this week, write a love letter
to yourself, as you are right now, or
to an animal species
to your dog or other animal companion
to the season
to the planet
to the stars or a star
to a book
to water
to your body
to your home
to something in your home
to your middle- or high-school self
from the perspective of someone holding a crush (āSince itās Valentineās, I wanted to tell you how I feel about youā¦ I saw you in home roomā)
from your adult self now
strategy suggestion: if itās available to you to do so, write this letter by hand. get comfortable, and have fun, or make it dramatic, and have drama. got a pen with feathers to write with? got a fuzzy notebook or some fancy stationary? got a favorite cafe you like to be intellectual in, where you can write on the inside of a pack of cigarettes or an espresso-stained napkin? donāt rush thisāreally think about what you want to say, really concentrate on the subject. get on an epistolary perch and make a scene out of it. love letter to the earth? go lean on your notebook on a rock in a field. love letter to your dog? go snuggle her! to your 15-year-old self? get out some pictures of him and think about what he needs to hear to believe that he is loved.
Readerās Corner
Whenever I get a reader question I think others might have, Iāll respond in a post š« Hereās a question this week from Tobi: āDo your clients typically post their journal responses to the prompts? Or are those typically private and personal?ā
Thanks for asking this question, Tobi!
I write these prompts to help you practice your creative writing each weekāhow you choose to use them depends on you! You can use prompted writing practice to:
experiment with writing descriptively and taking risks
generating images, scenes, and descriptions you may be able to use in a public piece of writing or specific writing project
find the beginning of a new writing project ā if one idea really gets you going, it could turn into something bigger for you! let it.
You can also use prompts to form a writing group (or 1-1 partnership) around, or to anchor a writing group in weekly reflective discussion.
Some of these prompts I give to my clients as writing exercises, where we go back and discuss the content, experience and process, and any discoveries that were made. Your group might do this, with everyone (or a rotating selection of people) share their findings and the work they produce each week. I highly suggest setting specific parameters when creating a writing group like this.
Some endeavoring writers might want to make their private writing publicāposting the result of a prompted writing session on social media or sharing on their blog (citing the source of the prompt in question of course).
But donāt do this or share your practice in a writing group if either kind of sharing would make you risk āperformingā in your prompted writing. That would not be the point.
The primary purpose of prompts whether public or private is simply to practice. Prompted pieces may very well turn in to essays, poems, books, anything you might want to share later on! Or they might be scrawled on some looseleaf each week and burned in the fire.
Thanks for answering the question :)