A Goal Without a Plan is Just a Wish

I had a whole vision in my head of how life was going to continue after I got back from my retreat. I was going get back into my exercise routine, eat healthier, spend the mornings in my office writing, pay a little more attention to my blog by establishing a weekly prompt. . . Great goals, right?

What I hadn’t planned on was being struck down by the mother of all colds. I had a bit of a sinus thing going before I went on the retreat, and didn’t get enough sleep while I was away so the medicine I was taking was less effective, so by the time I got home I was really feeling like crap. And I felt like crap all of last week. So no writing, pretty much no anything.

I still feel like crap, but my head doesn't seem quite so muffled. And right now all my good intentions seem to be covered in a layer of snow – is anyone else as tired of winter as I am? Seriously! It kept waffling about whether it was going to be winter or not all season long, and now that it’s March it’s suddenly decided to commit. In fact, as I type this it’s snowing like crazy. Go away snow!

Back to my good intentions. One of the ideas I’ve been toying with is adding a weekly prompt to this blog. I was going to write out all these prompts and stick them in a jar, and a friend was going to come over and we’d pick a prompt for the week. The idea was for us to write from the prompt for 15 minutes to exercise our creative muscles, and I could share the prompt here for anyone else who wanted to give it a try.

Well, the friend blew me off but I’d already spent considerable time and effort on the prompts, so I see no reason why that time should go to waste. So I’ve picked a prompt for the week and I invite anyone who’d care to participate to use this prompt to kick start their own writing. It’s more fun if you use pen and paper, but that’s up to you, and I suggest limiting yourself to 15 minutes – write without thinking too much and without stopping.

If you like what you’ve written and want to continue, go for it. And if you don’t think it’s going anywhere that’s okay too – at least you’ve had a little fun with your writing. AND if you keep it to around 500 words, you can either post it in the comments or send it to me at carolrward(at)gmail(dot)com and I can post it here on Friday, when I’ll post my own.

Give it a try – at the very least it’ll get your creative juices flowing.

Prompt of the week:
There’s a thunderous knock at the door. You open it to find an improbably tall, black-robed figure towering over you with a scythe in one bony hand. The figure peers at you for a long moment, then looks down at a clipboard in its other hand. Then back at you. Then back at the paper. It has no apparent face, but you sense that it is puzzled.