October 2, 2012

Hi writers,

A strange story is playing out in my house this week: my beloved, badly behaved corgi, who has lived with me since she was eight weeks old, just moved to a new home on the outskirts of Boise with a corgi breeder and her family of corgis. I had feared a great number of things for the end of my dog’s life. She is not a “good dog” and never really has been. People say that stories are either comedies or tragedies. For me this feels like neither, but it does feel like the right ending – after ten years of living among (and antagonizing) the people who love her, she will return to her roots, a life surrounded by her own breed. So her ending, although I won’t get to witness it, I suspect will be good.

Elisabeth

PROCESS: RIVER TIMELINE

This wonderful technique, which I’ve adapted from Lisa Dale Norton’s book on memoir, has been one of my most helpful writing tools. The how-to is easy: draw a river (or a bendy line) that represents a certain period in your life, labeling each river-bend as a turning point: one of those moments after which things were different. The river-bends (aim for 8-12) become your writing prompts. Written and reshuffled, they form a short memoir.

Try this: Before starting your river timeline, set a beginning point (“this story started when…”) and an ending point (“the questions posed by the beginning were answered when …”)

FEATURED VENUE: 100 WORD STORY

100 Word Story accepts stories that are exactly one hundred words long, a length that requires the writer to question every word. The result is a glittering mosaic of stories.

Submission guidelines here: http://www.100wordstory.org/submit/

PROMPT

“It took years for this habit to start causing trouble.” (10min)