Judy Reeves
September Member Teleseminar
September 23, 2016
11 AM PDT    12 PM MDT    1 PM CDT   2 PM EDT

Someone says, “Write about a full moon,” and a slight hum of response tickles the writer’s fingers. Just a word: “mosaic” or “iridescent” or “skin,” and images appear as if by magic. A line from a poem: “A year after your death…” or from a book: “She learned to tell time with her skin” and stories begin to form without our even knowing it. These writing prompts are music that invites us to dance. Just a word, a phrase, an evocative quote and the writer sets her own rhythm and makes up her own steps. Effective writing prompts of the sort we’ll discuss, tap into the intuitive and cause a spilling forth images and words, rememberings and imaginings, unique to each writer. The prompt itself may not have much, if anything, to do with what finally gets written. It serves only as a starting point, a place for the writer to swoop off the cliff and glide into the winds of her imagination and memory.

We are going to take some time to write from a prompt. Join us to dance with your writing!

What members will gain/learn from the discussion:

• How writing prompts tap into the intuitive and evoke spontaneous, authentic writing

• How to use writing prompts for a work-in-progress, to begin something new, or to go deeper into a piece or a section or scene

• What makes an effective, evocative writing prompt

• Where to find/how to create your own prompts

• The effects of spontaneity in using prompts for generating fresh material

Judy Reeves bio: 

Judy Reeves is a writer, teacher and writing practice provocateur whose books include A Writer’s Book of Days, named “Best Nonfiction” in the 2010 San Diego Book Awards; Writing Alone, Writing Together; A Creative Writer’s Kit and The Writer’s Retreat Kit. Her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry has appeared in the San Diego Reader; The Frozen Moment; A Year in Ink; Connotations Press; Serving House Journal; Waymark; and Expressive Writing, Classroom and Community, and other journals and anthologies. Two plays, written with a women’s writing ensemble, were produced by the Fritz Theater. In addition to leading private writing workshops and retreats, Judy teaches at San Diego Writers, Ink, a nonprofit literary organization she co-founded, and at writing conferences internationally. Her latest release is the Wild Women, Wild Voices-Writing from Your Authentic Wildness. Her website is judyreeveswriter.com.  She blogs at livelymuse.com.