Prompts: How to, If You Want to — Nancie Laird Young

Dec 17

Dec 17 Prompts: How to, If You Want to

Every morning I face a blank page like the one in the photo above from almost a year ago. Sometimes I start by writing nonsense. Anything. To move my hand across the page as Natalie Goldberg directs.

Other days I’m prompted by a photo, an image, a feeling, or something someone says, or something I’ve read.

I want to encourage you to join me. If you are having a hard time coming up with an idea to kickstart your hand's movement across the page or your keyboard, check out this section of the blog. I’ll provide a quote, a photo, or a haiku (more on my haiku practice later).

Share your thoughts about the prompt, what you’re writing in the comments below. Or don’t. It’s up to you.

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Me and my inner voice. Well, one of them.

My mind map at this moment.

Nothing I can really add to this. Happy Military BRAT day.

I’ve struggled to write lately, not because I can’t—I’m not blocked. It’s more that I’ve had a hard time choosing what to write. I’m overwhelmed with possibilities. So, I’m doing what I do. I go to Haiku. And that’s what I’ll begin with—the book I’ve wanted to write about Haiku and the role it has played in my writing life. This also means research so that I feel like I know what I’m writing about. Right now I’m curled up in my friend’s easy chair, covered in a quilt, and reading “The Classic Tradition of Haiku in which I found this: “It’s very difficult to do something small in a meaningful way.” Haiku is small. Good Haiku is meaningful.