Have you ever found a note in your own handwriting that you have ABSOLUTELY no memory of writing? Well that’s what you’re looking at. I don’t know when or where I wrote this down, and I can only guess from the concluding scribble that it must have been while watching Sen. Joe Biden as a guest of Ben Mankiewicz’s TCM while featuring Dead Poets Society. (I have absolutely no idea when that would have been, and Google is mum on that point.)

Here’s what the scribble says:

Interesting stories come from exposing the everyday conflicts between people (going on all around us).

Challenging established authority/orthodoxy is interesting.  (ex. Catholic church.)

Conformity vs. independent thinking, taking the path less traveled.

Arrogantly ignoring advice of wiser counselors. (Bush on Iraq.)

Question what he seeks in entertainment.

– – –

I recognize why I made the effort to scribble down what I was hearing–these are fascinating writing prompts!

In fact, when the note fell out of some past writing notebook the other day when I sat down to plan my upcoming Pinney Library workshop, I decided I would use these as the assigned themes for the 4-week session.

Why don’t you try them too, and send me the result?  True Stories Well Told is in need of some fresh fodder!

-Sarah White