Quotes

Your Story Is Buried Treasure.

“Writing is therapeutic. It saves lives. Your truths are eager to come out. Let them spill onto the page, and see what doors writing opens for you. Your story is buried treasure. One of the simplest, most private places to write is in a journal. It allows you to vent, delve into issues, and untangle messes. It lets you analyze or celebrate. It allows you to finish a thought without interruption. The journal validates your right to be who you are.” — B. Lynn Goodwin, “Celebrate Your Uniqueness” in Inspire Me Today. B. Lynn Goodwin is the owner of Writer Advice, which is currently holding its 10th Flash Prose Contest. She’s the author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers, and a YA called Talent, which Eternal Press will be publishing this year. Her short pieces have been published in local and regional publications. Lynn will be…

Just Write

Write authentically about difficult subjects

I recently read an outstanding novel, Splinters of Light, by Rachael Herron, “a poignant and beautiful novel about love, loss, and the unbreakable bonds of family—particularly those between mothers, daughters, and sisters.” — Amazon In this full-of-heart novel, the mother has early onset Alzheimer’s disease. I wondered how Rachael could write so authentically and intimately about something she didn’t have personal experience with. This is the gift of a writer who knows how to research and turn that information into a compelling story. I asked her how she wrote so authentically about early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD). Her answer: “I love immersing myself in the worlds I write about, but I’ll admit this was a hard one. Because there’s no cure for early-onset Alzheimer’s, there are really no happy endings. So I had to read about and research families that were breaking apart, but still focus on the happy parts of…

Places to submit

Two-Minute Memoir, Psychology Today

Two-Minute Memoir focuses specifically on a personal story of growth. Typically told in first person, the selected essays should have a beginning, middle and end. Like most good essays, selected essays feature important internal change or revelation. As mentioned in the March/April 2015 issue of Writer’s Digest magazine: “Write something unusual.” Not the usual: mental illness, grief, divorce, falling in love, etc . . . unless there is something “distinctive or unusual about the story to make it work.” How to submit: Past your 1,500 word essay (or fewer words) in an email to: jennifer.blyer -at- psychologytoday.com Include a brief introduction and a one-sentence summary.

Prompts

Last . . . Prompt #149

Sometimes writing prompts are fun and playful.                             Sometimes they inspire memoir type writing. Other times they work well for fiction writing. Mostly the prompts are what you make of them . . . you can go light and stay on the surface, skating on the edge, or you can go deep. This quick type of writing is an opportunity to explore and perhaps come up with ideas for writing, or . . .for solutions to situations . . . or, for personal growth and transformation.    Shed your ideas about what perfect writing means.   Give yourself permission to be open to whatever comes up. Writing isn’t always about talent, it’s about practice and going into another dimension. Rather than write for an audience, write from an instinctual level. Creative writing is an act of discovery. Immerse yourself in writing. Let go of your worries and write. Write to…

Guest Bloggers

Take Your Writing to the Next Level

Guest Blogger B. Lynn Goodwin talks about Taking Your Writing to the Next Level – A Look at Editing and Polishing So you’ve been inspired, found the time, and drafted a story or memoir that you really want to share with the world. Maybe you’ve even shared it with a critique group, or had a good friend read it to you so you could hear your own glitches. What do you need to do to take it to the next level and make it ready for publication?  Look at the content. Does everything contribute to the story you’re telling, or do you have extraneous material? Do your characters struggle, try, and give it their all? If not, is there a clear reason not to? Does that change before the end of the story? Now that you’ve drafted it, what is your story about? It might have several themes or messages….

Book Reviews

Splinters of Light by Rachael Herron

Rachael Herron has done an amazing job creating believable and likable characters, twins Nora and Mariana, and Nora’s teenage daughter, Elle. We journey with Nora as she navigates the tricky maze of a newly discovered disease and the equally difficult struggle as single parent to Elle. Herron writes with grace, love and authority about a difficult subject. I admire her ability to tackle a subject that isn’t easy to talk about: early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Towards the end, I stayed up into the wee hours, reading. I had to find out what would happen to these characters I grew to love. Brilliant writing, exquisite characters, excellent story line. Splinters of Light is one of the best books I have read. I adore . . . LOVE . . . these characters. They now live in my heart. Phew! Worked up a sweat typing this. Need some lemonade to cool down….

Places to submit

Narrative Winter 2015 Story Contest

Do you have some writing ready to submit? Could you get it ready real fast? Narrative Magazine’s Winter 2015 Contest ends Tuesday, March 31 at midnight, PST This contest is open to all fiction and nonfiction writers: shorts, short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, all forms of literary nonfiction, and excerpts from longer works of both fiction and nonfiction. Entries must be previously unpublished, no longer than 15,000 words, and must not have been previously chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest. Narrative is looking for works with a strong narrative drive, with characters we can respond to as human beings, and with effects of language, situation, and insight that are intense and total. We look for works that have the ambition of enlarging our view of ourselves and the world. Narrative welcomes and looks forward to reading your pages. Submission Fee: There is…

Prompts

My heart hurts. . . Prompt #147

Today’s writing prompt is inspired by my dear friend, Eva. You can always write on variations of these writing prompts. For example: My heart hurts when . . . I want to tell you about the time my heart broke . . . The phrase “full of heart” means . . . Write from your personal experience, or write fiction. Just write! Photo by Jeff Cullen. Click here to see Jeff’s portfolio on fotolia.