Writing Prompt: To Keep or Cast Away

Do you regularly free write? Do you wish you did? Several times a month, we’ll post a writing prompt. Open a notebook or a blank page and keep your hand moving for 10 minutes. Don’t worry about grammar or punctuation – just write. 

Then, share a link to your free write in the comments section below. We’d love to see what you did with this week’s prompt! 

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On the Jewish New Year, I cast tiny scraps of bread into the sea—symbolic of shedding sins committed over the past year—things I wish I hadn’t done, what I wish to change.

September ushers in a new season for us all.

I tuck away the pants that suddenly stop short at my sons’ ankles. We buy new shoes, sharpen pencils.

Together, we walk and gather the first fallen leaves—orange and red—as we feel a strange cool wind against our cheeks.

I clear old photos from my cluttered phone, make space.

I survey the stacks littering my desk, set aside an hour to unearth its smooth surface. Much is discarded, but several items are saved—a note, written in crayon, from a dear friend over the summer, a drawing, a list of things to do that makes me sentimental.

As I feel the weight of each piece of paper between my fingers, I think, there is something very cathartic, and important, in this physical act of sorting.

Today, free write about what you are holding on to and what you wish to let go. At this time of new beginnings, what will you cast away? What will you keep?

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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 like to hear your ideas!