Category: Writing

Just go with the flow and write your heart out.

January Journal Prompts — All the Delights

If you are an avid reader or just a Sunday morning browser, I’m pretty sure you have seen this [sic] before. So what does it mean? Caution, you could offend someone by sicing (?) them.

For instance,

“If you’re reading an article (a great habit to keep, by the way) in which the author is quoting another writer or citing a title, you might see the word [sic] inserted somewhere in the text:

The cartoonist cast back to another strip he had drawn in 1972 as a contribution to a compendium called Funny Aminals (sic).
— David H. VanBiema, People, 27 Oct. 1986″

Note the spelling error, aminals. Sic usually , “appears in parentheses or brackets, sometimes with the letters in italics. In this context it means “intentionally so written.” On its own, sic means “so” or “thus” and can be found in phrases such as sic transit gloria mundi (“so passes away the glory of the world”) and sic semper tyrannis (“thus ever to tyrants,” the motto of the state of Virginia).

What is denoted by sic is that the word or phrase that precedes it occurs in the original passage being quoted or name being used and was not introduced by the writer doing the quoting. Sometimes the quoted text contains an error of grammar or spelling, but other times it might not contain an error at all, but some kind of language or phrasing that might be unexpected.

In the instance above, the comics collection is facetiously titled Funny Aminals, with the consonants of the familiar word animals transposed. The insertion of sic indicates that the title has not been altered or corrected for VanBiema’s article, nor was it an error introduced by VanBiema.”

So it was an intentional error after all. Did the writer quoting the reference know this, or was he just pointing out an “obvious” error. Caution. Some authors are quite protective of their essays and may take offense at some unappreciated correction. But now you know what [sic] means. Right?

Source: How to Use ‘Sic’ | Merriam-Webster (merriam-webster.com)

Source: https://lessonsforenglish.com/ways-to-say/ways-to-say-for-example-english-phrases-examples/

1. Something you’re passionate about

Have fun and write something you love. Let it all flow out of you. Connect with your heart and what is important to you.

2. Things that made you smile

Writing about what makes you smile tells you what lights you up. When you’re having a hard day, you can take a look at this and write about something that makes you happy. It’ll turn your day around.

3. Story where you’re the star

We’re all the stars of our own lives, but have you ever written a story where you’re the star? Imagine your dream life and write about it. How does this change the way you think of your life? What changes can you make to make your dreams come true?

4. Write about your beliefs

As you go through life, you’ll faces challenges and pressure. Once you know your beliefs, you can know your values and what principles you want to live by, which will help you when challenges arise.

5. A memory that means something to you

Memories are little nuggets to our souls. We store them for a reason. Reach down inside and determine why you love the memory you wrote down. You’ll learn more about yourself.

6. Your hopes and dreams

What are the things you’d like to see fulfilled? What are the desires and yearnings you’ve had? Often when we reflect on our hopes and dreams for the future, we actually reach those goals and move on, sometimes with little applause. Take time to write your dreams down, and in the future take time to re-read what you wrote. It might surprise you that you reached your dreams you had in the past without recognizing it.

7. A person you admire the most

What are the things you like about this person? Why do you admire this person? Can you bring what you like about them into your own personality?

8. What you love about yourself

We tend to be overly critical of ourselves. Take time to focus on the good qualities you contain and what you love about yourself.

9. The last time you felt happy

Why did you feel happy? Who made you happy?

10. One song that resonates with you

How does this song relate to you? How does it make you feel?

11. What ticks you off

Knowing what you don’t like or what doesn’t ring true to your spirit tells you something about you. After you determine what you don’t like, figure out if you can change your mind about it.

12. Describe your perfect day

If you can plan/orchestrate your perfect day, how would it go? Where would you go? Who would you be with?

13. What people will say at your funeral

What you think people will say at your funeral will tell you how you’ve been living your life. Are those things what you want people to say at your funeral?

14. Characteristics you admire in a person

Pinpointing the characteristics of a person that you like can show you what matters to you in a friendship(s) you’re longing for. Do you have people in your life who have these characteristics?

15. If you had three wishes from a genie

What would you wish for if you had three wishes? Don’t limit yourself.

16. One thing you regret and what you would do if you could change it

Lessons you learn from regrets are priceless. These are lessons that can help you prevent it from happening again

17. A confession

Write it all out. Remember, no one will see this unless you decide to share.

18. Your talents

What makes you unique and what talents do you possess? How are you utilizing your talents in your everyday life, career and/or relationships?

19. A turning point in your life

What events have made a difference in your life? How did that event change your life to where you are now?

20. Your hobby

Write about your hobby and what you enjoy about it.

21. Your insecurities

Why do you have those insecurities and what is the first memory attached to them? What would you say to yourself if you were a friend?

22. A compliment that mattered to you

Compliments can come in different forms. Which compliments have you appreciated lately?

23. How does your best friend describe you?

Try viewing yourself in a third person like your BFF/BF/GF/SO. How would you describe yourself? What are the positive sides of you?

24. A trip you’ve been dying to go on

Where would you want to explore to? How can you get started on this trip happen?

25. The first time you felt loved

Jot down what made you feel loved and why. Do you like compliments more or spending time with someone you love more? Check out The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman to explore more about how you best receive love.

26. A forgiveness letter

Forgiveness is about freeing yourself from being confined in someone else’s prison cell.

27. A letter you would write to your 16-year-old self

What are the things you’d wish your 16-year-old self knew?

28. A letter you would write to your 60-year-old self

What are things you’d like your 60-year-old self to remember from this time of your life?

29. 5 things you’d like to accomplish in the next 5 years

What are the things you want to do with your time in the next 5 years?

30. What you want to be remembered for?

How do you want to be remembered at the end of your life? What emotions do you want others to feel? How do you want to be celebrated? Are you becoming the person you’d like to be?

Final note

My hope is that when you write about these topics that you feel connected to yourself and to your soul. You don’t need to do these questions everyday. Do them as consistently as you can, but if you miss a day, that’s okay! Have fun with these topics and really dig deep.

Source: https://myrelleoliver.com/30-journal-prompts-for-self-reflection/

Stefan Isaksson/Folio Images/Getty Images

By Adam Burgess writing for Thoughtco.

As summer turns into autumn in the northern hemisphere, as the leaves start to turn brilliant shades of red and orange, as sweaters come out of storage and steaming hot cocoa is poured into ceramic and children (and the young at heart) begin to think about the thrills of Halloween, we turn to classic authors for their inspired words about this magical season.

British Writers

Autumn permeates British writing with beautiful passages that depict the seasons turning in the countryside. 

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring: He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.

John Donne, The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose: No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.

Jane Austen, Persuasion: Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn–that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness–that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling.

Samuel Butler: Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.

George Eliot: Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love – that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one’s very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

American Writers

In the United States, autumn has an especially tangible cultural importance.

Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast: You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.

William Cullen Bryant: Autumn…the year’s last, loveliest smile.

Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.

Ray Bradbury: That country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain.

Henry David Thoreau: I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

Nathaniel Hawthorne: I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.

World Writers

Writers around the world have long been inspired by the turning of the seasons from summer towards winter. 

L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables: I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.

Albert Camus: Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Cezanne: At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.

Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/literary-quotes-for-the-fall-season-741163