Cafe Writing

Love Letters?
I wasn’t going to cave and do a Valentine theme for this month, but since I’m late in starting it, and it’s a short month anyway, and y’all are SO GOOD at spinning the themes in new and interesting directions, I thought, “Why not?”

I confess, every single thing each of you writes is like getting a Valentine, every month.
Remember to tag your posts with Café Writing, or link to us in some fashion.

By the way, all of the quotations for this project are taken from actual love letters.

This Project will be live through the end of February. When a new Project opens, the previous one is closed.

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Option One Can You Picture That?
Use the following photo to inspire a piece of writing in any form (poetry, prose, whatever).
(Please remember to copy the image to your own server, and include photo credit when it is known.)

Photo Credit: Xaviarnau via iStockPhoto

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Option Two Poetry

If I did have an honest — or dishonest — desire to kiss just one or two people, I might — but I couldn’t want to — my mouth is yours.
~Zelda Fitzgerald (in a love letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about honest or dishonest desires

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Option Three:Fiction

What can I tell you by letter? Alas! nothing that I would tell you. The messages of the gods to each other travel not by pen and ink and indeed your bodily presence here would not make you more real: for I feel your fingers in my hair, and your cheek brushing mine. The air is full of the music of your voice, my soul and body seem no longer mine, but mingled in some exquisite ecstasy with yours. I feel incomplete without you.
~Oscar Wilde (in a letter to Constance Wilde)

Using the above quotation as your inspiration, write a flash-fic, scene, or short story involving something that can’t be said in a letter.

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Option Four: Timed Writing

…should I draw you the picture of my heart it would be what I hope you would still love though it contained nothing new. The early possession you obtained there, and the absolute power you have obtained over it,leaves not the smallest space unoccupied..
~Abigail Adams (in a letter to John Adams)

Take nine minutes (use all nine, but don’t go over), and write on the subject of a picture of your heart.

This is a timed exercise and it’s expected that it won’t be perfect. Any format – fiction, essay, verse – is welcome.

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Option Five: Seven Things

I don’t like it at all. All the Chairs are staring at me in the most frightful way — And there is a Lady on the Mantel piece who has taken a Great objection to me — and I’m awfully scared —

This is no place for a person with a nice cheerful disposition like me — it looks like those parlors in the Novels where they plot things –
~Isadora Duncan (in a letter to Gordon Craig)

In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

Give me the seven most un-romantic places you’ve kissed your love. Interpret “places” any way you please. You’re not required to explain the items in your list, but it’s more fun for readers if you do. (And yes, I mean “most un-romantic,” and not merely “least romantic.”)

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Option Six: Pick Three

Do not imagine, because you find these lines in your journal that I have been trespassing. You know I have not – and where else shall I leave a love letter? For I long to write you a love-letter tonight.

You are all about me – I seem to breathe you, hear you, feel you in me and of me.
What am I doing here? You are away. I have seen you in the train, at the station, driving up, sitting in the lamplight, talking, greeting people, washing your hands… And I am here – in your tent – sitting at your table.
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~Katherine Mansfield (in a letter to John Middleton Murray)

Pick at least three of the following words, and build a piece of writing around them. The form is up to you: poem, scene, flash-fic, essay, or general blog entry. If you want to be really daring, write a love letter, instead.

greeting, hands, imagine, leave, letter, people, train, trespassing, washing

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Don’t forget to comment here with your name, the title of your piece, the selected option number, and the direct link to it.

Happy Writing, and Happy Valentine’s Day