Writing Session; Dark and Light

Every other week, I meet with another writer for a writing session.  We rarely do any actual writing during our session but we do discuss what we've worked on in the interval and help each other through current problems.  As a loose sort of format for the meeting and a springboard for discussion, we "assign" 2-3 chapters from bird by bird, Anne Lamott's book on writing.  This week, we covered the chapters titled Writing a Present, Short Assignments, and Perfectionism.  Short Assignments is helpful for me right now.  In this chapter, Lamott advises giving yourself a one-inch picture frame and writing only what you can see through that frame.  Basically, she's saying write the small stuff, a little at a time.  A project can become overwhelming quickly unless you break it down; get the details right.
We chose Lamott's book because we both already had a copy.  Having covered most of this book, however, we're looking to add another writing book; to add another perspective.  It's amazing how many are out there.  I'm welcoming any suggestions.
This week's session also covered a discussion on the vitality of the relationship of light and dark in our characters.  I thoroughly enjoy the tangents our talks travel down and the circular way they come back to the point.  In discussing dark and light, we covered Ansel Adams' Zone System for photography in which he codifies the levels between black and white.  We covered the Taoist Yin and Yang.  Of course, I brought up the essential element of dark and light in classic Gothic literature.  In all of these examples, we find the duplicity, the reliance, and the reflection of dark and light - always enhancing the other.
I have some writing assignments, from a college course, that I still refer to.  I'll share some occasionally, in case you'd like to "exercise".
Take one of these phrases and write 25 sentences that complete it.  You may want to do more or try a second phrase.  That may be the end of the exercise or you may want to pick your top five favorites and write something from it.  You may see a pattern emerge and write something from that.  Here are the phrases:
I remember...
I never...
Don't...
What if...
If only...
I should have...
I wish...
I remember...

After also debating the moral obligations and accountability in our writing, we ended the meeting with a reading from the Buddhist Dhammapada:

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.

--Ch. 1, Twin Verses