To be sure, we don’t really do fiction writing prompts here. It’s all about non-fiction writing prompts and public impact tips because if you have something to say in the public narrative, I want to help you say it through essays and op-eds and speeches and such. But, just for today, let’s blur the line a teensy bit.
Imagine you have written your autobiography as it exists up until today. Every detail and backstory is already in there; nothing needs further explanation. Now, as an exercise, write the next chapter. Write it in past tense like you’re looking back over the next moment or era in your life.
There’s no pressure here. If you don’t like how it ends, do it over and write a better chapter. In fact, to really make the most use of the exercise, you might even try to write a few versions: one with only the boldest actions possible, one with the most ridiculous actions possible, one with the most chicken-shit actions possible, and so on.
You decide what time span this chapter covers. Maybe it’s the next 24 hours (easy), maybe it’s the next couple of months (harder), maybe it’s the next year or two (much harder).
I don’t know about you, but the prospect of this is pretty exciting. Let’s try and see where we land.