Writing prompt

 

 

Writing in any format/genre, and taking as much time as you need, contemplate one or more of the following: 

 

1. What if you had took more time? 

2. What if you stopped thinking about yourself as a brand? 

3. You are in a forest, gathering firewood, when a Person of Conflict from your past approaches. What happens next? 

4. In a dream, that same Person of Conflict appears but as a celebrity you have a crush on. You hug, awkwardly. What happens next? (Say anything but: You wake up.)  

5. Do microblogs like Twitter and lengthy author newsletters/substacks foster an individualistic view, an insular celebrity-adjacent grab for a piece of the attention economy, where everyone is out for themselves? Or not? 

6. Consider, too: trolls. 

7. Is it exhausting?

8. But is it also fun/necessary to be online? 

9. But maybe in a way that you shape, instead of the way the technology shapes it for you? 

10. "This website is free." 

11. Do you ever feel behind the times, late to trends, or want to discuss things you've discovered -- new to you! -- but know you will be disdained by a hipster for being two days late to the conversation? 

12. (Coolio voice) Been spending most our lives/in an online nitpicker's paradise  

13. To always want to be first is a.) immature, b.) a sign that you work for a news organization, c.) a symptom of having a limited sense of discovery/wonder, plus a tendency not to share, d.) all of the above. 

14. In the dream, the Person of Conflict from your past (who is the celebrity in the dream, but not in the forest, where they're just a regular person) tells you, "I've always admired how human you are." What do you say in return? 

15. How human are you? 

16. How human do you want to be? 

17. (It's not a contest, except with yourself.) 

18. What is the conflict? What is the conflict? What is the conflict?

19. Imagine this: You don't have to finish. 

20. Imagine this: All you have to do is start. 

20. Now begin.