Sometimes writing prompts get you nowhere. This is a reality those of us who write prompts oftentimes don’t want to confess. We think if people are stuck and our writing prompts haven’t moved them on, we’ve somehow failed them. We’ve failed at our life work.
As a writer of prompts, I feel very guilty when folks’ words stagnate from my suggestion. I open the word-love valve wider but still nothing happens.
Here’s the thing: I wrote a prompt and avoided it for three days.
When I finally wrote to it in a #5for5BrainDump the first go-around was good, but I knew I had to go deeper. I know I needed more time, more writing moments.
I tried to take on Jack Kerouac’s quote again… and wrote tangentially. I was supposed to be writing about being amazed by myself and here’s what came off the ends of my fingers, tapping on the keyboard in 5 minutes.
We were sitting in a circle together: about eight of us. I didn’t know any of them very well – it was a circle of women who knew each other by face if not by name. We had a common interest though not much else.
I’ll take responsibility for suggesting we all introduce ourselves but I wasn’t expecting each lady to leap into a snippet of her personal story. The thing is, everyone was entranced.
I was nervous though because people were starting, generally, with their names and their employers their geography. They were sharing quantity of kids and ages of kids and I just for once did not want to bring my kids into the equation for once. I am at the end of their collective childhoods and part of the letting go is to stop using them as a mold for my identity.
I don’t have a normal employer or a normal geography.
We were sitting in a place owned by a specific political party, which I am not a part of.
I was squirming and uncomfortable in my seat because I felt 100% cast off and wrong and wondered for a moment if I could just escape somehow before I had to confess I was so different than everyone else and they might not want to have me around anymore if they knew the truth about me.
I don’t know how I started. I don’t know how I finished. I do know I talked for what I felt was too long and I apologized for rambling.
But no one chased me away. No one seemed to look down their noses at me. I did mention I didn’t really understand intersectionality even though I live it. I did mention I had a deep respect for Palestine and immediately worried I might offend any Jewish people in the room including a woman I hoped would be my friend.
After all was said and done and we were back in our homes, one of the women wrote in the facebook group her favorite part of our meeting that day was the sharing of stories.
Rambling. Over excited. Laughter. Connections. Memories.
Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world. She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in soon!
To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.
Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
