WFMAD Day 7 – blueberries with Laurie

Summer Saturday mornings are the perfect time for Proustian reminiscing and free association. I had blueberries for breakfast, which made me think about the awesome book Blueberries for Sal (thank you, Penguin, for reissuing it) which made me think about eating blueberries for breakfast with my children in Maine, which made me think about the breakfasts I ate as a child.

Is writing easy?

I know it’s been a week, and it’s summer, and you will have even more excuses than usual about why you can’t write this weekend. And the truth? You don’t have to. No one is forcing you to do this, not even me. But if you are serious about your writing, you need to show up and do the work. No excuses.

Is writing hard?

Ready….

Today’s advice:
"We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us." Marcel Proust

Set…

Today’s prompt: Write about a particular breakfast you ate as a child. You probably can remember your breakfasts in general, so start there and develop the memory with a little fictional flair so you wind up with a detailed, nuanced scene. Write it in picture book or novel format.


Scribble…Scribble….Scribble!

11 Replies to “WFMAD Day 7 – blueberries with Laurie”

  1. On the rare snow days in Tennessee, my father would stay home from work with us kids so my mother, who worked third shift in the mill, could sleep. Dad was firm believer in a hot breakfast for kids, so he would fire up the stove and mix up some batter for flapjacks.

    His flapjacks were things of legend. As much as he believed in hot breakfasts, he disbelieved in using mixes to cook anything. That included the pancake mix conveniently stored in the pantry. So he would chose an odd assortment of ingredients, mix them together, and fry the up. The result was a rubbery disk that was alternately bright white and carbon black–Dad was also famous for his poor cooking skills.

    They were chewy and without flavor and even sloughed off syrup. But this was the only meal my father ever cooked for us, and we all enjoy the memory…if not the taste.

  2. This was a fun activity. I wrote about how the only time out of the year when our parents would get us pre-sweetened cereal was for Christmas day. I wrote about Trix in my writing, but now that I am posting I just remembered how they used to often get individual sized boxes of a variety of cereal and part of the fun was deciding which to choose. I will have to go back and write a note to myself in my writer’s notebook.

  3. Thanks

    Laurie,
    Thank you so much for these prompts. I have loved each one of them. I’m surprised by how different each of my pieces are! Today I wrote about my dad making me oyster stew in the darkness of winter mornings when the snow fell in buckets outside and everyone else in the house, including the dog, was asleep. Hadn’t thought of that in years! What will inspire me to write when these 31 days are over and I’m back to teaching?

  4. I wrote again! I’m still journaling, rather than storytelling of any sort, but today, after about a week’s worth of entries, I noticed a new comfort with it, and even wrote how nice it was to feel confident that I could write a piece of something and be confident that pieces on either side had been and would be written! Later this month I begin a workshop that supposedly will require I write several pieces around a theme, and just this 15 minutes a day of journaling is really going to help set me up for that, I can tell.

    Thanks, Laurie!

  5. Another day of writing, and much more than I have been. I’ve found myself excited to write several scenes already today, with maybe some more to come. Again, out of order, but they don’t feel forced. As a rewrite, I have a certain idea of what is coming, which in the past I haven’t (I never got the hang of outlining), and that’s making it so much easier, somehow. WFMAD is being so very nice to me this year!

  6. Today was tough

    Just goes to show that there will be easy and hard days. It was like pulling teeth to get the words out today. But I sat myself down and made myself write because I wasn’t going to go two days in a row without writing.

    I did over 30 min, so if I were feeling like it, I could count this as two WFMAD’s. I might post today’s stuff later, but for now, it’s going to just sit on my computer and be.

  7. Is anyone else finding that this WFMAD is making them feel better about themselves? I know that when I put off writing I get a vaguse sense of guilt and general dissatisfaction, which disappears as soon as I sit down to write – even for fifteen minutes. Thanks for this challenge, Laurie!

  8. I completely agree. I feel like I am powerful enough to make the writing happen. Go Laurie!

  9. favorite breakfasts and Blueberries for Sal

    Ah, Laurie,
    I don’t remember how I found my way to your blog – but I’m so enjoying it. I used to visit my elderly parents in Maine (grew up in Gorham, Maine), and I’d always make them featherlight yogurt pancakes. I’d freeze a bunch for them to eat when my hubby and two boys and I returned to CT. Mom loved those pancakes. They heated up nicely in the microwave oven, and she loved them with molasses instead of syrup.
    This past trip to Maine (both my parents are now gone) we visited my husband’s mom (age 90)in Camden, Maine, and I saw a ad for free blueberry picking on organic fields in Rockport,the next town over. It was a half mile hike to the top of Beech Hill, but the panoramic view was wonderful. It took me over 45 minutes to pick not quite a pound of organic, wild Maine blueberries, and I though of Sal the whole time – plink, plink, plink. Luckily, there were no bears in sight. And I do admit to eating just a few of the berries as I was picking. I was as proud as I could be (I felt like a kid instead of a 62 year senior)when I brought those berries home to hubby’s mother and aunt. His aunt made banana and blueberry muffins which were delicious, and there were still some blueberries to be eaten out of hand. Thanks for helping me to remember this wonderful day – seized by following a blurb in a local newspaper clipping.
    Carolyn Stanley
    computer technology teacher
    Bethany Middle School in CT

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