Prompts

What haunts you? Prompt #284

Sit still for a moment. . . take a few deep breaths. Relax into your chair. For this writing experience, tap into what haunts you. As Rebecca Lawton says in Cool Writing Tips: ” See the detail of the memory with clear eyes and write it down as best you can remember it.” There will be a repeat series of Becca Lawton’s Cool Writing Tips. This will only be available for the month of September, 2016. Sign up now so you don’t miss a single inspirational tip. “Write as if you were dying” features Rebecca Lawton as a guest blogger and highlights one of her Cool Writing Tips. I found her friendly style of writing about writing to be affirming and inspiring. I think you will, too.

Prompts

Magic Carpet Ride . . . Prompt #283

Guest Blogger Becca Lawton’s post “Write As If You Were Dying” got me to thinking about how we spend our days. Most of our days are filled with things we have to do, accomplishing what needs to get done to pay bills, buy food, do the laundry, chores, clean whatever needs cleaning, and so on. What if, one day next week you could do anything you want. What would it be? This is different from  Prompt #164, “Write About A Perfect Day” where money and restrictions are not a factor. For this writing, be realistic, what could you do in a day that would be fun and something you could afford? This might be challenging for you . . . all the more reason to make the effort to sit down and Just Write. Okay, so what if that type of writing sounds like no fun at all and you…

Guest Bloggers

Write as if you were dying

What would you write if you knew you would die soon? Today’s Guest Blogger, Rebecca Lawton, took the plunge and explored what it means for our work to be “so essential that we must complete it before we leave this earth.” Becca’s Cool Writing Tips during the month of August were such a success, she’s repeating the series in September. So, if you missed out in August, you have another chance to be inspired by Becca Lawton’s Cool Writing Tips. Becca opened the second week of Cool Writing Tips with this provocative quote from Annie Dillard: Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What would you write if you knew you would die soon? Becca responds as if she were having an intimate conversation with Annie: Ms. Dillard, I’m so…

Places to submit

Scarlet Tanager: Submit poetry for anthology

Do you want your poetry to be part of an anthology? Submit to Scarlet Tanager to be considered for their anthology about California species, habitats, and geography, as well as historical, emotional, spiritual, political, aesthetic, or philosophical content. Scarlet Tanager is looking for poems that “go beyond simple description of place.” From their Submissions Page: The anthology will include poems on the coast and ocean, redwood forests, deserts, rivers, oak woodlands, grasslands, valley, chaparral, foothills, and mountains. Poems on urban environments welcome too! The aim is to celebrate California’s landscapes and also to document destruction and change. All forms and styles of poetry are welcome, as long as they focus on California. You do not need to live in California to submit. Please click on Scarlet Tanager Submissions for details on how to submit.

Prompts

Saved . . . Prompt #281

Write about saving a life.  Someone’s life you saved, or someone who saved your life. The save could be literal: CPR was performed, pulled from water, put out a fire, rescued from a snarling animal or a threatening situation. The save could be inspirational: Something read in a book, a magazine, a placard, a wall hanging; a mental shift; a realization; an epiphany; something that was said; a behavior change; a belief change. You get the idea . . . Saved. However you interpret this. Just write!

Prompts

Food For Thought . . . Prompt #280

A friend delivered a gift wrapped in black and white paper with sayings on canning jars. Today’s prompts are inspired from that gift wrapping paper. Choose one to write about. Or choose several: Food for thought. Foodies are the best people. Season everything with Love. Just beet it. Stay hungry – Stay foolish! Eat. Drink. And be amazing. Eat more greens. Farm to table & table to soul.

Places to submit

The Louisville Review

From its founding in 1976, The Louisville Review has “fostered the development of new writers. Each poem and story submitted to TLR is judged entirely on its own merit.” In 1996, to celebrate twenty years of continuous magazine publication, the Fleur-de-Lis Press was launched. To date, eighteen books have been published. Brief Guidelines – please click on Submissions for full guidelines. TLR accepts unsolicited submissions of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and drama year round. All work must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. All submissions are considered based on quality of writing above all else. Fiction and Nonfiction Prose submissions should be double-spaced and page numbered. While we do not have a set word limit, please know that our editors are less likely to choose longer pieces simply because it leaves less room in the journal for other work. Poetry    Poetry (up to 5 poems) need not be double-spaced. If submitting online, please be sure all…

Prompts

This dream of mine. Prompt #279

Write about a dream you have or have had. Could be a night time dream. A day dream. A dream of something you long for. Turn your dream into a poem: haiku, pantoum, or any form of short piece that works for you. Share your dreams. Writing them, posting them, might help shed light on questions you have. Giving your dreams “air” . . . letting them see the light of day might help manifest them. Go for it. Just write!

Guest Bloggers

Rubbing Aladdin’s Lamp

“The past,” Phillip Lopate says, “is an Aladdin’s lamp we never tire of rubbing.” Guest Blogger Norma Watkins studied with Phillip Lopate. The following is what she gleaned working with the master of the personal essay. The hallmark of personal essay and memoir is its intimacy. [Links below on memoir writing.] In a personal essay, the writer seems to be speaking directly into the reader’s ear, confiding everything from gossip to wisdom: thoughts, memories, desires, complaints, whimsies. The core of this kind of writing is the understanding that there is a certain unity to human experience. As Montaigne put it, “Every man has within himself the entire human condition.” This kind of informal writing, whether a short piece or a book of memoir, is characterized by: self-revelation individual tastes and experiences a confidential manner humor a graceful style rambling structure unconventionality novelty of theme freshness of form freedom from stiffness…