Each of us has something, deep in ourselves, that stirs us up to the depths. We are outraged about politics, Sarah Palin, oil spills or closer to home, about our spouse, the high cost of our power bill or what's going on with our kids. Our mental obsessions are great places to explore questions about ourselves and what is really going on at a deeper level.

Today the prompt builds from that point of view. The example, on Monday, titled The Little Black Dog is about my own obsession. This is not from a book but is fresh and first draft. Almost all the things I post on this blog are first or second draft and are being honed into articles that I later submit. That is the great gift of this blog, I write and get ideas and you give feedback and boom...something is born.

I was obsessed a couple weeks ago with a dreadful conference my son had, OBSESSED. And once at the beach, in the impossible sun at the beach, I became MORE OBSESSED. The great teacher Jim Haynen (who I posted about a couple weeks ago) said, "follow your obsessions." I agree. Follow them into the black hole of thinking and ask them questions. What is really going on here? What is really, really going on here? And then write it. You will learn that the war isn't outside of you but inside. Deep inside your own thoughts and conditioned ways of seeing the world.

I am obsessed with guilt over the birth of my son and the fall out that impacts his education. So, here it is. An obsession. How utterly perfect that as I am obsessing, this little dog appears and barks up a storm at me. I wrote it and it just worked to hold the obsession. Crazy on the inside, crazy on the outside, while all the while being held by the steadiness of the rolling waves and blowing wind.

INSTRUCTIONS: Free write for ten minutes on something that is totally occupying your thoughts. Go big with it, really rant on the page without editing or judging yourself. Just shred the page with all that you feel.

Once done, set it aside and now take another ten minutes to answer these questions: Where are you, (up, down, right, left, front and back), what's the weather doing, what season is it, time of day, what do you have to be doing that you are not doing, what are you craving to eat? Answer all of these question and this is the "scene." Now fit the two together.

EXAMPLE: See Monday's Fresh Writing

WRITE & SUBMIT: 500-700 words. Good luck! Share your writing by emailing me via this site.