As a writing coach who crafts two prompts each week for members of the Sovereign Writers Circle, I look everywhere for inspiration.
Conversations with clients and with my kids. The latest headlines and the real-life ripples and unfounded fears they create. Tarot cards, symbols from nature, and the song I can’t get out of my head.
And sometimes, I just look at the calendar and it feels as if the prompts have already been written for me.
Though I stressed a little about offering something so basic as gratitude and feasting on this week of American Thanksgiving, I allowed myself to take the path that seems to be more travelled.
Based on the feedback from my writers this afternoon, it was exactly the right move.
To tell the story of where you are right now… It’s the hardest thing to do sometimes. In the quest to “go deep” we ignore the very real, very powerful, very necessary stories right in front of us.
And so, before you pack the car or find yourself elbow deep in a bird, I invite you to pick up a pen and write into the not-so-obvious stories that are hiding in plain sight.
Prompt 1: The Gratitude Story
Gratitude… We know it’s essential medicine. We know that gratitude transforms the mundane into the magical. We know that gratitude is the glue.
And gratitude… Sometimes it seems to trendy, too easily preached and too rarely practiced. Sometimes it seems at once too simplistic and too damn hard.
Grapple with gratitude, with all its light and shadow. Search out the sweetness and dare to explore the bitterness too.
Prompt 2: The Feast Story
Write the story of a holiday gathering. It could be a specific Thanksgiving meal. It could be a composite of all the times the family gathered around the table. It could be the yet unwritten story of 2018 or a dream you have for years in the future.
Try to write it from your first person point of view. And then, consider stepping outside yourself and tell the story according to the view of someone else or from an omniscient narrator’s perspective.
Write with us on Thursday, November 29
The next free community writing practice is coming up the week after Thanksgiving. Expect some brand new writing prompts and the warmth and wisdom that gets generated when healers, seekers, and creatives gather together to make time to write.
Plan to us at noon ET on 11/29. If you can’t make it live, please do sign up anyway and you’ll get the prompts and the meeting recording later that same day.
Think your community could use some writing prompts that will help them review their relationship with gratitude and see the Thanksgiving gathering in a new way? Please forward this message or share it on Facebook.