Welcome to Bewilderness Writing!
Explore the craft and its therapeutic and creative benefits to help you recover your creative self. This is a fun space where you can find musings about creativity in all of its many disguises, whether a writer, dancer, or accountant. You may also see the many paths our Bewilderness Writing Prompts take us.
FILTER BY CATEGORY
Interview with Christene Seda, Writer’s Assistant with the TV show “Poppa’s House.”
It’s not often that a girl gets married in June, then published in the New York Times in July, but that’s exactly what happened to my gorgeous new daughter-in-law, Christene Seda (Chris)! Here, I share her essay, “Psychic Who Predicted my Romantic Future”, with you, along with my interview.
Journey of Joy: Coming to Writing Later in Life. An Interview with Writer/Artist Morgan Golladay
I recently interviewed Morgan Golladay, a writer and artist who published her first book, The Song of North Mountain, in May. The path of a person coming fully into their creative life at a later age is rarely linear and usually filled with interesting stories. Morgan is no exception.
Guest Writer Christie Bates: The Answer is in the Question
Featured Student Writing: The Answer is in the Question (in response to Margaret Walker's "Lineage") by Christie Bates.
Writing Through Memory, Part II Questions and Considerations on Ethics
I think ethics are worth considering whenever we write about someone other than ourselves, whether it is memoir, poem, or blogpost. This topic of “ethics in memoir” invites a wide range of opinions, so you must discern what works best for you.
Don’t Go In Without a Ladder Out: Writing through Memory, Part I: Staying Safe
As writers we naturally mine the depth of our own lives, both internal and external, for subject matter. Writing through your life experiences, trauma, or buried memories is often tough.
Featured Writing from Bewilderness Sessions
Ever since I began Bewilderness Writing in May of 2020, I have been astonished at the quality of writing in our groups. Whether experienced or beginning writers, we are all equal in our small group sessions, and doing the best we can to keep pen to the page in a guided free writing, prompted by a poem.
Published Author Crystal Wilkinson: Kitchen Ghosts Poem from the book Perfect Black
In order to write what I think of as a good poem, the poet has to “switch our lens” on how we see the world. I like the subject to be specific, as well as ordinary, and these women poets use the craft of poetry (feeling, story, language, line) to do just that.
How Free Writing Can Help You Discover What You Don't Know
Could we be open to the idea that the murky area lurking just below the conscious mind is wiser than the logical, planner-infested mind?
Ellis Elliott: Portmanteau
Port-man-teau: A large trunk or suitcase, typically made of stiff leather or a word blending the sounds and combining the meanings of others, for example “bewilderness”.
Happy National Poetry Month! A Month of One-Line Prompts
We’re celebrating in Bewilderness Writing with a month of one-line prompts for any kind of writing you choose, wherever the line might take you.
Ellis Elliott: Ode to Weebles
Written by Ellis Elliott. Inspired by “Ode to Fat” by Ellen Bass and the Academy Awards Ceremony
Guest Writer Janet Holmes Uchendu: I Go Back to May 2020
Featuring Guest Writer Janet Holmes Uchendu inspired by the poem I Go Back to May 1937 by Sharon Olds.
Ellis Elliott: I Don't Know How to Write About War
Inspired by Making a Fist by Naomi Shihab Nye, poem prompt from Bewilderness Writing.
Guest Writer Tara Claeys: Forever You Find
Featured Guest Writer Tara Claeys based on poem prompt in Bewilderness Writing and “Tonsure” by Kevin Young.
Guest Writer Christine Bates: Bright and Honest, and Fleeting
Featured Guest Writer Christine Bates from her piece in Bewilderness Writing based on the poem “Offering” by Albert Garcia.
Guest Writer Amy Appel: Why I Write
Featured Guest Writer Amy Appel from her piece in Bewilderness Writing based on the poem “Why I Write Poetry” by Major Jackson.
Ellis Elliott: Fearless
She comes, alongside the others in my adult ballet class, to claim her place at the barre. Our “barre” is a padded folding chair on the linoleum floor of the church’s fellowship hall.
In Creativity, All Forms of Expression Welcome
We all find our preferred modes of expression, from tattoos to topiary artists. While they may seem totally different from the outside, they share a most important end result for me: the ability to communicate both with myself and with the outside world.
How Solitude Replenishes and Inspires Creative Thought
I crave the kind of solitude that can only be found in the quiet that invites my thoughts to marinate and my nervous system to ratchet down a few notches.
Poetry Craft Workshop: How to Polish Prose into Poetry
My first workshop outside our weekly writing groups will be about polishing our prose into poetry.