Thursday’s Work-in-Progress


As you know, I’m on vacation from the day job this week and attempting a self-organized, stay-right-here-in-NYC writing retreat of sorts. But I’d never abandon my routine altogether, so our June newsletter has gone out to subscribers right on schedule.

If you subscribe, you already know about the featured Q&A with Midge Raymond, whose most recent book is Everyday Writing: Tips and Prompts to Fit Your Regularly Scheduled Life. And you’ve already learned that prompts and exercises are crucial to the book.

I’ve been a fan of the prompts that Midge shares on her blog for quite awhile, so I wasn’t surprised to find myself eager to try the ones she has placed in the book. I can vouch for their appeal and flexibility.

In fact, Jane Friedman recently posted a sampling of these Everyday Writing exercises online, so you can go ahead and check them out for yourself pretty easily.

You’ll notice that one of the prompts reads as follows:

“Describe what you looked like at the age of five.”

This is one of the first prompts I tackled when I read my review copy. What I remembered and wrote inspired me to dig up my kindergarten photo this week. Now, I want to try the prompt again. And I just may do exactly that before this “retreat” is over.