In Plato’s theory of forms, what we see is not the thing itself, it is simply a shadow. Perhaps emotions I can name are simply shadows of the real felt sense. Try this exercise:Get comfortable. Close your eyes and count backwards from 100, slowly. When you get to zero, try …
My niece, a budding artist and musician, said today that it has been months since she has picked up her guitar, or drawn more than a few drawings. She had some suppositions about why she wasn’t accomplishing more: she only liked to learn the guitar directly from a teacher; she …
Imagine you are a seven year old on the eve of your culture’s holiest day. However, this holy day is the 2,000th anniversary of the Apocalypse, the day your people’s religion was born.
My family does not talk about the ugly things. A list of subjects I have rarely heard mentioned: throwing up, popping pimples, farting, cleaning up after a sick loved one, going to the bathroom, having a pelvic exam, descriptions of cruelty. In the same way, we don’t discuss the darkest …
Think about your character’s driving characteristic. What animal might represent that characteristic? Write a scene from a dream your character might have featuring that animal.
As I get older, I can choose to think of the years in terms of wrinkles, bigger clothes, number of pills, and my shrinking future, or I can compare myself to all the things for which bigger is better. Last year I was a .44 caliber. 23 years ago, I …
