The proper doses....
Sometimes when I get stuck for an idea I’ll ask my friend and fellow substacker Serge Bielanko for a writing prompt. Serge is a seething cauldron of writing prompts, and when I ask he never fails to drill me with one right between the eyes.
He returned my pleading text within an hour and calmly suggested that I contrast kids today with us when WE were kids, which sounded devilishly simple for a moment. I’d simply go on and on how we used to walk to school, uphill both ways in the midst of blizzards, while kids today can just hit the snooze button 10 times and hop on a Zoom call in their pajamas. On and on in that vein until I hit 700 words, then tie it all together with one of my cleverly worded outros. Give me an hour.
Well, no. This assignment has sent me into a tailspin of regret and envy and fear and loathing, but also made me feel a bit better about the future, which might be what Serge intended all along. The little scamp.