Day 2 - Writing prompts

Writing prompts are fragments of ideas that writers jot down for later. A prompt may be a word, the first few lines of a story, a discussion question...anything that the writer doesn't have time or engergy (or perhaps desire) to write about when the idea pops into her head. We write them down with every intention of returning to them and expounding upon them to create something beautiful and meaningful.
From the time I got out of bed this morning I have been thinking about what I might write today. By mid-afternoon I had had close to a dozen ideas floating about in my head, and every intention of making today's blog post a list of writing prompts that I could use in place of "I don't know what to write today. I don't know what to write today, I don't know what to write today..." in future posts. And yet, here I sit, with finally a few free moments to sit down at the computer, and I cannot recall a single thing I wanted to write down. Oh, the frustration! How is it that I can remember that there were specifically three ideas I was very excited about, and yet cannot remember the ideas themselves? I suppose this is where discipline comes in. Had I simply taken a few seconds to jot down the ideas on a notepad as they came to me, I might very well be writing something profound at this moment. Instead, I'm left with "I don't know what to write today." Thus, the next step in my challenge has emerged: write down ideas as I think of them. A great plan...if only it were as simple as it sounds. Invariably the ideas come when I'm trying to soothe the crying baby or trying to appease to ever-questioning preschooler or finally taking a minute to use the bathroom by myself! No, these are not theoretical circumstances, they are in fact the three crucial moments at which the profound and exciting ideas came to me this morning. I can only hope that if they were ideas that I truly would have developed into profound pieces of writing, they will come back to me. In the meantime, here I sit, writing about nothing...but writing nonetheless!