Here is Volume 1, or perhaps this is more a preview, of writing prompts for the blog. So this is where you come in and add to this hodgepodge of memories. Send me your responses to any of these nostalgia-based prompts so that I may add you and your work to the site as a contributing blogger!

With your permission, my goal is to turn your work into anthologies to be sold on Amazon to the general public but free to top contributors. A top contributor would be someone who submits 2 or more responses for each volume of prompts. I will only edit the mechanics of the work if need be, not the content. Keep in mind, not every work will be published on the site or in an anthology.

If you don’t want to submit, that’s totally cool too. Please enjoy these writing ideas at your pace and leisure, share or don’t share, you do you. But if you would like to be part of the madness, please like the page and have written responses (in the text of the email only, no attachments) submitted for this first set of prompts by Friday, December 23rd, 2022. Don’t forget to add your name and any content/SM info you’d like to share on the site. Happy writing! tara.lesko@gmail.com

1. Describe a classic film that never fails to make you ugly cry. Justify your consistent reaction to the film to a sociopath with zero empathy. Here’s a catch. You CANNOT use the words: cry, cried, crying, tears, sad, sadness, death, dying, rain, and you cannot call the person you’re writing to a sociopath or any other negative label.
2. Write about what your grandparents’ house used to smell like. What current smells bring back those memories? Have things never changed?
3. Write about your first broken bone, from the bone’s point of view.
4. Describe your favorite place in the whole world as a kid to someone who was born blind.
5. Think of your worst relationship or breakup. Then write a letter to your 11 year-old-self. Not to be opened until the year_____________. Don’t use specific names and avoid making it sound like a warning. You will still want yourself to go through breakup. Talk about what good men/women are supposed to do. Talk about what love looks like, concentrating on the little things. Use examples of relationships from classic TV sitcoms or movies, but also explain why fairytales aren’t real.
6. Write about your bedroom when you were a teenager from the closet door’s point of view. Other options could be from the point of view of the corded phone (did you have one of those funky clear ones?), the black light, the lava lamp, the posters, or the stuffed animals.
7. Describe the boy/girl who relentlessly picked on you when you were a kid but you now know was secretly in love with you. What would be your response if he/she asked you out? You can even create a text message conversation. A lot of great narratives are told in this format nowadays.
8. How would your mother or father set up a good old game of M.A.S.H for you when you were single, still in college, living at home, etc?
9. You’ve gone back in time and your parents are in danger of never meeting. Therefore, you will cease to exist. How are you going to get them together without revealing any part of your identity?
10. Describe your first funeral for a dead relative. You could have been close to this person or not. Work in all 5 senses, and try to balance some positivity with the despair.
11. Look at these bits of disappointing information you might have learned when you are a kid. Which one(s) stand out to you and why? a. Dandelions are not flowers. b. squirrels and guinea pigs are rodents. c. Quartz, even though its shiny, has no where near the same value as diamonds. d. McDonald’s hamburger meat is made with mealworms (though this has been debunked fairly recently). e. Bakers chocolate is actually bitter and disgusting. f. Butterflies live for only two weeks. g. The Never Ending Story and The Song That Doesn’t End do, in fact, end.
12. Tell us about your off-the-hook, shameless fandom, why it’s so important to you, and why you’re sick and tired of justifying it to other people.
13. Wing it baby – Share any reminiscent type of story that comes to mind. What have you noticed bringing on spells of nostalgia?

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