will you look at that? A bright shiny year all laid out in front of us. I have a whole new set of prompts all lined up for the next twelve months. I also have a few surprises that I am going to add on this year. I know, it’s January and everyone always has big plans in January. But these are things I’ve been working on for a while. But I won’t spoil the surprises yet though. Before we move on to the fresh new year I wanted to take a minute and mention something about the old one. Last year was filled with prompts and many of them created great story ideas I will follow through with breaking out. Many of them weren’t fabulous ideas but came with an interesting character or a turn of phase or an idea that I could slip into another story. These are all reasons that I work on the fifteen minute prompts each morning.
The real reason is that it creates a habit. Each morning I wake up and I have to write for fifteen minutes even if it is just to do the prompt and has the sound of the ticking egg timer in the background. It doesn’t matter if I feel like writing or not. I have the habit of doing so. I know to some of you that sounds like forcing a creative talent. The truth is that it doesn’t matter what I feel like when I sit down. By the time those fifteen minutes have elapsed and the timer dings. My brain is in a writing mode. The acto fo di=oing those fifteen minute prompts adjusts my brain so that I am ready to write when that timer dings and my morning prompt has ended. For me that is the greatest benefit.
I also get unexpected story ideas, characters and a few notable phases I want to use in other stories. For those who are pure numbers people, there were plenty of words spilled over the course of these prompts. If you take them all together you get 149,858 words all total. While they are not one total story, they were the inspiration for my fifteen minute novel experiment. I have done that two years running now and am preparing for a third. But that is a different post. For now, let’s just take a look at the first set of writing prompts that will kick off 2023.
Monday, January 2nd: The Steps were worn from use.
Tuesday, January 3rd: A feather floated through the air.
Wednesday, January 4th: Lights danced on the horizon.
Thursday, January 5th: He smiled.
Friday, January 6th: The path was steep.
Don’t those look lovely? All fresh and clean and ready to tickle the brain with story ideas? For now though I will leave them. I will go into the weekend and celebrate the end of this very trying year, and usher in a brand new one that I hope will be a much kinder and gentler one. Then next week I will come to these fresh. Happy New Year’s everyone. I hope this coming one is the best you have ever had.
Ten til Midnight 