Write Anyway

And a little bit of a story for me to share with you.

Today I’d like you to write about a wish you’ve made that came true. I know I don’t often share my responses to these prompts, so here you go…

Inspired by “One Day I’ll Fly Away” from Moulin Rouge (below)

All my life, I wanted to fly away. Leave everything and become my own woman in a place I had never been. I’d set out to run away several times, but I’d always get a short distance away and realize a child could in no way be safe in this world without any protection.

Not to mention I had no money.

I didn’t find anything particularly bad about my family then because I didn’t know anything better, but I knew I had this urge in me to leave. The strongest urge I had ever known then.

I finally got my chance to fly away - as much as I could - in my second year of college. I moved four hours away from the life I knew, and it was glorious. I met many new friends, including three people I grew very close to. One person was troubled, though, by the past. His accounts of his past helped him as a way of therapy, but unfortunately made me start having flashbacks.

Flashbacks to bad, bad things in my childhood.

Another one of those friends turned into my boyfriend not long after we’d met; the connection was an instant one. He helped me through the flashbacks. He also helped me to realize the things I considered normal in my family life weren’t normal. I started asking around, as subtly as I could, and found he was completely right.

I was afraid to go home, but I knew that someday - hopefully someday soon, I could leave and join my boyfriend where he lived.

It didn’t take long for me to go into a deep depression. I had to hide it though, because I was threatened with being put in a psychiatric ward.

[The rest of that is too hard to write right now and is upsetting me, so I hope you don't mind if I skip over things.]

My then fiancé (now husband) had been putting money away to get me a plane ticket, though, so when it became possible my life was in danger, I flew out to Australia to be with him. We got married almost five months ago, and life has been good.

One Day I’ll Fly Away

Wishes! Talk about something you can write about. Everyone has secret desires, be them right or wrong, greedy or not. Wishes can be horrible things that haunt us and wonderful things that keep us working hard for our dream.

What wonderful writing fodder!

For your reading pleasure (and amusement) here are…

1. When I was younger, I wished my older brothers would spend more time with me…
2. …and let me play with their toys when I wanted…
3. …and let me play their Nintendo so I didn’t always have to sneak in to do it.
4. Also when I was younger, a lot of the time I wished to just be left alone to do my own thing. This wish only intensified when I started writing stories.
5. I wished (and still wish now) for more money. I absolutely love giving people presents, but it’s often put off because I don’t have enough money for stuff/shipping. Then it was because allowance was an on/off sort of thing. Now I have medical bills and student loans. Ah, to be an adult.
6. I wished to be skinny at about age ten. I’ve been overweight since before then, but it was when I was ten that I saw a picture of myself and realized how heavy I was. (Thanks a lot, PCOS.)
7. I have always, always wanted (even to this day) blue hair. Not highlighter blue, but dark blue that’s blue enough to make it obvious I have blue hair. (Someday…)
8. I also want to get my nose pierced…
9. …and to get my third tattoo. (I feel like such a rebel. Hah!)
10. In school, I wished for nothing more than this boy to ask me to be his girlfriend. And he did. Then he broke up with me the next day. The good news is I didn’t care because I’d really been in love with being in love.
11. Also in school, I fell hard for a guy two years older than me. I wished so much for us to be together. It never happened, though we both liked each other. I think he was afraid of commitment.
12. These days, my wishes revolve around my health. I wish for my ovarian cysts to magically disappear along with my other symptoms of PCOS.
13. I also wish for my husband and I to be happy and healthy for as long as we can be. I know that sounds a bit cheesy, but I honestly do.

Wishes. Ah, they can be so lovely.

And sometimes it’s a very good thing they don’t come true!

You know how it works; write at least 100 words of a story/scene incorporating the theme this week and the words below. Happy, sad, surreal - all your choice.

Enjoy!

cloth
transparent
brown
stick
page
metal
stack
money
ball
sparkle

Does anyone else remember that song? I certainly do. I even remember the little scene they had to go along with it…

It was in one of the Julia Roberts movies where she is in love with a man about to get married… Funny movie…

Anyway.

What do you wish for? Do you want the bigger house? More money? A guarantee that your children will be safe and sound after you’re gone? Do you miss someone and wish they would/could contact you? Are you wishing for the person you are going to marry to come into your life?

Or do you wish everyone would stop pestering you about getting married?

If you’re not currently wishing hard and often for anything in particular, what have you wished for in the past. What has meant so much to you in your life you wished it would come true?

Write about your wishes - even if you need to write in your diary/journal because they are secret wishes, explore your full imagination. If you wish for purple sunflowers and a pink sky, then so be it! Don’t let the prospect of possible judgments stop you from wishing for anything and everything your heart desires.

After all, what’s the saying again? Dream big?

To help you write and focus, remember to take some deep breaths and concentrate on the topic before you start writing. Focus on the word ‘wish’ or try to focus on your breathing so you can clear your mind.

Remember, have some fun!

Hello and welcome to another week of prompts from Write Anyway.

This week’s theme is wishes, something very close to my heart. I’m very fortunate to have had a lot of my wishes in life come true.

So, to start us off on this wish-full week, here are a few videos about wishing.

Enjoy!

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

My Wish - Rascal Flatts - CMA Awards

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes - Disney Channel Stars

I love the rain. I do, but the focus this week has been rain and negative things.

No more of that!

Today I’d like you to write about rain in whatever way you like. Negative, positive, apathetic. You can write as little or as much as you want, though I’d like you to try to write for at least five minutes. Fact or fiction is also your choice.

It’s free writing!

Have fun with it.

Happy Friday!

Hello and welcome to another Thursday Thirteen!

In keeping with the theme of this week - rain - as well as exploring negative things/emotions, I’m going to put up…

1. Flooding
2. Mudslides
3. Erosion
4. Pneumonia (this could be more of a personal one…)
5. Cold/flu
6. Crying
7. Being stuck inside the house
8. Acid rain
9. Thunderstorms (if you don’t like them)
10. Hail (frozen rain)
11. Makeup running (though most stuff is waterproof these days, isn’t it?)
12. Mold
13. Destruction of plant life

[What a dreary list. Bleck.]

Go and write a story at least 100 words long that incorporates this week’s theme - rain - and all the words listed below.

Have fun! And remember, if you post your response to this on a blog, leave a comment, and I’ll link to you.

dirt
rose
ribbon
rim
pedestal
toes
beak
eyes
stone
blue

There are plenty of words and phrases that complete the first part of the title of this post, and that’s part of your job today.

Rain can be a lovely or miserable thing, depending on the circumstances. Today I want you to focus on the negative side of the spectrum. Write a scene which involves rain and a negative emotion. It can involve one person, no one, or a dozen.

The plot is really up to you. I only challenge you to involve rain and negative emotion.

Have fun!

As you likely know by now, one of your goals as a writer is to make your reader feel something. Anything, as long as it goes with your plot.

So it’s only natural that we don’t always get to write about sunshine and lollipops.

This week’s theme is rain. Now, rain doesn’t have to always be depressing, by any means. However, I would like you to tap into the sadder side of things this week. Sad things can be ‘put to mood’ with rain. The rain can make you sad. Rain can be “frosting on the cake” on a bad day.

Here is your musical inspiration for the week - “Rain” by Breaking Benjamin

This week has been a lot of fun - for me at least - with exploring food prompts. I could hold a second week on all the possible paths for a food theme to go, but I will resist.

I’ve talked positively for the most part this week. For today’s free write - at least five minutes and one hundred words - I want you to talk about the darker side of food.

You can choose to write about starvation. Or about the rising number of obese people. Or maybe you’ve had a severe allergic reaction to something. Or maybe, just maybe, you’ve taken a big bite of something and found something not so nice squirming inside.

Don’t make yourself sick (unless you want to), but write about your negative food experience(s). When you’re a writer, you want to make your readers feel something. What better way than to write negatively about something they all know and likely love?

If you’d like to read some foodie stories, check out this post and this post on Susan’s blog West of Mars.

And, of course, for Thursday Thirteen I had to do My Thirteen Favourite Foods

1. Sushi! - More specific? - California rolls, salmon and avocado hand rolls, chicken teriyaki hand roll, salmon sushi, seaweed and cucumber roll…
2. Singapore noodles
3. Souvlaki - lamb, of course (kind of like a lamb wrap/gyro)
4. Mee Goreng - I heart oolong noodles
5. Strawberries
6. Chunky’s Brand New England Clam Chowder (that they don’t have here in Oz *pout*)
7. My husband’s lamb roast with roasted carrots, baked potatoes, and roasted garlic
8. Mushrooms! I heart mushrooms
9. Dim Sims
10. Shark fin soup (with shitake mushrooms *drool*)
11. Gloria Jean’s TimTam chiller (naughty treat)
12. Pumpkin (NOT steamed)
13. Roti bread! (Think thin pastry bread with garlic)

Is it any wonder the prompts this week make me hungry?

As a bonus, thirteen foods I hate…. (more…)

Have I mentioned how hungry this theme always makes me? It never fails; I start writing the post and my stomach gets grumbly. Oy.

Anyway, this random word bank day is a bit easier than usual because it only has to include food some way. It can be about something else completely, but it has to have some food element in it.

You know the drill! Long or short, five minutes or an hour. Get writing and use all of these words in your writing.

Enjoy!

blush
hiccup
cup
spoon
strawberry
sneeze
ladybug
gold
moon
dragon

Food!

Food is perhaps one of the biggest focuses for humanity today. You may argue about global warming or nuclear weapons - yes they are big, too, but whereas global warming might not mean something to everyone you encounter, food does.

People struggle with food and eating, people love food and eating, some people can only think about how much they’d like food because they are starving, and some people create food with such precision that it is called art.

No wonder we’re all so focused on it!

There are so many ways this prompt could go, definitely, but I’m going to go with a tried and true prompt. Pick your favorite food - or favorite meal if you like - and describe it as if you’re describing it to someone who has never seen, much less tasted, what you talk about.

How will you describe it? What comparisons will you make? How many senses can you incorporate in one description?

Have fun.

If you would like to read a response to this prompt, check out this post on Amanda’s blog.

Hi everyone!

After having a blah morning, I’m feeling strangely perky, so you’ll have to forgive me. Welcome to this week’s theme! We all know about it. We talk about it. We see it every day.

FOOD

Yep, food is the theme for this week - thank you to Elisa of The Books Stacks for suggesting it - and I’m hoping we’ll have a lot of fun with this one.

To start off our musical Monday, I present UB40’s Red Red Wine. Enjoy!