Moms That Write

As a parent of two I can freely admit my heart has stopped many times. These times happen when I see my children about to do something unsafe and I feel I cannot move fast enough to reach them. Write about a time you felt scared as a parent, share your story, and make a connection today!

Good day to all! Here is a writing choice for you to expand your skills and have some fun. Pick a time in your life you wish you could go back to, or move forward to, and write about it. Have fun with it, and send me what you write!

Use the word breakfast, and any word related to it, in your writing. Use all the words you can.

Try writing down an emotion you felt in the past day or two. What images come to mind when you say the emotion. Use these in a short writing.

Try writing Haiku. The syllable patterns are five in line one, seven in line two and five in line three. Rhyme and that is it! Haiku normally uses natures or relationships as a base.

Limmericks are a little longer. They have five lines and here are the syllable patterns: eight in lines one and two, five in line three and four, eight in line five.

Find a photo from your childhood and find a photo with similar details from your children. Compare the two. Do they display the same action? Are the clothing similar in both? What other likes do you notice. Write about these similarities.

Hi to one and all,

I am a member of a writing group in my area and I created a contest on our website. You do not have to be a member of that writing group to enter the contest. The deadline is October 31, 2008, midnight EST. The details are on my group's website at www.gaslightwriters.synthasite.com and you can send me your entries. Do not include your name or any identifying info in your writing. Thanks!

P.S. The prize package is really cool and I would love to give it to someone special!

Wow! What a week we had last week! Hurricane Ike blew all the way to Kentucky and beyond. It was a wild ride for us; yet, other folks will feel the effects for months! Please keep all families and people involved in your prayers!

Since I wrote last time, I have had more soap opera drama! I now have a new car, used of course, because mine chose to die on one of the busiest streets in our area, and in the middle of rush hour and on a Friday afternoon! I have been unable to reach a computer and I miss everyone so much! It feels good to be back!

So, I did not receive any writing pieces from the last two items I posted. If you believe you did send them, I apologize. So, let's get back on track and try this piece.

Here are the details: write a tall tale about an adventure in parenting! Make it as tall as you can and have fun! Kids are not the only ones who can be fun and creative with words. Send it to me and I will try to make sure everyone sees it!

Contest open now, and the prize is a gas card! Calling all moms who like to write, or would like to learn more about it. Join the group, enter the contest and you might win! 

Here are the details:  (1) think about your most outrageous craving while pregnant, and write a short story to dish the details. The trick is, you have to tell the story from the perspective of someone who "tolerated" the craving! (2) If you are a mother, write about two actions you promised you would never do when being a mother (yet do), or if you are not a mother, write about two reasons why your mom "ruled."

The word limit is 1,000 and the deadline is August 31, 2008 at midnight. Send entries, photos or illustrations, AS PART OF THE MESSAGE AND NOT ATTACHED,  to momwriter, no later than August 31, 2008, midnight.

Here is an example to get your creativity thinking, not to use as part of your writing.

Climbing down the wooden steps, a mumble escaped from his lips. For the third night in a row, his loving wife craved strange foods. Tonight, it was a pizza with bananas, olives and a sprinkle of dried mustard. What would she want next? Did women crave wierd foods in the middle of the night just to prepare their husbands for the sleepless nights to come?

"Honey, please bring me a glass of lemonade too, and I really feel like some icecream too. Maybe you could just mix the two and make a freeze or smoothie."

"Uh, ok honey, whatever you want."

Grumbling again, he muttered about the way his wife of three years transformed from a normal, logical thinker into an emotional, sentimental stranger. Sure, she looked the same, except for her growing belly. He missed the days when she talked about ideas that made sense; now, all she talked about were numbers, saving, the baby, and her mom coming. Half the time, she did not even finish sentences or thoughts. He loved her; yet, he felt lost too.

Now, for the first writing choice: write an ad for hiring a mother. Make it fit your own life. 500 word max. Deadline is August 15, 2008, at midnight. I will post your writing within a few days.

Writing gives us a release and a lift. We connect with others through words, and the sharing of feelings and encouragement. Without writers, the world could not exist.

What are words? The simplest definition is a group of letters with specific sounds, and one or more meanings. Yet, the power of words is not in the definition; the power is in our use of them.

Take this short quiz and see if you can guess who said these mighty words, or close to them.

1. "Mr. President, tear down the wall!"
2. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country."
3. "To be or not to be, that is the question."
4. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step."
5. "The pen is mightier than the sword."
6. "Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."
7. "I decided to scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity."
8. "When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others."
9. "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
10. "I know God will not give me anything I cannot handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."