We won’t forget . . . Prompt #884

  • We won’t forget . . . Prompt #884

    My Dear Writing Friends,

    This isn’t the writing prompt I originally planned for today, September 11, 2026.

    As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approached, there were many mentions of that horrific day.

    So, I pivoted, thinking it’s a good time to reflect, to remember.

    If you are inclined, write what that day was like for you.

    Or write about the days that followed.

    Were you in a daze?

    Did your life change after those events? If yes, how?

    Did you feel the need to be around people?

    Or did you need to isolate, to cocoon?

    How did you cope?

    Why write about this now?  Because one way to manage intense feelings is to write about them.

    September 11, 2001

    My neighbor called early in the morning. “Do you think it’s safe for the kids to walk to school?”

    I stepped outside. The sky was blue. Birds were singing.

    We were safe here in Northern California, I thought. Many others are not okay. But we are. For now.

    That Saturday my daughter left for college, having to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. I was sure the bridge would be bombed while she was on it.

    A ridiculous fear? Maybe. Probably. But that’s what tragic events can do. Plant irrational fears.

    I remember the days after, attending to what needed to be done while carrying disbelief, holding grief.

    “We’ll never be the same,” I thought.

    American flags appeared on porches as if to say, “We’re in this together.”

    Women At Ground Zero

    A few weeks after the attack, Susan Hagen and Mary Carouba boarded a plane for New York City to interview female responders.

    “Women at Ground Zero” is a powerful collection of first-person stories told by female firefighters, police officers, paramedics, EMTs, and others who risked their lives to save others.

     Write to Heal

    “When we experience an emotional event, we tend to replay it in our minds. Sometimes we want uncomfortable situations to disappear, so we try to ignore and suppress what happened.

    But we don’t forget.” — Excerpt from Write to Heal

    Write to Heal has tips on taking care of yourself when writing about difficult topics.

    Marlene C

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  • Memoir: You are the narrator and a character

    “You are both the narrator—the storyteller—and a character in the story. You get to curate your voice and experience as you wish.

    Though memoirs and essays are constructed from true experience, the writer still has a significant amount of leeway in how they tell their story.  

    Memoir and essay writers are often relieved to learn that developing a curated persona—a crafted version of you on the page—puts control back in your hands. It allow you to choose the manner and degree of truth you wish to tell.”

    Excerpted from “Curating a Persona in Memoir to Control Your Narrative,” by Jordan Rosenfeld, Sept/Oct 2026 Writer’s Digest

    Marlene C

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  • Returning Home . . . Prompt #883

    Thinking about a trip you took, what were your thoughts and emotions upon returning home?

    As you got closer to home:

    Were you anxious to get home?

    What were you looking forward to?

    What were you dreading?

    Let’s say this was a plane trip.

    You arrive at your home airport.

    As you leave the plane and enter the terminal, what do you smell?

    Perhaps diesel fuel, leftover food, sweat, the dank, musky odor of the walkway into the terminal.

    Notice the smells as you walk through the airport to the baggage claim, and then to your car or a bus.

    You arrive at your home entry door. What are the smells of your yard, the area around your doorway?

    What smells hit you as you walk inside your house?

    What smells did you miss while you were gone from home?

    What do you regret leaving behind on your trip? Will you go back? Have you gone back?

    See Prompt #882 for ideas on writing about a trip.

    After you come to a good stopping place with this writing, use appositives to add to your writing.

    Or, use appositives for any of your writing.

    Appositives: A word or group of words that add detail to the original sentence. Appositives are not essential for the sentence to have meaning.

    Pick a section from something you have written.   

    For each sentence, write one to three sentences, appositives, to add detail. Add details using the senses of touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste.

    Appositives can enrich the writing.

    An example from writing teacher Adair Lara, italics are appositives:

     “Within fifteen minutes a new scent began to waft its way through the kitchen, edging through the other, more pleasant odors like an impatient man pushing his way through a crowd.”an impatient man pushing his way through a crowd.”

    Marlene C

  • Sights and Smells . . . Prompt #882

    Think about a trip you took by airplane.

    Or, a car or train ride.

    To a vacation spot.

    A place where there were new sights and new-to-you smells.

    There was excitement, maybe apprehension about going on this trip.

    There were steps to take, hoops to get through and now, here you are.

    Your destination spot that was planned and now a reality.

    Remember walking down a street, a path, a beach.

    Inhale. What do you smell?

    Where did you stay? Hotel, Airbnb, a lodge, with friends.

    Look around your room. Describe it as if telling a person who is blind.

    Expand your vision: Describe the lobby, or the living room, or a communal room. Or the outside area.

    Where did you go? What did you do?

    Just Write!

    Marlene C

  • Dare to be idle

    “Dare to be idle,” wrote Brenda Ueland in her classic writing manual If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit.

    Her advice offers respite from information overload, lists of things to do, overbooked schedules and looming deadlines. Relaxing, said Ueland, is good for your soul and your writing. The imagination needs moodling—long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling, and puttering.

    Moodling is just being, letting your mind drift, as you lounge on the patio, take a walk, stare at the moon or sit at your desk. It’s in this state of dreamy idleness that the imagination kicks in.

    Excerpt from “Ode to moodling,” by Elfrieda M. Abbe, The Writer magazine, August 2002

    Note from Marlene: Brenda Ueland’s book If You Want To Write, is one of my favorite writing books.

    Marlene C

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  • What do you notice? . . . Prompt #881

    What do you notice as you go about your day?

    What catches your attention?

    What are you obsessed with?

    Try using Anaphora,  Epiphora, Symploce . . . Prompt #880 in your writing.

    Just Write!

    Marlene C

  • Song Titles & Lyrics . . . Prompt #879

    Writing Prompts: Song titles and lyrics

    Pick one (or more) and Just Write!

    Summertime by George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward from “Porgy & Bess”

    Summertime and the livin’ is easy
    Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high
    Oh, your daddy’s rich and your ma is good-lookin’
    So hush little baby, don’t you cry

    (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life by Franke Previte, John Previte, John DeNicola and Donald Markowitz from “Dirty Dancing”

    Now I’ve had the time of my life
    No, I never felt like this before
    Yes I swear it’s the truth
    And I owe it all to you

    Surfin’ U.S.A. by The Beach Boys

    If everybody had an ocean
    Across the U.S.A.
    Then everybody’d be surfin’
    Like Californi-a
    You’d see them wearing their baggies
    Huarache sandals too
    A bushy bushy blond hairdo
    Surfin’ U.S.A

    Walking on Sunshine by Katrina & The Waves

    Now I’m walkin’ on sunshine, woah-oh
    I’m walkin’ on sunshine, woah-oh
    I’m walkin’ on sunshine, woah-oh
    And don’t it feel good?
    Hey, alright now
    And don’t it feel good?
    Hey, yeah

    Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles

    Here comes the sun, doo-d-doo-doo
    Here comes the sun
    And I say, “It’s alright”

    Summer Nights by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey from “Grease”

    [DANNY]
    Summer lovin’, had me a blast

    [SANDY]
    Summer lovin’, happened so fast

    [DANNY]
    I met a girl crazy for me

    [SANDY]
    Met a boy cute as can be

    [DANNY & SANDY]
    Summer days driftin’ away
    To, uh oh, those summer nights

    Marlene C

  • What is your why? Prompt #878

    What is your why?

    Why do you do what you do?

    Why do you get up in the morning (besides having to go to the bathroom or let the dog or cat out).

    What is your why?

    Just Write!

    Marlene C

  • When I was younger . . . Prompt #876

    Writing Prompt: When I was younger . . .

    Write about whatever memory this brings up.

    Just Write!

    Marlene C

  • I became what I am today . . . Prompt #874

    Quote from Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

    Born in Kabul, Afghanistan. Moved to U.S. in 1980

    “I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking onto that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”

    Marlene C