A Not So Brief Challenge

This is a meme, a writing prompt, an exercise I have found on several blog cites lately. Each one is distinctly different because it is flavored with the individual’s own voice and honesty. It fascinates me, and so I brought it back here and want to present it as a challenge to you. I have tried to make it easy to copy and paste onto another page to make it as comfortable as possible. You simply use each prompt to begin a brief statement about your own person. There are no wrong answers, no bad ones either. It is simply an encouragement to get on the page. I will do the exercise by filling out the statements as they pertain to the writing of this blog, and you may erase those answers before beginning with your own. My response is only meant as an example, while you, of course, are free to answer across the entire spectrum of your experience.

I am: deeply grateful that I found and began to do this blog.

I think: it is a challenge fitting my skills and abilities.

I know: that I couldn’t have done it just a few years ago.

I want: to encourage as many people as possible to find the things I have found in personal writing.

I have: wanted to do this for a long time.

I wish: I had trusted myself to do it years ago.

I hate: the idea that so many people have been discouraged, dismissed, ignored, even punished for seeking to explore the realm of their own person in this manner.

I miss: not hearing comments from so many who come here. I really do want to hear what you think, and feel, about all or any part of this.

I fear: not being able to sustain what I have begun, for any reason.

I feel: that I have finally found the comfortable niche that was carved out for me before I was born.

I hear: the sound of my computer keys clicking and it is music, tempered by the background noise of the fan that I keep on most days to circulate the air.

I smell: the fading scent of my own perfume, and the sweet breath of a whole lot of ideas.

I crave: Cedar Crest Mackinac Island Fudge Ice Cream

I search: constantly for words that will allow me to express all of this.

I wonder: occasionally, if I’m crazy, preaching to the choir, or just in love with the sound of my own voice.

I regret: having listened for years to those voices that told me I think too much, can’t always have what I want, am foolish, have nothing of value to offer or say, and am far from adequate.

I ache: for anyone who has ever been told repeatedly that they should remain silent to accommodate someone else’s feelings.

I care: about a great many things, one of them is the need for self-expression.

I always: get scared just before I click the button marked Publish.

I am not: anywhere near as afraid as I used to be.

I believe: that the more people who become aware of their own inner workings and actually deal with them, the better the world will be.

I dance: on paper.

I sing: poetry

I cry: far more easily than ever before and see it as a signal rather than a weakness.

I don’t always: come here knowing what I’m going to write.

I fight: with words, they are my weapon of choice

I write: every morning as soon as I awake.

I never: will be perfect, nor consciously stop learning.

I stole: the time to write for many years, now give it to myself as the ultimate gift of freedom

I listen: to others when they ask because I know how important it is to be heard

I need: my daily journal

I am happy about: the fact that this is the last prompt and I am finished.

Because I am the kind of cook who can never simply follow a recipe, but must add some of my own spice to the mix, I have a few suggestions. First is that I want to add more prompts to this list:

I am curious about:

I would like to investigate:

I find:

I used to:

I remember:

I speak:

I meditate:

I communicate:

I trust:

I get sad:

I am enlightened:

I need to learn:

I lack:

I am strong:

Okay, those can be optional. Add them if you like, or feel so inclined. And now that I have done the exercise in my own fashion, I would like to ask that you first do it while focusing on the topic of writing, especially about journal writing. That is what this blog is all about so we might as well stay with the topic. When you have finished, choose two or three of the prompts to share with the rest of us and put them and your completed statements on the comments below (again, optional).

Have fun, and write.

Addendum to previous instructions: I have created another page, on the sidebar for any and all responses to the I am statements in the challenge. Please click on Responses to A Not So Brief Challenge and put your I am statements in the area for comments. You can post as many as you like. Thanks.