Who?

Where?

When?

Why?

Just write!

Sometimes we drive a familiar route as if in a daze. At some point we become aware that we have been driving unaware and wonder, “How did I get here?”

Sometimes we’re at a job, either paid or volunteer, or we’re enmeshed in an activity, either fun or dramatic or both. Perhaps we’ve been consumed with this activity. Maybe we wake up one day and wonder, “How did I get here?”

Sometimes we look around and all of a sudden we’re 40, or 50, or 60 years old, or in my case, in my early seventies. Sometimes we wonder, “How did I get here?”

Becoming: A Guided Journal for Discovering Your Voice is inspired from Michelle Obama’s book, Becoming.

This journal helps “to alleviate the pressure of knowing what to write about.”

 “Writing Becoming led [Michelle] Obama to see the importance of taking time for contemplation. When asked about her writing process, she explains, ‘I spent a lot of time just reflecting and thinking, which is something I just didn’t have much time to do for about a decade. It was nice to decompress a little bit and ask myself, ‘How did I get here? Where did my story take a turn? I uncovered a lot of smaller moments . . . [that] were really foundational to the woman I became.’” —Paul Anderson, December 2019 Costco Connection

Note from Marlene: If you need help in figuring out what to write about, or ideas about writing on difficult things without feeling re-traumatized, take a look at the prompts on The Write Spot Blog, especially “How to write without adding trauma.”

Today’s Prompt:  How did I get here?

Write about someone or something you have loved.

Suppose you had a magic red phone booth that allows you to go back in time and change one thing, what would you change?

Or, write about red phone booths.

Today’s Writing Prompt: Who can you depend on?

Or: Write about who you depend on.

If there is no one you depend on, write about that.

Writing Prompt: An hour won’t make a difference.

When using prompts to inspire writing, you can also use the opposite of what the prompt suggests:

An hour will make a difference.

Just Write!

Write about a perfect moment.

You can write this as a scene in a play, a TV show, or a movie with scenery details. Include characters in this scene and include location (a specific room, a certain place).

You can include details about the weather, time of day or evening or night, time of year, the mood of each person or the emotional feeling of the people in this scene.

Or:  Just write about a perfect moment.

You can write fantasy or fiction. Or you can write about what really happened.

A perfect moment. Just write!

What isn’t working in your life?

What is working?

What are you resisting?

What needs to change?

What really matters?

What do you want?

Ready? Set. Go! Just write!

Sometimes writing prompts are complex:

Physical location and action to describe emotional state – Prompt #12

And: Location, or place as a character – Prompt #8

And: Imagine you are invited. . . Prompt #64

Sometimes writing prompts are simple, like today’s writing prompt: Yesterday . . .

Don’t over think. Just write!

Prompt: Yesterday . . .

The last Just Write post talked about writing a messy first draft.

Ready to start that messy project?

Or continue with something you are working on.

Here is a writing prompts to start the messy project:

Writing Prompt: Imagine you (or your fictional character) received a greeting card in the mail. It can be from someone you know or a character you create.

It can be from a celebrity.

It can be sent to the wrong address.

What does the card say?

How does the narrator react when reading the card?

What happens next?

Just Write!