Welcome back for the eighth day of Writober. Today we’re exploring the universal fear of separation by looking at abandonment.

Fear of abandonment may begin in young childhood when we were completely dependent on others for our survival. Fear of abandonment can result from unmet needs. This article “How to Overcome Fear of Abandonment” from PositivePsychology.com, includes worksheets and questionnaires that you may want to try for this week’s writing.

The phrase: Epiphora

For today’s rhetorical device, we’re looking at another form of repetition, putting words together into a phrase to repeat at the ends of lines for emphasis. But first, our warm-ups.

Fighting Fear of the Blank Page: Fighting the blank page is also about motivation. Some people feel they can only write when they feel inspired, others feel that if you just sit down to write at the same time each day, eventually the inspired words will come. I believe in a combination of both. A little extra motivation can definitely help.

Motivational Writing Programs: I joined 4theWords in October of 2022. I had been thinking about ways to gamify my writing that wasn’t only putting stickers on paper, and 4theWords did that for me. I battle cute forest monsters with my word-count and win virtual loot for quests and costume pieces for my avatar. It is surprisingly rewarding. The time flies by and the words stack up. I looked at other possible online motivational programs, but 4theWords is the one that works for me.

*Quick Note about links in this post: I am an amazon associate, so most of the links in my post will take you to amazon products. If you buy from these links, I will make some pennies which will help me pay for this site and my creative endeavors.

OctPoWriMo

Poetry Toolbox

These are quick exercises that I hope you’ll do every day. We will build on these exercises throughout the month.

Word list: Write down the first ten words you think of when you think of fear. Any words at all. Anything that comes to mind. Then choose your three favorite and say them aloud a few times until you hear the accented and unaccented syllables (if more than one syllable) and notice the duration of each syllable. Combine your three words into a phrase. (Inspired by Frances Mayes’ list of a hundred favorite words in The Discovery of Poetry)

I created this Excel Spreadsheet for you to use to collect and explore your fear words.

OctPoWriMo wordlist Download

2. Sensory Imagery: In your journal or a word processing file, fill in these lines as quickly as you can. Notice they are slightly different from last week. You may want to revisit one or two in more detail if you’re inspired and have time.

I see

I hear

I carry

I smell

I follow

The empty room

The tug of

I taste

The cold down my spine

I witnessed

I touched

(Inspired by a week one exercise in the poetry chapter of The Portable MFA in Creative Writing)

3. More Sensory Imagery: I find a great place to start when exploring abstract ideas, is to brainstorm sensory imagery. Write down the first few things you think of to answer these questions:

What does abandonment smell like?

What does abandonment taste like?

What texture is abandonment? What does it feel like to the touch? What temperature is abandonment? Where do you feel it?

What does abandonment sound like?

What color(s) is abandonment? What is a symbol of abandonment? What does it look like?

4. Choose one poem to study all week: Read your chosen poem again. Read it aloud. Journal about your thoughts on the poem. Has your understanding changed in any way? Have new questions come up? Look up the poem online. Are there any interviews with the poet? Has anyone else written insights about the poem?

Poem Building

Epiphora, also known as epistrophe, is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of each line. A great example of epiphora is We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks. It’s also a good example of the power of line breaks.

Example poem: Today we’re looking at Fears by Felipe Benitez Reyes, copied here from poets.org for educational purposes.

Fears

Felipe Benitez Reyes

translated by Aaron Zaritzky

The sensation of being the only guest
in a grand hotel on the outskirts of the city
—and hearing the somnambulistic
elevator and a scream—
or being in an empty theater
or in a lonely plaza
of a lonely unknown city
weighed down with suitcases and no money
surrounded by escaped doves
from the studio of the worst taxidermist
that ridiculous melancholy of one who feels ignored
at the parties of younger people
whom he calls late at night
from a bar with the lights already turned off
and talks to himself about the comforts
of being an academic ghost
of an orchestra conductor

I fear, in the end, that I’ve kissed
The lips of a mistaken goddess

How does Reyes’s poem make you feel? What words stand out to you as expressing fear of separation? How do the line lengths, first words and end words, work to create further these feelings.

Today’s prompt: Write a poem exploring the fear of abandonment.

Form: If you’re looking for more of a challenge, write your poem using epiphora.

Writober Flash Fiction

Write a story with a beginning, middle, and end with conflict that leads to change in less than a thousand words (no minimal word count) inspired by one of the images in the Separation folder of the Writober 2024 Pinterest board. How has fear of abandonment affected your character?

NaNo Prep

Last year I did a series of posts called “RNLN” Read Novels Like a Novelist. From reading The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry I learned that a character can be described through the objects they carry.

I wrote: I noticed that he (the MC) was described not through his appearance but through the objects he interacted with: his bicycle, his umbrella, his briefcase, his wristwatch. Later, I noticed that rooms were also described through objects:

“Unwin saw a broad maroon rug, shelves of thick books with blue and brown spines, a pair of cushioned chairs angled toward a desk at the back. To one side was a great dark globe, and before the window loomed a bald massive globelike head. On the desk a telephone, a typewriter, and a lamp, unlit.”

What objects does your main character carry all the time? What objects are most meaningful to your MC? What objects would you use to describe your MC’s bedroom? What about your MC’s living room?

Halloween Photography Challenge

Take a photograph that depicts abandonment or fear of abandonment and link to your photo in the chat.

Get Moving

Now that you’ve read all the prompts and have all these ideas running around in your head, it’s time for motion. Some suggestions:

Zombie run – I remembered a friend telling me about a program she had on her phone that was supposed to motivate your run by telling you you’re being chased by zombies. So I searched “zombie run” and found that there’s a local Zombie Run 5k coming up this week on Saturday, Oct. 12th. So my suggestion is to check out your local Halloween events today. They may already be happening this week.

Fear of Abandonment