Journey is You

I know, the following is going to sound more like a writing prompt than a journaling prompt, so what gives?

Writing in the third person or in a fictive manner can give us insights into ourselves.

This one I hope will be fun.

Prompt:

It turns out that aliens (the extra-terrestrial kind) have lived among us for ... a long time. Whatever the reason they came originally, whether the intent was malevolent or benevolent or benign, it is now decidedly benign. They have been observers, watching us, taking note of all we do, writing us up in reports which they send back, never mind how, back to their home planet.

Now they are pulling up, pulling out. Going back home. And for reasons that are their own, even though they have never said hello, they want to tell earth goodbye.

And you have been chosen to hear their goodbye.

Write up a brief description of these aliens, the reason they originally came, what they look like, how their government(s) run, how they managed to evade our notice, how the alien convinces you that yes, they are in fact, not native to earth, and anything else that is important to you and will make the aliens come alive in your mind.

(Draw from your own experiences from a time when you felt you were out of place within a social group and you acted as more of an observer than a participant to fully develop your alien interlocutor.)

Now, you have received a knock on the door. You open it. Let the creature or creatures in, and have a conversation with the creature(s).

What is their message to earth? Why are you one of the people they have chosen? This is your hello and goodbye. What message do you want them to take, from you and from planet earth? How will you convince the rest of the world that this is their message?

Write down a five to ten minute conversation between you and the alien.

After you have done that, answer these questions.

• Think back to the time that you felt as if you were an alien within a social group. What made you feel as if you were an alien?
• Did you enjoy your experience as an observer rather than a participant? Or was it painful? However it was what made it that way for you?
• Is there something you took away from that experience, something you learned about the group and about yourself, that you didn't know before?
• What message would you like to send that group now? Write out your own goodbye to the group. How is it similar and how does it differ from the message your alien gave.

We've all been there. We all faced that page of our journal, and our minds have constricted. What can we write? What should we write?

The main purpose is this blog and the method of journal that I have set up, is to allow you to have something to say even when you are constricted. The format on the first page, if you do it daily, will at least have you writing something, and also allow you to expand, on the second page, into greater detail about one of the basics you wrote about on page one: night report (sleep and dreams)  beauty (something you have experienced that day which has struck you as beautiful), gifts (either challenges or presents), learned (something you now know that you didn't know. If you are working on a goal you can write about that.

Still and all sometimes the above isn't enough, doesn't inspire.

What to do when you have something in you but feel as if you can't get it out? 

Time to play. 

Grab a pen, grab some markers, colored pencils or even crayons, open up a time and turn to the first completely blank page in your journal.

Now, set the time for one minute, and for the next one minute scatter whatever word comes to your mind over the page. Make the words big or small, twist the journal so the words aren't going in the same line or direction, don't think just write. Times up? Draw a circle or cloud or other open shape around each word. Decorate the words if you want. Now set the timer for two minutes, and link up words that seem to connect to you. Not all words will connect to anything. Perhaps none have. 

In either case look through your words, and choose at least five of them. If you have linked any words make sure to use all of them.

Settle back and use the words or word groups in sentences. For instance if you wrote and connected the words "elegant and sapphire" you might write "The woman looked elegant in her sapphire cloak."

Examine the sentences you have written. What do they invoke in you? What are the emotions that they bring? Are all the emotions similar or do they differ? Does any event or person come to mind when you read them? Is a story coming to your mind? If so, write!

 Today's exercise is a redo of yesterday's prompt, plus. You will rewrite the prompt from yesterday, along with a new piece from today, and do the same sort of thing you did yesterday with the prompt. That is, draw images, make a mind map,add to the story, etc etc. If yesterday you added to the story, then merge the added piece with the new prompt, the only rules being the two children must be the same two children, and the first part of the story, from yesterday, and today's piece, follow each other and occur within the same time frame.

I will write yesterday's prompt here followed by today's for your convenience.

Neither of the children could find the ball. "It must have gone into the woods", the younger one said. The children headed toward the edge of the woods. They were allowed to go in a few feet but not beyond the wooden fence that bounded the park side of the woods from the main part of the woods, with its hiking paths and streams, lakes and caves, and all sorts of wildlife. There they could only go if they were with an adult. But the ball wouldn't have gone over the fence of course. That was too far away. "Let's go look," the older child said.

The children looked, through the bit of wood before the fence. They searched together and apart, finally meeting at the gate to the hiking path. "I guess we lost the ball."  The other child agreed. They scanned the area with their eyes once more and were about to leave when the younger child called out, "Wait! Is that it there? Beside the hiking-path sign?" The sign was beneath a large oak tree. 

"It is!" The older child agreed. 

"That was some throw!" 

"Or some creature grabbed it."  

Some creature had grabbed it, and dropped it. The creature watched them from behind the oak. 

The children looked at the ball, they looked behind them at the park, they looked at the gate, and they looked at each other. It was a good ball and it wasn't too far in, but the rule was they couldn't go past the gate, no matter what. The children sighed and then ...

What happens next? Your response doesn't have to be long, nor do you have to complete the story. What decision does each child make and why? 

You can add to the story, draw pictures, do mind-maps, incorporate information from yesterday etc. Write this and tell what happens next.

Tomorrow the story doesn't continue, at least in this blog, however we will be working with the story the rest of this week and the next.