Below are fragments that I jotted down while listening to others’ writing. Some are direct quotes, others not. Attribution by initials and used with permission.

To use as a writing prompt, select one and set a timer for 30 minutes. And then just write. Keep the pen moving.

Sometimes you can’t make it up. MT.

Occasionally, her mind flickers to that man. OV.

Mostly, we are stumbling. I am stumbling. LT.

The emptiness of the streets surprised me. SH.

To be on a journey is to live on scraps and to not feel at home. MR.

Will the haunting never end? EL.

Some things don’t wait for you. OV.

I’m wondering when the reckoning will come. LT.

Why does hair have to be so complicated? EL

There’s no good way to measure what this winter did to us. MT.

A photograph doesn’t lie, until it does. MT.

Everything feels like prophecy today. SH.

How do you imagine the backyards of your childhood? MR

She was just starting to get it. LT.

My dad once said to me… MR

We deprive ourselves by always looking for the best. SH.

Lately death had been nagging at her. EL.

There’s a delicious quality of observation. Not a voice of conclusion. CC of LT

She realized that she had nothing to say. She was, however, impeccably dressed. MT.

How do you reach anyone anymore? MT

She had learned the art of repression and it had helped her in emergencies. LT.

People do start in the middle. CC

In the northern climes, we lack the ability to be languid. CC.