Weekly Writing Prompt — June 13, 2012 Edition

Greetings Writers!

Those that attended the Sunday workshop are probably very busy editing. How about the rest of you? How is your writing life going?
Hope you are working diligently on your morning pages and your artist’s dates.
A bit of admin work before we move forward on our weekly prompts/exercises…
Once again the day and time of the workshops (our Sunday sessions) is up for reconsidering. The board will discuss it at our June 27th meeting; however, we’d like some input from all of you. What day and time would be best for you? Do let me know. Keep in mind that it will also need to fit into the Library’s availability as well as my availability. Regardless, when would be the perfect time for you to attend? Please send me your input before the end of the week. Thanks.
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We enter into Week FIVE with THE ARTIST’S WAY this week. It is titled:  “Recovering a Sense of Possibility.”
Before we dive in, I’d like to do the weekly check in:
1.  So how many days this week did you do your morning pages? How was the experience for you? I did 6 out of 7 this week. Not too shabby.

2.  Did you do your artist’s date this week? (Does your artist get to do more than rent a movie?) What did you do? How did it feel? I went to see Prometheus this week. It was a good artist date because I’m still thinking about the film and yearning to go see it again! Lots of writing fodder there!~

3.  Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it? Sometimes synchronicity isn’t that “in your face.” I’m sure my life this past week had some, I’m just not aware of it…yet.

4.  Were there any other issues this week that you consider significant for your recover? Describe them.

Now…this week you are being asked to examine your playoffs in remaining stuck. You will explore how you curtail your own possibilities by placing limits on the good you can receive. You will examine the cost of settling for appearing good instead of being authentic. You may find yourself thinking about radical changes, no longer ruling out your growth by making others the cause of your constriction.

“We listen to other people’s ideas of what is self-destructive without every looking at whether their self and our self have similar needs. Caught in the Virtue Trap, we refuse to ask ourselves, “What are my needs? What would I do it it weren’t too selfish?” 

Are you self-destructive?

This is very difficult question to answer. To begin with, it requires that we know something of our true self (and that is the very self we have been systematically destroying). 

One quick way to ascertain the degree of drift is to ask yourself this question:  what would I try if it weren’t too crazy? List five things.

PUT YOUR ANSWERS HERE
(For me it would be motorcycling from Argentina to Alaska, Buying and learning to play the violin, self-publishing, Taking a dance class, Go to Readercon…)
If your list looks pretty exciting, even if crazy, then you are on the right track. These crazy notions are actually voices from our true self.  What would you do if it weren’t too selfish? List five things.

PUT YOUR ANSWERS HERE
(For me it would be to continue freelancing from home to keep focusing on parenting my children appropriately, Start my master’s program, Start working out every day so I can motorcycle again without pain, Look through craigslist for a violin, check flights to Boston)
By seeking the creator within and embracing our own gift of creativity; we learn to be spiritual in this world, to trust that the universe is good and so are we and so is all of creation. In this way, we avoid the Virtue Trap.

THE VIRTUE-TRAP QUIZ
1. The biggest lack in my life is:

2.  The greatest joy in my life is:

3.  My largest time commitment is:

4.  As I play more, I work:

5.  I feel guilty that I am:

6.  I worry that:

7.  If my dreams come true, my family will:

8.  I sabotage myself so people will:

9.  If I let myself feel it, I’m angry that I:

10.. One reason I get sad sometimes is:  

Does your life serve you or only others? Are you self-destructive?

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And now your moment of Writing Zen:

“There is the risk you cannot afford to take; and, there is the risk you cannot afford not to take.” ~Peter Drucker. 


What did you Write today?
~Casz

Casondra Brewster
Moderator/Founder
Sno Valley Writes!
Helping Writers Reach New Literary Peaks Since 2008
http://www.snovalleywrites.org
Check us out on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/SnoValleyWrites

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.” ~ Lord Byron