Try this! Take an experience in your life, one that has some emotional juice. Write it out in all its glory. Then rewrite it in the third person. Then rewrite it again back into the first person. Now look at the two first person pieces. Notice how you wrote the second first person piece in more detail or started at a different point or even wrote with more emotion. This is a great technique for letting go of the experience , to gain some distance from it allowing you to drop down deeper into it by rewriting the first person.
Keep the pen moving,
Jan
JanMarquart.com and CanYouFindMyLove.com
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If you could be anyone, living or dead, who would you be? Why? How would that make a difference in your experience of living?
Sometimes we need the encouragement of those who traveled difficult times before us. Write about a time when you needed the help of an elderly, a grandparent, parent, teacher, minister, or someone else. What was going on? What advice did they give you? How did that advice help? If you didn’t take their advice, why didn’t you and what was the result?
Sometimes we see a beautiful sky and yet something on earth has gotten us angry. It might be something we heard on the news, a bill we received in the mail, or a promotion we wanted that our co-worker got. Whatever it was, write it out. Write out what happened, how you felt, and what you thought should have happened. Then write out something good that might come from the anger. Does it motivate you to do something in another direction? Does it make you finally have a good cry?
I had no way of knowing at this age that I would live a life requiring the endurance and fortitude to get through a few serious illnesses. But along the way each illness, no matter how traumatic, allowed me to become wiser about life and more knowledgeable about my own strength. What has illness taught you?
Divisiveness is a commonly used word lately. Write your thoughts about it. How do you see the world these days, your community, your neighborhood? What would you like to do to change things? What kinds of changes do you think we need? What will your contribution be?
Each day we meet challenges and adventures. What challenges have you walked through? How did you meet your challenges? What was the outcome of a particular challenge? Were you alone or with friends/family? How did that challenge lead you to other experiences?
How do you like to start your day? What thoughts did you have upon awakening this morning? Is it going to be a day of work? Rest? Family? Play? Depression? Anxiety? How do you expect your day to fold out with the beginning you made? How would you like it to be? How could you make it a good day?
Who is your best friend? What do you love about him/her? If the two of you could change the world what is the first thing you would do together? Let your imagination run wild. Run off the edge of reality.
Let’s get political! Women have taken the brunt of jokes as the ‘behind the man’ power, despite working just as hard to keep families, towns, cities, and communities together. Despite women’s participation, men have been the deciding factor for women’s rights. Whether it comes to abortion, pay scales, positions in the business world, the truth is, women have had to fight for every ‘right’ they want. But — women hold up half the sky. Women count! Women matter! What do you want to tell your legislature about your rights as a woman. If you are a man reading this, what right are you afraid women might get? And why? Write in detail why you hold your point of view. And don’t forget, you can do something with your point of view. Find the address of your legislator, congressman, or other political advocate.