Today is Sunday, so it’s a good time to reflect on and write about the week you just had. Write a piece of fiction about it if you’re in a creative mood. Or use today’s writing prompt to pause and reflect on your own writing process.
Keep reading to see today’s full reflective writing prompt, as well as weekly updates on what I’ve been writing and reading, and more.
**Quick Note: You can now download the Ebook: 150 Days of Writing Prompts**
This Week’s Sunday Summary Writing Prompt: What inspires you as a writer?
Today, write a journal entry or a piece of short fiction answering the question: What inspires you as a writer?
Or write a journal entry or reflective post summarizing the previous week you had and notable things you wrote, read, learned, etc., as well as what you want to write, read, and do in the week ahead.
Writing Prompts From This Past Week
In case you missed them when they were originally published earlier this week, here are the links to this week’s writing prompts on Daily Drafts & Dialogues blog. See my completed versions of each writing prompt in each post.
We’re currently looking for new members to grow our BRAND NEW Daily Drafts & Dialogues Writers group on Facebook. Join us to share or workshop your writing!
Or submit your writing based on one of the Daily Drafts & Dialogues writing prompts from this past week to be featured on the blog in the future.
Also Published Earlier This Week
Here are some articles I published on Medium this past week.
Current Reads And Book Reviews
I’m currently reading the January 2023 release, Liar, Dreamer, Thief by Maria Dong and will start This is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perlroth tomorrow.
***Follow me on Goodreads to see other book reviews and what I’ll be reading this coming week. ***
In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
This is a raw and vulnerable memoir. It was a good memoir to read at the beginning of the year, that’s for sure. Because you will gain your own sense of strength to overcome pretty much anything, as she shares how she overcame (or learned to live with) her own shadows. And as she describes her feat to climb Everest.
As she tells her story of climbing Everest, she tells the story of her life, as well. But fair warning, this memoir is not for the faint of heart. It is INTENSE. But I loved that about this memoir. She doesn’t hold back and really tells the most monumental moments in her life, most of which aren’t easy to relive let alone admit to another person. I respect her for that.
[Note: There are a lot of mentions of child abuse, sexual abuse, and alcohol abuse in this book.]
The only reason why I didn’t rate this memoir five stars had to do with the book’s format and style. I found the dual narratives of past and present hard to follow at times, and they didn’t always flow into one another seamlessly and weren’t always related in a way that allowed the overall narrative of the memoir to flow. I wish the dual narratives were either separated by chapters or that each chapter started with a flashback OR Everest narrative, consistently throughout the book.
Rating: 4/5
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer
I must admit, I was skeptical before I started reading this book. I was skeptical of a man writing a book about rape. But in this book, Krakauer lets the survivors speak for themselves. And lets the evidence stacked against those who assaulted them speak, as well. He never fell into hyperbole or sarcasm in the book either, making everything in it all the more powerful and striking.
I highly recommend this book. It will enlighten your view of rape, who rapes, and all those who end up living with the consequences of rape after someone is raped. This book shatters stereotypes and allows you to see real college students as they are. If you think you know everything there is to know about rape, you especially should read this book.
Rating: 5/5
Babel by R.F. Kuang
For a lit nerd like me who studied English in grad school, as well as Latin and rhetoric, and various critical theories in literature intensely during my academic tenure, and who also LOVES and geeks out over etymology– this book was a dream.
I loved how critical language was to power dynamics and entire societies and systems in this book. And how the magic in the book was derived from words and language. Essentially, in this book, as it is in real life, language holds power. Those who are able to understand it (albeit never fully, because it’s always changing and elusive…) and manipulate it— or control those who do— own that power. Because those who own or control language, and the power it holds, are able to own and control commerce and hold all the wealth such commerce brings. So, power over language equals power over wealth and the world and its actors. [There is, of course, a lot more that could be fleshed out and explained here…]
There is one main reason I didn’t rate this book five stars. I wanted to witness the silver with match-pairs DO MORE things throughout the novel, so we could see its magic in action. We were TOLD about what silver could do a lot but didn’t really SEE it in action that much throughout the novel.
Rating: 4/5
Writing Tips And Thoughts From The Week
Important Updates
There are two new ways you can share your writing with us! Check them out.
Download the New Ebook: 150 Days of Writing Prompts
Download the new Ebook: 150 Days of Writing Prompts. Its 237 pages include unique writing prompts and writing tips that will help you kickstart or maintain your daily writing habit, today.
