Writing Ideas

Writing and Healing Idea #5: A Shopping Spree

Posted by Diane Morrow on September 2, 2006 in Writing Ideas

You are again invited to suspend disbelief. In this case you are invited to imagine that you have five thousand dollars to spend solely on something—anything—any combination of things—that will contribute to your healing. Your task is to prepare a list of how you would spend this five thousand dollars if the sum were handed to you tomorrow. In addition, you can, if you’d like, include a narrative as to why these particular purchases might be important to your healing. If, after careful consideration, you decide that you need more than five thousand dollars, then go ahead and write about...

Writing and Healing Idea #4: The Easiest Writing and Healing Exercise Ever

Posted by Diane Morrow on August 28, 2006 in Practice, Writing Ideas

Take a moment before going to bed. One minute or three minutes—five at the most. Make a cup of tea if you like. Then open a notebook. And write a single word that describes the day. Just one word. An adjective perhaps: LOUSY. SWEET. DIFFICULT. A noun that could describe a moment from the day: PURPLE CROCUS. PANCAKES. NEW SHOES. A verb: SWIMMING. HURTING. RUNNING. Any word at all. Or, if you are too tired to write that word, write down, simply, I am too tired to write tonight. And that can be enough. The idea here is to grow the habit of writing every day–even if it’s only to write one sentence–or one word. This can be how a writing practice begins. Photo is from a time lapse video of a crocus opening by Neil...

Writing and Healing Idea #3: The Body as a Healing Place

Posted by Diane Morrow on August 21, 2006 in Writing Ideas

This idea for writing begins before you ever put a word on the page. It begins by bringing attention, first, to the body. Your hands. Your arms. The arrangement of your limbs and body in space. Notice, for a moment, what you feel when you bring this kind of attention to your body. What do you feel in your hands? What do you feel in your feet? What do you feel in your hips? You can, if you like, write a word, or a few words, that describe this sensation. Next take a moment to notice what you could do, right now, to make your body more comfortable. Take off your shoes? Change into more comfortable clothes? Something else? Write this down too. And then if you’d like, go ahead and do it. Get settled again. Now take a moment and just invite your feet to relax. And notice what happens. Write a word, or a few words, about what you notice. And then, if you’d like, begin to notice what you are feeling in the rest of your body. Move upward from your feet to your calves. Your thighs. Your hips. Your belly. Consider your back muscles. Your neck muscles. Your shoulders. Pay attention. Notice what happens when you invite each of the different parts of your body to relax. Notice the sensation. Make a few notes about the sensations you are experiencing. This process of noticing your body is sometimes called a body scan. You are literally scanning each part of your body with your conscious attention. Writing can facilitate this process. It can amplify the experience of noticing. And this kind of noticing can, in turn, facilitate...

Writing and Healing Idea #2: Freewriting

Posted by Diane Morrow on August 16, 2006 in Writing Ideas

If you’ve ever read Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones or if you’ve ever written morning pages in the style of The Artist’s Way, or if you’ve ever run across freewriting in one of its thousand other permutations, then you may already be quite familiar with the process of freewriting. If not, the gist of the matter is that when you choose freewriting you really do have a free ticket: you can write whatever you like. And you can write in whatever style you like. Freewriting, at its essence, is about reclaiming permission—permission to write a lot of words and sentences that no one else ever needs to see, and then beginning to notice, gradually, that something is beginning to emerge. Meaning perhaps. Or insight. Surprising words. Surprising sentences. Small nuggets of value. Gold of a sort. Jewels. You can choose a time when you know you will have fifteen or twenty minutes of uninterrupted time. The first thing in the morning?. The last thing in the evening? You can make a mug of tea, or coffee. You can find a comfortable chair. And then you can, simply, start writing. You can, for instance, write in response to the invitation to design a healing retreat. You can, if you’d like, write in response to this whole notion of writing and healing. What are some of your secret hopes for writing and healing? What are your secret fears? And what in the world is writing and healing anyway? If you can, as you write, try to keep your pen moving as much as possible. Worry not about spelling or punctuation or grammar, or whether what you are writing makes any sense for that matter. All of this is a part of the permission that freewriting offers. You can write that you have nothing to write about. That you have no clue where you’d go for a healing retreat. That you wish you’d bought a different pen. You can begin with your secret hopes for writing and healing, and then in the middle you can stop and switch directions and you can write about. . . what? The ants in your kitchen? Your aunts? The street you lived on as a child? The sky’s the limit here. And beyond that—stars, constellations, galaxies. You can make a list of all the constellations you know, and some you’ve never heard of but you wish they existed, and then you can if you like, come back to this notion of writing and healing and you can write about what in the world the stars might have to do with it. You really can’t do this...

Writing and Healing Idea #1: Designing a Healing Retreat

Posted by Diane Morrow on August 13, 2006 in Healing Places, Writing Ideas

Imagine for a moment that you go to your mailbox. You find there an envelope—a small white square. You open the envelope to find an invitation–to a healing retreat. A sheet of paper accompanying the card offers details: For six weeks, it has become possible for all of your ordinary routines and responsibilities to be suspended. Work schedules have been rearranged. Children will be safe and well-cared for. Any appointments (or medical treatments) have been rescheduled such that they will not interfere. In fact, any and all obstacles standing in the way of this retreat have been removed. In addition, your house or apartment will be cared for in your absence. Plants will be watered. Floors swept. The refrigerator cleaned out. Your task, now, is simply to design—in writing—or perhaps with drawings—this retreat. In order to design this retreat you may find yourself needing to suspend disbelief. (Someone is really going to clean out my refrigerator for me?) Go ahead. Suspend. Once you’ve done so you may find the following questions useful in designing your retreat: Where would you like the retreat to take place? What weather do you like? What kind of light? What resources would you like available close by? Walking trails? A piano? A swimming pool? A lake? What kind of accommodations do you prefer? Will the place have a porch? A window? Would you like to be alone in this place? Or do you prefer company? And what kind of company? Do you prefer quiet? Or noise? What sounds do you imagine in this place? What about smells? What does the sky look like in this place? How does the air feel? Where will you sit? Where will you sleep? What will you eat? How will the refrigerator be stocked? Who will prepare your food? What would you like to do on the first day? On a typical day? Is there anything else that’s important to the design of this retreat? What else? Please note that the seed for this invitation to design a healing retreat comes from a short chapter in Deena Metzger’s book, Writing for Your Life. The chapter, entitled, “Setting Up a Retreat,” can be found on p. 81. Photo is of the original Wildacres Retreat Cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina where I had the good fortune to spend a week of writing retreat on two different occasions. You can learn more about Wildacres Retreats here. They’ve added two additional cabins since I stayed...

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