A reader asked me if I’d post some of the writing exercises we did at the Wellness Community in
Here are the exercises we did:
(All were timed to five minutes – and then read aloud.)
– Write about your worst moments this past month, write about the best ones.
– Focus on what your five senses are picking up right now at this minute and write about it. (This is a good exercise to do every time you write in your journal – especially if you’re new to keeping one. It quiets down your mind and grounds you.)
– Write about the time you were told you had cancer – or heard that a loved one had it. (prompt came from reading Alice Hoffman’s wonderful New York Times essay “Sustained by Fiction While Facing Life’s Facts “ about her breast cancer.)
– Write about surviving something. Prompt came from “Survival” a poem by Ted Kooser.
– Write about what you have control over. Prompt came from Elizabeth Edward’s book Resilience p.32-33 about the total lack of control she felt having cancer, and from an interview with Sheryl Crow in the L.A. Times who said pretty much the same thing.
– Since it was Halloween – Imagine you’re going to a costume party tonight. Who do you want to go as? Explain your costume in detail. (Amazing how many people loathed Halloween and hated parties. Which made for a more interesting exercise.)
– Write a list of three wonderful things to do for yourself this coming month.
On my morning walk today listening to the radio I heard a DJ ask, “What’s the most valuable thing you’ve ever lost or found?” And I thought wow. What a great writing exercise. Try it.
Apologies to readers who left such nice comments under “About Writing Time” – I hadn’t checked those comments since 2006 (!) but just read and answered them the other day.
I’m off to
7 comments for “Writing Prompts from The Wellness Community and a DJ”