Make a list of things you fear or have feared.
Using items from your list, write a story, poem or essay.
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Step 1. Make a list of significant events that have happened in your life. Start with the year you were born . You can list important dates such as the year you graduated, got married, started jobs, vacations. Also, list emotional highs and lows: betrayals, losses, inspirations, revelations, epiphanies.
Step 2. Choose specific years from this list and research historical events that happened during those years.
Step 3. From your lists: Choose an event that you think people would want to know more about. Or, choose events that capture the essence of you.
Step 4: Write about the event. Include specific details and use anecdotes.* Tie in your personal events with historical events. For example: My junior high friends and I swiveled on cherry-red stools at Woolworth’s in 1962 in San Francisco, not realizing that folks with certain colored skin were not allowed the same privileges in other parts of the world.
*Anecdote: A short account of a particular incident or event, especially of an interesting or amusing nature.
Next step: Turn this freewrite into a personal essay. For ideas about personal essay, click on the Just Write category on The Write Spot Blog.
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Imagine a room full of people, they are looking at a speaker behind a podium. They want to know more about the topic. In a way, they want to be entertained, even though it’s a somber occasion. They are talking about you . . . in the past tense.
Who knows more about you than you? Who best to talk about the essence of you, than you? For today’s prompt, write about you. Provide enough information so the reader or the person in that room has a view of your life. Write about high points, achievements, life markers. Write about what is important to you.
You can make a list in chronological order of events that have shaped you.
You can look up various years and discover what historical events took place in particular years. Write what your life was like during those historical events. Did they affect you?
Today’s prompt: Write about you. We can call it Life Changing Events or The Chronicles of [insert your name here]. Or we can call it your eulogy.
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When using prompts for writing, you can answer from your personal experience, or from your fictional or real character’s point of view. Feel free to let your imagination meander.
If you only know where the trolley you got on would take you . . . What trolley did you get on, and where did it take you? What other trolleys were running then? What if you had taken one of them? Not had kids, had kids, chose to live on the Atlantic instead of Pacific, gave up art or gave up law, married him/her or didn’t. Tell us about your trolley.
Prompt: What trolley did you get on?
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When using the freewrite style of writing . . . write freely with no worries about the end result. The editor that sits on your shoulder, the inner critic. . . out the door. Give ’em the boot. Not invited to this party.
It’s not about the writing . . . it’s about the process.
The process of letting go. Trust yourself. Go with your imagination. Go with what’s on your mind.
Today’s writing prompt: I stand on the edge of . . .
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Prompt #40
Make a list of pivotal events. . .
Part 1
Make a list of pivotal events in your life. Those times when, at night, you were not the same person you were in the morning. By day’s end, you were a different person. Just write a list.
When you are finished writing the list: take something from your list and write the details . . . as you remember them. You can be as detailed, or as general as you want to be.
Prompt #40
Write about an event that altered your life: all the gritty details. . . be as honest and as genuine as you can. Bleed onto the page.
Part 2 will be the next prompt post #41.
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Prompt #39
A strong feeling . . .
Prompt #39
Write about a strong feeling or attachment you had when you were young.
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Prompt #37
Focusing the camera. . .
Prompt #37
Write about an incident that happened between you and another person from your point of view. Write for about 20 minutes.
Move the camera lens, focusing on the other person, write about this same incident from the other person’s point of view.
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Prompt #35
Fantasize for a moment. . .
Fantasize for a moment. Money is no object. Time and place are no object.
Prompt #35
Give yourself an imaginary gift. What would it be?
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Prompt #34
Twelve years old . . .
Prompt #34
Write about your favorite thing to do when you were twelve years old.
You can respond from your personal experience, or answer as your fictional character would answer.
