Writing Prompt: Everything Counts by Jennifer Hollis

For each essay published by the Literary Reflections department, we share a writing prompt inviting our readers to respond. Our editors will provide feedback on these responses, and we will post our favorites on the blog. This month’s writing prompt is inspired by Jennifer Hollis’s essay, “Everything Counts.”

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In her essay, “Everything Counts,” Jennifer Hollis chronicles her pre-parenting life of leisure, when “weekend hours could be strung together, one after the other, like handmade glass beads.” Judging herself to have wasted precious time, she wishes she had written more as a young adult. But in those twenty years, Jennifer lived a rich life, full of lessons to inspire her current writing. The trick is figuring out how—and especially, when—to write, now that she has the obligations of a wife, mother, and working professional.

To accomplish this feat, Jennifer quits her full-time job and enlists support from a group of writers, who remind her, “We can write… And we may as well. The time goes by so fast.” To meet a self-imposed deadline to write 70,000 words in 3 months, she follows two simple rules: “Write every day. Everything counts.”

Do you write every day? Share your writing process, whether it’s daily or sporadic. How do you fit it in, and how does it compare to your ideal? What are the mantras that motivate you to keep writing?

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Read Jennifer Hollis’s essay here and submit a 500-word response to this writing prompt by May 4 for feedback from our editors. Email it to LMreflections (at) literarymama (dot) com and note “Everything Counts Prompt” in your subject line. We’ll publish our favorites on the blog.