Prompt #54
An oldie but a goodie
Hello, hello!
Thank you to everyone who responded so kindly to the Bonus Prompt I posted last Monday. It’s a nice feeling to know there’s a group of you who really want to be here with me. What can I say? You talked me into coming back. Truth is, I immediately missed all of you. And I missed the fun of putting together this weekly newsletter. So, here I am. And I thank you again for all the support.
I’m still thinking about the revamp of this newsletter. Several of you have suggested I simply repeat the prompts from last year—after all, they’re good prompts and they can be used to write many different stories. Good idea! I’ll do that. But I’ll also offer up some new prompts.
I’m thinking the new prompts won’t always include story examples. That’s been the most time-consuming part of this (finding them), and I’ve been told that although many of you love the stories, they aren’t completely necessary. (And I know that many of you don't read them anyway—Substack lets me know how many “hits” a link gets…) So, sometimes there will be stories. Sometimes not.
It’s the new flexible me in 2025!
We’ll just see what happens, okay?
On a business note, I’ve set up the “paid subscriber” option again. Prompts will be free for one or two weeks and then I’ll lock them down—so you’ll always have access to the current week’s prompt without having to pay for it, just like before. Payment is gratefully accepted but not at all required. I’m happy to have all of you here, no matter what.
(Hot tip: If you ever want to access the locked prompts, you can pay five dollars for a one month subscription and have a look at everything! Then, unsubscribe. If payment is at all a problem, just send me a direct message and I’ll let you in.)
Okay, here’s this week’s prompt: an oldie but a goodie from the Archive!
TODAY’S PROMPT:
TELL A STORY in six words. Yes, the good old six-word story prompt. You can either tell YOUR LIFE STORY or you can tell ANY STORY. Here are a few “life stories” (in six words) that I came up with:
How did this happen? What now?
Stopped looking back. Found myself here.
Not sure of anything at all.
It’s all one big fucking blur.
Not doing any of that again.
Woke up, so that’s a start.
Am I happy? What a question.
Don’t tell me. Okay, tell me.
Bad listener. Big talker. Always apologizing.
Post your stories in the comments. (Usually, I would ask you to keep your stories to 400 words max, but obviously that doesn’t apply this week.)
Post as many stories as you want!
It would be great if you made an attempt to respond to one or two stories that were posted by others. No big pressure on that—just do your best. (All comments should be supportive, obviously. Also, don’t give advice unless it’s asked for. Just be kind—but you all know that already.)
Special note: Larry Smith, the founder of Smith Magazine, asked people to send their “six-word memoirs” to him back in 2006. I think he was the originator of this particular prompt. If you’re interested in learning more, click HERE.
I am happy to be here.
Thank you, Mary G, for bringing this back! Love to see everyone here again.
6-word story: Then even my dog ran away