libraries and notebooks
and
leather-bound journals

I believe writers …
Have a burning desire to write
And burning guilt when they don’t --
if they’re not writing on paper
They’re writing in their head

I believe creativity strikes
In the shower
on a bus
Walking the dog
Having great sex—
Often when there’s no pen in sight

That wonderful ideas pop
On vanilla-ribboned sunlit mornings,
Falling into dreamland and
On cocktail napkins folded up
In last year’s winter jackets

I believe we think and write creatively
When we’re prompted by our senses
Smelling garlic, skunks, orange mist, sweaty sex
Touching silk, sandpaper, loose puppy skin,
Wet kisses and babies,
Seeing fireball sunsets, crashing waves, the hand of a lover
Hearing, Pacabel Canon in D, Elvis Costello or
Heartbroken sobs,
Crackling autumn leaves and the swish swish swishing of pink taffeta

I believe that writers must write …
and
When they don’t they deny themselves
and the world
Their gift.

Writing Prompts

One of the things I've learned about writing is that practice really really does help you improve....seriously, it works. For years now I've been doing morning pages as suggested in Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way.

So I thought it might be fun to give whomever might read this some prompts. Easy directions, pick one of the sentence starters or ideas below and write for ten to twenty minutes without editing, stopping, rereading, or saying this is crap. It is not only good practice as a writer, but a great discipline! Here you go.

1) I didn't think it could happen to me, but...
2) The other day I overhead him say ....
3) If you look around you'll see ...
4) I'll believe in miracles when ...
5) The annual meeting began and ...
6) I stood there staring ...
7) guest bench date fertilize sorry (use in a 10-20 minute write)
8) What I see when I look in your eyes is ....
9) What I remember most ...
10) If you were here, I'd tell you that...

Have fun! If you want to post them here, I'd love to read!
~the prompt queen

Welcome!

Welcome to my 'other' blog. This blog will be for all my 'writing' things--articles from the California Writers Club newsletter, articles other writers might be interested in, and most probably a speckling of my frustrations in the writing world.

I'm hoping that this blog might be inspirational to others who are facing the monumental task of climbing over the piles of rejection letters and continuing their search to find the perfect agent.

And lastly, there will probably still be stories about my grand children and our dog, Jake, our latest child.

So, sit back enjoy, read, browse, and maybe feel a little inspiration or at the least, camaraderie!
~cindy