Prompts from “Carol”

I asked Carol for 10 writing prompts. I decided it was easier to write a little about each one, unless I get passionate about something and then we’re going to be here all day. 🙄

1. Pop Culture’s Teaching Moments: Reflect on a pop culture event that sparked a significant conversation or debate in society.
   • Misogyny comes to mind…. right now, no one is talking about how Justin Timberlake needs a conservatorship (seriously, not facetiously). No one is saying that he shouldn’t have his kids anymore. He also didn’t shave his head, but if he had, no one would have made that about his mental health. Justice was blind in this case. The officer didn’t know who he was. It was obviously by the book. But, of course people are raging about a 90s icon getting arrested and not the fact that he WAS DRIVING DRUNK. It is burying the lead.
2. Tech Tidbits: Write about a piece of outdated technology that you miss and the nostalgia it brings.
   • I saw on YouTube that Nokia is coming out with an anniversary edition and I almost cried. My Nokia was the Hanukkah of phones. I forgot my charger when I went on vacation, and the battery lasted the whole time. There’s a lot to be said for dumb phones, because no smart phone has a battery that’s capable of letting you go without the charger for any real length of time. I also really miss old mechanical keyboards. I like to hear myself type, and I can raise the dead on one of those things.
3. Doctor Who’s Companions: Discuss the evolution of companions in Doctor Who and their influence on the show’s narrative and the Doctor’s character.
   • Originally, they were the eyes of the viewer- people to “stand around and watch The Doctor be clever.” Now, they have fully fleshed out lives and you get to see how that conflicts with time travel- like Rory and Amy coming back to a party “5 minutes after they left” wearing different clothes. Of all the companions, Amy and Rory are the standouts for me. The Ponds and The Doctor make a beautiful family….. as do The Doctor and the Nobles. The whole point of Doctor Who is focusing on deep friendships. It’s more that that. You’re The Doctor’s companion. You have more responsibility you don’t want to give up than you could have in three lifetimes. It’s too serious an undertaking to be casual buds. You might, and lots of time do, die during service. The Doctor is tortured by all the people who’ve gotten hurt in their care. It’s an essential part of their humanity.
4. The Art of Blogging: Offer advice to new bloggers on finding their unique voice and standing out in a crowded digital space.
   • The art of blogging is sticking with it until you don’t suck anymore. Few people have the endurance to sit there and look at their work, feeling confident enough to hit “post” at the end. It’s just like writing a book- half the battle is working hard enough just to get it completed in the first place. Your writing has to come from within, and it takes a long time of exercising that muscle before you feel confident enough to read your work. Or, at least, that’s how I would be if I wasn’t a blogger. With blogs, you have to let go of the idea that anything will be perfect, because sometimes you’ll write in bulk, and sometimes you’ll say something of substance. Either way, it was a writing session to pull you forward. The words are all inside you, the hard part is finding the tap so they can flow onto the page. Confidence to be able to post every day comes with not caring about what people think. If they were so concerned about me, they’d reach out to me. If someone doesn’t reach out, I won’t go out of my way to contact them. I’ve been told too often that I’m too much to believe that people actually do want me around. My satisfaction comes from within, because I’m genuinely excited to see how I grow from here. This year has been incredibly hard and yet also helpful. But it was only helpful due to the art of blogging. I cannot process my thoughts without it.
5. Sarcasm as Social Commentary: Analyze a current event using your signature sarcastic wit, highlighting the absurdities within.
   • The sitting president has to debate a felon for the next election. Do you think they’ll be able to hear each other on those little phones, especially with that much thick glass between them? The idea that a literal felon is still on the ballot is too insane to be sarcastic, because you can’t make it more over the top than it is. Trump is so corrupt he could have been governor of Maryland (that was an Agnew joke- we’re all good now).
6. Spiritual Spaces: Describe a place that holds spiritual significance for you and why it’s impactful.
   • My office is holy ground that calls to me when I’m not in it. I feel closest to the divine when I am writing, so I enter my office in an intentional way. I ask it what we’re going to accomplish together. I write to the whir of the ceiling fan, and the rest of the world fades away. Outside my very personal space, I feel God in nature. I have stood in freezing cold water, screaming and crying in the Columbia River Gorge so that I could just let it all out. The Gorge didn’t hold onto my pain. It was dumped into the Columbia, and disappeared once they reached Cape Disappointment.
7. The Humor of Miscommunication: Share a story about a miscommunication that led to a humorous outcome.
   • I have a lot of funny stories. A lot of them. Exactly none of them are about miscommunication. I can’t laugh those things off. If I somehow miscommunicated something to someone, I take myself to the mat over it.
8. Tech’s Role in Relationships: Explore how technology has changed the way we initiate, maintain, and end relationships.
   • Technology gives you the ability to do things you couldn’t otherwise, for evil and for awesome. Sometimes, being a writer works in my favor, because talking to people on the Internet is what I do. I’m good at it. But there are some people that you just can’t read without meeting them in person, Technology gives you the ability to do things you couldn’t do otherwise, like text message break up. You have the choice to be kind using technology or not, and most of us are choosing “not.”
9. A Day in the Life of a Writer: Give readers a behind-the-scenes look at your daily routine as a writer.
   • I wake up by 0400, and am generally in my office by 5:00. I write the first entry of the day. Sometimes I’ll finish it, sometimes I’ll come back to it later after I’ve had more time to think. I eat bland food so that it’s mindless most of the time. I need energy, not entertainment. I then start working on either an afternoon blog entry, or work on my fiction. I also spend about an hour every day on Copilot researching for my novel. Copilot is great for things like “give me a playlist for a radio station in 1935.”
10. Cultural Critique: Choose a trending topic in pop culture and offer a critical analysis of its implications on society.
    • Because we are living in two separate realities thanks to Fox News, we are even less capable of resolving difficulties than we were before. You cannot convince someone of facts when they are blind to the fact that they exist. That there’s no such thing as an “alternative fact.” That’s just, like, your opinion, man. It’s driving estrangements because liberals want to argue about politics and conservatives want to argue about morality as if they are the same thing. If that were true, we wouldn’t need laws to protect black people from racists and queer people from homophobes and transphobes. We cannot change cultural attitudes for either group by appeasement. Only punishment works, and it’s not even really legislative in most cases. It’s HR. You don’t get the right to make a queer person’s life at work hell…. if you’re the one telling me I’m going to hell for being queer, you don’t have to worry. I’ve already felt like I was there when I was listening to you. Life must be so simple when everyone’s going to hell but you.