Balance

Steve and I recently joined a new writing group called Wholehearted Writing. It’s not a critique group, but a writing prompt-inspired group.

Last night, our theme was “balance.” Our facilitator, Lindalee, brought three different writing exercises. I especially liked the second one. On this exercise, she asked us to imagine our dominant side asking a question of our non-dominant side. In other words, the dominant hand (right hand for me) would write a question, and the non-dominant hand (left hand for me) would answer.

I took that to mean my “adult” would ask my “child” a question. Here’s a portion of what I wrote:

If you can’t read my non-dominant answer, here it is:

I’m not allowed to cuss, but this side of my brain doesn’t always listen, so here goes. How the heck do you expect me to create new stories when my mind and time is filled with dealing with the legal matters and emotions surrounding the deaths of my mother, uncle and friend? Geez.

My “child” went on to further chastise my “adult” for asking such a silly question, and finally said:

Maybe if you’d let me out more often, you’d get more writing done. But you’re a chicken shit.

Yes, my inner child can be foul-mouthed at times.

But it was a great exercise and I enjoyed hearing what many of the other members of the group wrote. It was interesting how something as simple as changing our writing hand could change/free so many of our personalities.

Give it a try and let me know what you come up with! What question did your “adult” ask, and how did your “child” answer?