This project will remain open until December 31st. The next project will open on January 1st.

Option 1: Picture It

Use the image above to inspire a piece of writing. Your piece can be fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or any other form that suits you. (Please remember to copy the image to your own server.)

Option 2: Poetry

And there is the headlight, shining far down the track, glinting off the steel rails that, like all parallel lines, will meet in infinity, which is after all where this train is going. (Bruce Catton)

Use the quotation above to inspire a poem about meeting in infinity.

Option 3: Pick Three

What’s the railroad to me?
I never go to see
Where it ends.
It fills a few hollows,
And makes banks for the swallows,
It sets the sand a-blowing,
And the blackberries a-growing.
(Henry David Thoreau)

Use at least three of the following words from the quotation above to create a short piece of writing in whatever form (poetry, prose, fiction) you wish:
a-growing, blackberries, ends, hollows, me, railroad, sand, swallows

Option 4: Tell Me a Story

The most common of all antagonisms arises from a man’s taking a seat beside you on the train, a seat to which he is completely entitled. (Robert Benchley)

Use the quotation above as inspiration and tell me a story about a stranger on a train.

Option 5: Seven Things

Railway termini are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return. (E. M. Forster)

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 seven of your favorite things about trains..

Option 6: Short and Tweet

I have always loved to sit in ferry and railroad stations and watch the people, to walk on crowded streets, just walk along among the people, and see their faces, to be among people on street cars and trains and boats. (Ella R. Bloor )

Do you have a Twitter account? If so, use the quotation above as inspiration, and tweet about people-watching on a train: @cw_barista.

Bonus Option: Time It: For an extra challenge, set a timer for twelve minutes when you sit down to respond to one of these prompts, and stop writing when the timer goes off!

This project will remain open until October 31st. The Next project will open on November 1st.

Option 1: Picture It

October 2011: Harvest | Source: istockphoto.com

Use the image above to inspire a piece of writing. Your piece can be fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or any other form that suits you. (Please remember to copy the image to your own server.)

Option 2: Poetry

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.
~Edwin Way Teale

Use the quotation above to inspire a poem about gathering together or scattering abroad.

Option 3: Pick Three

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
~George Cooper, ‘October’s Party’

Use at least three of the following words from the quotation above to create a short piece of writing in whatever form (poetry, prose, fiction) you wish:
October, party, hundreds, leaves, dancing, wind, band, carpet

Option 4: Tell Me a Story

A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.
~e.e. cummings

Use the quotation above as inspiration and tell me a story about a literal or figurative storm.

Option 5: Seven Things

Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.
~Carol Bishop Hipps

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 seven of your favorite things about Autumn..

Option 6: Short and Tweet

Oh how we love pumpkin season. You did know this gourd-ish squash has its own season, right? Winter, Spring, Summer, Pumpkin…. We anxiously anticipate it every year.
~Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, October 2010

Do you have a Twitter account? If so, use the quotation above as inspiration, and tweet about why you do or don’t celebrate “pumpkin season”: @cw_barista.

Bonus Option: Time It: For an extra challenge, set a timer for ten minutes when you sit down to respond to one of these prompts, and stop writing when the timer goes off!

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This project will remain open until December 10th. The Next project will open on December 15th.

Option 1: Picture It

Source: iStockPhoto | Click to embiggen

Use the image above to inspire a piece of writing. Your piece can be fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or any other form that suits you. (Please remember to copy the image to your own server and credit the photographer.)

Option 2: Poetry

“Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.” – Anonymous

Use the quotation above to inspire a poem about love and magic.

Option 3: Pick Three

“When two people meet and fall in love, there’s a sudden rush of magic. Magic is just naturally present then. We tend to feed on that gratuitous magic without striving to make any more. One day we wake up and find that the magic is gone. We hustle to get it back, but by then it’s usually too late, we’ve used it up. What we have to do is work like hell at making additional magic right from the start. It’s hard work, but if we can remember to do it, we greatly improve our chances of making love stay.” — Tom Robbins

Use at least three of the following words from the quotation above to create a short piece of writing in whatever form (poetry, prose, fiction) you wish:
meet, magic, naturally, gratuitious, gone, hustle, work, hell, love, chances

Option 4: Tell Me a Story

“I’d like to bring magic back to the place it used to be 100 years ago.” — David Blane

Use the quotation above as inspiration and tell me a story.

Option 5: Seven Things

“Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl’s clothes off.” — Raymond Chandler

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 seven examples of every-day magic.

Option 6: Short and Tweet

“After being in Harry Potter, I believe a bit more in magic than I did before.” — Rupert Grint

Do you have a Twitter account? If so, use the quotation above as inspiration, and tweet about why you do or don’t believe in magic to: @cw_barista.

Bonus Option: Time It: For an extra challenge, set a timer for eleven minutes when you sit down to respond to one of these prompts, and stop writing when the timer goes off!

To participate, pick a prompt (any or all) and use it for an entry in your own blog. Then leave a comment here with the option number, link, and your name as you want it to be displayed on the participant’s page.

This project will remain open until August 31st. The next project will open on Sunday, September 5th.

Option 1: Picture It

Tire Swing | Photo Source: Morguefile.com (Click to embiggen)

Use the image above as inspiration to write something about childhood. Your piece can be fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or any other form that suits you. (Please remember to copy the image to your own server and credit the photographer.)

Option 2: Poetry

“At breakfast, Anthony found a Corvette Sting Ray car kit in his breakfast cereal box and Nick found a Junior Undercover Agent code ring in his breakfast cereal box but in my breakfast cereal box, all I found was breakfast cereal.”
– Judith Viorst, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Use the quotation above to inspire a poem about anticipation or disappointment.

Option 3: Pick Three

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow–
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there’s none of him at all.

He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he’s a coward you can see;
I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

– Robert Louis Stevenson, “My Shadow”

Use at least three of the the bold words in the above quotation to write a short piece in whatever form (poetry, prose, fiction) you wish.

Option 4: Tell Me a Story

“I wouldn’t be a bit afraid, and it would be lovely to spend the night in a wild cherry-tree all white with bloom in the moonshine, don’t you think? You could imagine you were dwelling in marble halls, couldn’t you?”

– Lucy Maude Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Use the quotation above as inspiration for a short piece of fiction or creative non-fiction about the power of imagination.

Option 5: Seven Things

Jo on the next lid, scratched and worn,
And within a motley store
Of headless, dolls, of schoolbooks torn,
Birds and beasts that speak no more,
Spoils brought home from the fairy ground
Only trod by youthful feet,
Dreams of a future never found,
Memories of a past still sweet,
Half-writ poems, stories wild,
April letters, warm and cold,
Diaries of a wilful child,
Hints of a woman early old,
A woman in a lonely home,
Hearing, like a sad refrain
Be worthy, love, and love will come,
In the falling summer rain.

– Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

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 seven items from your hope chest or toy box. If you didn’t have such a thing, make a list of seven keepsakes from your childhood.

Option 6: Short and Tweet

I’d give all wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of Life’s decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer day.

– Lewis Carroll, “Solitude”

Do you have a Twitter account? If so, use the quotation above as inspiration, and tweet your own childhood memory (in 140 characters or less) to @cw_barista.

Bonus Option: Time It: For an extra challenge, set a timer for eight minutes when you sit down to respond to one of these prompts, and stop writing when the timer goes off!

To participate: Leave a comment with your name as you wish to have it posted, a valid email address (not visible to anyone else), and the direct link to your post. You’re welcome to respond to one prompt or all of them, but as I link them separately on the participants post for each project, please find a way to designate which prompt(s) you chose, so that I can tell. Also, it’s nice if you include a link back to CafeWriting.com somewhere in your post.

This project will remain open until July 31st. The next project will open on Sunday, August 8th.

Option 1: Picture It

Photo Credit: Michael Greene | Click to enlarge

Use the image above as inspiration to write something about ordinary heroes. Your piece can be fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, or any other form that suits you. (Please remember to copy the image to your own server and credit the photographer.)

Option 2: Poetry

“The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.”
– Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality

Use the quotation above to inspire a poem about becoming a hero by mistake.

Option 3: Pick Three

“There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains. the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.”
– Bette Davis, The Lonely Life

Use at least three of the the bold words in the above quotation to write a short piece in whatever form (poetry, prose, fiction) you wish.

Option 4: Tell Me a Story

“Heroing is one of the shortest-lived professions there is.”
– Will Rogers, newspaper article, Feb. 15, 1925

Use the quotation above as inspiration for a short piece of fiction or creative non-fiction about short-lived heroes.

Option 5: Seven Things

“I’m kind of hooked to the game of art and literature; my heroes are artists and writers.”
– Jim Morrison

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 seven of your personal heroes. These can be public figures, or personal acquaintances. Have fun with it. As always, explanations are welcome, but not obligatory.

Option 6: Short and Tweet

“Old myths, old gods, old heroes have never died. They are only sleeping at the bottom of our mind, waiting for our call. We have need for them. They represent the wisdom of our race.”
– Stanley Kunitz

Do you have a Twitter account? If so, use the quotation above as inspiration, and tweet your own heroic wisdom to @cw_barista.

Bonus Option: Time It: For an extra challenge, set a timer for seven minutes when you sit down to respond to one of these prompts, and stop writing when the timer goes off!

This theme will remain open until October 16th or 17th. Please remember to include the option number, your name as you want it posted, and your direct link in comments.

Option One: Seven Things

A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.
~Lemony Snicket

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 a list of seven things that make a library good. These can be real or imagined, physical or intangible. Have fun with it. As always, explanations are welcome, but not obligatory.

Option Two: Pick Three

The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.
~Carl Sagan

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. (As always, you can pluralize, change tense, or alter the part of speech, if necessary.)

civilization, culture, extracted, history, insight, knowledge, support, tiring

Option Three: Can You Picture That?
Use the 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 the photo credit when it is known.)

Option Four: Poetry

The library is not a shrine for the worship of books. It is not a temple where literary incense must be burned or where one’s devotion to the bound book is expressed in ritual. A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas – a place where history comes to life.
~Norman Cousins

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about devotion expressed in ritual.

Option Five: Fiction

What a place to be in is an old library! It seems as though all the souls of all the writers that have bequeathed their labours to these Bodleians were reposing here as in some dormitory, or middle state. I do not want to handle, to profane the leaves, their winding-sheets. I could as soon dislodge a shade. I seem to inhale learning, walking amid their foliage; and the odor of their old moth-scented coverings is fragrant as the first bloom of the sciential apples which grew amid the happy orchard.
~Charles Lamb

Using the above quotation as your inspiration, write a flash-fic, scene, or short story involving an old library.

Option Six: Timed Writing

Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, reminders of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark…. In any library in the world, I am at home, unselfconscious, still and absorbed.
~Germaine Greer

Take nine minutes (use all nine, but don’t go over), and write on the subject of libraries.
This is a timed exercise and it’s expected that it won’t be perfect. Any format – fiction, essay, verse – is welcome.

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 Book-browins

Option One: Timed Writing

When I was a kid, we had 9 planets
and they were all in a neat line to the right of the Sun
(which was just a big slice of yellow)
and we liked it that way!

And Mars had canals
(and maybe ancient cities and certainly some simple vegetation),

Venus was a swamp full of dinosaurs
and exotic plants,

Mercury roasted on one side
and froze on the other all the time,
except for this Twilight Zone area on its terminator
where some kind of life
could exist.
But otherwise
it probably looked just like Earth’s Moon.
You know, with all those craters that came from volcanic eruptions.
~ Larry Klaes

Take eleven minutes (use all eleven, but don’t go over), and write on the subject of when you were a kid.
This is a timed exercise and it’s expected that it won’t be perfect. Any format – fiction, essay, verse – is welcome.

Option Two: Seven Things

“…my father replies that we are made to live here.
We need air to breathe,
water to drink,
we suffocate without air and water:
so why go (into space)?”

“For the same reason
that makes us bring children into the world.

Because we’re afraid of death and darkness,
and because we want to see our image reflected
and perpetuated to immortality.

We don’t want to die,
but death is there,
and because it’s there we give birth to children
who’ll give birth to other children and so on to infinity.

And this way we are handed down to eternity.
~ Ray Bradbury, as recounted by Oriana Fallaci, in If the Sun Dies

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 seven things that represent your legacy to the future. These can be real or imagined, physical or intangible. Have fun with it. As always, explanations are welcome, but obligatory.

Option Three: Pick Three

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

~John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

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 in the style of Milne. (As always, you can pluralize, change tense, or alter the part of speech, if necessary.)
air, burning, craft, eagle,sanctity, space, surly, trespass

Option Five: Poetry

these are the laws of physics
immutable as those of Medes & Persians:

you, frailness of flesh & skin
wrapped in only blueprints & hope
to plunge through furnace of plasma
burning, blasted, luminous beyond mach-molten:
torn molecules, pink & purple,
cremating you as sati to the sky.

if all goes well, you shall fly
as a butterfly bolted to a bullet.
if not, your only grave shall be
Schlieren lines across a shocked sky.

to strangers,
your death shall be as beautiful as fireworks.
but to those who knew you:
grief.

they vanished
became sky:
a rain of metal tears
upon the land.

breaking,
that contrail became cenotaph:
a wreath we laid
on our voyage to worlds.
~ Keith Gottschalk

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about breaking the laws of physics

Option Six: Fiction

We sail onboard space station “Alpha”
Orbiting high above Earth, still in night
Traveling our destined journey
beyond realm of sea voyage or flight
A first New Year is upon us
Eight strikes on the bell now as one
The globe spins below on its motion
Counting the last thousand years done.
15 midnights to this night in orbit
A clockwork not of earthly pace
Our day with different meaning now
In this, a new age and place
We move with a speed and time
Past that which human hands can tell
Computers programmed-like boxes
Where only thoughts’ shadows dwell

~ William Shepherd, from the log of the ISS Alpha 1, January 1, 2001.

Using the above quotation as your inspiration, write a flash-fic, scene, or short story involving celebrating the turn of the year…in Space.

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 Stargazing

The actual Pooh (and friends) today.

From the moment I was first introduced to Winnie the Pooh as a child, I was entranced as much by the story as by the author’s use of language. As I grew older, I was given books of A. A. Milne’s poetry, which is equally enchanting. For the very late May/June Project, I therefore ask you to indulge me in this celebration of A. A. Milne. I think you’ll find that he has much to offer adult readers, just as he always had much to offer children.

This project will be open until June 14th, or so.

Option OneFiction

The Queen said,
“Oh!”
And went to
His Majesty:
“Talking of the butter for
The Royal slice of bread,
Many people
Think that
Marmalade
Is nicer.
Would you like to try a little
Marmalade
Instead?”
~A. A. Milne, “The King’s Breakfast”

Using the above quotation as your inspiration, write a flash-fic, scene, or short story involving breakfast.

Option Two: Timed Writing

“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best — ” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.
~A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Take seven minutes (use all seven, but don’t go over), and write on the subject of anticipation.
This is a timed exercise and it’s expected that it won’t be perfect. Any format – fiction, essay, verse – is welcome.

Option Three: Seven Things

James James
Morrison Morrison
(Commonly known as Jim)
Told his
Other relations
Not to go blaming him.
James James
Said to his Mother,
“Mother,” he said, said he:
“You must never go down to the end of the town
without consulting me.”
~A. A. Milne, “Disobedience”

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 seven things your parents often told you, when you were a child.. Alternatively, give me, seven naughty things you did as a child.You’re not required to explain the items in your list, but it’s more fun for readers if you do.

Option Four: Pick Three

Then he began to think of all the things Christopher Robin would want to tell him when he came back from wherever he was going to, and how muddling it would be for a Bear of Very Little Brain to try and get them right in his mind. “So perhaps,” he said sadly to himself, “Christopher Robin won’t tell me any more,” and he wondered if being a Faithful Knight meant that you just went on being faithful without being told things..
~A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

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 in the style of Milne. (As always, you can pluralize, change tense, or alter the part of speech, if necessary.)
bear, brain, faithful, going, muddling, perhaps, sadly, wherever, wondered

Option Six Poetry

“Let’s frighten the dragons.” I said to Pooh.
“That’s right,” said Pooh to Me.
“I’m not afraid,” I said to Pooh,
And I held his paw and I shouted , “Shoo!
Silly old dragons!” – and off they flew.
“I wasn’t afraid,” said Pooh, said he,
“I’m never afraid with you.”
~A. A. Milne, “Us Two”

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about a real or imaginary best friend

Don’t forget to comment here with your name, the title of your piece, the selected option number, and the direct link to it. Please note that comments from new participants or with more than one link are held for manual approval, and may not show up immediately.

Happy Writing!

Thank you for your continued participation.

Weather means more when you have a garden. There’s nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans.
~Marcelene Cox

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about weather meaning more

It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought.
~James Douglas, from Down Shoe Lane

Using the above quotation as your inspiration, write a flash-fic, scene, or short story involving being alone in a garden.

I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.
~Nathaniel Hawthorne, from Mosses from an Old Manse

Take fifteen minutes (use all fifteen, but don’t go over), and write on the subject of the process of creation.

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

Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity.
~Lindley Karstens

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 seven of your favorite guilty pleasures. You’re not required to explain the items in your list, but it’s more fun for readers if you do.

Garden writing is often very tame, a real waste when you think how opinionated, inquisitive, irreverent and lascivious gardeners themselves tend to be. Nobody talks much about the muscular limbs, dark, swollen buds, strip-tease trees and unholy beauty that have made us all slaves of the Goddess Flora.
~Ketzel Levine

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.

beauty, daring, inquisitive, irreverent, limbs, opinionated, strip-tease, unholy, waste

Don’t forget to leave a comment with your name as you wish it to be posted, the direct link to your piece, and the option number.

Thanks! And happy writing!

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.

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

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.

…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.

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.”)

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.
.
~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

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