Positivity Corner: Writing Games

I love writing games.

If you would have told me I would have said that a year plus ago, I would have said “no way.” I had stopped writing for just about ten years. It was in direct response to losing my Daddy. Losing him hit me in ways that were difficult to define. I say my foundation was the same, but my furniture had been rearranged. 

Grief manifests differently for every person.

To push myself into life, I joined a writing group. We encouraged and shared all things writing, but the one thing I love doing is the writing game. We take three categories and place six different related things under them, then we roll dice for each category, leaving us with three items to create a story from.

When I first encountered this, I said, “I am not a storyteller. I have a lot of stories, but being a storyteller is a whole different genre to me.”

My first attempt startled me. I wrote a piece I called First Date. And found the storyteller in me. I laugh in surprise nearly every time we do this exercise. I love being surprised by this part of me. Not writing for so many years, I wasn’t sure if I could start again.

Being with fellow writers and people who cared, I did. I found my voice, my heart, my words. 

Many times, in life things happen that shut down part of our souls. They can be hard and hurt so deeply. Then something else difficult happens, and this difficult thing helps to restart what went silent. That’s what happened for me.

My life is strewn with difficult moments when life, situations, or people have sought to break me. But my life also echoes back with one resounding response, “I fight to do life!”

It might take me a minute, or ten years, but I will fight my way out of the rubble, the pain, and the ashes because that’s how God made me. And He made me a writer.

Writing is one of the gifts that sat dormant way too long.

So, I thank the pain, I thank the tears, I thank the waiting, and all that God created me to be, because when I write, not only am I using my voice but I am fighting to do life.

Writing exercises might be a simple or fun thing to do (and they are!), but for me, they are part of the bigger story God is writing in my life, one of restoration, discovery, and calling.

Need more? Check out these uplifting pieces from the MockingOwl family.

• In the Mediterranean at Midnight – Fiction
• A Grey Pearl Accordion – Positivity Corner
• Sputter of Acclaim – Poetry
• Writing Theology Papers – Positivity Corner
• A Deal is a Deal – Flash Fiction
• Gratitude – Micro-essay
• My World – Flash Fiction

Cyndi Lublink

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Cyndi (she/her) is the mama of two grown children and Oma to eight grandchildren, all of whom she adores. She’s a biker chick with a lady’s heart and thirty-nine tattoos that tell some of her life story. Not just a cancer survivor, she’s a life thriver. She also loves painting, and finds the process similar to solving math equations. She has been a writer/poet since the age of nine, her first poem being about God’s Hands. She wrote for Christian Biker Magazine for five years.

You can follow her on Facebook for more inspiration on a regular basis. Email her at: cynthialublink@mockingowlroost.com

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