Writingcise Wednesdays – W.A.W – We Are Women
At the most marvelous retreat some of us gals had the privilege to participate in, and where I was so honored to be a part of as a inspirational speaker and to teach a Creative Writing class (which due to timing didn’t become a class, but part of the speech), (which gave me the chance to go have fun and play with the horses with Marcus and the K’s. Oops the founding K’s, since I’m a K, too,) I became aware of one passion a lot of you share. So in the midst of having fun, playing, and enjoying the nice open air, I realized a lot of you gals love writing.
Obviously writing is one of my biggest passions, too! Especially Creative Writing. So, on Wednesdays (not every Wednesday), but more like once in a while…monthly???, we’ll have an online mini writing retreat. Sounds good? Writingcise Wednesdays! Yay!
Oh, by the way, I don’t go by “Sparklesoup” on a daily basis, but by Kailin, that’s where the “K” I mentioned earlier comes from. Sparklesoup is the name of my book publishing/media and film production company that started in 2001. For those of you on Facebook, I’m there, too! So if you want, you can call me Kailin, Aunt Kailin, Sparklesoup, Her Awesomeness, The Artist Formerly Known as Most Awesome…or my fav – She’s So Awesome She Can Refer to Herself in 3rd Person. Long, but perhaps the most accurate description of Kailin’s awesomeness. Because Kailin thinks awesome is as awesome does. And Kailin thinks this post should be all about Kailin. 3rd person, that’s what Kailin referring to herself as Kailin instead of “I” means for all you wonderfully confused international women out there wondering WT? We’ll talk about 3rd person later on when it comes to another Writingcise in the future about creating characters.
So about a week ago was International Women’s Day, March 8…and there wasn’t a single post on GBD about it! What? This is a young women’s site and no mention of International Women’s Day? What’s that about? Kathy? Binks? (Oh yeah, Binks was at the Retreat. No internet access, no ties to technology. OK that may be an excuse.) Maybe the awesome Kailin needs to remedy this.
So, this post and the first Writingcise Wednesdays exercise will be about International Women and of course, your favorite topic, YOU! So, for me, it’s me!
This exercise is about you, freeing your mind to write, and empowerment. This is a Kailin writing exercise, exclusively created for GBD. So please participate because normally this stuff isn’t, like, free (I teach workshops like these at colleges and conferences) except the K’s and I got along so well…and I well, wuv you girls! So, enjoy and have fun with it!
Here’s the Assignment:
1) Take the word, “Women“. Write whatever words first come to your mind about the word, “Women.”
2) Take the word, “International.” Write whatever words first come to your mind about the word, “International.”
3) Take your name, for me, it’s “Kailin Gow“. For Kendra, it’s “Kendra Voth”. For Kristin, it’s “Kristin Kreuk”. And yes, you guess it! Write whatever words that first come to mind that describes YOU.
Now you have a cluster of words you can use for your poem.
Here’s my Example:
Ok – I was going to show you a picture, but I’m still trying to figure how this blog board works. Sorry, for now, it’ll just be text.
——————————————————
1) Women – Strong, Unique, Beauty, Kind, Gentle, Loving, Child-bearing, Mother, Glue, Family, Leader
2) International – Global, World, Everyone, Connected, Reaching Out, Harmony, Peace, Free
3) Kailin Gow – Woman, Daughter, Mother, Wife, Writer, Observer, Giver, World Citizen, Passionate, Open and Honest, Vulnerable and Strong, Loves people, Me.
—————————————————–
Kailin’s Writingcise Example:
Wild Wind Brings me Women Whispers
Mother, Daughter, Wife, and Leaders
Connected glue kind Harmony brings
Global peace loving that everyone sings
I sing a song, this writer sings
“Beauty tames the gentle Beast”
Through passionate open honesty
I am uniquely Free to be Me.
—————————————————-
Now, it’s your turn. Turn the word clusters above from what you’ve written for the 3 words/phrases into a statement about YOU. Is this YOU or is this the YOU you want to become? If so, what are ways to help you achieve this? Write this statement (yes, it’s like a mission statement) about you (like I did above) and post it in this post’s comments. Be proud of who you are and share it with everyone here at GBD! If you aspire to be what you’ve written about yourself, the first step is to write it then say it out loud and post it.
And about International Women’s Day – It’s celebrated all over the world, since 1911. Here’s a link to the official page.
There are ways you can help celebrate this day, too (maybe next year?) Anyone can. I did back in college by creating a parade and female film festival on my college campus. First one ever in the county. Maybe you can start something up, next year!!
jessica f
March 18, 2009ooh!! this seems like so much fun! cant wait to start doing this after i study this weekend yay!! good stuff auntie k!