NaNo-Night Two

The Henlo Press returned to the Inner Geek in Huntington to meet with our friends from last week. Everyone's work was coming along nicely, but some of us were feeling like everything was moving kind of slow. So, in classic Henlo fashion, we did some interesting things to spice it up.

We started with a regular word sprint. Nothing fancy yet, minus the Ghirardelli chocolate squares to give us a boost. Courtney had someone pick a number between 1-20, and that number was the time limit of the sprint. After that initial 16 minutes to warm-up, that's where we tried to make things interesting.

We brought a bag of fortune cookies, and everyone got two. One of the fortunes was for inspiration, the other to be used word-for-word. Everyone was given 25 minutes to use the fortunes however they wanted. In the end, we made a found poem using the fortunes by drawing them randomly from the pile. Check it out at the bottom of this post!

Our final word sprint saw 15 minutes, and each writer had the choice to continue based on what they already had, choose a prompt from the bag, or pick another fortune cookie. And since the creative break from last week was so well received, we decided to do it again this week. We gave each writer a card and had them write words of encouragement to a fellow writer. These were jumbled up and passed back out before everyone left. We still hope that our writers will refer to them when they're stuck, or feeling down.

The Henlo Press is so excited to have the turnouts we've been having! We hope to keep the ball rolling, and we're really looking forward to our next workshop. Good luck writers! We hope to see you next week at the Inner Geek!

Fortune: Found Poetry

Answer just what your heart prompts you.

Adversity is the parent of virtue.

A clean conscience is a good pillow.

All the answers you need are right there in front of you!

Act well your part, there the honor lies.

A small donation is called for. It's the right thing to do.

A healthy way of living is be good to your health.

All that we are arises with our thoughts.

A good laugh and a good cry both cleanse the mind.

A kiss? The renunciation of the heart when one is no longer alone.

A great man never ignores the simplicity of a child.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.

A danger foreseen is half avoided.

Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire.

All things come to him who goes after them.