(Daily writing prompts are posted Monday through Friday at 7am on Facebook. This is the weekly roundup with a few excerpts from my personal journal. The goal is to write for at least 10 minutes without stopping, regardless of what ends up on the paper. Feel free to share writing in the comment section. Write on!)
So much truth in that quote…unplugging is why I journal. It’s a way for me to clear my head and figure out things about myself that only writing helps me figure out.
Prompt 21: Take your journal with you today to a public space. Write about the people you see, sounds you hear, smells that come your way. Try to use comparison as much as possible i.e “the man’s suit was like shiny eel skin” or “the stick in the water flailed like an alien.”
From my journal:
“The man perused the books outside on the black library rack. The man’s wife stood with her arms behind her back, patiently waiting, and pretending to be interested in the window display. I rang up his books and he looked shocked when I told him, “that will be 21 cents please.”
Prompt 22: This is a favorite prompt from Sheila Bender’s book Keeping a Journal You Love: Make a “things I learned today” list (today, last month, last year etc.).
From my journal:
“Things I learned yesterday:
1. A snow shovel is great for spreading gravel around
2. No one can predict the weather.
3. Sometimes being silent is better that the risk of saying too much.
4. The term: Adaptive Athlete.
5. My first boss is coming to town.
6. You can’t burn damp wood.”
Prompt 23: Pick one word from the list and write to wherever it takes you:
DINER
REPTILE
BURNED
DOVE
From my journal:
“A townhouse next to my friend Natalie’s house was on fire when I was just in elementary school. She and I snuck beyond the caution tape a few days later. Upstairs everything was charred beyond recognition. I recognized a few items that were left only because they were metal: clothing hangers, TV rabbit ears, a bed frame. In one of the bedroom closets a metal safe had been built into the wall. It’s door was wide open in the inside was a stark white contrast to the blackened wood it was nailed to. I still remember how pristine it was, that no flame had reached the inside.”
Prompt 24: The places that scare you.
From my journal:
“The mistreatment of animals. When I see it I can feel their pain and hopelessness and that they don’t understand why they are being hurt or deprived. Animals caged for their whole lives in constant pain and discomfort. Wire cage floors. The constant pressure creating sores beyond comprehension.”
Prompt 25: Pick a first: love, car, steps, trip, flight, beer, kiss, race, sleepover, competition, pet, wreck, bike.
From my journal:
“My first bike was a hot pink Sweet Thunder Huffy, with the thick hot pink “bread loaf seat.” My grandfather wheeled it down from the house after I’d opened all my other presents. I learned to ride it without training wheels on the road above where our gravel driveway started. That was a sweet bike. Sweet thunder of a bike.”
More posts on writing here:
More on the Lil Journal Project here:
my neighbors who were sisters had Sweet Thunder Huffy bikes. I remember their pink puffy seats! The way you described the seat as ‘hot pink bread loaf is spot on! — because it wasnt a banana seat; it squared off on the end! (ps love your writing style & your blog so much! ? )