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Category Archives: Just Jot it January 2018


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#JusJoJan Daily Prompt – January 5th, 2018

Hey! How’s it going? I’m here now with your Friday, January 5th prompt for Just Jot it January. Don’t forget, this is Friday’s prompt. Saturday’s prompt will show up here on Friday morning as the Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS) prompt – don’t get them confused!

Your prompt for January 5th, 2018, brought to you by friendly “gender undefined female” (click to read the post) Cage Dunn, is “Memories.” Use it any way you’d like in your post. And make sure you visit Cage at Cage’s blog, “Cage Dunn: Writer, Author, Teller-of-Tall-Tales” to read her post and say hi! Here’s Cage’s blog: https://cagedunn.wordpress.com/

Here are the general rules to follow for Just Jot it January:

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 the daily prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5), every day except for Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness (SoCS) prompt–you’ll find that one on Friday morning at 9:30am. That daily post (i.e. this one) will be where you leave your link for others to find in the comment section. There will be a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday.

3. As long as your blog is on WordPress, you’ll be able to link via pingback. To execute a pingback, 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! If you’re participating from another blogging host, just drop a link into the comment section. Note: The newest pingbacks and comments will appear at the top.

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. The prompts are here both to remind you and to inspire you to write. However, you don’t have to use the prompt word of the day. You can link any kind of jot back here. Note: If it’s 18+ content, please say so in a comment with your link or close to your pingback.

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

8. Have fun!

To find the full list of daily prompts from now until the end of the month, click this link: https://lindaghill.com/2017/12/27/what-is-just-jot-it-january-2018-rules/ and scroll down to the bottom of the post.


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#JusJoJan 2018, the 4th – Passionate

I love language. My love for it compels me to study it constantly; it compelled me to become an editor. But I hadn’t realized how much of a passion I had for it until a couple of months ago when I talked to the dictionary.

It’s interesting, when I think of a dictionary as an old, unchangeable tome, to find that it really is a living and breathing entity. I use Merriam-Webster as a matter of course when I edit, because it’s associated with the Chicago Manual of Style, which I also rely on. So when I looked up the word “nocked” on Merriam-Webster online for a client, I was confused to find it wasn’t there. “Nock” was, but the conjugations were absent. So I wrote to them. And half an hour later, they replied with this:

Dear Linda:

Thanks for your email. Our online dictionary is based very loosely on one of our printed dictionaries, and it still maintains a few print-based conventions (though we’re doing our best to work through them). One of them is that participial adjectives like “nocked” that clearly derive from the verb and which have the same meaning core as the verb are covered by the participle, and therefore the verb. “Nocked,” then, would mean “having a nock or notch” or “fitted against a bowstring.”

I hope this is helpful. Thanks for writing.

Cordially,
Lee Goodrich, Editorial Department
Merriam-Webster, Inc.

I admit, I fangirled a bit.

This post is brought to you by Just Jot it January, and in particular, prompted by the word, “passionate,” provided by Rosemary! Thank you so much, Rosemary! You can find Rosemary’s JusJoJan post by clicking right here. Please go and say hi! To participate in the prompt, please visit this post, where you’ll find the rules and you can leave your link in the comments.


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#JusJoJan Daily Prompt – January 4th, 2018

Hi! We’re back to our regularly scheduled prompts for Just Jot it January! Today I got dragged to the mall so the kids could spend their Christmas money and ended up bringing home Disney Monopoly. Our first game lasted four hours, which is why I haven’t visited many blogs today. But I’m on it! In the meantime, here’s your prompt word for today:

Your prompt for January 4th, 2018, brought to you by the ever-charming Rosemary, is “Passionate.” Use it any way you’d like in your post. And make sure you visit Rosemary at her blog, “Rosemary Carlson, Writer” to read her post and say hi! Here’s her link:  https://rosemarycarlson.com/

Here are the general rules to follow for Just Jot it January:

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 the daily prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5), every day except for Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness (SoCS) prompt–you’ll find that one on Friday morning at 9:30am. That daily post (i.e. this one) will be where you leave your link for others to find in the comment section. There will be a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday.

3. As long as your blog is on WordPress, you’ll be able to link via pingback. To execute a pingback, 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! If you’re participating from another blogging host, just drop a link into the comment section. Note: The newest pingbacks and comments will appear at the top.

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. The prompts are here both to remind you and to inspire you to write. However, you don’t have to use the prompt word of the day. You can link any kind of jot back here. Note: If it’s 18+ content, please say so in a comment with your link or close to your pingback.

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

8. Have fun!

To find the full list of daily prompts from now until the end of the month, click this link: https://lindaghill.com/2017/12/27/what-is-just-jot-it-january-2018-rules/ and scroll down to the bottom of the post.


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One-Liner Wednesday & #JusJoJan Daily Prompt – January 3rd, 2018

2018 is off to a rocky start: I’ve been so lazy, my Fitbit is threatening to walk back to the store and return itself.

In other news, trips down memory lane should never be this cold.

Here are the general rules to follow for Just Jot it January:

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 the daily prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5), every day except for Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness (SoCS) prompt–you’ll find that one on Friday morning at 9:30am. That daily post (i.e. this one) will be where you leave your link for others to find in the comment section. There will be a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday.

2a. Since today is Wednesday, I challenge you to make your JusJoJan post a one-liner. If you don’t care to, or if you’ve already written your post, no problem. Remember, with One-Liner Wednesday you can write anything – it’s only a prompt to write one line, not necessarily to keep to the same theme as mine. The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

(i) Make it one sentence.

(ii) Make it either funny or inspirational.

(iii) Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

(iv) Enjoy yourself!

(v) Use our One-Liner Wednesday badge.

3. As long as your blog is on WordPress, you’ll be able to link via pingback. To execute a pingback, 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! If you’re participating from another blogging host, just drop a link into the comment section. Note: The newest pingbacks and comments will appear at the top.

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. The prompts are here both to remind you and to inspire you to write. However, you don’t have to use the prompt word of the day. You can link any kind of jot back here. Note: If it’s 18+ content, please say so in a comment with your link or close to your pingback.

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

8. Have fun!

To find the full list of daily prompts from now until the end of the month, click this link: https://lindaghill.com/2017/12/27/what-is-just-jot-it-january-2018-rules/ and scroll down to the bottom of the post.


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#JusJoJan 2018, the 2nd – Boisterous

I’ve never been boisterous. Such activity exhausts me, even watching it. Which doesn’t mean I’m not often on-the-go, but you won’t find me jumping around.

I purposely chose the calmest dog in the litter. This is him being boisterous beside me.

Lack of boisterousness, it seems to me, is taking on a new face in the world. I imagine at one point it meant walking slowly for miles to get to school (uphill both ways, of course), or steadily working on whatever needed to get done. In present times there is no need, often, to leave our homes to get the things we want. More people than in decades are working and learning at home–I was going to say more than in history, but it’s like somehow we’re going back to the same scenario when people were home-taught by their parents and worked the land. Only now we’re stationary, working and learning at home from long distances. Human interaction, like the old days when farmers rarely saw anyone outside their families, is slowly reverting to minimal, but for different reasons and by different means.

Wow. That took a rather un-boisterous philosophical turn, didn’t it? Something to think about.

This post is brought to you by Just Jot it January, and in particular, prompted by the word, “boisterous,” provided by Dan! Thank you so much, my friend! You can find Dan’s JusJoJan post by clicking right here. Please go and say hi! To participate in the prompt, please visit this post, where you’ll find the rules and you can leave your link in the comments.


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#JusJoJan Daily Prompt – January 2nd, 2018

Wow, are we ever off to a good start! Lots of regulars from my weekly prompts joined in yesterday, as well as a few people who’ve come back from last year’s Just Jot it January, and a bunch of new bloggers too. I have a feeling JusJoJan 2018 will be a huge success! Here we go for day two:

Your prompt for January 2nd, 2018, brought to you by Dan Antion, is “Boisterous.” Use it any way you’d like in your post. And make sure you visit Dan at his blog, “No Facilities,” to read his post and say hi! He’s very friendly. 😀 Here’s his link:  https://nofacilities.com/

Here are the general rules to follow for Just Jot it January:

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 the daily prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5), every day except for Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness (SoCS) prompt–you’ll find that one on Friday morning at 9:30am. That daily post (i.e. this one) will be where you leave your link for others to find in the comment section. There will be a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday.

3. As long as your blog is on WordPress, you’ll be able to link via pingback. To execute a pingback, 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! If you’re participating from another blogging host, just drop a link into the comment section. Note: The newest pingbacks and comments will appear at the top.

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. The prompts are here both to remind you and to inspire you to write. However, you don’t have to use the prompt word of the day. You can link any kind of jot back here. Note: If it’s 18+ content, please say so in a comment with your link or close to your pingback.

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

8. Have fun!

To find the full list of daily prompts from now until the end of the month, click this link: https://lindaghill.com/2017/12/27/what-is-just-jot-it-january-2018-rules/ and scroll down to the bottom of the post.


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#JusJoJan 2018, the 1st – Drama

When I wrote my very first novel in 2004 (I think), Trixie In a Box, about a woman stuck in an elevator in a deserted building over a long weekend, I had no idea what genre to place it in. Which is partially why I still haven’t published it. If it was a movie, it would be a drama. While Trixie is enclosed in her dark metal box, her family goes through a crisis and barely notices she’s missing. This conundrum has led me to much contemplation on the meaning of the word “drama.” Why it’s not recognized and hugely popular as a literary genre is beyond me.

If you think about it, drama in movies is really simply a slice of ordinary life. Sure, something significant happens within that hour and a half, but things happen in life all the time. Unless we’re in an extended rut, we tend to go from one drama to the next. The most popular recent use of “drama” is related to angst. Often teenage angst; a negative connotation that’s made the word almost cringe-worthy.

Here’s Merriam-Webster’s definition as it relates to life rather than theatre:

3 a : a state, situation, or series of events involving interesting or intense conflict of forces

  • the drama of the past week
  • dealing with some family drama
b : dramatic state, effect, or quality

  • the drama of the courtroom proceedings

So what to do with Trixie? It will take some major up-to-snuff editing to elevate (pun not intended) her to literary fiction. I do hope she’ll see the light of day (okay, that one was a little bit intended) eventually.

This post is brought to you by Just Jot it January, and in particular, prompted by the word, “drama,” provided by Ritu! Thanks so much, my dear! You can find Ritu’s own JusJoJan post by clicking right here. Please go and say hi! To participate in the prompt, please visit this post, where you’ll find the rules and you can leave your link in the comments.


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#JusJoJan Daily Prompt – January 1st, 2018

Hello, and welcome to 2018! It may be cold outside where you are, or it might be stifling hot. One way or another, I hope you’re comfortable at your device and ready for your first prompt here at Just Jot it January!

Your prompt for January 1st, 2018, brought to you by the lovely Ritu, is “Drama.” Use it any way you’d like in your post. And make sure you visit Ritu at her blog, “But I Smile Anyway…” to read her post and say hi! Here’s her link:  https://butismileanyway.com/

Here are the general rules to follow for Just Jot it January:

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 the daily prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5), every day except for Saturday’s Stream of Consciousness (SoCS) prompt–you’ll find that one on Friday morning at 9:30am. That daily post (i.e. this one) will be where you leave your link for others to find in the comment section. There will be a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday.

3. As long as your blog is on WordPress, you’ll be able to link via pingback. To execute a pingback, 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! If you’re participating from another blogging host, just drop a link into the comment section. Note: The newest pingbacks and comments will appear at the top.

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. The prompts are here both to remind you and to inspire you to write. However, you don’t have to use the prompt word of the day. You can link any kind of jot back here. Note: If it’s 18+ content, please say so in a comment with your link or close to your pingback.

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

8. Have fun!

To find the full list of daily prompts from now until the end of the month, click this link: https://lindaghill.com/2017/12/27/what-is-just-jot-it-january-2018-rules/ and scroll down to the bottom of the post.


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Prompt Me, JusJoJan 2018

Hey, all! You’re used to getting prompts from me; now it’s your turn!

Just Jot It Januaary is not only a fun way to meet people, it’s a great way to inspire writers to keep writing once the holidays are finished and life is returning to normal. Prompts are an incredible device to get the imagination going. Wouldn’t you like to inspire a bunch of bloggers to write? Of course you would!

What I need is 22 single words to use in the Just Jot It January challenge. Read the rules carefully! This is how you can be included:

  • The first 22 comments on this post that include a single word will be the prompts for the 22 days in January that I won’t be writing my own prompts (aka One-Liner Wednesday and Stream of Consciousness Saturday).  If you write more than one word in your comment, for example, “My word is antidisestablishmentarianism,” I’ll ignore it. Same thing if you try to slip in two, even in two different comments–I’ll only accept the first. If I get the same word twice, I’ll only accept the first person who got to it. If you’re the second, feel free to try again. And please, remember this is a relatively G-rated blog, so nothing too risque.
  • I’ll link back to the blog of whomever gives me a prompt on the day I use it.
  • Make sure you get your comment in early. You don’t want to miss out!
  • Please don’t bother entering a prompt if your blog is inactive. If you haven’t posted in over a month and you’re only looking for clicks, your prompt word will be rejected. If, on the other hand, you’re planning to use JusJoJan to inspire you to get back into the swing of things, let me know immediately in a second comment — NOT the one you give your prompt word in. Remember, that’s ONE word only.
  • I observed last year, with all the turmoil going on down south of the Canadian border, that many of our prompt words were negative in nature. I found they didn’t do as well as the more positive words. I don’t want to limit you, but please keep in mind that if your word is on the sadder side, your prompt may not get as much participation.
  • If you provide a prompt, I encourage you to join in as much as possible throughout the month.

Please see my previous post for the Just Jot it January rules in detail.  As I receive prompts here in the comments, I’ll list them over there for easy access. Here’s the link in case you missed it: https://lindaghill.com/2017/12/27/what-is-just-jot-it-january-2018-rules/

Okay. Are you ready? Aaaaand… prompt! One word!


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What is Just Jot It January 2018? – Rules

It may be my love for writing or it might be my joy in sharing my passion, but I love to inspire people. Writing is one of the best ways of expressing ourselves, and certainly a wonderful method for organizing our thoughts and putting things in perspective. I find the latter to be essential to many of us here in the north in January, while we’re stuck inside and deprived of sunshine.

For these reasons plus one more, I developed Just Jot it January. Whether you write a story, a poem, an anecdote, or your plans for the future, JusJoJan will, I hope, give you an excuse to jot something down every day in the month. What’s the one more reason? Writing is fun!!

In the post following this one I will ask for you to give us all a prompt, one of which will be posted on each of five days of every week in January. Hard to explain here, but it will be clear in the prompt post, where there will be another set of rules.

Here are the general rules to follow for Just Jot it January:

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. This year, I’ll be posting prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt word every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. There will be a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday. Each prompt post will include the rules. 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: The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section.

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

4. 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!

5. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s JusJoJan prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list of prompt words below. Remember,  you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you.

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

7. Have fun!

I’ll fill in the prompts as I have them, along with a link to the blog of the person who supplied the prompt:

January 1st – Drama ~ Ritu
January 2nd – Boisterous ~ Dan Antion
January 3rd – (One-Liner Wednesday)
January 4th – Passionate ~ Rosemary Carlson
January 5th – Memories ~ Cage Dunn
January 6th – (SoCS – “eco”)
January 7th – Indelible ~ Ruth
January 8th – Pants ~ pensitivity101
January 9th – Coffee ~ Barbara
January 10th – (One-Liner Wednesday)
January 11th – Humiliate ~ Jim Adams
January 12th – Aggravate ~ Fandango
January 13th – (SoCS – sixth, seventh, and eighth word)
January 14th – Ultimatum ~ Itinerary Planner
January 15th – Justice ~ Barb
January 16th – Contemplation ~ Cheryl
January 17th – (One-Liner Wednesday)
January 18th – Revolt ~ Sandra
January 19th – Darkness ~ Kerry
January 20th – (SoCS – “oc”)
January 21st – Silence ~ Willow
January 22nd – Liberty ~ Capt Jill
January 23rd – Colour ~ supernaturalsnark
January 24th – (One-Liner Wednesday)
January 25th – Prediction ~ Dar
January 26th – Address ~ John Holton
January 27th – (SoCS –
January 28th – Knight ~ Leta Hawk
January 29th – Fantastic ~ Jill (J-Dubs)
January 30th – Scrumptious ~ Judy
January 31st – (One-Liner Wednesday)