Healing through story
Post #19 for Mannequin Monday. Join me as I dress the blank page. As I highlight others who drape the blank form with their words.
Today, a short story I like from Alex Kidman, titled The Beach. “Behind me, I could hear the noise of another bottle being opened and the bubbles of laughter I just had to get away from.”
And my story Remember Me. All about a breakup video a woman posts on YouTube. “I never liked you, Chase.”
Hi. Welcome back to Mannequin Monday. Our ongoing goal here is dressing the blank form: words, images, clay, paint, movement. This week I will again rely on images to spark creativity.
Today starts with artist and writer Austin Kleon, who continues to inspire me. He recently posted architectural image collages on his blog.
Kleon in turn led me to designer/writer Frank Chimero, who specializes in interactive web design.
And I wrap the weekly post with a writing sample of my own, a writing exercise on haiku. One: Ebony fingers on white keys sprayed wild notes on the air.
Continue readingWelcome back for another Mannequin Monday. Today we dress the blank form, the empty page, with art and image. Writer/artist Austin Kleon inspired me with one of his recent blog posts. He focused on artist David Hockney’s photo collage Pearblossom Hwy., 11 – 18th April 1986, #2.
I also add writing of my own, my attempt to create a word collage reminiscent of Hockney’s photo collage.
As referenced by Austin Kleon, the website for the Getty Museum features a short explanation by David Hockney on how he came to create the Pearblossom Highway photo collage. The artist in Kleon looks at the collage element. For me I see parallels to writing in the Hockney collage.
Continue readingHey, here we are for another Mannequin Monday. We come back every Monday to find more words, more ideas, more inspiration to dress that blank form. Today we shape our words to describe roads. Dirt roads. Streets. Highways. The road to finding oneself.
First up is a poem by Tyree Daye, titled By Land. As I often do, I found this in Narrative Magazine. A great source for fiction and non-fiction. Free to read, with only a signup.
And then a short story of my own, My Big Brother is Scared.
In Narrative Magazine, Tyree Daye brings us a wonderful poem , By Land, evocative of the roads in our lives. The roads that somehow shaped and informed us. Our memories. Our visions of ourselves. Here are a couple of excerpts.
By Land opens so:
Continue readingA Monday that stands out. Memorial Day. Starting the week with story. Clothing the naked form with our words, images, clay, pencil. To honor our fallen military heroes, I found a couple of stories you may enjoy. One about an old veteran who never forgets, that comes from Daily Kos, May 2015. Another is from The Week. Also about a WWII veteran.
And I include another sample of my own writing: a stripped down Porsche chassis.
Continue readingWelcome to another week of Mannequin Monday. The place where we drape the naked form with words, images, shapes, texture. The magic of story.
Today, the featured story starts where sea meets land. We drape the form with wet sand, with overpowering sea water, with “landlocked grief.” The story is Across the Sea: A Sequence, by Gbenga Adesina.
My own writing sample today is titled “Cold Pizza”. A man waits at the beach for a woman. For a fresh start.
Nigerian writer Gbenga Adesina brings us a poem, a story of the sea. Adesina is second-place winner in Narrative Magazine’s eleventh annual poetry contest.
The sea as a place where life meets death. Where dreams meet reality. His piece is titled: Across the Sea: A Sequence. You can read all of it in Narrative Magazine’s website.
In Adesina’s poetic story I see immigrants. Struggling to escape to a new life. Fighting the sea. Perhaps fighting a sea they have never seen or dealt with before. Landlocked people driven from their homelands. Crowded on barely-seaworthy boats to cross to a land with opportunity. With hope. Hope now drowning in sea water.
Here is a quote from Adesina’s Across the Sea:
Continue readingThe naked form, the blank page. Time to dress them again. Dress with your narrative. Your point of view. Your expression of self. You as artist, making art.
This week we take a look at four exciting, award-winning stories from teens. Courtesy again of Narrative magazine.
Plus, Donald Maass offers advice on writing with meaning, in Writer Unboxed.
And a sample of my own writing. This time a repost of The Mother’s Day Card.
Narrative magazine, a consistent – and free – source of good fiction, recently ran its fifth annual Narrative high school “Tell me a Story” contest. The winners each had their stories posted on the magazine’s website.
In the words of Narrative, “What happens when you make a choice? A choice that can’t be smoothed over, reconciled, or unmade? That’s a question for the ages—and for story.”
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