August Theme: The Stories We Carry

Big Question: Why do certain stories stay with us?

Week 2: Memory and Storytelling

Welcome to the second week of exploring The Stories We Carry on Daily Drafts & Dialogues

Last week, we started the month off by focusing our Drafts on The Books That Changed Us, reflecting on and writing about those books that stay with us long after we’ve read them, and why. If you’ve already spent time writing from those prompts and exploring their related Dialogues and Books posts, you’ve already reflected on why certain stories stay with us long after we’ve encountered them, mainly in books.

This week, we’ll be going a little deeper, reaching beyond the stories we find within the pages of books, to explore the nature of memory itself and how it influences the stories we decide to write and read, and how many of those stories stay with us long after we’ve initially encountered them.

As writers, we rely on our memory to fill the pages we draft. Yet those memories are often filled with gaps, uncertainties, and details that fluctuate in vivacity over time. And what we remember about a story may differ from what another person remembers. As readers and listeners, we also rely on our memory to understand and relate to the stories we encounter, and those memories can determine what portions of a story we relate to, overlook, or remember for our own stints of storytelling.

Our memories are embedded in our encounters with storytelling, through and through.

An old photograph can make us question something we thought we understood about a story someone told us about a friend or family member. Visiting a familiar place can bring back a feeling linked to a story or memory from our past before we can explain where it came from or why. And the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and others day in and day out dictate the course of not only our days but our entire lives.

So, this week we’re going to take a deeper look into those stories we remember, which may arrive in bits and fragments, and how they shape our encounters with storytelling overall. And we’ll examine how we use what we remember as material for our own creative work, to keep the tradition of storytelling alive and well.

Don’t worry if you missed last week’s posts, you can still jump into our conversation about The Stories We Carry today!

While all posts on Daily Drafts & Dialogues are connected to their monthly themes with weekly focuses (which start each Saturday with a post of prompts like the one you’re reading now) they can still be enjoyed individually as well and are always available in the Archive.

Remember, you’ll see my response to one of the creative prompts in tomorrow’s post, my response to one of the reflective journaling prompts on Wednesday, as well as dialogues about books and the stories we carry, over the course of the upcoming week.

I hope to see what you come up with for one of these prompts in the Drafters Workshop Chat soon too, so we can further discuss the role memory plays in the stories we carry.

General Tips for Every Prompt

• Start with one specific memory or detail instead of trying to cover an entire period of your life.

• Write what you can remember before deciding what the memory you’re exploring means.

• Let uncertainty spark your curiosity so that you can genuinely explore the memory or story you’re writing about without a preordained agenda.

• Consider how another person might remember the same experience you’re exploring differently.

• Grant yourself permission to fictionalize personal material when doing so helps you write more freely.

• Pay attention to the details that remain clear even when the larger context of what you’re writing about has become difficult to recall or explain.

• Let the meaning of your piece develop during the writing process rather than deciding everything before you begin.

Invitation for the Week: Choose one prompt that brings a memory to mind and use your response to explore why the story accompanying that memory has remained with you.

Quick Note: While I will always encourage writers to write to the extent of their heart’s content, I would suggest starting with one prompt from each section first. Select the creative prompt and reflective prompt that seem to really speak to you first, then see where those writing experiences lead you before attempting to complete the rest of the prompts. If you end up completing all or most of the prompts after that, that’s amazing! But if you don’t, that’s perfectly fine too. You won’t run out of opportunities to see prompts like this because there will be another post of prompts available next Saturday when this one is auto-archived.

Creative Prompts About Memory and Storytelling

1. The Memory That Changes

Write a story from the perspective of someone remembering an event incorrectly or in fragments, who slowly begins to face the complete truth behind the memory they had of the event.

Focus On:

• letting your character feel confident about their recollection, even when the reader has reason to doubt it.

• using small inconsistencies to gradually reveal that the character’s version of events may not be accurate.

• unraveling what the character gains or protects by holding onto an incorrect or fragmented memory.

Skills to Practice:

• Developing an unreliable narrator without immediately revealing the truth about them to the reader

• Using subtle details to create uncertainty and narrative tension

• Showing how a character’s emotional state can influence the way they remember an experience

Tip: Give your character a strong reason to trust their initial version of events. Their certainty will make the contradictions that come later more compelling.

Feeling Stuck?

Choose an event involving several people. Decide what your character remembers most clearly, then imagine what another person present would say happened instead, and why.

2. The Photograph’s Revelation

Write a scene where a photograph reveals a forgotten or buried truth to someone.

Focus On:

• giving the photograph one detail that challenges what your character believes about the past.

• allowing your character to discover the significance of the image rather than explaining it immediately.

• revealing what your character has forgotten and why that forgotten information or memory matters now.

Skills to Practice:

• Using visual details to create a meaningful revelation

• Controlling the pace of how and when important information reaches the reader

• Showing a character’s shifts in understanding through their reactions

Tip: Focus on your character’s response to the photograph instead of rushing to explain its entire history.

Feeling Stuck?

Imagine finding an old photograph inside a box or book at your parents’ or grandparents’ house. Then consider what you would do if you recognized the setting in the photograph but not a particular person who’s lingering in the background.

3. Childhood Memorial

Write a poem about a place from your childhood or a character’s childhood.

Focus On:

• choosing a specific place rather than trying to capture an entire childhood.

• using physical and sensory details to communicate what the place means.

• allowing the emotional meaning of the place to emerge through the images in the poem.

Skills to Practice:

• Creating a strong sense of place through sensory imagery

• Choosing precise details to poetize a memory instead of relying on general descriptions

• Allowing images to communicate emotions without directly explaining those emotions

Tip: Begin with what you can picture in your mind rather than what you think the place is supposed to represent.

Feeling Stuck?

Choose one location from your childhood or your character’s childhood and write down everything you can remember about a small area of it. Seek the images that still feel unusually clear.

4. When Memory Slips

Write a story in which a character’s memory becomes unreliable or is completely inaccessible.

Focus On:

• creating a specific memory your character is unable to access or retrieve, and the reasons behind why.

• introducing uncertainty in a way that makes the character question what they know and believe.

• exploring how the character responds when their incomplete versions of the past can no longer be trusted.

Skills to Practice:

• Creating suspense through uncertainty rather than immediate revelation or explanation

• Showing internal conflict through a character’s changing thoughts and reactions via a first-person narrative

• Controlling the flow of information so that the reader discovers the problem with the character’s memory gradually

Tip: One contradiction, interaction, or piece of evidence can be enough to destabilize one’s ability to trust their memory.

Feeling Stuck?

Give your character a story about their past that they want to access, like a childhood birthday party or a wedding ceremony. Then include something that happens in the present that forces them to distrust their own memory about the story.

5. The Artifact That Carries a History

Write about an artifact that carries someone’s history, or an entire family’s history, like an heirloom, hand-stitched coat, or oil painting.

Focus On:

• choosing an artifact that has acquired personal and ancestral significance, and why.

• using the artifact’s physical condition to suggest something about its history, like a dent or a tear it has.

• considering why the artifact has been kept and what it represents to its owner or owners.

Skills to Practice:

• Revealing what characters care about through physical details of an artifact

• Including backstory without over-explaining everything that happened to the artifact

• Using an artifact as a central element to emotional storytelling and memory

Tip: Focus on signs of use, care, and personalization, such as scratches, repairs, handwriting, stains, worn surfaces, etc.

Feeling Stuck?

Pick an object that belonged to a character in one of your favorite books. Imagine where it came from and why its owner could not bring themselves to throw it away. Then use that example to inspire your own writing.

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Reflective Journaling Prompts for Memory and Storytelling

6. The Memories Behind the Stories You Tell

How does memory influence your writing and the stories you tell?

Focus On:

• the ways your personal memories shape the subjects, characters, emotions, or themes you return to in your writing.

• whether you tend to preserve memories as they happen or reshape them through imagination and storytelling later.

• how writing allows you to understand, revisit, or give new meaning to memorable experiences from your past.

• the memories that seem to surface naturally when you sit down to write.

Skills to Practice:

• Reflecting on the relationship between lived experience and creative expression

• Identifying recurring themes or emotional patterns in your writing

• Turning personal reflections into meaningful insight for the stories you tell

Tip: Don’t worry about explaining an entire memory and its backstory. Instead, start with the feeling a memory leaves behind.

Feeling Stuck?

Think about a piece of writing you’ve created that feels especially personal. What memory, person, place, or experience might have inadvertently found its way into the work?

7. The Memories You Return To

What memories do you return to most often, and why?

Focus On:

• the moments from your life that you find yourself remembering again and again.

• why certain memories remain vivid while others have faded or disappeared.

• whether you return to these memories with a sense of comfort, curiosity, regret, gratitude, longing, or another emotion.

• what these recurring memories might reveal about what matters to you now.

Skills to Practice:

• Identifying emotionally significant moments from your past

• Exploring the emotions beneath a memory rather than simply recounting what happened

• Using reflection to uncover possible themes for future writing

Tip: The most useful memories for your writing aren’t always the biggest or most tragic ones. Sometimes an ordinary moment holds one of the most personal and significant stories you can tell.

Feeling Stuck?

Make a list of five memories that visit you often and unexpectedly. They can be ordinary moments like a conversation at a family meal, a photo of a day at the beach, a casual goodbye, as well as major life events. Choose the one that carries the strongest emotion with it.

8. The Truth You Owe Your Stories

Do you think, as a writer, that you should be honest about your own experiences?

Focus On:

• what honesty means when writing about real experiences, especially when the memories driving the writing are incomplete or subjective.

• the difference between factual accuracy and emotional truth.

• the ways writers may alter, combine, omit, or reinterpret details while still honoring the heart and ‘truth’ of an experience.

• where you personally draw the line between protecting yourself, protecting others, and telling the truth of a story or real-life experience.

Skills to Practice:

• Distinguishing between factual truth and emotional truth in storytelling

• Thinking critically about ethics and responsibility when writing from lived experience

• Making intentional choices about what to reveal, change, or leave unsaid

Tip: Ask yourself: “What is the deepest truth of this experience?” Your answer to this question may be more important than recounting a perfect timeline of events.

Feeling Stuck?

Imagine you are writing about a difficult experience but cannot, or don’t want to, tell every detail exactly as it happened. What would you need to preserve for the heart of the story to still feel true?

9. The Details That Breathe Life into Your Memories

What details make a memory feel alive to you?

Focus On:

• the sensory details that can transport you back to a particular moment in time.

• the sounds, smells, textures, colors, tastes, objects, gestures, and small observations attached to your most vivid memories.

• the way specific details can communicate an emotion without explicitly naming it.

• some of the seemingly insignificant details that have remained with you and why they matter.

Skills to Practice:

• Using sensory details to create vivid writing that resonates

• Replacing general descriptions with specific observations

• Allowing physical, everyday details to carry emotional meaning

Tip: Pretend like the memory is happening in real time and write about it in the present tense instead of the past tense. And as you’re writing, choose three sensory details and build the memory around them rather than trying to describe everything abstractly from the memory itself.

Feeling Stuck?

Choose one memory and imagine yourself standing inside it or reliving it again. What or who is directly in front of you? What can you hear and smell? What is the temperature? What is your body doing? Etc.

10. When the Past Changes

How has your understanding of the past changed?

Focus On:

• how growing older or gaining new experiences has changed the way you interpret something that happened in your past.

• whether you now see a person, decision, relationship, or event differently than you once did.

• what you understand now that you could not have understood at a certain time in your past.

• how memories can evolve as we change, even when original events remain the same.

Skills to Practice:

• Examining past experiences from multiple and fresh perspectives

• Using hindsight to create depth and complexity in your writing

• Recognizing how time can change the meaning we assign to a memory

Tip: Let your present self have a conversation with your past self. The distance between those two perspectives can become the heart of the reflection piece you end up writing.

Feeling Stuck?

Choose a memory you understood one way when you were younger, then finish this sentence: “Back then, I thought ____. Now, I understand ____.”

Join the Conversation

Writing about our memories, and memory itself, gives us an interesting opportunity to look closely at the stories we carry and why, as well as how they inform our writing and storytelling. It allows us to examine and question older interpretations of events without dismissing the person we were when we first formed them, and allows us to acknowledge what we no longer remember while still finding meaning in what remains.

As these prompts will show, writing about what we remember, or want to remember, or memory itself, can be surprisingly useful and may even reveal something that has remained invisible to us for quite some time. It may also raise interesting questions worth following and writing about in the future.

While completing these prompts, try to remember to ask yourself what keeps drawing you back to the stories you remember and tell, as the answers you find might point toward a larger story that still needs to be written. And as we continue discussing the stories we carry in September, let’s continue to consider the memories that have not only found their way into our writing but have influenced how we tell the stories we tell.

You’re invited to join the Drafters Workshop Chat at any time throughout the month to share your writing, as well as your thoughts on the writing process.

You don’t need a polished draft or a published piece to join the conversation. Just bring an excerpt of something you wrote, a few lines about what you’re working on, or an observation about your writing that you’d like to share. Or get a conversation going by answering this week’s question: How do memories affect what we write?

Thanks so much for being here. I can’t wait to see your next comment or chat reply.

Until then, happy writing and reading!

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Continue Exploring September’s Theme, The Stories We Carry

Week 1 Posts: The Books That Changed Us

Writing Prompts About Books That Changed Us

The Book of Answers

Can a book genuinely change who we are?

Reading Notes: Station Eleven

What My Favorite Books Say About Me

The Anatomy of Books That Have Changed Us

20 Banned Books That Have Changed Us

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ICYM August’s Theme, The Creative Life

Go more in depth with The Creative Life Writing Collection

September’s The Stories We Carry Writing Collection is coming soon!

Popular Posts from Week 4: Preparing for What Comes Next

Writing Prompts for What Comes Next in Your Creative Life

“Did we ever…?”

Reading Notes: Possession

Popular Posts from Week 3: The Messy Middle

Writing Prompts for Navigating ‘The Messy Middle’

Continuing Without a Trace

Reading Notes: The Cemetery of Untold Stories

Popular Posts from Week 2: Creative Habits

Immersive Storytelling Mode and the ArXiv

Reading Notes: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

The Habits That Help Me and My Creative Life Most

Popular Posts from Week 1: Making Space

A Day Alive in the Lakeside Library

How to Make Space and Time for Your Creative Life

The Creative Life as Play and Work

If you want to explore past themes, paid subscribers also have access to the full archive, including previous writing prompts, discussions, and reading lists, as well as full access to the community chat and Daily Drafters Exclusives writing collections.

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© This work is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) training. All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.

September Theme: The Stories We Carry

Big Question: Why do certain stories stay with us?

Week 1: The Books That Changed Us

What I wrote below is based on the following reflective writing prompt included in Saturday’s Writing Prompts About Books That Changed Us post.

Prompt: What Your Favorite Books Say About You

What do your favorite books reveal about you?

Why did I choose it?

I chose this prompt because I find questions like “What’s your favorite book?” or “What book do you recommend most?” nearly impossible to answer. Why? Because I genuinely believe in getting and giving tailored-to-the-person reading recommendations, down to current life stage and mood when possible. I also understand that a book I deemed as a favorite when I was in my teens or early twenties will likely no longer be a favorite (even if it is still a beloved book via nostalgia) when I am in my thirties or eighties, and that a book that doesn’t resonate all that much with me might resonate more deeply with another reader. And so on.

Plus, if I don’t tailor my book recommendations to the reader asking for them, the books I recommend really seem arbitrary sometimes, as such recommendations could then depend on a myriad of unpredictable things like my current mood, what I literally just finished reading, and or what I’m into reading during any given life stage I’m experiencing, or what is relevant to our current socio-economic climate, etc. Essentially, to me, saying a book is a ‘favorite’ is similar to saying that you would recommend it to others. Hence, my conundrum.

Basically, I find it hard not to think about books and who’s reading them without a bit of nuance and layers, as each person is capable of experiencing a book in a different way… which I am also realizing is not exactly the point of today’s question. Because of course there are some books that I like more than others… if that is the point of today’s question?

So, what follows is my attempt to understand what books are my favorite, and maybe a little bit about why…

My Response: What My Favorite Books Say About Me

I haven’t been writing many, or any, book reviews lately, when I used to write two to three per week.

Either way, I think starting with some of my previous book reviews will be a good idea, as they’ll offer me some insight into the books I tend to enjoy, and maybe a little bit more about why I enjoyed them when I first read them.

Going back through some of my book reviews from earlier in 2026, here are some of the books that still stand out to me as books that will stay with me for a long time. Click on the links to see more information about the books, as well as my reading notes or reviews.

• The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

• Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution by Anand Gopal

• Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar

• The Age of Calamities by Senaa Ahmad

• The Bombshell by Darrow Farr

• A Hymn to Life: Shame has to Change Sides by Gisèle Pelicot

• My Dear You by Rachel Khong

• A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness by Michael Pollan

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

• Let the Poets Govern by Camonghne Felix

• Burn Down Master’s House by Clay Cane

• Love is an Algorithm by Laura Brooke Robson

• People Like Us by Jason Mott

• The Astral Library by Kate Quinn

• Alchemised by SenLinYu

• The Merge by Grace Walker

• The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad

• The Capital of Dreams by Heather O’Neill

My top read for 2025 was The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami, and other top reads from that year include:

• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

• Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

• Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

• The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

• Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

• Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris

• The Favorites by Layne Fargo

• My Friends by Fredrik Backman

• Mỹ Documents by Kevin Nguyen

• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

• The Pretender by Jo Harkin

• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

• The Memory Palace: True Short Stories of the Past by Nate DiMeo

• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

• America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin

• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

• Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds by John Fugelsang

You can see the complete list of my top reads from 2025 here.

My top read of 2024 was Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller, and other top reads from that year include:

• The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

• Real Americans by Rachel Khong

• By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

• The Women by Kristin Hannah

• The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

• The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami

• Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

• Swiped by L.M. Chilton

• Again and Again by Jonathan Evison

• Parable of the Sower Octavia E. Butler

• The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

• Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

• Uncanny Valley by Anna Weiner

• Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny

• Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness by Jamil Zaki

You can see the complete list of my top reads from 2024 here.

According to my Storygraph stats, when weighing the past 167 books I have read and rated over the past year and a half, I mostly enjoy books that are emotional, reflective, dark, informative, mysterious, and tense. And, no joke, I only read one relaxing book. Though at least 27 of the books I read were funny and 24 were adventurous. So, I guess I enjoy a book that will make me feel deeply while also making me think deeply, which sounds about right. Yet I’m not sure I enjoy mysterious books, as I hardly ever read mysteries, so that stat is, um, a mystery to me.

It’s no surprise to find that I mainly read Literary Fiction, with most of my four and five-star reads being in that genre, as well as in the Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Nonfiction categories, though I have stopped rating books with that star rating system recently. My reading stats also indicate that I read mainly books that have been published within the past five years, which is a newer habit of mine, ever since I started a Bookstagram, though that will probably fluctuate again soon, as we continue to read Daily Drafts & Dialogues book club picks together.

Looking back at my ‘top reads’ reading lists, it also seems like I enjoy books about strong women, as well as books about writers, books, and art, which is also not a surprise. And that I enjoy books that touch on dystopia but don’t necessarily feel dystopic in the end. I also seem to enjoy books and stories that explore the concept of justice, especially for traditionally marginalized communities, as well as stories that explore how technology impacts us. And stories about forgotten histories or perspectives in history seem to resonate with me, as well as character-driven stories.

And if we want to go way back, I did write a few posts about books that were influential to me when I was younger.

From my childhood, there were:

• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

• Come Back, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish and Wallace Tripp

• The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

• The Magic School Bus: On the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen

• Curious George by H.A. Rey

• The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

• Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell

• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

From my adolescence, there were:

• Matilda by Roald Dahl

• Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary

• Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

• It’s Not the End of the World by Judy Blume

• Haunted by R.L. Stine, as well as his other Fear Street books, and the Goosebumps series

• The Hidden Staircase by Carolyn Keene, as well as all other Nancy Drew books

• To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• The Client by John Grisham

• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

From my teenage years, there were:

• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

• Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe

• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare

• The Odyssey by Homer

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot

• The Inferno by Dante Alighieri

• A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

So, all in all, I would say that the books I tend to gravitate toward the most are the books that have something going on beneath their surface. I like books that give me something to wrestle with, whether I realize that’s what I’m getting into when I pick them up or not. And I seem to have a particular fondness for stories that unsettle me a little, introduce me to people or ideas I wouldn’t otherwise encounter, or leave me looking at something familiar in a different way.

The common thread running through all the books I have remembered, that have stayed with me and maybe even changed me, is that they have done so much more than entertain me. They have moved me, challenged me, surprised me, and many times, allowed me to walk away feeling like I understood something or someone, even myself and the world I live in, a little bit better than I did before I read them. I’m still hesitant to claim them as ‘favorites’ but for the purposes of this post, and this week’s exploration of the books that have changed us, I suppose in many respects they are?

Join the Conversation

What’s your response to the question I answered in today’s post, or any of the other reflective journaling prompts in this week’s Writing Prompts About Books That Changed Us post?

What do you think your favorite books reveal about you?

Leave a comment or join the Drafters Workshop Chat or Dialoguers Chat, where we’ll be discussing the books that changed us for the rest of the week.

Whether you leave a comment or join one of the chats to share your responses, ask questions, or connect with other writers and support their work, I can’t wait to see what you contribute!

Please don’t forget to like and share this post with your network so others can see it too. Thanks in advance. I hope to see you in the comments or chat threads soon!

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Continue Exploring September’s Theme, The Stories We Carry

This week’s Posts: The Books That Changed Us

Writing Prompts About Books That Changed Us

The Book of Answers

Can a book genuinely change who we are?

Reading Notes: Station Eleven

Subscribe now

Buy me a coffee to say thanks

ICYM August’s Theme, The Creative Life

Go more in depth with The Creative Life Writing Collection

September’s The Stories We Carry Writing Collection is coming soon!

Popular Posts from Week 4: Preparing for What Comes Next

Writing Prompts for What Comes Next in Your Creative Life

“Did we ever…?”

Reading Notes: Possession

Popular Posts from Week 3: The Messy Middle

Writing Prompts for Navigating ‘The Messy Middle’

Continuing Without a Trace

Reading Notes: The Cemetery of Untold Stories

Popular Posts from Week 2: Creative Habits

Immersive Storytelling Mode and the ArXiv

Reading Notes: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

The Habits That Help Me and My Creative Life Most

Popular Posts from Week 1: Making Space

A Day Alive in the Lakeside Library

How to Make Space and Time for Your Creative Life

The Creative Life as Play and Work

If you want to explore past themes, paid subscribers also have access to the full archive, including previous writing prompts, discussions, and reading lists, as well as full access to the community chat and Daily Drafters Exclusives writing collections.

Get 30-Day Free Trial

Share Daily Drafts & Dialogues

© This work is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) training. All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.

September Theme: The Stories We Carry

Big Question: Why do certain stories stay with us?

Week 1: The Books That Changed Us

What I wrote below is based on the following creative writing prompt included in Saturday’s Writing Prompts About Books That Changed Us post.

Prompt: The Book That Changes Everything

Write a story about a book that changes someone’s life.

Why did I choose it?

I chose this prompt because I feel like the right books come to us when we truly need them, as if by magic, and I wanted to write something that captured that. I can’t count how many times I’ve read something that resonated with me simply because I read it at the exact time in my life that I needed to read it, or because someone gifted me a book I needed to read.

Did this prompt, or any of the others shared yesterday, bring up any interesting ideas you want to explore, or encourage you to write something this week? Let me know in the chat or comments so we can discuss!

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My Response: The Book of Answers

The motions of the day were done and buried, but Henry knew the work of laying the great Arthur Noble to rest was far from over. There were still too many files to sort through, hundreds of documents to sign, dozens more calls to make, at least a handful more family meetings to have, and way too many life-size stones to turn over. Especially where Arthur Noble’s life’s work was concerned.

That, and the fact that Arthur Noble was never one to go quietly into the… wherever he was now. He had always been larger than life– so loud and vivacious, honest to a fault, the center of every party, and as hilarious as he was generous and kind. So unlike any other author who has ever graced the planet, aside from … maybe Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde?

And now that his larger-than-life father was gone, Henry could only imagine what was in store for those of them who had to go on living without him, which was as undesirable as it was impossible. Arthur’s gifts, stories, and energy, had sustained them all for decades, literally and spiritually.

After a long day shrouded in black and mourning, Henry knew he should go up to his childhood bedroom and try to sleep, to bookend the darkness. But it was as if his father’s spirit was determined to live vicariously through him from now on, as Henry’s entire being still felt like a bolt of lightning had struck it. Like light was coursing through his veins. Like he was capable of writing an entire symphony in a manic burst of creativity. Or solving a complex mathematics equation that others found unsolvable. Or even the meaning of life and…

Will it always feel like this? Am I still in shock? he wondered. Is this just what grief feels like? The kind of grief tailor-made for an enigmatic soul like dad’s anyway…

Henry’s mind was becoming unmoored and turbo-charged, wandering from random topics to wild musings then straying from unanswered questions to philosophical ponderings to tangled webs of sentiments and memories. And was apparently in step with his feet.

As if being pulled by an invisible string of fate, Henry found himself at the threshold of Arthur’s study. The only place Henry knew to go for the types of answers he was seeking, which usually only led to more questions.

The midnight light of the moon lit up the far-right corner of the office, beckoning Henry forward, straight toward his favorite bookshelf. The one with all the stories about magical realms and wizards and reluctant heroes who were desperately afraid but managed to conjure enough bravery and rage and integrity together to save their elderly neighbor and a fair maiden, the town prankster, and even a few crooks who stole bread to feed their families. Those books that were full of the stories his father wrote, that continued to move his life forward, to give it meaning.

Henry grazed their spines with his index finger nostalgically, as if absorbing their parabolic lessons into his body along with his father’s words and lifeblood. But stopped short when his finger ran into a spine that was protruding from the rest by about a quarter inch.

What stopped him wasn’t the book’s placement on the shelf, however, but its text, which was glittering in the moonlight, making it stand out among the rest.

The Life of Arthur Noble

To his knowledge, Henry’s father had never even drafted an autobiography, and certainly never had his biography written, let alone had either one bound and published in a way that matched his other work sitting on the shelf.

Henry snatched the book from the shelf so forcefully that it fell to the ground, splaying wide open, exposing its dedication page while simultaneously defying physics.

As Henry crouched to pick it up, he read:

This book is dedicated to my only surviving child, Henry, who is more like me than he will ever know… until he travels through the following pages.

My dear Henry, this book contains the answers to all the questions you will ever have via the stories of my life— those stories borrowed, translated, transformed, and until now, untold. It is for your eyes only, as its text will only be legible to you and no one else.

Please, learn and continue this life of stories, as I did when my mother left them to me. I love you and am with you always, in all the worlds both on and off the page.

I also hope you carry on this tradition when you have a child of your own one day, though I know you struggle with backstories and parables. But don’t we all? As they tell us all we need to know, while simultaneously leaving the hard work of words up to us in the end without an end, or a true beginning …

With a tear at the corner of his eye, Henry turned the page, which was stark blank, blending with the pale glow of the moon cascading over it.

But when the teardrop left Henry’s body and landed in the center of the glowing blank page, ballooning into a medium-sized smudge, the invisible colors on it began to appear and slowly morph into tinier yet darker lines and dots of ink that eventually began forming words, then complete sentences, then paragraphs with a bolded chapter title above them.

The book of his father’s life was writing itself before his very eyes, in bright colors he had never seen before, that he didn’t even know existed in the rainbow.

Henry rubbed his eyes to get a better look at the chapter’s title.

Chapter 1: Setting the Scene

[Write what comes next and share what you come up with in the chat or a comment so we can discuss]

My Reflection and an Invitation

Writing this short piece was cathartic for me, yet bittersweet. And reminded me that finding the right book at the right time isn’t always a ‘happy’ experience, or even comfortable, but still always feels serendipitous and magical.

Writing this piece also inspired a few novel ideas I may pursue one day, after I complete the project I’m currently working on.

How about you? What did this prompt or creative writing piece surface for you?

Leave a comment or join this month’s Drafters Workshop Chat so we can discuss your writing related to Writing Prompts About Books That Changed Us, or anything else you’re currently working on.

Whether you join the chat to share your responses to this week’s prompts, ask questions, workshop an excerpt of something else you’ve written, or simply want to encourage others, we’d love to see you there as we explore the stories we carry and how they impact our lives throughout September.

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ICYM August’s Theme, The Creative Life

Go more in depth with The Creative Life Writing Collection

September’s The Stories We Carry Writing Collection is coming soon!

Popular Posts from Week 4: Preparing for What Comes Next

Writing Prompts for What Comes Next in Your Creative Life

“Did we ever…?”

Reading Notes: Possession

Popular Posts from Week 3: The Messy Middle

Writing Prompts for Navigating ‘The Messy Middle’

Continuing Without a Trace

Reading Notes: The Cemetery of Untold Stories

Popular Posts from Week 2: Creative Habits

Immersive Storytelling Mode and the ArXiv

Reading Notes: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

The Habits That Help Me and My Creative Life Most

Popular Posts from Week 1: Making Space

A Day Alive in the Lakeside Library

How to Make Space and Time for Your Creative Life

The Creative Life as Play and Work

If you want to explore past themes, paid subscribers also have access to the full archive, including previous writing prompts, discussions, and reading lists, as well as full access to the community chat and Daily Drafters Exclusives writing collections.

Get 30-Day Free Trial

Share Daily Drafts & Dialogues

© This work is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) training. All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.The above work is a piece of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

September Theme: The Stories We Carry

Big Question: Why do certain stories stay with us?

Week 1: The Books That Changed Us

Welcome to the first week of exploring The Stories We Carry on Daily Drafts & Dialogues in September

Welcome to a new month of breathing life and digital ink into writing aspirations. One draft, one dialogue, one day at a time on Daily Drafts & Dialogues. I’m so thrilled to have you here and can’t wait to dive into an entire new month of engaging topics and conversations.

In our drafts and dialogues last month, we explored The Creative Life and how to make space and cultivate habits for the creative lives we truly want, learned more about how to navigate ‘the messy middle’ of our creative lives and projects, then reflected on how we can best prepare for what comes next in our creative lives. And the month before that, we explored Creative Courage and focused on how we can best harness it to keep showing up despite fear, uncertainty, perfectionism, and self-doubt.

In September, we’re going to extend those conversations and go a little deeper into reflecting on and examining those stories that we carry. Those stories that are central to our creative courage and the creative lives we continue to build for ourselves. Those stories that have changed us in profound ways and encourage us to be the storytellers we are and want to be. Those stories that are embedded in our memories, our psyches, our spirits, and the trajectory of our lives. Those stories that continue to influence history, as well as the current and future course of the world. Those stories we can’t help but tell others over and over and over again. Essentially, those stories that connect us, bring us closer together, make us feel seen, and stand the test of time.

At our core, humans are storytellers. The stories we encounter, remember, and tell are what allow us to make sense of ourselves, the world, and one another in fundamental ways. It’s been that way since the dawn of time and will be that way as long as we exist.

Taking the next several weeks to unpack why and how we carry the stories we carry has immense value for all of us, especially those of us who want to use our writing and art and other human storytelling mediums as vehicles for creative courage and purposeful creative living. Those of us who truly want to ensure the sketches and drafts we carry and create also carry the stories that mean the most to us, so that we can do our part in contributing something meaningful to the broader human narrative and craft of storytelling.

Truly, I can’t think of a better way to spend this September, as the world is undergoing a lot of rapid change and turmoil. Especially now, taking the time to reflect on and intentionally explore the stories we carry will help us better understand where we’ve been, where we are, and where we want to go… on purpose.

For the first week, we’ll be writing, reading, and talking about the books that changed us, which will include those books that altered the very fabric and trajectory of our lives to those books that simply contained a single sentence we could never let go.

Over the course of the month, we’ll explore how some books seem to arrive at the exact moment we need them while others may not resonate with us until years after we’ve read them. We’ll explore the ways the stories we carry give us language for those things we can’t always name or define in unexpected ways, as well as how they introduce us to new perspectives and people we need and want to meet. And how, above all else, they continue to define and evolve the way we see ourselves, the world, and all the people in it, as well as who we become.

This week’s creative prompts invite you to explore the books that can change characters and how they fit into your fictional worlds, while the reflective journaling prompts encourage you to reflect on those books that have changed you.

Write as much or as little as you’d like. Follow the prompts exactly as they’re introduced or let them take you somewhere unexpected. It’s up to you. The page is yours!

I can’t wait to see you in the Drafters Workshop Chat this month as we continue to discuss the drafts you share, the books that have changed us, and the stories that we carry.

You’ll see my response to one of the creative prompts in tomorrow’s post, then my response to one of the reflective journaling prompts on Wednesday. You’ll also see posts featuring our book club selections for the month, and dialogues about the stories we carry this week, which are all meant to complement these prompts.

I look forward to your next comment or chat reply. Until then, happy writing!

General Tips for Every Prompt

• Begin with a specific memory, image, object, character, or experience rather than trying to write a complete history with a detailed beginning and end.

• Let yourself write a messy first draft, as discovery often happens via rewrites and revisions.

• Follow the details that carry emotional energy and weight, even if they seem small.

• Ask what the book or story you’re reflecting on or writing about represents beyond the words on their pages.

• Give yourself permission to write about the book you actually remember, not the book you think you should remember.

This week, choose or imagine the book or story that has stayed with you and explore what its staying power reveals about the person you were, the person you are, or the person you are becoming.

Quick Note: While I will always encourage writers to write to the extent of their heart’s content, I would suggest starting with one prompt from each section first. Select the creative prompt and reflective prompt that seem to really speak to you first, then see where those writing experiences lead you before attempting to complete the rest of the prompts. If you end up completing all or most of the prompts after that, that’s amazing! But if you don’t, that’s perfectly fine too. You won’t run out of opportunities to see prompts like this because there will be another post of prompts available next Saturday when this one is auto-archived.

Creative Prompts About Books That Change Us And Our Characters

1. The Book That Changes Everything

Write a story about a book that changes someone’s life.

Focus On:

• the significance behind the moment the book enters the character’s life.

• how the character’s transformation is revealed through specific choices, relationships, or actions rather than by simple explanations.

• how the book itself has a presence, history, or meaning that makes it memorable.

• how the character discovers that being changed by a story does not necessarily mean becoming someone entirely different.

Skills to Practice:

• Writing believable character transformations

• Including a smaller story about an object within a larger story

• Showing changes via details and objects in a scene

Tip: Give the character a problem before you give them the book, as this contrast will make the book’s impact more noticeable.

Feeling Stuck?

Start with three things the character believes at the beginning and three things they believe at the end, then write about the moment that connects the two.

2. The Protagonist Who Meets Their Favorite Character

Create a protagonist who meets the fictional character who shaped them most.

Focus On:

• how the meeting reveals something the protagonist has misunderstood about their beloved fictional character.

• the moment the fictional character challenges, comforts, or surprises the protagonist.

• their conversation and how it explores the difference between who we imagine a character to be and who that character might actually be or become when we meet them.

• the way their encounter changes what the protagonist understands about themselves.

Skills to Practice:

• Writing distinctive dialogue between two contrasting characters

• Understanding a character through their conflicts and personal revelations

• Examining admiration and expectations through a complicated encounter

Tip: Let the fictional character refuse to behave exactly as your protagonist expects, and vice versa.

Feeling Stuck?

Imagine the fictional character asking, “Why did you need me?” or “Why did you want to meet me?” Then write the protagonist’s answer and go from there.

3. The Sentence You Never Forgot

Write a poem about a sentence in a book that you never forgot.

Focus On:

• the ways in which the remembered sentence becomes a doorway into a memory, feeling, place, or period of your life.

• exploring why the sentence stayed with you on an emotional or spiritual or linguistic level rather than simply explaining what it means.

• using language in the poem that creates a parallel mood or emotional echo between the book and your own experience.

• permitting the poem to alter the meaning of the words of the remembered sentence as you encounter them again.

Skills to Practice:

• Using vivid imagery and emotions to transform memory into poetry

• Exploring emotional resonance through concise language

• Building a poem around a single image, phrase, or idea

Tip: Before you begin writing, take a moment to sit with the physical experience of remembering the sentence. Consider where you were, what the page looked like, or what you felt before you understood why, and see where that takes you.

Feeling Stuck?

Write five sensory details from the moment you first encountered the sentence, then choose one of them to become the center of your poem or at least its first stanza.

4. The Book Given at the Right Moment

Write a scene where someone gives another person a meaningful book at the exact moment they need it.

Focus On:

• the giver’s reason for choosing this particular book for this particular person.

• what remains unsaid between the characters and how it matters as much as the words they exchange.

• how the book carries a history that deepens or emphasizes the meaning of the gift.

• the recipient’s reaction revealing something about their relationship with the giver.

Skills to Practice:

• Including subtext and meaningful mannerisms alongside dialogue

• Creating emotional significance around an everyday object

• Generating tension or tenderness within an ordinary scene

Tip: Don’t explain why the book matters immediately. Instead, let the reader discover its significance through the characters’ behavior and dialogue.

Feeling Stuck?

Decide why the giver almost doesn’t give the book, then begin the scene at that moment.

5. The Library of Magical Books

Write about a library that contains only magical books.

Focus On:

• the rules, powers, costs, or consequences that make each book distinct and or similar.

• how the library reveals something about the people who want to visit it or seek out its books.

• the ways the library’s magic encourages meaningful choices rather than existing only for spectacle.

• at least one book containing something a protagonist desperately wants but may not be ready to receive.

Skills to Practice:

• Developing imaginative worldbuilding through concrete details

• Establishing rules that make fantastical ideas believable

• Connecting external magic to internal conflicts

Tip: Give the library one impossible rule and make your protagonist break it.

Feeling Stuck?

Invent five books in the magical library using these beginnings: The book that remembers…, The book that erases…, The book that predicts…, The book that returns…, and The book that refuses…

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Reflective Prompts About The Books That Changed You

6. The Book That Changed Your World

What book changed the way you see the world?

Focus On:

• identifying what your perspective was before encountering the book.

• exploring the specific idea, image, character, or experience that shifted something in you.

• considering whether the change has lasted or evolved over time.

• allowing the answer to reveal something about who you were when you first read it.

Skills to Practice:

• Reflective writing grounded in specific memories

• Tracing cause and effect in your own experiences and thinking

• Connecting reading experiences to personal growth

Tip: Instead of starting with a summary of the book, start with who you were before you read it.

Feeling Stuck?

Complete this sentence several times: “Before I read this book, I thought/felt…”

7. Who opened the door to reading?

Who introduced you to reading?

Focus On:

• remembering the person, place, or moment that made reading feel meaningful to you.

• exploring what that introduction communicated about stories and about you.

• considering whether your relationship with reading has changed since then.

• noticing what you still carry from that early experience.

Skills to Practice:

• Writing from a vivid personal memory

• Using small details to evoke a person or place

• Connecting a past experience to your present self

Tip: Don’t worry about making the person sound extraordinary, as ordinary details can make a memory feel alive.

Feeling Stuck?

Picture the room where you first remember reading and list everything you can see, hear, smell, and touch.

8. The Stories That Shaped You

What stories shaped your identity?

Focus On:

• including stories from your family, culture, childhood, friendships, or imagination.

• which stories taught you what was possible, desirable, frightening, or forbidden.

• those stories you still believe, as well as the ones you have outgrown.

• how the stories you carry influence the story you tell about yourself and your life.

Skills to Practice:

• Examining identity through narrative

• Recognizing the beliefs embedded in stories

• Distinguishing inherited stories from stories you have chosen

Tip: Consider stories about where you come from, who you could become, what love means, what success means, and what it means to belong.

Feeling Stuck?

Make a short list of five stories that taught you something about yourself, then choose the one that still feels unfinished, or the one that still resonates.

9. Read It Again for the First Time

What book do you wish you could read again for the first time?

Focus On:

• exploring what made the first reading experience so powerful.

• what you know now about the book that you did not know then.

• what might be lost, and what might be gained, by reading it again.

• distinguishing between missing the book itself and missing the person you were when you first encountered it.

Skills to Practice:

• Writing about nostalgia without idealizing the past

• Comparing past and present perspectives

• Using a familiar story to explore personal change

Tip: Write about the reader you were then before writing about the book.

Feeling Stuck?

Finish this sentence: “I don’t only miss this book; I miss the version of myself who…”

10. What Your Favorite Books Say About You

What do your favorite books reveal about you?

Focus On:

• the patterns that reappear across the books you return to.

• what kinds of characters, worlds, conflicts, or ideas repeatedly draw you in.

• what your favorite books suggest about your hopes, fears, values, or unanswered questions.

• remaining open to discovering something about yourself that you did not expect.

Skills to Practice:

• Reading about your own preferences as a form of self-reflection

• Identifying patterns across different personal experiences

• Turning observation into personal and practical insight

Tip: Choose three favorite books and ask what they have in common before deciding what they ‘say’ or reveal about you.

Feeling Stuck?

Imagine someone finding your bookshelf without meeting you, then consider what assumptions they might make about the person who owns it.

Join the Conversation

The books that change us don’t always announce themselves as important, or don’t even become important to us until long after we’ve read them.

Sometimes a book’s influence on us is obvious, like when it changes a long-held belief, inspires our creativity and imagination, or offers us a new way to envision our lives. But sometimes it’s much subtler, like when a character becomes a voice in our head or a mentor, a sentence returns with new vigor and meaning years later, or when the book itself becomes a reminder of who we once were.

Sometimes it also seems like we’re never quite finished reading some of the books we encounter, and that just might be why certain stories stay with us— they feel too big, too important, to finish in one sitting, or maybe even in one lifetime.

As we begin September’s exploration of The Stories We Carry, take a moment to notice which stories have become part of your inner vocabulary, your inner voice, and what they might still be asking you to understand. Then join the Drafters Workshop Chat to share an excerpt of your writing (even if it’s not related to these prompts), talk about a book that surprised you, exchange encouragement with fellow writers, or simply let us know which prompt resonated with you most. Whether you share a single paragraph or several pages, or just want to cheer others on, your voice is welcome!

Get the conversation going by answering this week’s question: What book has stayed with you the longest, and what do you think it reveals about you that you didn’t know when you first read it?

You don’t need to have a polished answer. Just bring a memory, a sentence, a half-finished thought, or a book you haven’t stopped thinking about to the chat.

Thanks so much for being here. I can’t wait to see your next comment or chat reply. Until then, happy writing and reading!

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ICYM August’s Theme, The Creative Life

Go more in depth with The Creative Life Writing Collection

September’s The Stories We Carry Writing Collection is coming soon!

Popular Posts from Week 4: Preparing for What Comes Next

Writing Prompts for What Comes Next in Your Creative Life

“Did we ever…?”

Reading Notes: Possession

Popular Posts from Week 3: The Messy Middle

Writing Prompts for Navigating ‘The Messy Middle’

Continuing Without a Trace

Reading Notes: The Cemetery of Untold Stories

Popular Posts from Week 2: Creative Habits

Immersive Storytelling Mode and the ArXiv

Reading Notes: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

The Habits That Help Me and My Creative Life Most

Popular Posts from Week 1: Making Space

A Day Alive in the Lakeside Library

How to Make Space and Time for Your Creative Life

The Creative Life as Play and Work

If you want to explore past themes, paid subscribers also have access to the full archive, including previous writing prompts, discussions, and reading lists, as well as full access to the community chat and Daily Drafters Exclusives writing collections.

Get 30-Day Free Trial

Share Daily Drafts & Dialogues

© This work is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) training. All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 4: Preparing for What Comes Next

Read more

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 4: Preparing for What Comes Next

Read more

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 4: Preparing for What Comes Next

Read more

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 3: The Messy Middle

Read more

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 3: The Messy Middle

Read more

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 3: The Messy Middle

Read more

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 2: Creative Habits

Read more

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 2: Creative Habits

Read more

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 2: Creative Habits

Read more

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 1: Making Space

Read more

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 1: Making Space

Read more

August Theme: The Creative Life

Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?

Week 1: Making Space

Read more

July Theme: Creative Courage

Big Question: What does it take to begin, risk, and share what you create?

Week 3: Sharing the Work

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July Theme: Creative Courage

Big Question: What does it take to begin, risk, and share what you create?

Week 3: Sharing the Work

Read more

July Theme: Creative Courage

Big Question: What does it take to begin, risk, and share what you create?

Week 2: Taking Creative Risks

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