Zoom into the Imaginative Storm 10-26-24

“When my friend asked if I'd have any interest in attending a writing workshop, I immediately said YES. For the long month in wait I waffled, I was stressed, I felt the pressure, I wanted to cancel.  Then, Allegra taught us an incredibly simple way to unlock our creativity. So incredibly grateful I held to my mantra of ‘Do things that push your boundaries’!”— Brenda, Basalt, CO

Right now I’m in Nova Scotia, about to start day 3 of a 5-day memoir workshop. Last week was a 2-day Imaginative Storm intensive in Colorado. Brenda arrived saying she hadn’t slept for six weeks since signing up, she was so nervous! After 5 minutes she was laughing, and wrote brilliantly.

I’ll do another workshop in Paonia, CO, next May, and another 5-day memoir workshop n Nova Scotia in October - so make plans now if you’re anywhere near either place!

Please join us today for the Prompt of the Week at 9 am PT / noon ET. Click here for the Zoom link.

And please invite anyone you think would enjoy our session to join us! You can share this email or send them the following link:

https://imaginativestorm.com/writing-prompt-of-the-week.

The Zoom links for both Saturday and Thursday sessions can also always be found in the footer at imaginativestorm.com.

Next “Write What You Don’t Know” 10-week Zoom course begins Tuesday, January 21, 2025

The current course sold out, so if you’re interested in the next one, reserve your spot now. It will sell out!

“Write What You Don’t Know” audio course

Now available! For $137, you can listen to me and Navé guide you step by step through Write What You Don’t Know. You can download it from your favorite podcast platform, and listen to it anywhere. Maybe go for a walk and sit beneath a tree to write? Plus, there is an audio “prompt archive” so you can hear what other people wrote to the prompts you’re working with.

You can learn more about it here.

Here’s a taster: the prompt archive for the Session 2 prompt “I effing hate.”

Last week’s Exquisite Storm: “I Need Not Continue”

An Exquisite Corpse (so named by the Surrealists) is a “found poem” made up of disconnected parts, but we prefer to call it the Exquisite Storm. Each writer in our Saturday Each writer in our Saturday Prompt of the Week session offered one line from the 10-minute piece they generated.

Last week we were inspired by a photo found online. The title comes from the first line, spoken by Esmé Olivia. To hear it read aloud by the writers, click through to YouTube.

I need not continue standing on one leg. 
People sold electricity, America’s addiction 
to the screen is suddenly kicked to the curb.
 Jellyfish in the sea, the rats of the ocean. 
Everyone will be searching the sky for 
the next accident. Are you going to eat that, 
or are you going to hold your breath 
until the next permission slip comes? 
To lose my mind on purpose. Strike out 
to the blue skies of aging well. I see the sun,
 and it burns my heart, and warms my skin, 
the grate giving way to the heat, giving up 
the juice to become the raisin. She sent up 
hot signals in her 40s, making hay with a fellow. 
Don't be misled by the blue skies, nothing but 
blue skies, belying the infernal fire that swept 
the town away. Behind the melting skin canvas. 
Whoa! What happened here? He wanted a permission 
slip to enter a time warp transporting him back 
to his teen years—as is the case in fairy tales, 
accidents happen. Kissing my blue, warty headed 
turkey is a leap indeed, he and I connect across 
the bridge of what's called ugly, gross, and repulsive. 
See the canary sing and fly away from this imprisoned 
gold mine. Seasons cling to nothing. Now and then 
and before, all at the same time. So you came back. 
I never left. Saying stop as an act of kindness. 
There is no more stopping light. We will not melt 
down even though we observe our narcissistic society 
decay. If a white snow leopard should lazily stalk 
the crosswalk, mind would more readily accept.

ORDER OF SPEAKERS: Esmé Olivia, Linda Smith, Celia, Martin Dilger, Genevia Hendry, Eve Stern, Barbara Benedict, Rick, Kathleen Wilson, Arlene Shapiro, Kelsey Walters, Glenna Tinney, Andi Young, Corinne Crone, Chris Perkowska, Sandi Dittmer, James Navé, Maria Wasson, Stewart Mintzer, Krista Thronburg, Michele Kiley, Maria Eugenia Ortega

If you’d like to make a contribution . . .

. . . to keep the Imaginative Storm Prompt of the Week going, you can find our “tip jar” in the footer at imaginativestorm.com. If you already support us, thank you!

The Prompt of the Week will remain free to all who want to join us. Please invite your friends!