Write On #8 | Water and Sensuality
Today’s prompt explores the element of water and the sensuality of being.
A writing prompt to start your day. Today’s prompt explores the element of water and the sensuality of being. Embrace the wilderness in your imagination and write on.
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Dear Writers,
Below the paywall is the eighth prompt in this series. Continue reading this prompt in its entirety, and gain access to all of our prompts by becoming a paid subscriber. These prompts are meant to be used in any way you wish, but please do not share them with anyone. Some will one day be published or these are currently being used in workshops.
—Sherisa
Water is my favorite element. When I lived in the Pacific Northwest, the forest trees were often embraced by fog, mist gently settled into bright green moss, the rain was gentle. Water seemed infinite under the gray skies of Oregon. When I think about water, there’s the undeniable fact that water is life. We are brought earthside from mother/parent waters and we need water to survive. We cannot exist without water.
Water also makes me think about sensuality and what this means. How do we write about pleasure on the page? As a teenager, I was brought up in Oklahoma. In biology class, reps from the local Baptist church came in to “teach” us about abstinence and the implications of exploring sensuality/sexuality. We were given the virgin talk. They summed it up as “virgins are clean, everyone else is dirty.” When you are told something over and over and it makes you feel shame, it takes a long time to shake it away.
All this to say: writing about sensuality and pleasure is a challenge for me to this day. For anyone from a similar background, feel free to be playful and exploratory in what sensuality and pleasure mean for you because the list is expansive. I find pleasure in eating dessert, the initial warmth of the sun after sitting in a cold building all day, I find sensuality in putting on my favorite perfume that will follow me throughout my day. There are many ways to explore the sensuality of being.
Rios de la Luz is the author of the novella, Itzá, and the short story collection, An Altar of Stories to Liminal Saints (Broken River Books). She offers generative writing workshops throughout the year which focus on body stories, lived histories, and magic. She currently lives in Oklahoma with her son and partner.
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