Write Anyway

Saying goodbye can be a choice or a necessity. A want or a need. Easy or hard.

More often than not, saying goodbye is hard, even if it’s a want rather than a need.

Many goodbyes happen as part of the natural cycle of life. You say goodbye for the first time when you go off to school. It’s a bit of a scary adventure, but it is only the beginning of a long journey.

You say goodbye if/when you go off to college/university. There is also the first apartment, the wedding… There are also the hard goodbyes that we had no choice but to say when the death of a loved one occurs.

And there is always the goodbye(s) you never got the chance to say…

Goodbyes are all around us and happen dozens of times through our lives.

Today I would like you to think of one of the times you have said goodbye. Try thinking about the hardest goodbye you have ever had to make. Think of how old you were, where you were, who you were with, and who/what you had to say goodbye to.

What made the goodbye hard to say/do? Why were you saying goodbye? Were you leaving physically? Emotionally? Was someone else leaving? Was saying goodbye your choice or something that was forced? Did you regret saying goodbye?

Tap into all the senses surrounding the event and recreate the scene in a way that someone else could read it and feel what you felt.

Happy Tuesday!

Yes, I’m excited that it’s Tuesday because if it’s Tuesday, then tomorrow is Wednesday the 16th which also happens to be my husband’s birthday.

I love getting my husband presents.

As you know, this week’s theme is laughter. I know, it may seem like a bit of an odd theme, but I assure you it’s not.

Today I would like you to write about laughter (obviously). No idea what to write? Ask yourself a few of these questions to get you started:

What makes you laugh? Do you laugh easily? When is the last time you had a good, full belly laugh? Do you like the sound of your laugh? Are you good at making people laugh?

If you’re still unsure, read my response to the prompt…

(more…)

This week we’re talking about a few things – mostly changes for the better. New Year is certainly the most appropriate time to be talking about making changes for the better in our lives.

Let’s ignore the fact that the majority of resolutions people make are broken, shall we?

A lot of us complain about the state of our lives. We’re poor or have a house that’s too small or there are too many bills.

I was reading a blog written by a woman who is trying to pay off the bills, save money, and get her financial life sorted out. I really liked the blog and followed it because I’d like to get my bills paid off faster, too.

However, she mentioned in one post how she was mad that her television had broken, but it was okay because they went out and bought a brand new $2000 television.

I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not making this up. I couldn’t read the blog after that. I couldn’t take her seriously.

So my question is this – are you really doing all you can do to improve the situations you complain about? Write want you need/want to get yourself out of the situations bringing you down and write about what life will be like once you’ve sorted those things out.

Take the exercise seriously because it could be just the kick in the pants you need to start planning out your future.

Hello once again on this lovely day after Christmas!

I have another prompt for you…

Earlier I asked you to write about your experiences from this Christmas, good or bad as they may be.

Now I would like you – after you have written about this Christmas so the memories don’t get changed – to write about your Christmases (or other holiday experiences if you don’t celebrate Christmas) of the past.

What were your Christmas experiences like as a child? Did you ever have any Christmases where ‘Santa couldn’t come to our house’ because money was tight? Was money fine but your parents were…not very creative and gave you school clothes every year? What were your favourite holiday traditions?

Whether they are good or bad, take a moment to delve into your past and remember your Christmases.

I loved Christmas when I was a child. My parents would take each of us kids our one at a time so we could buy presents for each other, which we got to open on Christmas eve. Then there was decorating the Christmas tree, which my mother and I usually did together.

My absolute favourite memory would have to be cookie night. One night in late November/early December, me, my mother, my aunt, and sometimes my grandmother and other aunt would get together and bake like crazy. One year it was just me and my mother, so my dad jumped in and helped too.

Anyway, we would bake and create dozens of different kinds of cookies for cookie boxes that would go to everyone we knew.

Good times.

How about yours?

Today I’ve decided not to do the random word bank. If you are truly eager for a random word bank, you can always talk to random people and ask them to give you words for your list.

You might make some new friends!

Given we are talking about love this week and there are so many things you can talk about when it comes to love, I decided to put up another “move me” prompt.

Yesterday I asked you to write about the ‘rosy glow’, first love type of love. That kind of love is wonderful and deserves its own place, but today I would like you to talk about a different kind of love.

This might not be possible to write about for some of the younger readers here, but if you don’t have direct experience you can interview people you know about theirs.

Today I would like you to talk about the long relationship kind of love. There comes a time in relationships when the rosy glow fades away and you see and feel a deeper kind of love. You may not be dreading every moment you spend apart anymore, but that’s because you’re secure in the knowledge that you love and are in love.

This deeper kind of love may take weeks, months, or even years, but time doesn’t matter. Deep love is something wonderful and should be cherished. It comes with security, understanding, and a lot more.

Write about this kind of deep love or interview people about their long relationships.

Love, love, love.

This week I am talking about the love that makes you feel funny and stumble over your words. The first attraction that makes you think of nothing other than what a wonderful person the object of your affections is even if he or she is, in reality, a completely annoying piece of humanity.

Aww.

I don’t mean to gross you out with the rose-tinted glasses type love commentary, but it’s a lovely feeling when you’re experiencing it. There is nothing quite akin to the feeling of feeling of having your worldly happiness depend so entirely on another human being.

Haha. It is a nice feeling, but I’m so glad I’m past it.

Today I would like you to write about what life is/was like when you had your first love. Maybe it happened in school or maybe at your first job. Perhaps your parents had friends with children your age, and one happened to catch your eye…

As long ago as it may have happened and no matter how it ended (if it has ended), I’m pretty sure you can remember the feelings you had back then. There are the mortifying moments when you said or did something very silly in front of the one you love(d). There are the daydreams and fantasies about what life would be like when you were finally with him/her.

Tap into those memories and get them down on paper. Not only are they part of what made you the person you are, they are excellent memories to draw on in your writer.

The world has a funny way of doing things sometimes.

For this week’s theme, I decided to go with loss and remembrance due to a friend of mine having a miscarriage. That was yesterday. Today I received a letter containing the news that my nephew has to have surgery (he’s about a year old) due to complications from being a premature baby and my mother has an inoperable brain tumour.

Granted this news doesn’t fit in with ‘loss and remembrance’, but if I thought I was feeling crappy yesterday I was only getting a taste of it.

To be honest, I didn’t want to post here or on any of my other blogs, but life must go on and there is nothing I can do about the other situations. I can’t even afford to fly to the States.

So life goes. The world keeps spinning and I must continue on with work.

Today I would like you to choose to do one of a few options. Or more than one should the mood strike.

Write your tale of remembrance. What or who did you lose? What do you remember about that person/thing and how do you remember it/him/her?

Write about your time of loss. Who or what did you lose? What did you do to cope? Do you still do things today to cope?

Combine the two and write about your full experience – the losing, the loss, and the remembrance.

We’ve all been through tough times and losses. Tap into that and write your heart out.

Welcome to a move me Tuesday here on Write Anyway. This week we’re discussing getting back to normal life after a big event happens. The topic is a rather broad one, and it happens to everyone, so I’m sure you can think of something to write about.

Take a few moments in front of your computer or notebook and take some deep breaths. This should clear your mind a bit so you can focus.

Think of a big (or small) event in your life that took you away from ‘normal’ life for any period of time. Perhaps you had a baby. Have you gone on vacation? Perhaps you got the chance to go to another country for a while and then came back. Or maybe you have gone through the unfortunate loss of a loved one.

Pick one event.

Not all of these events means going back to life exactly the way it was. The loss of a loved one could mean life was never quite the same afterward. Surgery could mean something changed physically and/or mentally. Even so, you had to at least attempt to find some normalcy or routine.

Write to me about that quest. What was it like for you when you settled back in? Did it take a long time for the ‘dust to settle’? How did life change from before the event to after the event? Would you want to go back to before the event?

Take some time and truly sort out the feelings surrounding the event and the things that changed because of it.

Happy Halloween everyone! While Australians don’t much get into Halloween, that doesn’t mean I have forgotten about it by any means. In my childhood I had my share of dressing up, parties, candy, scary music, and scary people handing out candy.

Today, instead of just having my usual random word bank, I am going to have the word bank for those of you who don’t/haven’t celebrated Halloween along with a challenge for those who have!

Let’s get started!

For those of you who don’t have any Halloween memories, feel free to use this random word bank like you do other Wednesdays. You can also use this as an opportunity to dust off your research skills and find out the roots of the holiday.

Moon
Wind
Mystery
Clear
Pebbles
Wide
Black
Stick
Hide
Night

Have fun!

For those of you who have Halloween memories to share, why not put them in your biography? Good, bad, whatever; no matter how bland you might think the memories are, they could be interesting to someone else. What was your favourite candy? Your favourite costume? Did your family have any Halloween traditions you loved? Hated?

If you are writing your biography in a journal, you could do it scrapbook style and include a few pictures if you have any. Don’t forget the Halloween traditions and fun you have now! Do you go out with friends? Do you take your kids out? Do you hand make their costumes? All are memories you might want to share with someone sometime.

Enjoy! Explore your memories.

Passion:

strong feeling or emotion
heat: the trait of being intensely emotional
rage: something that is desired intensely; “his rage for fame destroyed him”
mania: an irrational but irresistible motive for a belief or action
a feeling of strong sexual desire
love: any object of warm affection or devotion; “the theater was her first love”; “he has a passion for cock fighting”

Passion can come in many forms, be it a romantic, candlelit dinner or a rousing political speech. It can be quiet, loud, hard and unforgiving, or gentle and comforting.

What are you passionate about in your life?

Write about whatever stirs you, be it the love in your life or the latest political issue that really gets you going. Is there a particular book you’re reading or have just finished that has left you wanting all your friends to read it so you can all talk about it? Is there an issue in your community that isn’t being addressed that puts in speech mode – even if the only one you can give your speech to is your dog?

Examples of some of the things that get me going are my Pet Peeves over on Fiction Scribe. Some are merely small annoyances, but sometimes I tap into the real gems that make me so annoyed I could rant on about them for ages. Other things I get impassioned about are things like babies being fed things from McDonalds and the way overweight people are treated by other people, stores, etc.

It can truly be anything you care to write about in any form. Even write your own speech if you care to. Pick something that moves you and write your heart out.

There’s definitely something to that saying, you know. Even if it’s just a matter of locations around your own home. Where I live, I prefer doing work writing from my desk in the spare room, but I have found I have an easier time novel writing in my bedroom, strangely enough.

Yesterday I posted up some songs about various locations (feel free to post links to your favourite location songs in the comments) which I hope helped you get in the mood to write about this week’s theme.

Today I want you to think about a place you have travelled to. Where it was doesn’t matter, so long as you can get a clear picture of it in your mind.

Write about that place. Was it a completely foreign place? What made it different? Was there anything there that made it feel, look, smell, etc the same as ‘home’? Did you have to dress differently? Learn a different language? What about the food? The people? What did you like/dislike about the place? Do you want to go back?

Alternatively, if you have yet to travel and thus don’t have a place to write about, try writing about a place you would like to go. Real or made up, it’s your choice. Write about what the place is like or what you think it will be like. What makes you want to travel there? What appeals to you? What doesn’t appeal to you? If/when you go will you have to learn a new language or dress differently than you normally would?

Tell me about your strange and wonderful places.

Hosted by Elisa of The Book Stacks

Freedom can mean something different to each person that you ask. It’s a favorite theme of films, books, and music. Remember William Wallace in “Braveheart”? “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take… OUR FREEDOM!”

When you are a child, you dream of the freedom you’ll have when you grow up. Sometimes freedom can be getting out of a bad relationship. To some folks freedom is being able to marry whomever you wish. It’s a loss of impediment. It’s the ability to choose something for yourself.

What does freedom mean to you? Think of a time when you felt restricted. How old were you? What were you stopped from doing? Did you manage to overcome the opposition? If so, how did you reach your goal? If not, what did you try? Do you have a different perspective on the situation now?

Let me feel your frustration.

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!

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!

There’s nothing quite like unrequited love. You ache for the object of your affection. You think of how much better your life would be if that person would hurry up and love you back already.

S/He may do things wrong at times, but it’s okay because you still love him/her. Maybe s/he knows, maybe not. Should you tell? Perhaps you shouldn’t. And yet, when s/he comes into your view, your eyes all all for him/her and you wish nothing more than to run over and tell him/her everything is going to be okay.

What a feeling. I’ve been through it plenty of times and it never gets easier, and your mind never gets less rosy about it.

Today I want you to write about your unrequited love. You may have a few, but pick out one and go with it.

How did it happen? Did your love slowly grow, or did it hit you all of the sudden? What was s/he like? What made you fall so hard? Was s/he with someone else? Were you mortified if you did anything “stupid” around him/her?

Tell me about it.