Our prompt word of the day today is “hyphenated.” Thanks today go to Sally for the great prompt!
As an editor, I spend most of my days fixing hyphens or looking up hyphens … did you know hyphenated words (and non-hyphenated words) are in the dictionary? If you’re ever not sure, have a look.
A lot of the time it depends how you’re using the words. You and someone else can walk side by side beside side-by-side windows, for instance.
Ah, I love the English language.
Much easier than trying to figure out French.
No matter how much they told me to allons-y at school.
***
This hyphenateful post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Sally! Please be sure to check out Sally’s blog here!
Our prompt word of the day today is “gratitude.” Thank you so much, Carol Anne for your wonderful prompt!
I love this prompt, because it gives me an opportunity to say something I don’t say nearly enough.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, each and every one of you who responds to my prompts, not only in January, but year ’round. Thank you to all of you who read what others have written and contribute to this community.
I’m terribly guilty of not being here enough. Of not contributing enough. But you’ve stuck around anyway, and for that, I’m truly grateful. I appreciate you all, more than I can say. ❤
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
***
This thankful post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Carol Anne! Please be sure to check out Carol Anne’s blog here!
Once upon a time … You’d think this would be easy for me, wouldn’t you?
I tell stories all the time.
And yet, every single time I write one, I ask myself, Is this autobiographical? Am I writing about me?
I don’t want to write about me when I write fiction, so I try to steer away from it.
But I think it’s a common thing for writers to wonder. How else can we write aside from relaying what we’ve observed about the world? And how much of those things, those experiences, has seeped in to make us who we are?
Welcome to the Daily 2023 Just Jot it January Prompt and the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt for SATURDAY, JANUARY 14th! Well, so far, so good. I’m doing pretty well keeping up with the prompts this year by staying ahead of the game. There’s something to be said for taking the pressure off by being prepared. 🙂 Okay, here we go:
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 or single word. 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 the 14th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “once upon a time.” Start your post with “Once upon a time,” then write whatever comes to you, whether it be fact or fiction. 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!!
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.
First, I want to say thank you to Maggie for her wonderful prompt of the day, the word “periwinkle.”
I’ve never had a periwinkle plant.
Nor do I believe I’ve ever owned a piece of clothing in the colour periwinkle.
But I’ve always wanted to write a story about a character named Periwinkle.
Periwinkle would be a man of medium stature and medium age.
He would wear wire-rimmed glasses … or a monocle.
And he would have a posh British accent.
Periwinkle would often wear brown woolen suits and speak with his forefingers linked behind his back.
He would be polite, to the point, and smile infrequently.
At home in his quaint English cottage, he would have a collection of frogs in all shapes, sizes, and made from all different materials. But his pride and joy would be the ones he stuffed himself.
Yes, dear Periwinkle would wish he’d been a taxidermist. But not of large animals, but rather, small things. Like frogs, and mice, and even crickets. Thus, the need for a monocle. But I digress.
Periwinkle would have had only one love, a girl named Daisy, in his third year of school, when he was eight. But during a science experiment, he would have managed somehow to turn her into a frog.
Which would be where his obsession with frogs comes from.
Periwinkle would be a fascinating character.
So says I.
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This post that somehow got away from me is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Maggie! Thanks so much again, Maggie, for the amazing prompt. Please be sure to check out her blog here.
Today’s prompt, “endurance,” was chosen by Destiny. Thanks so much for the awesome word, Destiny!
Okay, so I’ve got a slew of planners now to keep me on track this year. A SLEW, I tell you!
The most recent one is an hourly one that goes from 6am to 11pm. I would have liked it to go later, but hey, maybe it will entice me to go to bed before 2am, eh?
Like, the day is finished at 11. My planner says so!
All this means is I’m not just organizing my time, I’m micro-organizing my time. Like the CEO of the company I am.
Can’t wait to go golfing! That’s what CEOs do, right?
Anyway …
We’ll see how much endurance I have for this.
Because it’s only 9 days into the year. 356 to go.
I feel like I’ve just begun a marathon.
***
This tiring post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Destiny! Please be sure to check out her blog.
I’d like to say thanks so much to Jezzie G. for his awesome prompt of the day, “friendship.”
I read somewhere once that I’m a typical Aquarius in that I’m able to remain friends with people even if I don’t talk to them for years. And for the most part, it’s been true. I can easily pick up where I left off.
Take my best friend, for instance. Okay, so he’s an Aquarius too—his birthday is the day after mine—but we didn’t talk to each other for, like, ten years at a time. We drifted apart after high school and met up for dinner about ten years later, then there were another two ten-year or so gaps when we both kinda fell off the face of the earth, then he moved to a house around the corner from me about ten years ago and we’ve seen each other regularly ever since.
Except with COVID. He came over for breakfast yesterday for the first time in almost three years. Breakfasts together were a daily habit when he first moved here.
But aside from that, he’s one of my only friends … Until I get together with someone else I haven’t seen for ten years, I guess.
Is that weird?
***
This friendly type post is brought to you by Just Jot it January and Jezzie G.! Thanks again, Jez, for the great prompt. Please be sure to check out his blog.
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