How do I look back on all of these words?
This week, I was tagged by @mariannewest to participate in the Over 20 Club, an opportunity for members of the #freewrite community who have written over 20 posts to look back on our journeys and share some of our favorites along the way.
I’ve written before that I’m very free with my definition of what makes a #freewrite. I don’t time myself, and I don’t post unedited stream of consciousness writing.
To me, writing freely takes on a different meaning - creation for its own sake.
I take these prompts and I get to play with them, exploring essence, feeling, concept and mood to create slices of life that exist within themselves. Reality bubbles, as someone once called them.
These stories don’t always have plots, and the characters don’t always have names, but whatever I capture in the abstraction remains.
I’m grateful for all of these inspirations, but the #freewrite community has given me more than that. I met @mariannewest when she and I were both nominated to participate in the Minnows Accelerator Project created by @rycharde. She won the delegation competition, and even at the time I thought she deserved it more than I did.
Everything she has done since only deepens that impression. This woman is a true community leader, and I have a lot of respect for her. She’s posted 124 days of #freewrite prompts at the time I am writing this, and each post is filled with a daily digest of things worth noticing on Steemit.
I was also introduced to the @isleofwrite, a gathering place for writers of all sorts, whose Discord server even has a dedicated channel for #freewrite discussion!
Now I have the opportunity to reminisce about three of my favorite #freewrite inspired stories, so in no particular order:
Serenity
The prompt for this was The Smell From Within, and it brought to mind the blissful scent of alignment. Very hard to describe, but I did find a few words for it, as well as a bit of serenity for myself in that moment.
Lizard Cave - Exit
My very first #freewrite - this one was written in five minutes, with only minor edits, and the mini-story told from the perspective of the little lizard turned out quite well. From the beginning, I loved the creative freedom these prompts offered.
Mirror Image
A #freewrite, but definitely not a freewrite! I spent hours writing this, loving every minute of it. Spanning twenty years, this story follows the paths of Ada and Alice, twin sisters who share nothing and everything at once.
If you’re reading this now, I want to take the time to thank you for your support. I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoy writing them. As always, if you haven’t yet written a #freewrite, I strongly encourage you to try.
Not a single person has regretted it so far!
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