#Writing from a Prompt, a new Tiny Essay:
My Mother is Waiting

Once a month, I run a writers’ meet-up for two hours. I love leading the workshop, but you should know it is also self-serving. Every time I give a prompt and the writers grow quiet as they put pen to paper, I do the same. We are all accountable that way.

crumpled pieces of paper next to a blank notebook, the art of writing from a prompt--don't give up!

Last time we met, we read from Judith Kitchen’s “The Art of Digression” (from the Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction). Sometimes in writing, we approach the page hard-headed and get stuck on one idea, one image, one prompt, refusing to wander.

Kitchen suggests that digressing from our original starting point serves more purpose than we imagine:

To digress: to stray from the subject, to turn aside, to move away from.

The concept of moving away, turning aside, is an important one. This is not quite the same thing as changing the subject, or moving toward something else. Instead it is a natural outflow of association, an aside that grows directly out of the material and builds until it has a life of its own—it is getting a bit lost on the way out in order to make discoveries on the way back.

My advice is to court digression. To court those places in the mind that we usually shut out because they would appear to lead us astray. Let your conversation get away from you; let a new story take over; follow a mental argument to where it begins to eddy in the current of its confusion. If something creeps in unnoticed or else pops instantly into your mind, don’t put it aside in favor of where you already sense you are going. No, follow it up by—to use an expression common to those who work with horses—giving it its head. Something may happen along the way, something to alert you to its relevance. And then trust yourself to find the connective tissue….

After we read the essay, we had two prompts to choose from–The water is rising and My mother’s voice. We wrote one story and then we wrote another, each veering off from the same opening paragraph of our making. Or, if you were me, you wrote two different stories that veered from the same opening sentence….

My Mother is Waiting

My mother is waiting. She sits beside me on a bench in a hospital hallway outside a room marked X-Ray. My legs are swinging below me; her hands are in her lap; she is very quiet. I am four years old, have repeat stomach aches, and am constantly underweight. You’ll have to drink all the medicine, she says finally. You won’t like it but drink it all. She’s right, I don’t like it. They lied when they said it tasted like bubble gum. But I take in as much as I can and she pats my knee. We wait for a while longer. In that next stretch, her voice is soothing and suddenly I ask her what it means to be saved. We are avid church goers, but she is not the one who prays in tongues or dances in the aisles. Still, she is the person I ask. She’s surprised, wonders what made me think of such a thing now. I shrug. She calls me an old soul. But who can really understand the workings of a four-year-old mind? Keeping her voice low, she tells me it’s simple; you just ask and there you are. So I did, and there we were: her standing off to the side in the X-Ray room and me under the light.

. . . .

My mother is waiting. She stands behind me, one hand on my shoulder and the other on my arm. When the pastor nods, she presses me forward. I am seven years old and nervous, though this was my idea. First you get saved, then you get baptized. The rest was still unknown to me. The steps are tall and the water is rising and when I look back she says she will meet me on the other side. As I move down into the water, I lose my balance, fall into the pastor’s arms. The water is frigid. Immediately, I shake and shiver and am glad the baptism seems short: a few words, a dip under water, my long hair wet and dripping down the back of my soaked clothes. And there she is, her hand out, grasping mine and pulling me up, wrapping me in a towel. We skip the rest of church that night, sit together in the dressing room, me warming in fresh clothes, her combing my hair in gentle sweeps. Her voice washing over me in just the same way.

Stories unfold as they will in the beginning: scratchy and messy and flat at times. But even if you digress, if you let your mind wander, no writing is wasted. Discoveries are made. Trust the process.

Or as Kitchen says:

Trust me, the brain struggles to make sense of whatever is put in front of it. So how could you doubt that your brain will find ways to connect what you’re thinking about now with what you were thinking about just a few minutes ago? Your brain will find some connection. Or, if not your brain, then your heart. There may be an emotional connection that defies logic.

Join us next month for Study Hall: #AmWriting on Sunday, August 12th, 3-5pm CST. We meet in person or online.

drawing of person pumping out page after page of writing from a prompt

Remington Roundup:
Online Book Study, #Writing Critique Groups, & Submission Ops

1960's photo of woman at Remington typewriterThis month’s Remington Roundup includes links to my new online book study (Julia Stoops’ Parts Per Million), Red Oak Writing’s Roundtable schedule, and submission opportunities for poetry, essays, & flash fiction.

Sharpen those pencils; warm up your laptops!


Online Book Study

You might remember a recent Q&A with Julia Stoops about her debut novel, Parts Per Million.

cover image for Parts Per MillionParts Per Million (Forest Avenue Press, 2018), tells the story of three activists–Nelson, Jen, and Fetzer, as they work to make known one environmental injustice after another. But their small operation, Omnia Mundi, falls under the eye of bigger watchdog when they uncover a local university in quiet partnership with the government to create military technology.

What unfolds is a complex story of resistance and risk and the constant effort to find balance, an effort that means re-examining the core in order to build a stronger foundation. [Read the rest of her Q&A here.]

I originally read Julia’s book in order to write a review and run an author interview. But as I dove into the story, it became clear her novel could serve as an excellent study in fiction and the role of art in activism.

Curator, author, and speaker Sarah Lewis talks about this in “How Art Can Change Society” on Big Think (video below):

“I think of the arts as far more than just a respite from life, a kind of a luxury. I see it as a galvanic force really that undergirds some of our most impactful changes and movements in this country and the world.”

In this new 4-week Online Book Study, we will read Julia Stoops’ Parts Per Million and consider how or why art, in story or in images, may work to soften conflict or sway understanding. We’ll look at the novel through Structure, RelationshipsImpact and Change and examine how the story’s ideas and themes might translate into our own experiences.

Each week will consist of assigned pages to read, a reflection on the reading that includes a question for discussion, and an optional writing prompt where you can explore more of the topic at hand. And we will learn in community with each other (because I don’t claim to know all the answers), digging deeper into a story and perhaps widening our perspective well beyond the pages. At the end of the course, we will meet with author Julia Stoops via Zoom for a reading and face-to-face Q&A.

This is a course for readers & writers alike who want to explore the idea of activism, take an insightful look at where they sit on that continuum of radical to conservative, and discuss the impact of change.

Online Book Study: Parts Per Million by Julia Stoops
August 5-31, 2018
Returning Students $90 | New Students $100
Sign up via PayPal below.
(This course is limited to 10 participants and registration closes August 2nd.)


Online Book Study: Parts Per Million
Previous course taken:




#Writing Critique Groups

Photo via Red Oak Writing: Kim Suhr with writers around the tableIf you’re interested in study but searching more for a writing-based opportunity, I’ll point you to Red Oak Writing. Their July/August Roundtables are starting up soon, and registration is still open.

Writers meet in person (West Allis, WI) on Tuesday afternoons, Thursday mornings, & Thursday evenings. This is a great way to workshop your stories, essays, and novel. You can also sign up for their newsletter, so that you don’t miss out on the Fall/Winter schedule of Saturday workshops, Roundtable schedules, and an Online Roundtable.


Submission Ops: Local & Online

A PICTURE AND A THOUSAND WORDS, a local submission opportunity and reading event, is looking for writers to submit poetry, essays, and fiction up to 1000 words inspired by one of 10 photos.

Photo via A Picture and a Thousand Words Facebook pageA Picture and a Thousand Words is an annual event that links local writers and photographers in a blind collaboration. Ten photos will be selected. Writers will choose a photo and write 1000 words inspired by it- then ten writers will be selected to read at the event, while selected photo is projected behind them.

Photos have been posted! Deadline to submit is June 21st (read the guidelines & contact information HERE). The reading is scheduled for July 19th at The Sugar Maple in Milwaukee.

NECESSARY FICTION is looking to publish weekly flash fiction, 700 words or less, online all summer long.

lights spotlighting red theatre curtain drawn across the stageWe want flash fiction that surprises and engages us; that’s powerful and dynamic; that’s unexpected and humorous; and that dazzles us with language and emotional resonance.

Read more guidelines from Necessary Fiction on Submittable.

NYCMidnight FLASH FICTION CHALLENGE is a writing contest that works like a writing tournament. You’ll be given up to 4 challenges, where you will submit stories of 1000 words or less. And, there’s a bonus:

hands on a manual typewriterNot only does every writer receive feedback from the judges for every story that is submitted, but a special review forum is available for the participants to submit their stories for review from fellow writers throughout the competition.

Read more about the rules and registration deadlines HERE.It may be summer, but there’s plenty to keep you busy putting #PenToPaper!

#PenToPaper: the why, the how, & the way to writing prompts

This week I’m all about writing prompts.

First, you’ll find my guest post, The Push and Pull of Writing Prompts, on Rochelle Melander’s Blog, Write Now!

photo of hands putting pen to paper and drawing a circleOn one hand, I see [prompts] as a critical component to the work. They serve as warm-ups in each of the classes I teach, as a way for participants to engage with the topic or lesson. Sometimes they work simply to get the ink in their pens flowing, to free the mind of anxiety before we dive into the real work. On the other hand, they can feel like torture. . . . But 9 times out of 10 prompts are working just as they should.

Read more HERE, which includes links to places where you can find prompts.


drawing of three figures and a wifi symbol surrounding a paper and pencilSecond, you’ll find me in the studio this Sunday, June 3rd, from 3-5pm (CST) facilitating another session of Study Hall: #AmWriting, two hours of prompts and discussion to get your pen moving.

There’s still time to register, and you can participate in person (West Allis, WI) or online (via Zoom–a super easy way to feel a part of even if you’re miles away).

Visit the Study Hall page for more information and links to register.

As a pull to get you thinking about how prompts work, here’s one of my favorite videos: Billy Collins’ animated poem, “Budapest” ….