Get Your Write On, Mama.

On April 12th, Artsy Mamas hosted a writing artshop for mothers at the Edmundson Branch Library in Nashville. Meredith Grey was our instructor and she did an excellent job of helping everyone feel really comfortable and at home. She provided us with handouts that included a variety of writing prompts and exercises. Personally I could not believe how much work I got done in just a few short hours! We did a lot of free-writing mode types of exercises... which is what I'm used to. I share some of what I produced as a result of these exercises here. However, my favorite part of the artshop was our dabbling with "making stuff up". I've never been fond of writing fiction... mostly for fear that I couldn't do it. I managed to squeeze out four plays when I was in college and I was convinced that that was it... a certain TMBG song comes to mind, "There's only three plays in me and I just wrote the fourth. Don't know where I got the inspiration or how I wrote the words."
At any rate, one really cool exercise that Meredith introduced was the use of visual prompts. She laid three post cards out on the table as shown in the photo to the right. Then we were supposed to begin a story based upon one post card. I found it surprisingly easy to become lost in the Crystal Pistol, imagining the types of women who would walk inside inquiring about the Burlesque Dancer positions available. I plan to use that writing exercise again one day.

We also had to "interview our characters". I had a lot of fun making up a character and finding out more about her personality and life.

This was such a fabulous artshop! I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I hope that we can have another one day soon. For more information on attending or hosting your own artshop, please contact Mandy at shebrakes4rainbows@gmail.com.