OctPoWriMo Day 7 - Growing Pains

"He who learns must suffer." -Aeschylus

Do you remember when you were a child and a growth spurt left you with aches and pains in your arms and legs? Sometimes we must endure pain in order to grow.

What are you going through right now? What can you learn from it? What have you endured in the past that taught you something about yourself?

Word Prompts:

Pain

Growth

Learning

Finding yourself

Suggested Poetry Type:

Triolet

or

Villonet

Dance and Movement:

Remember, our prompts are only suggestions, you can find your inspiration wherever your muse leads you. Please visit the other participants, share the hashtag, #OctPoWriMo on social media, and share your link in the comments below. Let us know how this journey into poetry is going for you and if this is your first year or if you have been with us from the beginning.

Esther Spurrill Jones has been writing since she was very young. She has written in many genres, but poetry is her first love. She has a few collections of poetry available on Kindle. Esther enjoys introducing people who have little or no experience to the joy of poetry. To this end, she has written several articles on Medium on how to write and enjoy poetry. Esther lives in the Frozen North (Saskatchewan, Canada) with the love of her life and four awesome terrible cats.

Childhood Favorite | OctPoWriMo Day 25

Let's take a trip down memory lane. Do you remember your most beloved childhood toy? Was it a well-loved teddy bear missing a button eye? Did you have a Transformer that was the best thing ever? Or were you like me and instead of a favorite toy, you had a favorite blankie. Whatever happened to it? Do you remember a story about the toy? Do your remember why it gave you so much joy? Tell us about your childhood favorite it today's poem. It's day 25 y'all. The end is nigh! I hope you're enjoying yourselves and reading each others writing. Until next time...

Tamara Woods was raised (fairly happily) in West Virginia where she began penning poems after a boy broke her heart. She shares poetry, short stories and writer interviews on her blog, PenPaperPad. Her writing has been featured in Mamalode, In the Powder Room, and many others. She is the editor for The Reverie Journal, which released its first poetry collection early October. She also hosts #writestuff TweetChat where writers talk about writing every Tuesday at 9 pm EST. She is a hillbilly hermit living in Honolulu with her Mathmagician.

Conquer the World | Day 15

This is the 15th day of OctPoWriMo! How are you doing? Have you been hitting each day with a poem or joining us upon occasion? Either way, we're glad you came.

Imagine if today was the day where you could do anything you wanted. All foods had no calories. You could speed without getting pulled over. You could climb onto a plane and fly without having a ticket. What would you do? What is your wildest dream for you one day? Tell us all about it!

Remember the prompt is only a suggestion!

Tamara Woods was raised (fairly happily) in West Virginia where she began penning poems after a boy broke her heart. She shares poetry, short stories and writer interviews on her blog, PenPaperPad. Her writing has been featured in Mamalode, In the Powder Room, and many others. She is the editor for The Reverie Journal, which will be releasing its first poetry collection early October. She also hosts #writestuff TweetChat where writers talk about writing every Tuesday at 9 pm EST. She is a hillbilly hermit living in Honolulu with her Mathmagician.

Poetry Prompt 2 - Let's Hit the Ground Running!

Image from PublicDomainPictures.net - George Hodan

If there's one thing I'm known for in the local creative scene, it's for my poem that I adapted into a short film. The Last Line is doing pretty decently on the festival circuit this year so it's not actually available for public viewing yet, but it's something nice to think about.
"Write cinematically" is how I say it.
Find those key moments in the imagery and tell us every detail. Visualize every detail. No taste, no touch, no smells, just pictures and words.
It's the small things like a tequila sunrise next to a red candle. It's the cherry blossoms raining down on a first kiss, not just flowers, pink cherry blossoms. Dig in deep, feel the earth of the poetry in well... not between toes usually... but wherever you feel that poetry.

Here's an exercise for you. Go to one of your favorite movie scenes or music video (I tend to think the ones with no dialogue are better for this), captions off and mute. What do you feel? What can you write? Do you put words in their mouth? Is that laughter or something else?

Need a jumpstart? Here's a clip from one of my favorite movies: "The Hours"

Feel anything? Write anything? What's your favorite movie? Tell us in the comments and/or tweet @beverlytanfilm #OctPoWriMo

Face your fears

One of the major things I've been thinking about has been Halloween. Knowing that OctPoWriMo is an international event, I didn't want to give you a prompt that is only Halloween based. Instead, I started thinking about scary movies and what freaks me out. From there the leap to fear was simple.

What is something that scares you? It doesn't have to be a major or life changing event. It could be that moment when you're turning a corner in a dark hallway. A sound that reminds you of walking home in the dark when you were young and easily startled. Get creative!

Here's some words to help you along. You don't have to use these words, but just to give you a jump-start:

Word Prompts: 
                                     Frightening
                                     Darkness
                                     Spooky
                                     Mysterious
                                     Thud
                                     Striking
                                     Midnight
                                     Pounding

I hope you're all well and feeling alright. Have fun with this and I can't wait to see what y'all come up with!

Tamara Woods was raised (fairly happily) in West Virginia where she bega writing poetry at the age of 12. She shares poetry and short stories on her blog: PenPaperPad, is an editor for The Reverie Journal and writes articles as a full-time freelance writer. She is editor for an upcoming poetry journal collaboration, and hosts #writestuff TweetChat where writers talk about writing. She is a hillbilly hermit in Honolulu living with her Mathmagician.