Smart Old Wives' (Remedies) - writercize #159

Tonight my energy levels are dipping and my throat is on its way to Scratchville. It seems despite life in sunny Southern California, winter's cold season is beckoning. Since I would rather encourage it to pass me by, I'm turning to you, my wonderful readers, to share your knowledge about fighting colds the non-medicine way, in your own words.

writercize: Please tell me what Old Wives' Tale works to stave off sickness! If you know the science behind it, please share.

I will read your answers in the comments section with my own Old Wives' trick, a piping hot cup of tea with honey and lemon, in hand. And thank you!

PS - I signed up yesterday for the A to Z Blogging Challenge, an annual blogging event the month of April. If you participated before, I'd love to see you there again! If you haven't, check it out - it is a great international blogging event and I highly recommend it. For more info or to sign up, click on the badge to the right, open the #AtoZChallenge page above, or visit this article on Technorati news about blogging challenges: Benefits of Blogging Challenges.

Name that Group - writercize #158

I am sort of addicted to working for free. I write considerably more often than I earn money for writing, I volunteer as an usher and religious ed instructor at my Unitarian Universalist church, I signed on as a volunteer usher for a community theater group, I just offered to help put together the yearbook for my daughters' preschool this year, and I am the President of our local "twins club," the Beach Cities Parents of Multiples Association. I do not complain about any of these activities; I love every one of them and I really like to be actively involved in my community, but I must admit I have this odd relationship with money. I like to have it, naturally, but it appears it somehow spoils the experience of giving for me. I thrive off the connections and feeling of service and a far more driven by doing something to serve my community than a paycheck.

These days I get to stay home with my young children, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be home and see then grow and foster my relationship with them. I cherish it because I know they will not be small forever and because I know that I have decades of career opportunities ahead of me when the time is right. However, I am not able to dedicate myself to staying home with them without also dedicating myself to the organizations that are important to me. In this way I hope to show them responsibility and the importance if community, and that true value is tied to what a person can give rather than what a person can earn.

So what does all this have to do with today's writercize? Remarkably little, as the post ended up quite tangential, but let me steer you back to the original concept. It all relates loosely to a writercize idea that stemmed from watching the SAG Awards and listening to the announcement that if members approve a merger, the group will be named SAG-AFTRA. Quite the mouthful.

The two parenting groups that I an involved in are called the Beach Cities Parents of Multiples Association and the Hip Mamas. The church preschoolers' class I teach is called the Pixies. Several of the twin groups around the country have cutesy names like Terrific Twosomes or Double Blessings, Act Two Moms, Gemini Crickets. When our club was founded 20 years ago, it seems they went practical over creative in the name, which certainly serves its purpose. I think a club name says a lot about the club's approach to policies and how it serves its members, so I want to name a few groups with you.

writercize: Create a name for each of the following clubs:

• bowling team
• professional networking association
• actors troupe
• mommy group
• writing critique group

Leave your reply as a comment. This should be an easy writercize for some quick word play to loosen the verbal dam in your mind!

Click read more for writercizer sample response.

#WeekendWritercize 3 Winner: LupusAnthropos

It looks like this week's prompt stumped the lot of you, but there was one entry that was quite well executed and is absolutely deserving of the #WeekendWritercize winner badge.

Once again, here was the prompt:

writercize: Use the published poem of your choice to inspire original prose.

Congrats to Winner

LupusAnthropos (a #WeekendWritercize 1 Honorable Mention!)

LA chose a poem about fickle fortune and life's difficulties that I was previously unfamiliar with, called "Das Glück ist eine leichte Dirne," by Heinrich Heine and used it as the inspiration for a modern-day tale about a man who wins at gambling but loses in life along his drive home. 

The inspiration was clear, but the story was entirely new, which was exactly what I was looking for!

In the course of one night, Kevin Sanderson goes from winning $50,000 to getting served, while he steps out of a newly dented car and watches a tree limb being lifted from his crushed roof. That's a world of conflict in a mere 620 words! Read the entire story here.

Very well done. Please pick up your badge below.

I would also like to acknowledge November Rain who wrote a lovely story about an artist and his love, looking in through a wrinkle in time. It was for the Friday prompt, so ineligible for this week's badge, but a very nice entry into the writercize world and I look forward to more of her work in future #WeekendWritercizes!

Please come back Saturday morning at nine for another #WeekendWritercize with a slightly simpler premise. And of course check in throughout the week for lots of great non-competition writercizes to try!

#WeekendWritercize 3: Poem to Prose

Welcome to the third edition of the #WeekendWritercize competition!

Join in and spread the word to friends and family! 

(...and if you haven't had a chance to read entries from the last two weeks, check them out on the #WeekendWritercize tab - talent abounds)

writercize: Use the published poem of your choice to inspire original prose. 

You may select any poem you like or use the one below. There is no word limit and you are free to frame it as a short story, single scene or vignette.

If you do not use the poem below, please provide the title and author of the poem at the top of your entry so that I can reference it.

"I Died For Beauty" 

by Emily Dickinson

I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth - the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a-night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names. 

Have someone else in mind or want to browse? Find more poems here: www.poemhunter.com

To enter the competition, leave your entry as a comment below. Be sure to include your Twitter handle and link to your blog or website. Tweet and Facebook fellow entries using the hashtag #WeekendWritercize.

Since this blog is used by teachers and students, I kindly request that you abstain from profanity and gratuitous violence. (In other words, keep it PG-13.) If your story can't be told without, just provide a link to your post on your own website along with a disclaimer.

Competition closes at 11:59 p.m. Sunday night (Pacific time) - no entries accepted after that. Winner announced Monday.

This week's winner and honorable mention(s) will receive a #WeekendWritercize Winner badge to proudly display on their website.

Thanks and good luck!

Wrinkling in Time - writercize #157

Whenever I hear or think about the concept of time, the book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle pops into my head. I read it in sixth grade and honestly can't remember much of the story at all, but I know that I loved it, despite my otherwise lukewarm feelings towards Sci Fi, and should probably read it again very soon. I think of it when I watch movies in which perfect dads open the front door to a freshly manicured lawn and walk along a pathway to collect the morning paper, amid sprinklers. There is a scene in the book that has been permanently etched into my brain about this very scene, in a neighborhood where everyone walks out to get the paper together. The story may have vanished, but the images are strong and sound.

Moving on ... this post is inspired by the title, but as I can't remember the tale it's a different take on wrinkling time. (I think!) 

I want to spark your creative juices and give you the ability to travel into any period of time, past, present or future. Why present? Because you have full control over the topic and can give your younger or older self the possibility to visit your current self. Basically, you can wrinkle time any which way you like.

writercize: You can travel through time, either in your present day body to any point in history past or future, or in your younger or older body to current time. It is only a wrinkled effect, so you still exist in the present as yourself while you are simultaneously projected elsewhere, as though two points in time are touching briefly. 

Where do you go and what is the effect of the time travel? Do you relive a memory by watching it again, experience a period in history that you are intrigued by, look at future generations, observe or attempt to alter?

Leave your time wrinkled experience as a comment or link to your blog to share!

(Post inspired by GBE 2 prompt "Time." GBE 2, aka the Group Blogging Experience, is a Facebook blogging group that provides weekly prompts. There is always room and a welcoming vibe!)

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.

Branded - writercize #156

Before I move along to today's post about branding, let me take a moment to brand this blog. Did you see that I am a Top Writing Blog nominee through eCollegeFinder and voting is open through February 3? Yay! Click on the button at the top of the column to your right to cast your vote. Just scroll down to writercize, check it and hit submit. Reload and repeat. I'd love it if you voted for writercize, but seriously check out the list, there are some awesome blogs on there.

Now, onto branding and today's writercize... 

Think for a moment about the conclusions you draw about a person based on material images. Is there a difference between a Ford person and a Chevy person? How about a Hummer and a Prius? Do you make a judgment about what a person is like whether they are wearing Oakleys or aviator sunglasses? How about Levi's versus Guess, Starbucks versus Dunkin' Donuts, Whole Foods versus Walmart? Are there fundamental differences in who we are based on the branding decisions we make every day?

Like it or not, as humans we do use images of these brands to determine a person's character and values. As writers, we can substitute brands for characteristics, if used sparingly. We can also draw on brands to identify location without spelling it outright, by using local chains in a story. I understand this is a technique that Steven King sometimes utilizes in his novels, although I have to admit I have yet to read anything that he has written. Again, I would not litter my prose with brands, knowing that it could date the story quickly or feel more like an infomercial than a novel, but the occasional drop helps the reader understand a character's circumstances.

For example, rather than say a person is concerned about safety on the road and is always thinking about how to make the family safer, you can say she pulled her Volvo out of the parking lot. If you want to make a country boy feel out of place in the big city, have him walk up to a Saks wearing Wranglers.

writercize: Pick three to five adjectives you would use to describe the user of each of the following brands:

• Gatorade
• FUBU
• Pottery Barn
• Northface (or REI if unfamiiar)
• Toyota Prius

If you are up for an extra challenge, work at least one into a scene.

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response.

Word Shower - writercize #155

This writing prompt will literally make you want to sing out, "It's raining words!"

Well, maybe not quite, but it should shake a little brainstorm loose at the very least. I was inspired to post this exercise after a very rainy day in LA yesterday. It may not rain often here, but when it rains the skies open up and the water pours out of the sky. So, feeling the effects of the weather, I want you to take a word snd throw out a laundry list of word associations to go along with it. These could be adjectives, adverbs, associated memories, related nouns, whatever you see fit.

writercize: Pick one of the atmospheric words below, and write a list of 10-20 words or short phrases that you associate with the given word. When your list is complete, use a few of the to write a poem, short story or descriptive sentence.

• cloud
• rainbow
• flood
• sprinkle
• sunny

The word associations do not need to be weather related, and references to homophones okay. I'd love to see what you came up with!

Share your result as a comment below, or if you post it to your blog please share the link!

Click "read more" for writercizer sample response - 20 words and a brief paragraph based on the prompt "flood."