Writing Prompt: Seed Words #1

Weekly offerings of words to get you writing

If we want a garden We’re gonna have to sow the seed Plant a little happiness Let the roots run deep If it’s love that we give Then it’s love that we reap If we want a garden We’re gonna have to sow the seed

from “Crowded Table” by The Highwomen

Recently, I wrote about how I’ve been inspired by re-reading and re-teaching one of my favorite books, poemcrazy: freeing your life with words by Susan G. Wooldridge, which I have assigned to the poetry class that I am currently leading.

In poemcrazy, Susan G. Wooldridge urges poets to become collectors — to seek out words everywhere they look:

“I collect…hats, coins, cougars, old Studebakers. That is, I collect the words. Pith helmet, fragment, Frigidaire, quarrel, love seat, lily. I call gathering words this way creating a wordpool. This process helps free us to follow the words and write poems.”

There’s also an old exercise that English teachers often use with young writers where students rip out words from magazines and paste them together to create found poetry.

I’ve been thinking about this idea — the process of ripping out words and planting them to form new thoughts, new stories — and I’ve found myself doing a bit of the same, spotting words I like at the mall, at the grocery store, wherever, and then typing them into my phone to “save” them for later. They are usually words I would never normally use in my writing: lease, avid, genesis.

I’ve been saving them and then planting them into my writing, like seeds in a garden.

I’ve also had a few former students recently ask me for writing exercises. I love that their time with me in an actual classroom setting wasn’t enough, that they’re hungry for more. And I want to give them ideas, possibilities, and encouragement, but it takes a lot of effort to email each student with new prompts. This got me thinking.

I’ll post weekly prompts — challenges, if you want to think about them that way — to encourage you to write. With each prompt, I will post photographs of different words I’ve collected around town — I’m calling them Seed Words — to get you writing.

Here’s how it’ll work:

1. I’ll post the prompt. It will include 5–10 Seed Words.
2. You write, incorporating at least one of the Seed Words into your writing.
3. Publish your post on your own or with any publication, and then please use the hashtag #seedwords.
4. Each month, I’ll do a round-up of tagged posts! Hopefully, we’ll also be able to connect and uplift each other, too!

• It can be poetry, fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction, etc. anything. (I’ll ignore anything that reeks of hate, false info, clickbait, or spam.)
• It could even be one pretty little sentence.
• It should include at least one of the seed words in some context that doesn’t necessarily relate to the chosen theme. Please highlight the seed word(s) using bold or italics or both.

That’s it, I think! Just a way to get you writing.

A way to get me writing.

A way to get to know you through your writing.

Shall we begin?

SEED WORDS #1

Source: Walking in suburban Los Angeles, thinking about the idea of a seed word, I found myself looking to the ground, fascinated by how we’ve replaced actual seeds with little bits of language.

Perhaps next week, I’ll look up.

(17,492 bonus points for using all three languages from the last capture!)

❤ Okay friends: start planting those seeds! ❤

E. Katherine Kottaras holds an M.A. in English and an M.S. in Kinesiology with a focus on Integrative Wellness, and she is a contemplative writer and holistic teacher, having worked at the middle, high school, and community college levels for over two decades. She is a yoga teacher, personal trainer, and health coach while also living with invisible illnesses and neurodivergence, and as such, she is passionate about mindfulness, bodily self-determination, and health equity. As the queer daughter of an immigrant, Katherine believes that holistic and inclusive approaches to expression, healing, and growth should be accessible to all.

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