The “Flash Cards” Project
by Donna McLaughlin Schwender
Flash Card for the word “apian”
One of the many inspiring things that happened while I was at Design Your Life Camp, was being introduced to the world of “Tandem Poetry” created by Maya Stein and Amy Tingle Williamson. All you had to do was give these two amazing poets one word of your own choosing and – in less than five minutes – they each created a poem for you on their manual typewriters and 3″ x 5″ index cards. It was both magical and mesmerizing to watch them in action; it was silent, other than the tap-tap-tapping as they wove their words.
Maya Stein (l) and Amy Tingle Williamson (r)
I’ve been home from camp for three weeks and I’m just now beginning to feel that I’ve rejoined the real world. There’s been so much good stuff to process that I’ve often felt overwhelmed. Joyously so.
Moved by Maya’s and Amy’s approach to creating great work with minimal time and small spaces, I’ve begun what I’ve dubbed the “Flash Cards” project. It’s a totally selfish project devised to prompt me to write at least SOMETHING every day. All I do is use a random word generator (I began with the letter “a”) to provide me with my word for the day; a word that I then try to tell a “flash fiction” story within a sentence or two. I jot down what I come up with onto the template of a library card that I scanned into my computer. (And for those who are curious…that’s NOT my handwriting. I use Picmonkey and the La Belle Aurore font.)
I’m only three days into this project, but I have to confess that I’m really enjoying it. I don’t pretend to have any grand illusions that it will lead me to some great new place in my life, but I’m open to following whatever path it does take me on.
Sometimes writing is just about writing. Having fun with the process, creating a practice you love, and starting all over again the next day. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. All I know is that it will involve at least one word that begins with the letter “d.”
Flash Card for the word “bliss”
Flash Card for the word “choreography”
If you’re interested in following this project, I’ll be posting my creations on my Flash Cards Project Pinterest board.
This is awesome Donna. I love the library card template idea.
Thank you Lynn. As well as being a word nerd, I’m also a library card hoarder 🙂
And as well as that, I confess that I was once a librarian! 🙂
I just KNEW you were extra-special Lynn (as are all librarians in my book)!
Um, can I just tell you how amazing I think you are for doing this? I am so humbled and honored to have been at least part of the inspiration for you jumpstarting this project. It feels personal, intimate, accessible, imaginative, and wildly, deeply satisfying. I will be following with interest & cheerleading!! xoxo – Maya
I could never accurately convey how VERY inspiring you have been to my writing process Maya. The combination of your Tandem Poetry and Type Rider projects just blew my mind wide open! Talk about intimate, accessible, and imaginative. Thank you for your kind words and support; it really means a lot. Love flowing back to you…Donna
Yay! Super cool!
I’ve been doing a similar thing for over three weeks on my blog, handwriting on a 3×5 card to a random prompt — also inspired by the wonderful Maya!
For me, it’s really a way to get more comfortable with the discomfort of writing — and sharing! — stuff that is very, very, VERY far from perfect. It’s a way of desensitizing myself to being “bad” at something, at writing “crappy” stuff.
When I let myself write crap, eventually it fertilizes the good stuff and allows it to peek through. 🙂
I’m so loving your tiny fiction pieces — they are inspiring me! 🙂
Yay for having Maya in our lives!!! And yay to you as well for your new “containerized” 3×5 card project 🙂 Feel free to post a link for it here, if you’d like.
For me, it’s mostly been about learning to write something every day, even if it isn’t perfect or at least 1,000 words long. I guess my goal is quality (even if it’s “fertilizer” – loving that concept!) above quantity, but consistency above all else (at least for now). And yes! The scary act of sharing is definitely a part of the process too.
Thanks so much for keeping me inspired with your kind words and input. I really appreciate you taking the time to visit my little blog 🙂
[…] For anyone who might be curious about what had my attention for the last month or so, it was my Flash Cards Project, something I might expand – and continue to focus on – in 2014. You can see pictures of […]