Cafe Writing

Welcome to the May-June project for CafeWriting. Submissions for this project will be accepted until June 30th..

Because this is so late, I’ve provided double quotations to help inspire you, and two pictures that can be taken singly or together. In the United States, May finds us celebrating Mothers’ Day, and June brings Fathers’ Day, while the weather eases from the changing, often flirty weather of Spring, to the steady heat of Summer, so it seemed to be a good time to explore men and women, mothers and fathers.

For guidelines, please see The Rules. Remember that you should leave a comment with your link, including the title of the piece that you wrote, and the appropriate option number. Also, I would encourage everyone to visit the blogs of CW participants – most of our Regulars have amazing writing on their sites throughout the month. Please make sure you’re contributing original (new) pieces, not old stuff from your archives, though if one piece fits many memes you’re writing for, that’s fine.

If this is your first time here, please be aware that comments from first-time posters are held in queue until they’re approved by a live person.

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Option One: Seven Things

There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women.
~Madeleine K. Albright

No man stands so straight as when he stoops to help a boy.
~Knights of Pythagoras

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.

Tell me about seven ways you’ve helped someone else.

OR

Tell me about seven people who have helped you.

You are not required to provide any explanations, but it’s more interesting for readers if you do.

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Option Two: Pick Three

Men wake up aroused in the morning. We can’t help it. We just wake up and we want you. And the women are thinking, “How can he want me the way I look in the morning?” It’s because we can’t see you. We have no blood anywhere near our optic nerve.
~Andy Rooney

When you see a woman who can go nowhere without a staff of admirers, it is not so much because they think she is beautiful, it is because she has told them they are handsome.
~Jean Giraudoux

Pick at least three of the following eight words, and write a paragraph, scene, flash-fic, essay, blog entry or poem using them. It’s fine to change tenses, or pluralize if you want to, but please bold the words you choose.

arouse, morning, nerve, women, men, beauty, admire, nowhere

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Option Three: Can You Picture That?

Use one of the following photos to inspire an entry in any form – fiction, essay, poetry. Please copy the photo to your own server if you want to include it in your post.

BONUS: Because this is a double project, use both photos as inspiration, and link them.

If you respond to this prompt, please copy the image to your own server, and credit the photographers. “Morning Smiles” is by Yvonne Chamberlain, and “Computing in a Coffee Shop” is by Quavondo Nguyen. Both are provided by iStockphoto.

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Option Four: Poetry

Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.
~Ruth E. Renkel

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.
~Honoré de Balzac

Using the quotations above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about mothers and fathers.

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Option Five: Fiction

Single men and women who go home to an empty apartment or a dog or cat or child need adult conversation in their lives.
~ Dennis Franck

Write a flash-fic, scene, or short story about an adult conversation.
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Option Six: Timed Writing

Life is one of those precious fleeting gifts, and everything can change in a heartbeat.
–Author Unknown

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

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Don’t forget to comment with the direct link, title, and selected option for each piece you create. Happy Writing!

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
– Hamlet Act 1, scene v

Welcome to the April Project at Café Writing, and many apologies for being late. As you may not know, April is the month in which we celebrate the birthday of the Bard himself, William Shakespeare. (His actual birthday is unknown. He was baptized on April 26th, however, and died on April 23rd, which date is also used to celebrate his birth.). It seems appropriate, then, that we take our theme from his works, this month.

For guidelines, please see The Rules. Remember that you should leave a comment with your link, including the title of the piece that you wrote, and the appropriate option number. Also, I would encourage everyone to visit the blogs of CW participants – most of our Regulars have amazing writing on their sites throughout the month.

If this is your first time here, please be aware that comments from first-time posters are held in queue until they’re approved by a live person.

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Option One: Timed Writing

I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix’d and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
–Julius Caesar Act III, scene i

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

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Option Two: Seven Things

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
–As You Like It, Act II, scene vii

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.

Tell me about seven stages or changes in your life.

You are not required to provide any explanations, but it’s more interesting for readers if you do.

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Option Three: Pick Three

Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And oft’ is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d:
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
– William Shakespeare Sonnet #18

Pick at least three of the following eight words, and write a paragraph, scene, flash-fic, essay, blog entry or poem using them. It’s fine to change tenses, or pluralize if you want to, but please bold the words you choose.

brag, course, decline, eternal, possession, rough, temperate, wander

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Option Four: Can You Picture That?

Use the following photo to inspire an entry in any form – fiction, essay, poetry. Please copy the photo to your own server if you want to include it in your post.

If you respond to this prompt, please copy the image to your own server, and credit the photographer L. H. Prior

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Option Five: Poetry

Edgar:
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us:
The dark and vicious place where thee he got
Cost him his eyes.
Edmund:
Th’ hast spoken right, ’tis true.
The wheel is come full circle, I am here.
– King Lear Act V, scene iii

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about coming full circle.

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Option Six: Fiction

If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
–Twelfth Night Act I, scene i

Write a flash-fic, scene, or short story involving music.

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Don’t forget to comment on any April post with the direct link, title, and selected option for each piece you create. Happy Writing!

Welcome to March. Where I live, winter is giving way to spring, and we’ve had really odd weather, with warm sunny days followed by cold snowy ones. Wash, rinse, repeat. To me, March has always seemed like as good a time as any to embrace change, so our theme for this month is Change. You’re free to interpret it literally, spiritually, or metaphorically, of course.

For guidelines, please see The Rules. Remember that you should comment on this post with your links, including the title of the piece that you wrote. Also, I would encourage everyone to visit the blogs of CW participants – most of our Regulars have amazing writing on their sites throughout the month.

Also, if this is your first time here, please be aware that comments from first-time posters are held in queue until they’re approved by a live person.

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Option One: Fiction

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.
– George Santayana

Write a flash-fic, scene, or short story about a happier state of mind.

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Option Two: Timed Writing

Life is one of those precious fleeting gifts, and everything can change in a heartbeat.
–Author Unknown

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

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Option Three: Seven Things

Never think someone will be there forever…forever is a long time and time has a way of changing things.
–Author Unknown

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.

Tell me about seven people who have influenced you.

You are not required to provide any explanations, but it’s more interesting for readers if you do.

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Option Four: Pick Three

The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow. Now we just set the clocks an hour ahead and change the oil in the crankcase.
– E.B. White

Pick at least three of the following eight words, and write a paragraph, scene, flash-fic, essay, blog entry or poem using them. It’s fine to change tenses, or pluralize if you want to, but please bold the words you choose.

spring, change, virgin, dalliance, fertile, nature, oil, crank

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Option Five: Can You Picture That?

Use the following photo to inspire an entry in any form – fiction, essay, poetry. Please copy the photo to your own server if you want to include it in your post.

If you respond to this prompt, please copy the image to your own server, and credit the photographer Therese Chase. Her web page is here: http://velma-dacron.livejournal.com/.

Butterfly
Click for full-sized image.

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Option Six: Poetry

Each leaf,
each blade of grass
vies for attention.

Even weeds
carry tiny blossoms
to astonish us.
– Marianne Poloskey

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about something you find astonishing.

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Don’t forget to comment on this post with the direct link, title, and selected option for each piece you create. Happy Writing!

In the Northern Hemisphere, February is the month of hearts and flowers, groundhogs, candles, and hope for the coming spring. In other parts of the world, of course, it comes with different meanings and traditions. Rather than making the theme for this month specific to Valentine’s Day, then, it will be a celebration of love, with a bit of hope for spring tossed into the mix.

For guidelines, please see The Rules. Remember that you should comment on this post with your links, including the title of the piece that you wrote. Also, I would encourage everyone to visit the blogs of CW participants – most of our Regulars have amazing writing on their sites throughout the month.

Also, if this is your first time here, please be aware that comments from first-time posters are held in queue until they’re approved by a live person.

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Option One: Timed Writing

When love is not madness, it is not love.
~Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Take nine minutes (you have to use all nine, you can’t go over), and write about Love and/or Madness.

Any format (fiction, essay, verse) is acceptable; and it’s expected that your writing will be raw, so don’t stress about editing.

Option Two: Seven Things

Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.
~William Shakespeare

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 make you sigh. You are not required to provide any explanations, but it’s more interesting for readers if you do.

Option Three: Pick Three

Dreaming time has reversed, I watch drowned snow
Appear to lift up from the lake;
Reshaping magnified, each risen flake
Looms in the air, deliberate and slow,
Allowing me to let your picture form and wake
Astonished that you have returned to go
To watch me watch drowned snow lift from the lake.
Dreaming time has reversed—and you,
Your red cheeks radiant against the wind,
Are gliding toward me on the ice into
A frame of glided twilight—I
Again awaken from your being gone to find
Your gloved hands covering your lips’ good-bye
So you can watch me watch uplifted snow
As if your absence now concluded long ago.
– Robert Pack, Snow Rise

Pick at least three of the following eight words, and write a paragraph, scene, flash-fic, essay, blog entry or poem using them. It’s fine to change tenses, or pluralize if you want to, but please bold the words you choose.

astonished, conclusion, drown, gilded, hands, magnify, snow, time,

Option Four: Can You Picture That?

Use the following photo to inspire an entry in any form – fiction, essay, poetry. Please copy the photo to your own server if you want to include it in your post.

If you respond to this prompt, please copy the image to your own server, and credit the photographer Beverly Lussier. Her artist page is here: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=profile&l=beverlytaz.

His Entire World by Beverly Lussier

Option Five: Poetry

From December to March, there are for many of
us three gardens:
the garden outdoors,
the garden of pots and bowls in the house,
and the garden of the mind’s eye.
– Katherine S. White

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about gardens.

Option Six: Fiction

You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into your lover’s arms can only come later when you’re sure they won’t laugh if you trip.

~Jonathan Carroll, Outside the Dog Museum

Write a short story, scene, or piece of flash-fiction about the beginning of love.

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Don’t forget to comment on this post with the direct link and title of each piece you create. Happy Writing!

A new year has dawned. For some of us this time is a period of reflection, for others, it’s a time to clean house and start afresh. Definitely the word “resolution” is bandied about, perhaps more than some of us would like. But that word doesn’t have to mean “promises to myself that I won’t keep.” After all, a resolution can be an act of political or social change, the solution to a problem, or it can involve pixels and clarity of image. Bearing all that in mind, can you blame me for choosing “resolution” as our theme this month?

For guidelines, please see The Rules. Remember that you should comment on this post with your links, including the title of the piece that you wrote. Also, I would encourage everyone to visit the blogs of CW participants – most of our Regulars have amazing writing on their sites throughout the month.

* * * * *

Option One: Seven Things
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.

List seven resolutions that you’ve made – for the New Year, or just for yourself – that you’ve actually kept. (They don’t have to all be from the same year, either.)

Option Two: Pick Three
Pick at least three of the following eight words, and write a paragraph, scene, flash-fic, essay, blog entry or poem using them. It’s fine to change tenses, or pluralize if you want to, but please bold the words you choose.

breathless, change, elusive, pensive, reflect, surge, tide, vibrant

Option Three: Can You Picture That?
Use the following photo to inspire an entry in any form – fiction, essay, poetry. Please copy the photo to your own server if you want to include it in your post.

January Picture

Option Four: Poetry

“In silence and movement you can show the reflection of people.”
— Marcel Marceau

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about reflection.

Option Five: Fiction

“A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.”
– Annie Leibovitz

Write a short story, scene, or piece of flash-fiction that incorporates the concept of falling in love with a photograph.

Option Six: Timed Writing

Take nine minutes (you have to use all nine, you can’t go over), and interpret the topic Resolution.

Any format (fiction, essay, verse) is acceptable; and it’s expected that your writing will be raw, so don’t stress about editing.

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Don’t forget to comment on this post with the direct link and title of each piece you create. Happy Writing!