‘Twas the night before the party and all through the house, everyone was hurrying with too much to do, even the mouse! Sound familiar? I was frustrated with too much scurrying before I learned strategies about how to manage holiday stress. As I gathered ideas, I felt calm and at peace. Let’s create an enjoyable holiday season. It does involve list making. So get some paper and a pen. These lists will help you focus on making your holidays less stressful and more enjoyable. The six key steps to reduce holiday stress are inventory, decide, accept, choose favorites, enlist and manage. Take inventory. Make a list of all the extra activities you do during the holidays. Be sure to include baking, making crafts, decorating, cleaning, helping at church, attending parties, shopping, wrapping, making travel plans, driving around to see decorations and meeting guests at the airport. Next: Go through your…
Month: December 2015
Does failure weigh more than success?
Guest Blogger Rachael Herron writes about successes and failures. It’s December! I know this for a fact (I just rechecked the calendar). No matter which hemisphere you’re in, regardless of season, this year is getting ready for her final bow. It’s completely impossible that 2015 is almost over because about seventeen minutes ago the year was just starting, full of potential and wonder and pale spring-green hope. I’m prone to doing what everyone else does at the end of a year: weighing the past year’s successes and failures against each other. But you know what? Failure weighs way more than success. When you put things on that imaginary scale, each small failure weighs as much as a wheelbarrow full of rocks while each huge success weighs almost nothing. Success makes you lighter—it makes you able to float for a minute or even an hour—while failure drags you so low your…
What hurts right now? Prompt #209
You! Yes, you. What hurts right now? Write about that. Or write about what is hurting your fictional character. Writing Prompt: What hurts right now?
“Challenges always present themselves . . . “
“Challenges always present themselves in any creative undertaking, but you’ll never get far if you let doubt rule you.” Susan Bono author of What Have We Here: Essays about Keeping House and Finding Home.
Personal Essay is Memoir in Short Form
If you have written your memoir, or are in the process, and it’s not shaping into what you envisioned, you could transform it into a personal essay. It might be easier, at some point, to concentrate on writing a personal essay, rather than a book-length manuscript. There are many posts on The Write Spot Blog about how to write personal essays. (Please scroll down for the how-to posts). You may be writing vignettes to satisfy your desire to write family stories. You can publish these with the help of many do-it-yourself publishing companies. If you want your personal essays to be published for public consumption, there are many opportunities for submission: Big Brick Review, Chicken Soup for The Soul, The Christian Science Monitor, Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction and so many more places. Check the back pages of Writer’s Digest magazine. You can submit your writing to be included in…
Rose of Sharon by Arletta Dawdy
Arletta Dawdy‘s strong writing skills are evident as she gives life to the fictional characters in Rose of Sharon. Arletta deftly weaves scenery and characters, using her extensive vocabulary to create a vivid backdrop for lives unfolding in this novel that reads like a true story. From the back cover: Mark Wiederanders, author of Stevenson’s Treasure: “Arletta Dawdy’s Rose of Sharon is a delightful, wonderfully-imagined prequel to John Steinback’s The Grapes of Wrath. . . Depression, racism, forbidden love, birth, death, heartbreak and lots of hard ranch-work are all part of Rose’s daily experience.” Susan Nunn, author of Song of the Earth: “Characters are born out of the fabric of their landscape, and when a writer has a sense of place, knows place like none other, it all comes together so well.” Kay Mehl Miller, Ph.D,, author of Love Comes At Twilight: A Love Story for Seniors: “Whether it’s with…
Colorado Review
THE COLORADO REVIEW accepts short fiction, personal essay, poetry, and book reviews. FICTION & NONFICTION Colorado Review considers short fiction and personal essays with contemporary themes (no genre fiction or literary criticism). POETRY Poetry of any style is accepted. Please limit poetry submissions to no more than five poems at a time. PRIZE FOR POETRY NELLIGAN PRIZE BOOK REVIEWS If you would like to submit a book review, please send query to respective editors. SUBMISSION DATES AND FORMAT (Scroll down) Nonfiction manuscripts are read year-round. Fiction & poetry manuscripts are read from August 1 to April 30. Simultaneous submissions are accepted; writers must notify CR immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere. CR considers only previously unpublished work. Colorado Review purchases First North American Serial Rights; all rights revert to the author upon publication in CR. We pay $10 per page ($30 minimum) for poetry and $200 for short stories and essays. Authors…
Deep but not profound . . . Prompt #208
The name of the game is: Deep but not profound. Apples but not bananas Boots but not shoes Carrots but not potatoes Door but not window Eggs but not chickens Have you figured out the formula? Here’s a clue: Look at the letters in the first words of each line above. More clues: Sleepy but not tired Sleep but not slumber Greet and hello and goodbye but neither here nor there. Solution to this riddle: The first word has double consonants or double vowels. The rest of the words don’t matter. Two more: Matter but not material Correct but not right I’m becoming addicted. . . Hope you have fun with this little brain teaser! What lines can you come up with? Writing Prompt: Choose a line or a photo and write.
Rejection, Dejection, Perfection
Guest blogger Terry Elders writes about rejection, dejection, and perfection. Luck was on my side. My first submission to an anthology, just eight years ago, got accepted by Chicken Soup for the Soul for “Celebrating Brothers and Sisters.” Since then my stories have appeared in well over a hundred books. But I estimate that I’ve averaged five rejections for every acceptance. That’s a success rate of only 20 percent. Perseverance is key. I write for an audience. I’ve known talented writing students say that if they’re ever rejected, they become too discouraged to continue to submit. When I told this to a realtor friend, he laughed. “That’s ridiculous. I get turned down every day. If I stopped showing houses, I’d never make a sale. You smile and move on to the next potential customer.” I agree. I’ve adopted my late husband’s favorite motto, “Never, ever give up.” I keep an…
Tradition . . . Prompt #207
~Tradition~ Quick! What’s the first thing you think when you see the word “tradition?” Write about that. OR: Write about a tradition from your childhood. Write about a tradition you gave up. Write about a tradition you enjoy. Ready? Set your time and write for 15-20 minutes. Just write!