People often ask where I get the ideas for what to write about. That is a tough question to answer because that is a tough thing to do. I have a quote taped up at my desk that says, “Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” I seem to see about two a month, which is a good thing, because that’s how many blogs I write monthly.
One thing I do when I am stuck for a topic is to google, “great writing prompts” to see the topics other writers — and AI Annie — have come up with. Today, though, I turn to a book my son-in-law Tyler gave me for Chanukah. It is called “300 Writing Prompts, the Complete Self-Exploration Journal.”
Instead of picking one idea from the book to write about in detail, I am choosing a handful of topics to write about briefly as I suggest that my readers do the same. Let’s all do a little self-exploration today!
Describe the last dream you remember having:
Oh gosh, I have a variety of recurring dreams that have to do with being unprepared and they are the only dreams I seem to remember — perhaps because I wake up so agitated from them. The most recent one occurred when friends were coming over for dessert. I really had already planned my menu. I would bake two kinds of cookies and serve them with a side of Graeter’s ice cream. But in the dream, I had forgotten to bake and forgotten to buy ice cream and as my friends knocked at the door, I berated myself — You could have at least bought the ice cream!
Here’s a thought, though, the next time I have one of these unsettling dreams, I hope to berate myself with this instead: STOP THAT! YOU ARE ONE OF THE MOST ORGANIZED PEOPLE I KNOW!
And speaking of food…
Describe the perfect meal, complete with an appetizer and dessert:
This is a dangerous one to write about because my kids — or friends — may show up with this for my next birthday, but here goes. I have spent a lifetime watching what I eat, so this will be my best pig-out ever, carbs be damned. Let’s have Cheetos and Coke for an appetizer. Dinner would be pizza on a thick crust with garlic butter to dip the crust in. It’s not Italian, but I’d wash that down with a frozen margarita. And then I’d have hot apple-anything ala mode for dessert.
This sounds more like a last meal before being executed, but YUM, it sounds great.
Carefree eating like a kid brings me to…
Talk about your childhood best friend:
That would be my neighbor, Penny, or Penny-the-Wenny-the-Woo as my dad would call her. One of our activities in the summer was to hold meetings of the “Stealers Club.” We would raid the pantries at both our houses, hide out in her backyard, and gobble away at our treats.
Friends from the age of four on, I could write a book about her, but one more memory will do here — the time we found “the golden arm” in her basement and went screaming for her mom. Thinking we had seen a somehow-sparkly-dismembered-body-part, her mom calmly showed us a glitter-laden bowling pin leftover from a bowling banquet.
Sadly, Penny passed away several months ago. A note from her son after her death said, “She always considered you a great friend.” And that’s what she was to me too. Oh, how I love that girl!
From Penny of blessed memory to Mom of blessed memory I go with this next one…
What accomplishment are you proud of yourself for (no matter how small):
I am going to borrow an accomplishment from my mom here because it is so beautiful. I have no idea what we were talking about when she piped up with the statement that she was very proud of the fact she had managed to stay married for so many years. It was thirty-some years at that point and by the time of her death, she and Dad were married for 56 years.
There was never any strife between my parents and both were wonderful people who were loved by many. And yet her simple statement acknowledges how difficult human relationships are and reminds us to be proud of the ones we manage well.
Such a nice life lesson, which takes me to the last question of the day…
What have you learned today:
I have learned that writing the answer to five disparate questions is an easy way to write a blog!
But it’s also a nice way to reveal who we are to other people. So, please use this blog for self-exploration. But the next time conversation lags over the family dinner table, pull it out and ask — and answer — the questions with those assembled. It’s a great getting-to-know-you exercise, even when you know your dinner companions well.
