Solar-Powered Writing

Photo by Rampal Singh on Unsplash

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Alchemical Writers

As summer nears, I know there are so many writers who look to these sunny days with a bit of dread: these are the experienced ones, who have had many a summer’s hopes of finishing a project dashed again and again on the rocks of Summer Plans. The kids are home. There is yet another social invite. Camping (gods help you). It’s hot and all those beach reads are calling your name. Whatever it is, the writing doesn’t happen. Whether you can’t summon the energy or your time is spoken for, I thought we could try a little something together…

I had the absolute honor and joy of attending the Minneapolis stop of Suleika Jaouad’s book tour for her book on creativity and journaling, The Book of Alchemy. I’m a huge fan of hers, but I am downright obsessed with her husband, the musician Jon Batiste. Jon’s music is one of my happiest places, and he is one of my favorite people on the planet. He is joy incarnate. When I found out that he was going on tour with her, I bought tickets immediately for my husband and I.

It was such a special afternoon with my love—by my love I mean Zach, not Jon (ha!). Zach and I fell in love in theatre school and have been creative partners in crime our whole adult lives. It was so much fun to watch two soulmates up on the stage together, and deeply bittersweet because of Suleika’s cancer diagnosis.

If you aren’t familiar with their story, check out the documentary on Netflix American Symphony. Suleika’s memoir Between Two Kingdoms powerfully chronicles her life with cancer from her earlier twenties through remission (it has since returned). Her Substack, The Isolation Journals, is one I frequently recommend to the writers I work with—weekly writing prompts and reflections on the creative life amidst life’s tough stuff? Yes, please. The Book of Alchemy has 100 writing prompts attached to 100 short essays by 100 people handpicked by Suleika who muse on writing, journaling, making, creating. It’s attached to the concept of the 100-Day Project, devised by professor Michael Bierut, who encouraged his students to do a single creative act that you can repeat every day for 100 days. I really needed this for myself, my own 100-Day Project: I’ve just finished my second of three years of getting my master’s in clinical social work. Everyone at my university’s eyebrows go up whenever they ask about the population I work with—a social worker for artists, who knew? I’ve stepped down from my role as Executive Director at my Zen Center so that I can put more focus into my work here, in the coaching space, once more. I learned a lot I can bring into the broader work I do for artist advocacy from that role, but it was time to put more of my energy back into being with the writing family.

So: I’m on Day 15 and I’m hoping a bunch of you will feel compelled to join me on this 100-Day journey! I couldn’t get my act in gear to have us all start on the same day. C’est la vie. Let me know in the comments if you’re doing it! You don’t have to get Suelika’s book, though I really am enjoying it. It’s nice to read a bit of writing and receive a prompt—especially because I’m usually the one writing the prompts for others. I like getting introduced to new writers and other folks in her realm I didn’t know before.

But if you’re not up for buying a hardcover (and you’d probably be #6,000 if you try to put the book on hold at the library), I devised a bunch of daily prompts for all of you if you want to do the 100 days, but aren’t up for the book. Alternatively, you could decide NOT to write and go with the original 100-Day project prompt to fill your well and do something else. I’m working with sound a lot and could see myself having a practice around working with crystal signing bowls and chimes and making up songs every day. Or maybe you want to make a collage a day. Or maybe ephemeral sculptures in your backyard of natural debris. Whatever you want! The key here is consistency. It’s about showing up. That’s why it’s so perfect for summer. It doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment. I’ve been doing it at night before bed but I realize I’ll get more out of it if I combine it with my morning tea. I have a little strawberry sticker I put in my calendar that makes me way too happy for every day. It is weirdly motivating.

What do you say?

Solar-Powered Writing: A Few Prompts From Me

- Write one really great sentence each day. Could be the first line of 100 books. Or just a zinger of a sentence. Or a cliffhanger. 100 cliffhangers. 100 really steamy glances. Whatever you want.

- A haiku a day keeps the doctor away.

- Write about something on your camera roll. Just pick something on there and go for it. Or, grab all your old family albums. Walk through your house if you are one of those people who has a billion photos on the wall. Choose a photo. Go for it. If you need to do some serious inner child work this summer, opt for photos from your childhood. Tissues not included with this prompt.

- Grab my 31 Days of Writing Workbook, which you get as a subscriber: you could just do the workbook three times. Caution here, though: the prompts can get pretty involved, so my suggestion would be to go through the workbook and choose one prompt that you can do over and over for 100 days that could be done in as little as 15 minutes.

- Choose 100 words in whatever fashion feels fun to you. Write them down - bonus points for using fun markers. Put them in a bowl or mug or receptacle of your choice that brings you joy. Close your eyes each morning. Pick a word. Write whatever the word brings up.

- Morning pages for 100 days.

- Lists. I love lists. They feel so manageable. Sometimes writing a paragraph makes me want to retch. Especially with personal writing, which can feel like navel gazing or rumination. But a list is playful. It feels dangerous and a little experimental. So maybe you write a list a day. Any kind of a list. Your list can be like Arya’s list in Game of Thrones. Some of us have those lists and I am not naming names. Your list can be of shattered dreams one morning and what is beautiful in the world the next. One morning the list could be everything in your body that hurts. The next it could be all the possible ways you could escape the country, if you had to. It could be everything in your Go Bag, or what should be in your Go Bag. Your lists might be whole paragraphs for each numbered item or just a word, a phrase, a song lyric. Don’t you want to kind of write a list now?

- Pick a tarot card a day and write. You don’t have to know what it means. You can just look at the picture and go with what the image evokes. Or, use the book that comes with the deck. You don’t need to be an expert in tarot to start the practice.

- Choose one headline from the day’s paper - don’t read the articles or you’ll never get to the journaling. Write about all the feelings, the thoughts, the fantasies of who you would put in the stocks at Ren Faire and throw tomatoes at. Oh come on. I’m not the only one with that fantasy.

- A poem a day. It can be really bad. This might be especially good if you’re not a poet. It also might be miserable if you’re not a poet. I don’t know. Maybe you’re a masochist and it might be your thing.

- Choose an animal or plant each day and write about them. This is especially good for folks who are experiencing severe eco anxiety. Write a little love letter to the plant or the animal. Or about the first time you encountered them. Or write the questions you have. I want to ask lions what power feels like and ask birds how they watch out for planes. And I adore penguins. I could totally write a letter to penguins and I’m curious how they grieve. I also am an armchair herbalist and I would love to experience plants talking to me, as herbalists say plants speak to them. You could also include bodies of water, land masses, a favorite stone you have in your collection, or shells you brought back from a beach far away.

- 100 scents or tastes. Don’t think too hard. Start with cinnamon. Go.

- People. Write them letters you will never send. Joan of Arc. Tina Turner. Anne Frank. Your mother. Donald Trump. Sarah Bernhardt. George Floyd. Your favorite childhood stuffed animal (counts as people in my book). That kid who smacked you on the playground and you still get mad every time you think about it. The guy on the corner who asks for money and you never give it to him and you feel bad but you still don’t and it’s complicated. Your body. Your boss. The person who hurt you. The person you hurt. Your child. The child you never had. Your neighbor. That person who died. That person you wish would die. Angelina Jolie. Your partner. Harriet Tubman. You, when you were most scared as a child. You, when you are most scared now.

- A variation on the above: Write a letter each do to somebody that makes you say, “I oughta write a letter.” You might even send it. Your senator. The administration of your university. An organization that is acting unethically. Your city because it still hasn’t addressed that stoplight issue. A corporation that is dumping its fucking waste in our goddamn ocean. You get my drift. If you don’t know who you would write a letter, may I suggest just opening up a newspaper. You will find plenty of people, companies, and organizations that you can write letters to.

I’m so excited for all of us. I know some days this will be a drag. We will judge our writing. Sometimes it will be joyful. Sometimes we’ll be in flow and have great ideas. Other times we’ll want to skip it. Let’s try and stay the course. Let’s get curious about what makes us NOT want to do it. Let’s get curious about what conditions are present when we DO want to do it.

And, don’t forget: this is the first step of my You Have A Process Process Map: “Courting Flow.” Book that Process Mapping Call (on sale and SO MUCH FUN) or, if you’re not ready for that, snag the on-demand course. This is the perfect kind of thing to do over the summer because it’s not project-based, it’s process based. Exploratory, playful, fun. You know, sunshiny-vibes.

The creative turtle beats the hare every time-