Picked a writing prompt about a haunted house and accidentally hit too close to home

I used that 'write about your biggest childhood fear' prompt for a short story and ended up spending 3 hours crying instead of writing... has anyone else had a prompt dig up stuff they weren't ready for?

4 comments

4 Comments

robin8967d ago

My 8th grade diary entry about my closet monster ended up being about my dad leaving.

margaretc427d ago

Geez, that got real heavy real fast. It's wild how kids come up with their own ways to understand the scary stuff they can't name yet. That closet monster probably felt a lot safer to write about than whatever was actually going on. I hope you found some peace with it all since then, that's a lot for any kid to carry.

paige_bell817d ago

Cora worded it like she thinks her brain was trying to hide stuff on purpose, but really it's more like your brain just filed it away wrong and a prompt accidentally kicked the filing cabinet. Robin's closet monster thing though, that's rough. Hope you're both doing alright now.

cora_west57d ago

Reached out to my therapist after a writing session did the same thing to me last month. It was just a simple prompt about childhood fears and I ended up writing about my grandpa's funeral from when I was 10. I thought I was over that but nope, turns out our brains just bury stuff real deep until something pokes at it. The weirdest part was realizing I'd been avoiding certain types of stories for years without knowing why. It's like your own head plays tricks on you, you know? But honestly, letting it out even accidentally is probably better than keeping it locked up forever. Hope you're doing okay now, that kind of crying takes a lot out of a person.