Write Anyway

You don’t need me to tell you that heroes come in many shapes and sizes. They can be human, animal, living, dead… Heck, your hero might be an inanimate object or name brand of products. Heroes are very personal to us and who we are. Often, they have saved us from chaos, headaches, danger, and sometimes they have saved us from death.
And thus they make great writing material.

My husband has a hero and whenever he talks about the now deceased man, his eyes light up just a bit and he speaks with a smile on his face. He even wrote a poem about his hero.

As I mentioned yesterday, my husband is my hero. I trust him, I love him, I look to him, and I wonder what he would do when I face problems in my life. He has literally saved my life, and I never knew I could love another person as much as I love my husband.

While my hero is also my love, I think that’s part of your feeling towards your hero – a little love. Even if it’s only a little bit and not the romantic kind.

Today I would like you to write about who or what has been a hero to you. What happened that brought you to feeling that person/thing is your hero (or one of your heroes)? What was the heroic act or deed done that brought your admiration?

Try not to censor yourself as you write. Part of great writing is letting your subconscious free…

For this week’s free write, I would like you not to only write about Christmas but write about the holidays in general.

How does this season make you feel? What kind of memories do you have about this time of year and how do you think that reflects the way you view things today?

Is there a ‘true’ meaning of the holidays for you? Or do you go through the motions? Do you want to change how things are for next year? Why or why not?

Take the time for some introspection.

Most of you likely know the way this works, but in case you are new to the site…

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Most of you likely know the way this works, but in case you are new to the site…

For your Friday free write, you can write as much or as little as you want. You can also write for as large or small time frame as you like. I recommend at least five minutes, though, to really get your mind going.

The only real rule is that you cannot go back and edit until the time is up. No going back whatsoever. This is about having a stream of consciousness.

The point of stream of consciousness writing isn’t so you have to devote a lot more time to editing (thought you might have to). Stream of consciousness writing lets your subconscious come out to play without having to worry about your internal editors.

When any of us sit down to write, we have a series of voices (someone telling you that you can’t write, some other voice saying you really shouldn’t talk about that…) that act as filters and censors. It’s getting past those censors and voices that you can find your true writing style and voice.

Take a few moments to breathe and centre before you start reading if you need to to quiet the censors, but do try to do it. It’s worth it, and you might find you’ll write something you didn’t expect you could write.

Have fun and remember to incorporate this week’s theme. We’ve been talking all about love, love, love, so you should have a lot to talk about.

Hello and welcome to Friday Free Write.

This week hasn’t been the happiest of weeks here on the site, but I am hoping there are many good times to come.

Most of you likely know the way this works, but in case you are new to the site…

For your Friday free write, you can write as much or as little as you want. You can also write for as large or small time frame as you like. I recommend at least five minutes, though, to really get your mind going.

The only real rule is that you cannot go back and edit until the time is up. No going back whatsoever. This is about having a stream of consciousness.

Have fun and remember to incorporate this week’s theme.

Hello and welcome to Friday! I love Fridays.

Today I have something for you to do that should be a lot of fun. I did the same thing (well, not exactly – I had to actually make and decorate it) back in my sociology class when I was seventeen. It was a project that was hard to complete, but I had a lot of fun doing it and am glad I saved it and have it to look at today. Hopefully you will enjoy creating yours as much as I did mine.

Today I would like you to think about some of the events in your life and create a time line. You can do what I did for the assignment and actually create a time line, or you can open a word document and type everything. Choose whichever method you like best.

Some things to put on your time line:

*Your earliest memory/memories
*Your favourite elementary/primary school teacher
*Your elementary/primary school friends
*Your first love
*First CD/cassette tape/eight track/record
*Happiest time thus far
*Saddest time thus far
*Biggest disappointment thus far
*Three favourite life memories
*Three favourite school memories
*Where you’ll be in five years
*Where you’ll be in ten years
*How you want people to remember you

There were plenty of other things I had to put on my timeline, so feel free to ask for more ideas if you need them. I have my time line right next to me on the desk at the moment, so it’s an easy reference. Also feel free to go above and beyond the things I’ve listed.

This week I’ve asked you to write about all kinds of places, both real and imagined. I’ve asked you to write about your experiences by tapping in to all your senses.

Today for your Friday Free Write, I would like you to write about your most favorite place in the world. Write about why it’s your favorite, when it became your favorite, and what feelings it inspires in you. If it’s outdoors, feel free to get into what kind of weather makes it perfect and what season is the best to visit. If it’s indoors, detail even the small knick-knacks if that’s part of what makes it your favorite space.

However, it’s not always the far away places that excite us, inspire our imaginations, and make us feel safe. Today you can feel free to write about a place in your own home or a place across the world. As long as it’s your favorite space, then write out your heart about it.

Remember, free write for at least five minutes. Free write means no looking back over what you wrote or going back to edit.

Have fun!

Picture one: I can’t remember the name of the falls, but it’s a stop in New Zealand between Waitomo and Bridal Veil falls. (As far as size, these falls were more impressive than the Bridal Veil falls.

Picture two: Welcome to my desk. It’s a little different now because I don’t have the second monitor to work on, but it’s still the same desk. It’s in the spare room of our flat and is my little space in the world.

Before I get started, I wanted to highlight Amanda’s post on time in which she responds to the quotes I listed on Tuesday with her own thoughts.

If/when you respond to the prompts be sure to leave a comment and let me know.

Welcome to yet another Friday free write. I find it funny how the world works sometimes. As you know, this week’s theme is time. Last night, my husband and I ended up having a long talk about our past. For a while in our relationship, I was being manipulated by a “friend” of ours and I was not at all a nice person to him. The manipulation does not make me innocent, but it does still mess a little with my sense of who I am today.

What I am struggling with now, about a year and a half later, is learning to forgive myself for what I have done, as my husband has long since forgiven me. I’m learning to look at what I did and accept what I did so I can get to the point of self-forgiveness. I wish I could go back and lessen the damage I did.

What I am leading up to is what I would like you to write about today.

With the subject of time comes the thoughts and wishes that we would have done something different. If we had only done this, it could have lead to a better that. What would have happened if I had summoned the courage to ask him/her out? Stand up to my parents? Buy that new car?

For five minutes (at least) free write (no editing, no stopping) about something you wish you could go back and change. If there’s nothing you wish you could go back and change, write about a big event in your life that would have lead you down a different path if the outcome had been different. Explore the possibilities.

Hosted by Elisa of The Book Stacks

For this Friday Free Write, get your timer ready and spend five minutes writing without stopping to edit yourself. You may use your computer or your favorite quill pen and ink, it doesn’t matter. Just spend five minutes writing about what your younger self thought being an adult would be like. What sorts of freedoms did you think awaited you when you were finally all grown up?

That’s it. Sit down and get in touch with your younger self. Write about it.

Have fun.

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

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!

Welcome to another freewrite Friday. You likely know the drill.

Sit down with your writing tools of choice, and write about lying. This week I’m going to participate with a little free write of my own.

I got my start in storytelling with lies. When I was young, I told fantastic stories about myself, my family, and just about anything I could think of. I was amazed at the power I held when I began to talk of my fantastic adventures. At that age I didn’t understand the concept of deception, I only knew the complete high I got from creating a world for others and then taking them with me.

The other children believed I was pure Native American (I’m only a quarter, I think), that I used to live out west, that my dad was a famous baseball player, and much more. I lied about fantastic creatures living around the country house I grew up in. I lied about wanting to run away to my tribe, where I would be welcomed. I likely said I was a princess of the tribe too, but I can’t remember for sure.

I later learned what lies were in all there forms and about the concept of deception, and I began putting my stories where they belonged - on paper. It was no longer about convincing people my fantastic tales were true, it was merely about writing a good story and bringing people there to enjoy it as much as I enjoyed it in my head.

Then again, that’s what fiction writing is, isn’t it? One fantastic lie. One huge tale that never happened, but we’re interested in what it is and where it’s going anyway.

If you’d like to read another freewrite on lying, check out Amanda’s freewrite on lying and your job.

For this freewrite, you need a timer of some sort and your preferred writing tools.

Set your clock for five minutes, sit down, and write. Yep, that’s all you do. Write about whatever comes to your mind when you think/say the word “war”. It doesn’t have to be specifically about war - the mind can work in strange ways sometimes - and you shouldn’t try to censor yourself.

Sit. Write.

That’s all you need to do.

Free writing can be very, excuse the pun, freeing. Sometimes it’s not that I need a prompt, it’s that I just can’t seem to get started. That’s when free writing comes in.

You know what this week’s theme is, but that’s only a guideline today in case you need a prompt. If you have something else to free write about, go for it!

And, just to show I take my own advice and don’t just post up random things, I’m going to be doing five minutes of free writing in this post. I hope you enjoy.

Finding Love

I could hardly call it love at first sight, no matter how much I would have liked to. However, I can call it love at first instant message if I’m feeling particularly romantic.

I still remember the night I met my now husband. We were introduced online via a common friend. I was in a bad way, and he talked to me gently, with caring and concern. He immediately grabbed my attention, for reasons I couldn’t quite figure out then. He calmed me down in a way no one ever had before and I sat at my computer blushing and smiling as we talked.

What was five minutes turned into five hours…six…more… I stayed up all through the night until dawn because I didn’t want to stop talking to him. It didn’t occur to me that I could go to sleep and we could talk the next day. We talked about science and theory, we talked about friends, and we flirted like there was no tomorrow. As far as I was concerned, tomorrow didn’t exist. Only those moments while we talked and flirted like young lovers who had known each other lifetimes and not just hours.

Eventually we both had to go to sleep and did so reluctantly, but we were back online and talking to each other as soon as we could…

And five minutes are up. I hope you enjoyed, and happy Friday!