Prompts

“So I went home and tried to find a prompt to write on, like you said might be good for me.”

I was sitting in the plush chair in my therapist’s office. I tried to resist the urge to glance at my watch again. I knew it was supposed to help but that didn’t stop the hour from dragging on. I waited for the inevitable question from the middle-aged man sitting across from me.

“And how did that go?”

I wanted to punch him in his smug face. I closed my eyes to get rid of that thought and tried to figure why it was always my first reaction to that question. I had been the one to say I needed therapy again. He was just there to help. Maybe it was just the fact that every time he asked that question, the answer was always the same. If my phone could tell me when I usually go to work, why couldn’t this man pick up on the running theme?

“Not well,” I replied, rolling my beanie again before straightening it out. I thought for the hundredth time why I could never just sit still and focus. The thought just made me want to look at my watch and I knew that the answer was that I just didn’t want to be here. I almost missed the second inevitable question.

“Why?”

Why? I tried to piece together my reply to make me sound like the sympathetic character for once. I opened my mouth once, thought better of it, and closed it again. Then the answer came to me.

“There was nothing worth replying to. I mean, they’re always going on about established universe stories and they’re so popular when done right. But I don’t feel I have the necessary knowledge to knock it out of the park like some users do. Every other prompt was either an image prompt that I could not for the life of me place in a story, or a normal prompt that another user had already written a fascinating response to. I mean, what’s the point when I can’t come up with something that nobody else has done?” I realized that I had opened up, and returned my attention to my beanie as I hoped that time would just be up already.

“Well Zachary, maybe you need to view it in a different way. Try writing the story before reading other prompts. Maybe just try writing for yourself.” A reminder tone sounded from his computer. As he turned to look at it I glanced up, seeing that his next meeting was in five minutes. I put my beanie on and smiled for the first time in an hour.

“That’s all the time we have. Have a good day Zachary, and just remember that happiness doesn’t need to come from other’s approval or appreciation. You make your own happiness.”

I resisted the urge to gag as I walked out the door.