Prompts and Daily Pages
Last week's prompts, next week's prompts, and the first in a series about Daily Pages
Hello Writer,
Welcome back to Live/Write Balance. I have decided to begin this writing adventure - a Substack newsletter - the same way I begin with every new client on their writing adventure, whatever that might be.
Let’s talk Daily Pages. I say they are the most important tool in a writer’s pack of writing goodies. Fight me. I dare you.
Do you have a regular writing and/or journaling habit? I’d love to see your responses in the chat. If yes, please tell me about it. If no, would you like some help setting that up?
But first: Last week’s two-word journaling prompts*:
#80 – Strength and Bulge
#81 – Gasp and Refine
#82 - Precision and Beleaguered
#83 – Tether and Flounder
#84 – Calm and Repeat
#85 – Generate and Side
TODAY: #86 – Puzzle & Approach
The most interesting word pairing for me this week was #81 - Gasp and Refine. This is what I had to say about this prompt:
When I see the word gasp, I think of drama. And then I think of how much I enjoy making people gasp when they read my work or hear me read it to an audience.
I love that. I love causing an effect. I love causing a little bit of drama.
How do you apply refine to that? Well, I can tell you that it has taken work, years of work, to practice and refine my writing skills and my storytelling skills to the point where people gasp where I want them to, and don’t gasp like, Ugh. That was terrible.
I’m sure that probably happens, still, today. But so what? I also get the gasps where I want them. And that’s important.
So where in your life do you use the power to make people gasp?
*This week’s prompts are down at the end of the page, right after The Week Ahead.
So. Let’s talk Daily Pages. This week, a little history. Next week, a little more practical info.
My community’s Daily Pages evolved from Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages, which she first shared with the world in 1992 inside The Artist’s Way. More than 30 years later, people all over the world continue to find their way back to creativity through the process outlined in this book.
In my writing community, To Live And Write, we began with Morning Pages and good intentions. But I have made so many adaptations over the years to accommodate so many different kinds of writers that I have to call what we do Daily Pages instead.
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