Fifth Mondays

Purpose: These free, half-day sessions are an opportunity to strengthen our mind-pen (or mind-keyboard) connection by writing freely as we follow prompts and/or instruction from a presenter. Our practice is derived from Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. If you are interested in writing with us, we encourage you to come for the fun. For more about our methodology, see Goldberg practice.

When and where: Fifth Mondays occur more frequently and more randomly than the title suggests, but they're always on a Monday from 9:30 am to noon. We alternate locations between Salida and Buena Vista, using other locations on special occasions.

What to bring: Paper, pen and, if we're not meeting at the Salida Cafe, a snack to share.
Right: WE members Pat Clark and Nancy Walters lead Fifth Monday exercises on nature writing.

Upcoming Fifth Mondays

February 27, 2012, 9:30 am: Salida Cafe, 300 W. Sackett Ave.

Leader: KM Joffe

Topic: Every House Has a Story

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Previous Fifth Mondays

• January 16, 2012, Sangre de Cristo Community Room. "New Beginnings." Cary Unkelbach and Joan Freeman challenged us to write about positive and negative approaches to the New Year.
• December 5, 2011, Salida Cafe."Opening Pandora's Armoire in the Dark to Find Your Private Vein of Gold." Barbara Ford asked us to list all the places we lived, visited and worked and all the foods we love. Using these lists to stir up memories, Barbara prompted us to write a movie script, describe the worst job we'd ever had, pursue the consequneces of breaking a bad habit, and enter a forgotten time.
• October 31, 2011, Buena Vista Library. "Shades of Halloween: The Telltale Art." Maria Weber warmed us up with Horrorscopes then chilled us down with themes from Edgar Allen Poe and his archaic lexicon. She also used items from her Halloween collection as prompts.
• September 26, 2011, Salida Cafe. "Heading out from Home." Doann Houghton-Alico asked us to define what travel means and then had us writing about the next place we'd like to go, a place we've been to and its impact on us, and a place we are reluctant or fearful about going to.
• August 29, 2011, Buena Vista Library. "Inspired by Nature." Pat Clark and Nancy Walters led us through exercises in writing about nature, including a field trip to note our observations at MePhelemy Park and Cottonwood Creek.
• July 25, 2011, Salida Cafe. "Body Parts." Jessica Saunders teased us with a quiz on identifying body parts found in nursery rhymes, maxims, and cliches. She then gave us prompts for writing in which we could include any of 600 appropriate body parts.
• June 27, 2011, Buena Vista Library. "Writing Books for Children." Kathy Keidel discussed different types of children's books and how writing for this market is challenging yet rewarding. She led writing activities to explore the genre.
• May 23, 2011, Salida Cafe. "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." Marcy Adams had us working with visual prompts, circling from one image to another, with several short writes culminating in one long one.
• April 25, 2011, Buena Vista Library. "The Seasons of Comedy, Tragedy, and Romance." Maria Weber and Audrey Smith led us in writing short pieces in each of these genres.
• March 21, 2011, Salida Cafe. "It's a Surprise!" John Skinner planned to lead with with a creative agenda. We improvised.
• January 24, 2011, Salida Cafe. "Who's Reading and Why?" Nancy Walters presented techniques borrowed from marketing to help us imagine and define our readers and characters.
• December 6, 2010, Buena Vista Public Library. Jane Provorse and
  Cary Unkelbach led exercises on Holiday Perspectives and encouraged us to share favorite holiday recipes.
• October 25, 2010, Salida Historic Museum. After a tour of the museum, John Skinner presented a list of topics to guide our writing about exhibits that interested us.
• September 27, 2010, Buena Vista Public Library. Maria Weber led "Writing Your Journey" with guided exercises from the workbook portion of her book, I'll Be There to Write the Story: A Mother-Daughter Journey Beyond Death.
• August 23, 2010, Buena Vista Public Library. Barbara Ford led "Taking the Shortcut to Lookout Point in a Borrowed Vehicle."
• July 19, 2010, Salida Cafe, 300 W. Sackett Avenue. Jane Provorse and Lori Hardin led "Armchair Adventures."
• June 7, 2010, Buena Vista Public Library. Amy Frykholm led "Empathy, Imagination and Research: Writing Living History," based on Amy's experience writing her newly published book, Julian of Norwich: A Contemplative Biography.
• May 3, 2010, at Pat Clark's home. Nancy Walters led "Developing a Sense of Place in Fiction and Non-fiction."
• March 29, 2010, at Salida Cafe.