September Writing Prompts
by Mimi Cross
Do you ever have the feeling that there’s something you’re supposed to be doing, but you’re not doing it? I’m not talking about that did-I-leave-the-stove-on feeling. I mean something bigger. And you may even know what the thing you feel like you should be doing is. And yet… You are not doing it. Even though you have a vague feeling, or even an inner knowing, that the thing you feel like you should be doing, if you did it, would make your life richer.
Often, this feeling, that there’s something more we should be doing, or something more we want to do, is a creative urge. These little nigglings, like an ache for something, something, as one of the characters in the novel I just finished writing refers to them, these intuitions. They are like little tugs on our sleeves.
You know what I mean. A melody you’ve never heard somehow makes its way into your head. You think, that would be a cool song. Or you read a book or a short story, or see a movie or a play, and afterward you think, that reminds me of something that happened when I was a child. Or, when I was single. Or, back before I was a parent. Or, when my granddaughter was born. Take your pick. The point is, once you’ve been inspired by a piece of art, or a memory, or anything really, you may say to yourself— I should write a story about that. But you don’t.
And you don’t write a song about it. You don’t paint the picture that’s forming in your mind. Or audition for that part you want. Or write that poem about your garden, or your son, or the sea.
And your excuses make sense! You don’t have time. You’re too busy. Or they seem to make sense, at first glance: You’re too old, too young. Too tired. Too wound up. Then there are the extremely popular excuses: I don’t know how. And, I can’t. And the deadliest: I’m not good enough. My efforts are not good enough.
But none of these excuses are the real excuse. The real excuse is that you are relying on yourself (your bandmates, your critique partners, your spouse, your business partners) instead of a power greater than yourself.
In Choosing the Artist’s Path, we learn to connect with a power that is greater than ourselves. That power may be God to you, the Universe to someone else. The Great Artist, the Great Creator, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha. Or it may simply be nameless.
In Choosing the Artist’s Path, we learn that our creative urges are valid, and that the call to create is a gift. A gift bestowed by that higher power. We learn that our desires, dreams, and goals are all gifts. They are calls to action, calls to Art. And when we answer the call, we find we are not alone. We find ourselves supported by the very power that calls us, and by each other.
In Choosing the Artist’s Path, we answer the call to create. We grow together, as we learn to receive from the Source. We learn a more creative way of listening, thinking, and being.
I hope you’ll join me, starting this Thursday, June 17, 2021. I promise you an entire summer of inspiration!
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