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Category Archives: Just Jot it January 2021


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The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2021 Daily Prompt – Jan. 2nd

Welcome to the Daily 2021 Just Jot it January Prompt and the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt for SATURDAY, JANUARY 2nd! I want to wish everyone a very happy new year! May 2021 be … uneventful.

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: “in the corner.” Write about whatever the image or thought of “in the corner” brings to mind. 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!


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#JusJoJan prompt the 1st – “Speech”

(FICTION)

*ahem*

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, theys and thems,

Thank you all so very much for being here. I’d like to start off by saying it’s not my fault. I know, I know. Calm down. I know you’re angry at me, but hear me out.

I’m not the one who brought you the fires and the murder hornets and the plague. I didn’t stick you in your homes and not let you out, and I’m certainly not the one who made you forget what day it was.

Random person from the crowd: Then what did you do for us?

I gave you the time you wanted. All those extra hours in a day you’ve been asking for? I might not have given you extra, but they sure felt longer, those days.

Random person from the crowd: You still suck!

Fine, fine. I suck. I’m leaving now. But know this: if you survived me, which you did, you can survive just about anything.

All of the crowd: You suck, 2020!

*2020 leaves the stage, mumbling, Thanks for being here.*

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!


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Just Jot it January 2021 – The Rules!

Hey there! Welcome to the 8th annual Just Jot it January challenge! This year is going to be far simpler than the last couple of years. One prompt per day, link to that post, that’s it. Details below.

But why should you participate in this challenge? To keep the ol’ fingers warm and meet up with an awesome blogging community, that’s why! Just Jot it January, AKA JusJoJan, is a challenge to write a post every day of the month of January. We’ve grown from a handful of participants in 2014 to close to fifty for the past couple of years. Let’s see if we can make it to sixty this year!

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!


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Just Jot It January a new way

I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out how I can make Just Jot It January work in 2021, because I know I’ll be busy with my novel. Like, extremely busy.

If you’re familiar with the prompt, you know for the last few years I’ve requested prompts from other bloggers and I’ve posted the prompt itself separately from my own JusJoJan entry. I really enjoy doing it that way, but it’s simply not realistic this next year. It’s way too time consuming, plus, I feel like I need to write my own post on the actual day of the prompt so I can provide content that’s relevant.

So here’s what I propose to do this year: fiction.

Every day in January except for Wednesdays, when you’ll still get your One-Liner Wednesday, and Saturday (SoCS) I’ll post either a stand-alone short story or an episode of a serialized one. The story will have a one-word title that you can use for your prompt, and it will be posted at 2am EST, so unless you’re on the other side of the world, you’ll have all day to write your own JusJoJan post. Yours does NOT have to be fiction–it can be anything, and you can use the prompt word or not.

However, I’m not going to leave you out of this completely.

What I’d love from you is something to prompt me on what to write. In the comments, give me any or all of the following:

1. A name (It can be your own, but all I can promise is that I won’t kill you in my story. You may end up being any kind of character, possibly not even human.);

2. A setting;

3. A situation or a “what if.”

I may not use all of the suggestions I’m given, but if I do use your suggestion, I’ll try to link back to you in some way.

I’ll start writing my stories over the Christmas holidays and schedule them to show up in January.

Keep an eye out for the official Just Jot it January rules post for this year.

Aaaand, prompt me!