We are motto (and affirmation) happy in our culture. We circulate phrases from manufacturers and social service organizations from “Just do it” to “Just say no,” from “You deserve a break today” to “I brake for animals.”

After I studied creative writing in graduate school and was publishing poetry, I was just starting to use a word processing program. My husband was customizing it to make it easier for me to use. He showed me the screen I’d see whenever I booted up the word processing program (those where the days when we did that). The screen had my name and then a blank line underneath that he said could say whatever I wanted (for many this was the place for the name of the company they worked for).

I said, “Let it say, ‘I’m a writer.’” That way, I thought, when the words came up, I would see my name followed by the affirmation that I am a writer and maybe I would get more writerly. At the same time that I was publishing my poetry and teaching writing and also trying my hand at personal essays, my mother seemed always to be saying, “Oh, you know who is a real writer?” She would supply the name of a distant cousin or friend’s son who worked in television or advertising. When I got a new word processing program and my husband was again customizing it for me, he asked what I’d like that space to say this time. “I’m a real writer,” I said without hesitation.

The mottoes and tag lines we make for ourselves can get us going.

Imagine that today you are visiting a personalized T-shirt store, a bumper sticker store or the paint-your-own-mug-or-plate studio. You are going to make up a motto for yourself and put it on one of these objects. What will it be?

Start a freewrite or journal entry by describing where you are when you get the idea to do this and what the motto says that you feel fits for you today. Why is it fitting? What do you imagine others will think or do when they see this motto? What do you hope to do as a result of having this motto be yours?

You might decide to write a motto for someone you love or respect and tell them in a letter why this is their motto and what you have made for them bearing this motto. What do you wish for them as a consequence of having this motto?

You can do the same thing concerning someone who is bothering you.

Or you might want to write about the motto do you think you were raised with. You could write a letter to your parents telling them how you have realized this and how it has impacted your life.

Perhaps you want to write a motto for your neighborhood or for our whole country and explore how living that motto could change what is happening. JFK did that with his famous words, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

Here is writing by an elderly woman who drove from her home in the retirement community of Green Valley, Arizona to Tucson, to take a journaling class with me in which I was trying out the exercises I was developing:

Dear Patient Friend,

Today I am considering going into the bumper sticker business – or rather, I am going to the bumper sticker add-on business. For example, I have long owned a bumper sticker that says, “HELLEN KELLER IS ALIVE AND WELL AND DRIVING IN GREEN VALLEY.” It hangs on a wall in my garage where it functions as a cautionary admonition each time I back out into the street. When I come to Tucson, I fantasize about having this on my rear bumper with an add-on that shouts, “AND SHE IS DRIVING THIS CAR!”

My fantasy, of course, is that this will frighten tailgaters, pickup drivers, California drivers and drivers of huge trucks, who will then treat me with extreme courtesy, respect and total avoidance.

Barbara Furniss

You can be funny or serious or both at the same time when inventing your motto and then taking off from there. I hope to see some of this writing and perhaps post it for the Writing It Real audience. Email me if you’d like me to see what you have written.