Nancy Canyon Mountain Dreamer Creative Writing Prompts

This beautiful painting is called "Mountain Dreamer" and it is by Nancy Canyon, who is our guest prompter today.  My appreciation to Nancy for supplying us with many creative writing prompts to get us through the weekend.  We will be featuring more of her artwork on our site in future posts.  So, here's Nancy with some thoughts on painting and writing. 

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About the paintings:  I paint quickly, not thinking about what I want to paint, just using color freely and passionately.   This is also the way I write.  I like the surprise it allows and the depth the process adds to story and in image.   "Mountain Dreamer" turned out to be one of my favorite paintings.  To me, the image looks like something I might happen across when I'm doing a shamanic journey to the lower world.  When I journey, I meet my power animal, wolf, on a rocky bluff overlooking a desert landscape.  I ask her a question then wait for the answer.  Usually her answers are symbolic, a metaphor of sorts, that helps me with direction and resolution to life questions. As prompts, try the following:

Non-Fiction starters:
I remember a dream I had as a child. . .

I don't remember how it played out, but when I woke...

The trees are filled with cawing crows. . .

Fiction Writing/Story Starters:
The clearing in the woods, with its pitchy pines and black-eyed Susans, is where we first met. . .

I set down my tea and headed in the direction of the drums. . .

The markings on the rock wall showed. . .

 Poetry Writing Prompts:

Write a poem based on the sounds you might hear in the "Other World."  (For Nancy, the "Other World" is a dreamlike world she drifts to when she relaxes with music.)

Write a persona poem from the viewpoint of your power animal.

Write a poem with the repeating first line: She danced. . . She danced. . .


You can visit Nancy's website by clicking on the following link:  http://www.nancycanyon.com/mainindex.html

Nancy Canyon, MFA, is published in Water~Stone Review, Fourth Genre, Floating Bridge Review, Poetry South , Main Street Rag, Exhibition, Obliquity, and more.  Her paintings have been shown and published in Bellingham, Seattle, Spokane, and Hawaii.  Ms. Canyon holds the MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Art Therapy from Marylhurst University.  She is a Fiction Editor for Crab Creek Review, as well as a creative writing instructor for Whatcom Community College and Western Washington University's Academy of Life Long Learning.  Currently she is revising her third novel and working on her art in a vintage studio located in historic Fairhaven, a village set along the edge of Bellingham Bay in Washington state.