What was your best birthday? Weirdly my birthdays are getting better and better. (Weirdly because I’m getting older and older in a major way.) My current birthday (today) is so major that I only allow my new age to be said in French. “Soixante-dix, Babs?” my grandchildren yell at me. “How old are you…
Writing Exercises
Writing Exercises
The Soundtrack For Your Life
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 5 Comments
I'm conducting a writing workshop at the Wellness Community in Redondo Beach, California this Saturday (2/21) from nine to noon. The workshop is for anyone whose life has been touched by cancer – your own or a loved one. It's free and it's oddly a lot of fun. I've been conducting the workshop for eleven years.…
Writing Exercises
Tickets for A Different Show
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 7 Comments
On Saturday at the Wellness Community writing workshop we did a lot of five minute exercises using poems as prompts, including “Riveted” by Robyn Sarah. Try it yourself: 5 minutes – What show did you hope your tickets were for? Riveted by Robyn Sarah It is possible that things will not get betterthan they…
Writing Exercises
Writing Cats and Dogs
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 12 Comments
My cats Stuart and Charlotte, who share my office (my husband’s allergic to them and this is where they have to live) are now in their sunset years. They just turned seventeen and if they were human they would be entering college soon. As felines though they’re pushing ninety. I love these cats even if…
Writing Exercises
Masks and Costumes
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 11 Comments
My UCLA advanced personal non-fiction workshop ended with a potluck at my house yesterday. It’s amazing how close people get in just six weeks when they’re reading their essays and memoir chapters aloud to each other. (And how terrifying it is to do that the first time.) As D. said yesterday, these people know more…
Writing Exercises
A Writing Exercise
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 3 Comments
Is it starting to rain? Did the check bounce? Are we out of coffee? Is this going to hurt? Could you lose your job? Did the glass break? These are the opening lines of “Afraid So”, a poem by Jeanne Marie Beaumont which simply lists questions about possible disasters big and small, ending with the…
Writing Exercises
Some Writing Prompts
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 4 Comments
Last weekend I did one of my favorite things in this world: I conducted the Wellness Community writing workshop in Redondo Beach. I don’t actually do a whole lot – I just bring in some poems and prose by wonderful writers to inspire everybody, give five minute writing exercises, and then everyone reads aloud what…
Writing Exercises
Driving With Jane
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 10 Comments
Someone once gave me the CDs (about eight hours worth) of Jane Fonda’s autobiography My Life So Far , and a few weeks ago I began to listen to them in the car. I’d never tried any books on tape before. My friends Carol and Cy who take a lot of road trips do this all…
Writing Exercises
Writing Exercise for Thanksgiving Day
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 4 Comments
We writers often complain a lot – I do anyway – so here’s an exercise to write in your journal tomorrow: What do you have to be thankful about in your writing? What a concept! Most of us are so busy wringing our hands over not enough time, or not enough courage or ideas or…
Writing Exercises
Writing With Feathers
by Barbara Abercrombie • • 10 Comments
After years of suggesting (imploring) that everybody in the Wellness Community writing workshop keep a journal, I finally gave an exercise this morning on the subject: If you keep a journal (diary, notebook), what do you get out of it? Or if you don’t keep one, why not? Here are excerpts of some of the…
