WriterAdvice seeks flash fiction, memoir, and creative non-fiction running 750 words or less. Enlighten, dazzle, and delight us. Finalists receive responses from all judges. First prize is $200. Submit to the 9th WriterAdvice Flash Prose Contest by April 18, 2014. Complete details at www.writeradvice.com.
Month: February 2014
Transforming Depression Into My Writer’s Muse — by Teresa LeYung-Ryan
Transforming Depression Into My Writer’s Muse — by Teresa LeYung-Ryan What do I have to be depressed about? I am blessed with friends, writing colleagues, housemates, spouse, family members, coworkers, a half-time day job, health insurance, my intellectual properties . . . and what friends call a sense of humor. But I don’t feel like laughing in my condition, maybe later. I may have inherited the depression gene (or genes) from my loving mother. While I sympathized with my mother’s illness (my novel Love Made of Heart was inspired by her), it would take experiencing the illness myself before I could gain empathy. Poor health of the physical nature (especially with overt symptoms) alerts us to seek help; poor health of the mental nature (especially the first occurrence) usually has no clear signals. Depression snuck up on me, in my forties. The symptoms didn’t look like my mom’s. I had…
How to go for the gold.
What percentage of being an Olympic champion would you attribute to hard work versus natural talent? Kristi Yamaguchi answers: “I think it’s drive over talent for sure. I was not the quickest learner. When I was 7, my mom said, ‘You need to work harder because everyone else is learning faster than you.’ Skating taught me to have a work ethic—in order to improve, you have to put the time in.” Quote from Parade magazine, January 19, 2014. Same with writing, right? You know the drill . . . butt in chair. Warm up with a freewrite, using a prompt. Then keep going. Just write.
What trolley did you get on? Prompt #43
When using prompts for writing, you can answer from your personal experience, or from your fictional or real character’s point of view. Feel free to let your imagination meander. If you only know where the trolley you got on would take you . . . What trolley did you get on, and where did it take you? What other trolleys were running then? What if you had taken one of them? Not had kids, had kids, chose to live on the Atlantic instead of Pacific, gave up art or gave up law, married him/her or didn’t. Tell us about your trolley. Prompt: What trolley did you get on?
Are there rules for essay writing?
Pat Olsen has written an excellent article about writing personal essay in the December 2013 issue of The Writer magazine. Highlights: “. . . when I am so obsessed about an idea that I can’t wait to put pen to paper, the essay almost writes itself. That’s not so say I don’t struggle over every word, or that I’m done after the first draft . . . Some of the best advice I’ve received is that it’s not only what you choose to include in an essay that’s important, but it’s also what you choose to omit.” She gives an example and then goes on to ask: “Are there actual rules for essay writing? If so, not all writers agree on them.” After consulting essayists, here’s what she discovered: Kate Walter: “‘An essay should have a universal theme . . . No matter how unusual a story may seem,’ she…
I stand on the edge of . . . Prompt #42
When using the freewrite style of writing . . . write freely with no worries about the end result. The editor that sits on your shoulder, the inner critic. . . out the door. Give ’em the boot. Not invited to this party. It’s not about the writing . . . it’s about the process. The process of letting go. Trust yourself. Go with your imagination. Go with what’s on your mind. Today’s writing prompt: I stand on the edge of . . .
Phantom Drift accepting submissions.
Phantom Drift accepting submissions Jan. 1 – March 31. Fiction: Looking for fabulist flash fiction and short stories: stories that favor the unusual over the usual; stories that create a milieu where anything can happen. Poetry: Prefer poetry composed in the new fabulist tradition: that shatters or valuably distorts reality, whether this means surrealism, magical realism, fantastique, or bizarrerie. Non-fiction: Looking for essays on New Fabulism (or the range of imaginative literature generally referred to as slipstream, new weird, magic realism, fabulist and cross-genre fantastic literature difficult to categorize). Art: Looking for fabulist art for cover and for b/w interior. We are not looking for realist or abstract art. Please acquaint yourself with surrealists and artists of the fantastic. Artwork may be based on myths or dreams or purely imagined, but must complement the range of literature we seek