Modern Women: January 2024 Writing Prompts
Let’s dive deep into our experience and share some magic.
With the dawn of a new year, we’re all in that liminal space of reflection and visioning and with it comes grief, hope, excitement, disappointment and a whole host of other emotions. While I wish you all a very happy new year, I wonder how often we arrive at this inner space, and as each of us find ourselves at different places in terms of place, time, and circumstances, how different must those experiences be?
One of the greatest aspects of the Mediumverse and this community we have built together here at Modern Women, is the rich diversity of women writers, all with unique viewpoints and opinions. As we each explore this beginning for ourselves, perhaps there are truths and gifts we can share that will enrich another woman’s journey.
Last month’s prompt of ‘visibility’ came at a time in which I think many of us have become used to putting our focus on the people around us and in doing so, stop seeing our own needs as a priority.
You wrote from the heart on your own experiences and on the ways women have been made invisible in so many aspects of daily life. And importantly you wrote about how you are fighting back, how you are taking up space, owning your identities and reclaiming your right to be both seen and heard. It was inspiring, empowering, and I honestly believe a catalyst for change in so many of our reader’s lives. Thank you. For showing up for yourselves and this community.
One of the most stand out pieces for me in December was an article by Elishah Virani called ‘Unseen, Unheard, Unshakeable’. Do you remember being a child who thought invisibility was a superpower? When do we loose that Elishah questions, and for me it was a wonderful prompt to reframe and rethink what invisibility means to us. After all we are the ones with the power to decide.
A piece that resonated deeply with me as well as so many of you was ‘How To Overcome Feeling Invisible as a Woman’ by Stephanie D. Rondeau. She speaks to the erasure of women once they become mothers, the need to be seen and heard as an individual, and offers a powerful reminder that the path back to visibility begins with seeing ourselves.
The last article I’d like to make sure you don’t miss from last month was ‘Making Abuse Visible Through Words’ by the Tired Feminist. She took the prompt in an entirely knew direction, one that impacts us all… how we choose to use language. Our thoughts, feelings, dreams and beliefs only come into contact with the outside world through the words we use. It is one of the fundamental ways we make the hidden parts of ourselves visible. How deliberate about it are you?
In each of these stories is a part of each of us. The pull and push between wanting to be invisible at times but also needing to be valued and understood for all that we are. There were so many amazing articles, essays, fiction and poetry in December, please have a wander through them when you have time.
And now, with no further ado…
The prompt for January is:
Aging
This month I invite you to think about aging and your responses to it. How is your perspective influenced by where you are in the world and importantly where you are on your own journey. Are you embarking on a new career or in the first stages of parenthood? Has your journey with young children come to an end and you find yourself confronted by the different challenges that come with teenage children or an empty nest.
Is aging something you push back against? In what way… your appearance and those pesky grey hairs or fine lines, or in expectations of how you ‘should’ dress and behave?
Are you feeling the first symptoms of the perimenopause or are you on the other side and experiencing your second spring?
Have you just left your twenties behind and are feeling the weight or adventure of a new decade? Have you felt a call to reinvent yourself?
When you look into the future, what does hitting 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 represent to you?
Are they milestones you are aiming for or do they feel like moments that are coming way to quickly?
Is there a difference in the way you see and feel about your age, and the way those around or wider society responds to you? Where does that come from and what would you like to change?
What has changed around you as you’ve aged? How have your relationships to family changed, and what about your relationship with yourself? Has your role within your family and friendship circles changed?
What strengths and wisdoms have come with age for you? Do you have insights to share won from the unique life experiences that have shaped you into the person you are today?
While we all have different experiences, aging cannot happen without life experience, and the knowledge gained through those once shared can enable all of us to benefit and better address and support ourselves and the women in our lives as they move through life stages. In addition to that, all genders read our publication so in sharing our experiences we can break down the biased attitudes and stereotypes about aging that permeate the mainstream world. Not all of us have access to women outside our own age group. The elders may be sadly lost, and the views of the youth may not be available to you at this point. Both these voices are essential to change and developing understanding.
Let’s join together to acknowledge and value the contributions of all women and their experiences of aging. Let’s change ageist narratives and recognise the vitality and relevance of women throughout every year of their lives.
As always the questions I’m offering you are just suggestions and I hope that one of them sparks something within you that what to come to the surface and be shared.
It’s important to be aware that some of these questions may open doors to stories you are not quite ready to share, that’s okay and I urge you to be compassionate with yourself and tread gently. Consider writing for yourself. As a practice writing is the greatest therapy that we can access privately at a time and place that suits us and I think most of us experience a need to talk through our thoughts before answers crystalise and those ‘aha!’ moments can be achieved. Allow whatever needs to arise to come up and flow out of your pen, or as your fingers fly across the keys of your computer. Decide later what you feel comfortable with sharing with the Modern Women community and the wider Mediumverse.
The world we live in has very clear ideas about how we should show up, the space we are allowed to inhabit and the images we should present of ourselves. In breaking down some of those rules we not only release ourselves but we offer permission to others still trapped and provide language for those who struggle to find their voices as they nod emphatically, with eye glistening and whisper ‘me too.’ Our shared experience as women bridges all divides of culture, religion, race, and geographic location. Your words are the passports to each other, and I cannot wait to read the journeys you will take us on.
For those new to our monthly prompts please note that they are open to you not just for the month in which we release them but for whenever they strike a cord of inspiration within you, so feel free to look back through previous months.
Whether you respond to one of the questions I pose or the overall theme in your own way is entirely up to you, and we welcome work in any style, whether that is poetry, prose, fiction or an essay. The choice is yours.
Our only request is that you share genuine, heartfelt and down-to-earth stories that you think other women might be inspired or empowered by.
If you are submitting a response to a prompt, please include the tag ‘prompt’ when sending it to us and add a link at the bottom of your piece to the prompt you are responding to.
