I just finished a four-session writing workshop on the theme of awakening with my magnificent poet-friend Linda Parsons Marion. She did two sessions on poetry and I did two on narrative. This being the beginning of spring and all, awakening seemed a good theme.
Here are some of the prompts I used for one exercise. The idea is connect one of these phrases to a moment of awakening in your life (or your character’s) life and write, just write for 10 minutes. Quantity is your goal. Try for a full page in ten minutes. Revise later and don’t pay any mind to that insidious critic voice in our heads. Just open the spigot and write. You’ll be amazed. Personally, I like free-writes with pen and paper—it feels more organic, but tastes differ. Have at it, and enjoy and if you feel moved to share the process or product, I’d be grateful.
I see him/her so differently now
Now I see why
I was so much younger then
This is what parenting really means
I can do this!
I’m free!
Now I’m in (or out of) this relationship
There’s a side of all this that I never saw before
NO! I won’t do this.
This may not look like the place, but it’s the place.
I never thought this would happen. It just did.
Pamela Schoenewaldt, historical novels of immigration and the search for self in new worlds: WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS, SWIMMING IN THE MOON, and UNDER THE SAME BLUE SKY (all HarperCollins).
pamelaschoenewaldt.com 
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