Life in progress

Daily Archives: January 15, 2021


by 66 Comments

The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2021 Daily Prompt – Jan. 16th

Welcome to the Daily 2021 Just Jot it January Prompt and the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt for SATURDAY, JANUARY 16th!

For those of you joining SoCS for the first time, it’s a little different than the other prompts in that it’s not always a whole word. Much may be left up to your discretion: this week is no exception. Having said that, if you’re joining in from JusJoJan, don’t want to write stream of consciousness style, no worries. It’s up to you! If you do want to try it, please check out the rules below. It’s fun! Here’s your Saturday prompt:

Your prompt for #JusJoJan and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “first thing.” Start your post with the words, “first thing” and go from there. Bonus points if you end your post with the last thing. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

2019-2020 SoCS Badge by Shelley! https://www.quaintrevival.com/

You can also use the Just Jot it January badge! To find the rules for Just Jot it January, click here.

Here are the rules for SoCS:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


by 37 Comments

#JusJoJan prompt the 15th – “Button”

(FICTION) (This is Part 3. Part 1 of this story can be found here, and Part 2 can be found here.)

“Mom?” little Susie Smith said out of the corner of her stick mouth.

“Yes, dear?”

“What’s going to happen when we melt?”

It was an excellent question, Mrs. Smith thought. But she had no idea what the answer might be. All she knew was that her bottom ball was getting tired, and she wanted to lay down and go to sleep for a while. She had a headache because she’d missed her morning coffee.

“I suppose we’ll have to wait until the lady comes out and ask her,” Mrs. Smith told her daughter. Fortunately, the didn’t have to wait long.

When they heard the lock in the front door turn, Mr. Smith Sr. said, using the middle button of his button mouth, “Let me do the talking.”

Mrs. Smith had her misgivings—her father-in-law could be abrasive when he was angry, but in the absence of any comment by her husband, she said nothing. It wasn’t until the lady of the house came out in a woolen coat, furry hat, and ankle boots that Mrs. Smith thought to wonder whether her husband had a mouth at all. She couldn’t turn around far enough to look.

“What have we here?” the lady cackled, facing them with her hands on her hips.

“What you have,” Mr. Smith Sr. said, “is a sextuplet of disgruntled snowmen. And I demand you change us back so we can go home.”

The lady dropped her hands from her hips and stepped back. Her mouth formed a perfect “o” before she exclaimed, “You can talk?”

“Yes!” Mr. Smith Sr. yelled. “And we demand—”

The lady reached out and removed the middle button from Mr. Smith Sr.’s mouth, leaving him to angrily, but now quietly, lisp something out of his right two buttons. Mrs. Smith thought she heard a swear word and hoped the children hadn’t been able to hear.

“That’s better,” the lady said with a nod of satisfaction. “Anyone else have anything to say?”

“Could you read us a story?” little Susie Smith asked.

The lady snorted and without another word, went back into the house.

(To be continued.)

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!