October is breast cancer awareness month.
I would like to expand to body awareness.
Write about an illness or a physical change you, or someone you know, went through.
Include your age and who was involved.
How did you find out about the illness?
What was the next step?
What happened?
Are you still affected by this illness/physical change?
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Photo by David Zinn
Prompt: A fish out of water story.
Write about a time you felt like a fish out of water, where you didn’t fit in, or you wondered if you belonged.
Inspired by Sept/Oct 2024 Writer’s Digest, “Level Up Your Writing Life,” by Sharon Short.
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According to Diane Stark, author of “Life of the Party,” a Chicken Soup story in “Be You:”
“If your favorite activity is a busy one that involves lots of people, you are an extrovert. If your activity is a quiet, solitary pursuit, you are an introvert. The vast majority of writers are introverts. It’s just how we’re wired.”
Diane discovered, “I am a social introvert. It’s someone who is outgoing, but also requires alone time to be healthy.”
Prompt: Are you an introvert, an extrovert, or a combination?
List your three favorite activities.
Are these things you do by yourself or in a small group, or with a lot of other people?
When you are tired or stressed, what activity appeals to you most?
After being by yourself all day, are you anxious to be around other people?
Or, do you need downtime to recover?
What energizes you?
What restores your equilibrium?
Just Write!
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Armando Garcia-Dávila’s Youtube Talk inspired this prompt:
We don’t talk about that . . .
Just Write!
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What would you like to do when you get a chance?
What will it take to get that chance?
Should you leave it up to chance?
Or, can you make it happen?
Imagine. For a moment. That thing happened.
How would you feel?
What is the first step you can take to make it happen?
What would you need to change to make “it” happen?
If you can’t actually make it happen, can you write about it?
Can you write around it, over it, under it, through it?
Just write!
And maybe it will manifest. Whatever “it” is.
Prompt inspired by a line in Writing Your Parents’ Stories.
Before writing: Stretch.
Get comfortable in your chair.
Take some deep breaths in and release.
When you are ready:
List 3 things you don’t want to write about. Just a list.
List 3 things that happened a long time ago that you are still angry, resentful or hold a grudge about. Just a list.
List 3 things that happened this past week that made you mad. Just a list.
Prompt #2
Write: Choose one of those experiences. Write about it. Be as detailed and as explicit as you can.
When did it happen? Day of week? Time of day?
Where did it happen? Who was involved?
What were you wearing?
Remember to look up and breathe if the writing is difficult.
Write for 15-20 minutes.
When you are finished with this writing, shake out your hands. Breathe.
Intro to Prompt #3
You can use writing to shift your perspective. Sometimes you can’t change the situation that’s causing you pain.
You can change how you look at it.
Take a few minutes to rethink your experience that you just wrote about and see if you can find something hopeful about your encounter.
Even though you were affected in a negative way, maybe you can find something positive that came from it.
Even if your event was traumatic and extremely unpleasant, is there anything positive you can add?
Maybe after the difficulty you noticed that you changed your attitude, your way of thinking.
Maybe you learned something that was helpful. Or you saw things differently.
Or, maybe you regret what happened and think, “If only . . .”
Sometimes thinking “If only . . .” can help by learning from our actions or inactions.
Other times, thinking “If only,” can make us feel worse, we feel we should have done things differently. It feels like it was our fault. We blame ourselves.
Something that could help: Change to thinking “At least.”
Prompt #3
The “at least” idea comes from “The Power of Regret” by Daniel H. Pink.
Take a few minutes to write about something good —anything —that came from the experience you wrote about.
What did you learn that helped you?
Start by writing . . .
I learned . . .
Or: I realized . . .
Or: At least . . .
Prompt #4
Check in with your emotions. Take a few minutes to write about how you are feeling right now.
End on a positive note:
See yourself as a little child. Look deeply into this little child’s eyes. See the longing that is there and realize there is only thing this little child wants, and that is love.
Reach out with your arms and embrace this child.
Hold her or him with love and tenderness. Tell her how much you love her, how much you care. Admire everything about this child and say that it’s okay to make mistakes.
Now, let this little child get very small, until he or she is the size to fit into your heart. Put her or him there so whenever you look down, you can see this little face looking up at you, and you can give it lots of love.
Feel a warmth beginning to glow in your heart center, a softness, a gentleness. Let this feeling begin to change the way you think and talk about yourself.
Note: You can use these prompts over and over.
Make a date with yourself to continue writing. Choose a day and time to write Treat it like a doctor’s appointment.
For more information on writing about difficult subjects:
The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing
Just write. No matter what!
Regrets: We all have them.
There are four parts to this writing prompt. You can do all four at once. Or, take breaks. Write on one prompt at a time.
Take care of yourself while writing:
Look up. Walk around. Look out a window. Take some deep breaths.
Part 1: Write about a regret you have.
Something you did or something happened that you wish hadn’t happened.
Write what happened as if you were a journalist.
This happened. Then that happened.
Write for 20 minutes.
Part 2: Write about the emotions surrounding that experience.
Remember: Take care while writing.
Part 3. What are you resisting writing about?
Take a deep breath. Capture whatever you can about what happened. Put your thoughts and feelings into words.
Part 4. Let go. Notice what you are feeling. Allow your feelings to be. Deep breath in. Let it out. Release.
Turn your attention to now, this moment.
Turn away from wanting a different outcome.
Invite compassion in.
Welcome your feelings, whatever they are . . . rather than try to push then away.
Sit with your emotion
Welcome your emotions with an open heart.
You can say, silently, quietly, or out loud:
“Regret or anger . . . I have always pushed you away. Now, I’m allowing you to be here.”
Can you let go of those feelings of regret?
Deep breath in. Exhale.
Take another deep breath in. Exhale
Acknowledge your regrets and allow them to be.
“The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing” has many resources for taking care while writing about difficult subjects.
Blog posts on self-care while writing: Use Your Writing To Heal.
Just Write!
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If you had a Time Machine, what day, what month, what year would you like to travel to?
Why that time?
Who do you want to be there with?
If you had a working teleportation device, where would you go?
Why?
What would you do there?
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