Writing Prompt: For Your Journal
Do you keep a journal – or wish you could get one started? Literary Mama wants to help. Several times a month, we’ll post a writing prompt. Open a notebook and write for 10 minutes. Don’t worry about grammar or punctuation – just write.
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I’m a night person. I feel creative and alive in the wee hours of the darkness. I can think, create, laugh, write, live so much more easily than any other time of the day. In the morning, however, I feel like a slug. I may be anywhere from nauseous and annoyed to grumpy and stifled. The difference is exceedingly clear.
For years, however, I was the morning parent. Up with the baby, while also getting the elementary-aged stepdaughter out the door. The mornings were a time of wrangling the young people, struggling to stay awake, pumping coffee into my veins, and grouching about everything. It wasn’t a pretty sight. When my stepdaughter grew up a bit and lived with us less days of the week, I still got up to send my then elementary-aged son to school.
Finally, this year, things have changed. With my son in third-grade and my stepdaughter (now back living with us) in high school, I have converted my husband into the morning parent. I need to write at night… I can’t function in the morning… I did it for years… I say. And so I stay up late working while he sleeps, and I sleep in while he does the morning wrangling.
I do feel a bit guilty being a mom who doesn’t see her kids off to school every morning. But after all the years of putting the family first at every time of every day, I am grateful I can finally put myself and my writing first, particularly in those wee hours of the night I love.
In your journal today, write about what time of day your work flows most naturally. What makes it the best time for you? Are you able to utilize this time, or do other responsibilities conflict?
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Do YOU have a writing prompt to share with Literary Mama readers? Send your 150- to 300-word narrative and associated writing prompt to lmblogcontact (at) literarymama (dot) com. We’d love to read your ideas!