Jessica Dore writes: “To know something is to be set in a way. To be set in a way makes it difficult to change. But when a way doesn’t work, what confusion does is it decimates the psychic boundaries that made it impossible to see differently. So that a new path can reveal itself through the haze.”

What new path has revealed itself through the haze to you recently?

Right now, people across the globe are being confined to their homes. We are self-isolating. We are social distancing. Sometimes voluntarily, but increasingly in a more policed way. And unless you live alone, we are not distant from our family members, our children and partners, the people we are confined with. We are RIGHT ON TOP OF those folk. This got me thinking about how characters in fiction and nonfiction might deal with space and confinement. So, for this prompt, take a character you are writing about — and that character can be YOU if you need it to be — and either write about a) what space means for that person. (You can take that in any direction you like. Make it cosmic if you want to.) or b) write about confinement and — this part is crucial — how it can lead to growth. For you. Or your character. Because growth from confinement IS possible.

This used to be a blog. Ah, blogging! We were so young and cute in the time of blogging, amirite? But now we are in the time of coronavirus. And we need community. And sanity. And self-care. Writing is one path that leads to all three destinations. So now this is a stream of writing prompts. Take ‘em and use ‘em as you see fit, as is helpful.

Here’s today’s prompt:

It is hard to is to know what to do when the news is moving so fast and our lives are changing so quickly. But forcing characters to reveal themselves in moments of great stress is what writers DO, all the time. We are now those characters. So: what has been revealed? What, in all the mess and chaos and uncertainty, is now clear to you? What are you realizing about yourself? Free write on that for ten minutes.