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This post is part of the Weems Fiction Monthly Prompt series. My goal this year is to send out a prompt and an original short essay or fiction piece to my email list. Subscribe in the box to the right, or just check back each month under the tab “Prompts” to read the prompts only. If you write to the prompt, I hope you will share your writing in the comments below and be encouraged!

How do you feel about interruptions? I read a book a number of years ago about seeing interruptions as opportunities. I tried really hard to put that mindset into practice, but nothing shortens my fuse quicker than interruptions piling up on me. (This is coincidentally why I struggled as a preschool mom— which can best be described as one long season of interruptions, some delightful, others not so much.) Sometimes interruptions are valuable though because they alert us to something new, perhaps something we miss when our heads are down and buried in our own work.

The prompt: The next time you are interrupted, take that complication and use it as the heart of a story. Interruptions can help a character see something with new eyes, leading to change. And change is always at the heart of story.

If you decide to write to the prompt, I hope you’ll share your writing with me in the post comments here. Encourage each other!