Today’s prompt is “Silence.” I originally wrote the piece below well over a year ago. But it fits the prompt so perfectly that I am giving it a second airing.
THE SONG OF SILENCE
My fingers touched the keys of silence, and I played its song. It pulled from me a longing that I thought was gone forever – the yearning to release my soul in flowing words that birth new life in images and sounds that intertwine and reach another soul and draw it close to mine.
I feared my well was dry, my soul an empty sieve, and that I’d nevermore know a yearning to create with words that live.
Ah … now … the peace, the solace that replaces fear. For now I know I have it still – the gift to make words living things. All it took was spending time with silence for a while, and as it’s music played, it filled my well again.
~~~
The Happy Wordcrafter 
Reblogged this on A Whispered Wind and commented:
a beautiful piece of poetic prose on Silence
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Thank you so much for the re-blog. I appreciate it.
The sound of silence is the only sound I know… This relates well…
Thanks, Gerry.
Oh Sandra I so wish my word well would fill again soon, I’m so stuck.
I don’t know how you feel about writing exercises, but I’ve learned over the years that they really do work for me. You may already use them, but if you don’t normally, try one or two and see if they help. I’m sure your writing classes probably suggested some exercises, but there are two that seem to be most workable for a lot of people, and I use them in my classes.
One is to take phrases of just two or three words — or maybe one sentence — and sit down at the keyboard, write those words on the page, and just keep writing without stop for at least 15 minutes. It’s a little like the prompts we use in our flash-fiction challenges here on WP, but the key is to write WITHOUT STOPPING TO THINK.
Don’t spend any significant time thinking. Just write whatever comes. If you refuse to think through what you’re writing or to edit anything — and just keep writing instead — it really does release something creative from deep inside. You avoid the basic writing rules and some of the writing taboos that can hinder creativity. Some of the things inside of you will float more freely to the surface and may surprise you.
You can jot down some of those phrases for yourself and put them in a plastic bag, box, or bowl and just pull one out when you want to do an exercise. But it works better if you can get a different person to write out a couple dozen — or if you just open a book, put your finger on a word on the page and use that word, along with the one before and after it. You can do those exercises as often as you like.
And another way to do it is to listen in on someone’s conversation, take the last sentence you hear them say, and begin a whole new conversation with that line — letting characters develop to say whatever comes to your mind.
I know some of it sounds strange, but I’ve honestly had fully developed short stories and even a whole novel come to me as a result of these kinds of exercises. If nothing else, it makes you write and use your gifts even when you’re not in the mood.
Now, if none of these suggestions help, just ignore them. I just thought I’d throw them out there and maybe they’d prove useful.
Why do you live so far away? Thank you honey, I did use prompts and exercises when I did my courses and they worked. There’s even a story on here somewhere from when I asked a friend to give me three words! Part of my problem is time, i get home from work shattered and instead of writing for just 15 minutes I tell myself there’s no time and give up. When I free write on the laptop, I keep stopping to deal with typos, crazy eh? This evening I WILL write for 15 minutes, I have a card i bought in the Picasso museum because I found it interesting so that’s what I’ll use, I’ll let yo know how I get on 🙂
I did it, 580 words of freewrite in 15 minutes and AFTER that I corrected my typos, result. Now i just have to d it again tomorrow. Thanks again Sandra 🙂
Yay!!!
You’re a gifted writer. That gift won’t let you down. You may have some slow times or some discouraging days now and then, but your gift won’t let you give up.