Swinging gently in a hammock is a classic vision of how to spend summer days. As a metaphor for letting our brains relax and free associate to give our writing selves a rest it makes sense, and I highly recommend it. However, there’s another summer analogy that can be helpful. Summer vacations, hold the possibility of going someplace new, and learning things we don’t encounter during our schedule lives. We might travel to locations entirely different than the one we live in, or seek out museums, concerts, foods, friends, and family that aren’t available to us most of the year. Our writing can be approached in the same way, especially if we feel a regularity or staleness in what we have been creating. So, take your writing self on vacation. Relocate your writing in another genre. Find a new point of view, a different voice. Think of this shift the way you think of going to the beach, kayaking through white water, or rambling around the streets of an unfamiliar city. Shift your comfort zone and take a risk.
Would writing dialogue sestinas or sonnets refresh your writing? Dialogue? What about a comedic play? Would writing a prose poem open up character development or plot? Summer can give us space to try something new: hang gliding, growing cucumbers, experimenting with an absurdist plot. What do these ‘unpracticed’ activities tell us about our familiar ways of expressing ourselves? Our creative brains need to ramble into surprise. Experimenting with something that is unfamiliar can reveal capacities we didn’t know we had or offer new-found delight. We don’t know until we try, and that is so often what summer holds for us. A chance to break out of the everyday and find that part of us that has been waiting for a fresh perspective. Remember how good it feels to be away from the expected and finding a vista that makes us exhale and feel newly discovered?
Upcoming Events
Heat Wave Workshop! Need a reprieve from simmering temperatures? Join me for a two-day, in-person, open-genre, all-out spree of writing past the humidity and scorch. We will meet in Amherst, Massachusetts on July 11th & 12th and write in response to prompts that can only be delivered in person. We will follow the Amherst Writers & Artists workshop method of trust and respect; writers of all experience levels are welcome; space limited. Cost: $300. Information: maureen@maureenbjones.com
Prompt Photo
