" I never think of my life, or my world, in any big cosmic way. I think of it in all its small component parts: the snowdrops, the daffodils...fettuccine alfredo, fudge... ~Anna Quindlen, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist
Did you ever notice that when you begin thinking about your life in sweeping, broad terms the rich details get lost in the shuffle? When facing a challenge, it is often much easier to dissect it into smaller parts - parts that can be tackled individually. The same is true when sitting down to write life stories. So many times I hear women saying that the reason they don't write is that they "just don't know where to begin."
It's hard to know just where to begin sometimes. But stories don't write themselves -- if you don't start somewhere, your stories will never be written. That is the whole premise behind using writing prompts to help shape our life stories. If you've been using writing prompts for a while now, chances are you have several free-standing stories. I'd wager a guess that if you were to sit down and read through them now, you'd find a common theme in some of them. And so, if you've been using prompts to write short essays or stories, you may well have a great beginning to a larger writing project.
However, sometimes you feel the need to write but none of the prompts you have in front of you seem to spark your creative nature. If you've done some preemptive work, you might have another option: a list of the "small things" that matter most to you, a list of the "small things" from nature that speak to you, the "small things" that someone has said to you or done for you - things that have made a difference in your life. And let's be perfectly clear, sometimes it is just as challenging to come up with a list of "small things" as it is to write a story from a writing prompt.
On those days when you sit down in front of the blank page (computer screen) and are at a loss as to what to write, use the time for free writing in the form of list making --- Perhaps you can start a computer file or a small notebook titled "My Small Things" - a place to jot down small things each time they come to mind. That way, when you have a "prompt-free day" but want to write something genuinely personal, you can refer to your own list. I guarantee you that you'll have more stories than you ever thought possible if you keep growing the list of small things and writing from that list. Watch how small things can turn into something really big!
Here are a few ideas to consider: raindrops, falling leaves, the smell of a wood fire, the sound of children laughing, your favorite food, a photograph, a piece of jewelry, a seashell ... What can you add to the list? When all is said and done, how will the sum of all your small parts shape your deeply personal story?
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