Write a quick 9-minute story or poem using these words:
Summer or winter
Fling or saunter
Apple martini or grape juice
Reality or ruse
Rain jacket or scarf
Breaststroke or rollerskate
New York or Liverpool
Thread or button
Green or turquoise
See what Mary O’Brien did with this writing prompt.
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What if we could change the past? According to Sam Keen and Anne Valley-Fox, in “Your Mythic Journey,” we can change the past simply by retelling it differently than we usually do.
“The past is open to revision because memory is a function of present intention. You can turn your story over (and over) and find new perspectives on past events and emotions.” —Sam Keen
Think about some stories you have told over and over again. It could be a little thing or a big thing. It could be something that happened a long time ago, or recently. It can be repetitive thoughts you have.
Choose one story or one repetitive thought.
In your mind, “see” that story you have been telling and re-telling.
Pause, while you choose a story.
See this scene as if you are looking at a wide screen. You can see everything in this scene.
Where are you?
Who is in this scene?
Are you hot or cold or can’t feel a thing?
What is the dominant emotion?
Where do you feel this emotion in your body?
Take a deep breath.
What do you smell?
Scan the entire scene, from left to right, top to bottom
Now, drill down, zero in on one aspect of this scene. It could be a button on someone’s coat, or something someone is holding, or food someone is fixing.
Or someone’s shoes, or an every day useful item.
Prompt: I see . . .
Or: I know . .
Or: I think . . .
Or: I remember . . .
Please practice self-care when writing about difficult topics:
How to write without adding trauma.
Writing About Difficult Times In Your Life
An excellent book to help with your writing: The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing
Write about your greatest extravagance.
Or something you paid a lot of money for.
Was it worth it?
Would you do it again?
After all these years . . .
Just Write!
Write about a time, or an event, that flowed beautifully.
Maybe it was a trip or a visit that was perfect.
You could also write about music, art, or any creative endeavor that you cannot forget.
Or write about something you read, or something you wrote, that conveyed a message succinctly and engagingly.
Today’s writing prompt is inspired by the Writers Digest Review of “The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year.”
“This book is exemplary in its voice and writing style. It has a unique voice, and the writing style is consistent throughout. The style and tone are also consistent with or will appeal to readers of a variety of genres. Because this is a collection of different voices, the styles and rhythms are unique to each author. Yet they all flow beautifully, conveying their message succinctly and engagingly.”
Note from Marlene: Why yes, I do find prompts in unusual and intriguing places!
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor Frankl
Write about a time you recognized it – or you didn’t – and how that impacted your life.
Liminal specifically means relating to the point (or threshold) beyond which a sensation becomes too faint to be experienced.
Liminal: Related to or situated at a sensory threshold; barely perceptible or capable of eliciting a response, things that exist at the threshold (or border) between one thing and another.
The liminal stage is the middle stage, the in-between period during which a person has not yet fully reached their new status in whatever rite of passage they are going through.
~ Being “the new kid” at school before being fully incorporated into a new group of friends.
~ After graduation, before being fully established in a workplace.
~ After retirement . . .
To be in a liminal space means to be on the precipice of something new but not quite there yet. You can be in a liminal space physically, emotionally, or metaphorically.
A period of transition where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed — a situation which can lead to new perspectives.
“Burgeoning” by Su Shafer shows a unique spin using this prompt.
Write about a turning point.
Or, a point of no return.
#justwrite #iamawriter #iamwriting
The idea of using prompts is to inspire writing in a freeform style.
There are no rules, except to write without too much thinking.
Let your thoughts flow and capture them in writing.
Give your inner critic time off during this writing.
The challenge of freewriting is getting Self out of the way.
With freewrites, you are writing for yourself, not for an audience.
Give yourself permission to be open to whatever comes up while you are writing.
Writing Prompt: How do you handle adversity?
There are several prompts, ideas about freewrites, and resources about how to write without adding trauma in “The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing,” available from your local bookseller and as both print books and ebooks on Amazon.
“Resilience is the ability to scrape yourself off the floor relatively quickly after a giant trauma, medium-size setback or everyday disappointment.
Resilience is a set of coping mechanisms we develop over time. This quality is determined by how we take care of ourselves, the people we surround ourselves with and what we do to find meaning and purpose in our lives.”
— “How to Bounce Back From Anything,” by Elaine Chin, M.D. and William Howatt, PH.D, Good Housekeeping magazine, July 2018
How do you define resiliency?
What are your coping mechanisms?
What do you do to take care of yourself?
Is there someone in your life who hinders your ability to be resilient?
Write about the times you have been resilient.
#justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter
Writing prompts inspired by the June 5, 2022 interview with Kevin Powell and Dr. Adrian Arancibia.
Prompt #1: You think you know me, but you don’t know . . .
Prompt #2: Same as first prompt, but this time write in your parent’s voice, or from your parent’s perspective,
Or: Write from the point of view of Someone Important in your life.
Write as if your mother or father or Important Person were writing, “You think you know me, but what you don’t know . . .
#justwrite #iamwriting #iamawriter