The Prompt That Unlocked Some of My Most Authentic Writing

The power of giving yourself the floor

Writer’s block: we’ve all experienced it.

As a writer of poetry and prose, I have always had a hyper awareness of forced profoundness. This is probably because I have a tendency to write in a beleaguered, overly verbose manner, which is a trait I’ve had to fine tune as I’ve evolved my craft.

When poetry found me it did so organically, fluid like a trickling creek. But as I discovered a love of prose I also discovered a disconnect in the access of my emotions. That has been a theme for me for many years which, as one can imagine, made my writing somewhat treacherous. I knew I had something to say, I knew there was something bubbling below the surface, but I really struggled to open that dam.

The other piece of that puzzle is that, as I began sharing my writing more, there was also the “audience” element. How would my writing translate to readers? That thought, for a time, posed a difficult hurdle to authentic vulnerability.

Recently, though, I happened upon a very simple prompt that has proved itself to also be incredibly powerful:

What do I have to say?