My responses to prompts from a digital writing club. Glimpses of ideas---I'd like to write again, think about something, and will let these attempts serve as an entry to that. With time, I'd like to write longer, complete responses. Idk, love. Enjoy.
week of nov 18th: look around your room, or any space that you love & call home, and write about some aspect of it
There's an open dot-grid notebook. There's a todo list from November 13th, and then another todo list from November 22nd. A few items have checkmarks beside them. Close the notebook. It has realistic drawings of birds on the cover; there's a bluejay in the center. Ignore it in favor of a notebook with a red cover. Most of the notebook is blank. The most recent pages look like a storyboard; there are drawings of thumbnails accompanied by scrawled words. The oldest pages contain phrases like "chromatic number," "Hoffman bound," "orthogonal vector coloring," "circular chromatic number," and "eigenvalues." Close the notebook; leave it beneath the notebook with birds on the cover.
An orange cardboard tray, with a reading light attached to it, is on the back left corner of the desk. It holds a stack of pens & markers, a container of floss, scissors, tape, a lighter, sticky notes, nail clippers, a pair of glasses, lotion, and an unlit candle. Don't organize it; what a waste of time.
The box of tissues on the desk used to live in the closet. There's a handful of used tissues on the desk, and even more in the trash can beside the desk. There's a white plate covered with orange stains and a few pieces of corn. The fork on the plate shares its stains. There's a phone beside the plate; its screen lights up with a Whatsapp message. The music player is visible. Hit play.
Back then I wasn't hopeful But now my ink's blood red not black
And I'll blink like ripping envelopes
In the hopes that you'll write back
The Calling - The Amazing Devil
week of sept 30th: choose a few specific images and focus almost solely on them in a piece of writing of any kind
Flying too close to the Sun is easy. Tempt fate, push limits, yearn for more, get what you're yearning for. Find glory. Find success. And if you fail—well, it's an all-or-nothing story. Either you live, a successful man, or you die, a warning to everybody else.
Leonard sighs.
There's a sketch of a mechanical bird on the wall in front of him. The bird is as tall as he is, and its wings span the walls. Every feather is portrayed, and the exposed cogs give away its unreality.
"It's my fault," he mutters to himself as he traces a wing with his hand. "I'm the reason why this is what remains. If I'd paid more attention, if I'd warned you more, if I'd done more, if I stopped you—"
He clears his throat, trying to cover up a sob.
week of sept 23rd: find a news article, new or old, and write something based on it
aka I clicked on this article and thought about things.
Loose connection: daydreams are imaginary, they can make the daydreamer feel good. Maybe the daydreamer puts together their imaginary girlfriend; she only exists in their head. But they daydream about her and, in the most general sense, these daydreams feel good. Sometimes your mind wanders into daydreams, sometimes it's deliberate. Sometimes you force yourself to daydream a particular thing. You take charge of the daydream.
ASMR fantasies as an externalization of this---instead of driving the daydream, you find something that put together the daydream for you. You don't have to think, you don't have to let your imagination wander; you just have the experience. Are the good sensations they produce the same?
asmr girlfriend <<< ai girlfriend <<<<<<<<<<< imaginary girlfriend
week of apr 8th: try to make your writing as silent as possible. i know it's a weird prompt-- don't take it too seriously. have fun. what does it mean for writing to be quiet?
week of mar 25th: try writing in the second person. address your audience and sit with them as you tell your story. see how this direct connection affects how you write.
You aren't going to read this closely.
I mean, look at the time! Do you have the time to read this? Isn't there something nagging you, something you've forgotten to do? Or is it something on the tip of your tongue; you don't remember what it is, but you know you forgot it? Something that's waiting for you to take care of it. Something so blatantly obvious you can't forget about it. But you forgot, didn't you?
I can always count on you to forget. That's the kind of person you are---someone who forgets the most important information. It was important, wasn't it? Was it something you needed to take care of today? I think it was, wasn't it? Something pressing, and yet you ended up putting it off until the last second, didn't you? You always do this. You always procrastinate. I'd thought you knew better than to do that. I'd thought you would learn from your mistakes. Maybe not. Maybe you're proving me wrong again. Maybe you're the reason I keep getting my hopes up and keep getting disappointed.
Maybe this is who you always have been. Maybe I was led astray by a few good days---maybe I ignored your flaws for too long. Was this the first time you let me down? I don't think it was---you know it isn't. I want to think the best of you. You've made this mistake before. Like I said, I can count on you to make mistakes. I can count on you to procrastinate.
You'd never do that. That isn't you, though, right? You can do better than this. You will, won't you. You'll never betray me, right? You won't do this again. I know you won't. I won't let you.