November 6, 2012

Hi writers:

At times I’ve attempted to make homemade holiday gifts – some have been successes (a deck of cards with my family’s faces replacing each card face), and others have been failures (inspiring quotes in tacky frames, or the one year I tried painting images of New York). This year I’ve asked every family member for a word – just one word. And I can’t say more because several of those family members subscribe to The Tuesday Writer (Hi, Mom!) But I will say that building a writing project out of 16 people’s different words is providing a fun, inspiring, and unusual challenge.

Do any of you opt for creative, homemade, or word-based gifts? If so, let’s swap ideas!

PROCESS: LOVE FOR THE WORDS

For writers, words matter. And for most of us, learning new words, or even being reminded of old words, can be a great way to jazz up sentences. After all, we get stuck in word ruts. Several years ago I learned the word “benthic,” found it thrilling, used it in a poem to great effect, and by now have used it in writing so many times that I know it’s time for a new favorite word.

Try this: Choose an area of study that you find intriguing but know very little about. Geology? Botany? Coffee making? Paper making? Spend a few minutes researching the key concepts and – most importantly – the vocabulary. Fold one or two words into a piece of writing, stretching them out for all their metaphoric qualities.

FEATURED VENUE: ALIMENTUM

Oh, the excitement I felt when I found this call for poems! Starting Nov. 15, Alimentum: The Literature of Food is looking for recipe poems (poems you can cook to), as well as other literature about food.

Submission guidelines here: http://www.alimentumjournal.com/submissions/

PROMPT

Open a book and write about the very first word that catches your eye. (6min)