Use these words in your freewrite:
Instinct, illustration, melt, eighteenth, obligation, plunge, immune.
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Your path . . . Prompt #405
Write about a path you took, or a path you didn’t take.
Write about a choice you made.
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How do others see you? Prompt #404
What do you look like to someone who doesn’t know you?Do you react, and then act differently because of some input you received from someone?
How important is it to you how others see you?
Write from your well of deep thinking or respond how your fictional character would respond.
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Your dream of safety. Prompt #403
What is your dream of safety?Inspired by “Leap Before You Look” by W. H. Auden
The sense of danger must not disappear:
The way is certainly both short and steep,
However gradual it looks from here;
Look if you like, but you will have to leap.Tough-minded men get mushy in their sleep
And break the by-laws any fool can keep;
It is not the convention but the fear
That has a tendency to disappear.The worried efforts of the busy heap,
The dirt, the imprecision, and the beer
Produce a few smart wisecracks every year;
Laugh if you can, but you will have to leap.The clothes that are considered right to wear
Will not be either sensible or cheap,
So long as we consent to live like sheep
And never mention those who disappear.Much can be said for social savior-faire,
But to rejoice when no one else is there
Is even harder than it is to weep;
No one is watching, but you have to leap.A solitude ten thousand fathoms deep
Sustains the bed on which we lie, my dear:
Although I love you, you will have to leap;
Our dream of safety has to disappear.Photo by Kent W. Sorensen
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Someone you were drawn to. Prompt #402
Write about a person you were drawn to.
It could be a real person or a fictional character.
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This happened . . . Prompt #402
Today’s prompt is inspired by a talk Ianthe Brautigan gave on March 5, 2001.Memoir is a journey. Just because it’s your life, don’t think you know the end. A beeper could go off and change everything.
Life is like a box of chocolates . . . you don’t know what you got until you bite into it. Sometimes your life makes sense after you write and digest your findings.
Ianthe suggests writing a memoir in an unusual way, not “this happened and then that happened.”
To start: Write excerpts from your past. Write your stories. Don’t worry about where they will go.
Tell your story as if sitting around a campfire.
If you need inspiration: Make a collage from magazine articles/photos about what you want to write about. Look at these when you need a nudge to write.
Once you start writing, let go of how you should write. Relax into your writing. Your heart knows what to write about. Allow it.
Ianthe suggests thinking of the clothesline structure: Two strong posts at ends. One is for the solid introduction. The other post is for the solid end. Then play around with insides. Move your stories around as you desire.
Writing Prompt: Think about your childhood. Write about whatever your mind flashes on.
Prompt: This happened to me . . .
Examples of excellent memoirs:
To Have Not by Frances Lefkowitz
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Your Inner Critic. . . Prompt #400
Your inner critic.How do you handle or quiet your inner critic?
How do you tame your inner critic?
Give your inner critic a make-over.
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Worst habit . . . Prompt #399
Write about your worst habit.
No thinking! Just write.
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Nicknames . . . Prompt #398
Write about nicknames.Did you have a nickname growing up? If yes, did you like it?
If not, what nickname would give yourself as a child?
What nickname would you give yourself now?
Write about nicknames.
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Best or worst advice . . . Prompt #397
Best or worst advice you have ever heard or given.
Just write!