Welcome to the Free Seven-Day Writing Challenge. Each day, you will receive a writing prompt in your email inbox. Some days the prompts will take you on trips back to times long past and forgotten memories. Other days, we’ll challenge you to practice one aspect of good storytelling to improve your writing.
Nothing triggers memories like our senses. Seeing, touching, tasting, hearing, and smelling are memory’s treasure chest. Through them, we travel back to special moments. My assistant Catheryne writes:
I remember well staring at the floor of my high school gym the night of my graduation. The yellow painted floor had hairline cracks, seen only if you looked real close. Everyone wore dress shoes, so each step produced a soft thud from leather soles and high heels. A hint of the sweaty bodies who practiced free throws and layups earlier today lingered in the air.
There we stood, dressed in our caps and gowns, clean and neat, lined up, waiting for the signal to move forward. Some played with the tassel on their caps. Others twirled around, creating fabric-balloons because our too-big gowns hung on us like drapes.
I remember thinking, this is the last time I will see some of these people. And for that moment, I didn’t want to step out onto the football field to graduate. Why couldn’t high school last forever? Moments such as these stick to us. We feel both happy and sad, knowing we are moving into the future, leaving behind what was.
Think about a pivotal moment such as the one Catheryne described. Perhaps, a moment you realized could be the last of something but also the beginning of something else. It could be your high school graduation or some other rite of passage, a mark in time when you knew your life would no longer be the same.
Once you decide on the memory, brainstorm for a few minutes. List all the sensory elements you remember about the event. Then try to incorporate the important ones to give the reader an experience of your story. Ready? Go.