Once Upon a Time: among the best single writing prompts I know to engage the storyeller inside us. Have you ever used it as a prompt?

I would love to hear your free flow writing following “Once Upon a Time” even if your once upon a time was yesterday afternoon. “Once upon a time yesterday afternoon, I discovered my daughter had once again left her new bathing suit wadded up in a bag, still wet, from a party she attended almost a week ago. No, she isn’t seven years old and no, this isn’t a first.” I could free write my way into a rant, into a moment of healing or perhaps a strategy provided by the invisible fairy godmother or witch.

This is what happened the last time I wrote a once upon a time story that was more long term.

there was a little girl named Julie who wasn’t planned by her parents, but a divine force knew her place on this planet was significant, so she was born on a dark and stormy night in January many decades ago.

She was raised in the 1960’s and 70’s when many things were covered up and ignored. For much of the time, the didn’t talk about their younger brother having down’s syndrome nor did they talk about how horrifying the kindergarten teacher was. They just lived through those things and some of us grew up to tell therapists about it.

Julie loved to read and take hikes and be in plays at her school. Like many, she stopped doing some of those things when she was working and raising her children and being a creative entrepreneur and activist and advocate, but slowly and surely, those loves came back into the forefront.

Now Julie is a full fledged multi-creative. She has been on best-seller lists, she has been in films and plays, she has won awards for telling stories and acting and making contributions to non-profit organizations.

Right now, she is fighting another medical battle amidst everything else. This February, she will be telling those stories here on this blog via short blog posts, videos and photos of the art she is making. 

Her near-death experience in 2019 was something she thought would be the worst and she still holds that to be true – but you will have front row seats (front blog seats?) to what’s next.

Right on the horizon there is a writing challenge next week which you won’t want to miss! More on that tomorrow —

Please tell us in the comments one highlight from your childhood so we can get to know each other better. There is a blog challenge which we’re doing and hope to meet many of you and many others, too.

Thanks for reading – and all your prayers are appreciated.

Julie Jordan Scott is the Creator of the Radical Joy of Consistency Course which helps people practice consistency and completion daily in order to experience a more incredible life experience. She came to this conclusion after almost dying and coming back to true healing by writing 377 consecutive haiku… and a lot more along her way to building that streak! To find out more about this program, visit this link, here.