Today's prompt got me thinking about how much easier it is to be in opposition to something, rather than going through the work of inventing your own whatever (could be anything from politics to music to a home organization system) completely from scratch.
Not in a necessarily bad way. For example a freewrite is a sort of opposition when structured the way I've been doing them. I use the given prompt and a timed editor (The Most Dangerous Writing App) and so I'm forced to write a word I didn't choose. And to do it in a set window, otherwise the whole thing disappears and my hard work is gone.
Some of the most fun comes from trying to get around the prompt when it's a word or phrase I don't find interesting or inspirational. In trying to incorporate it while avoiding it I get surprising results.
Although it easily leads me places I never expected to go, it would definitely be problematic if I always tried to fight against the prompt, though that's often my first idea, to subvert it somehow. It's a real problem to get stuck in a narrow oppositional rut that I just pace across over and over as it deepens. Hopefully that's something writing and other creative exercises can help steer me away from... Time will tell, I guess.
