Search Results for: 131

Flesh out your characters. Prompt #131

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You can use this prompt for fleshing out your fictional characters or for characters in your memoir. In works of fiction, we think of characters. When writing memoir, we think real people. But, when you write about real people, they become characters in a story. With this prompt, you can create character profiles for the real people in your life and for your fictional characters. Prompt: Make a three-column list. Label the first column “What I know,” the second, “How I know it” and the third, “How I show it.” First column – create a list with one or two-word descriptions about the character. Second column – write down how you know the particular characteristics. For example, if the person is known to be cheap, in column 2, you could write, “brings own teabags to restaurants.” Or, “carefully saves paper bags for lunch, been using the same bag for six…

The Big Windows Review

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The Big Windows Review is the literary magazine of the Writing Center at Washtenaw Community College (WCC), in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “We post a new poem or piece of short prose on the site every Tuesday and Friday. Then, four times a year, we’ll bundle up those poems and prose pieces to make a free digital issue of The Big Windows Review.” Thanks to Dave Seter for letting me know about this. Dave’s writing, “Weightless Hitchhiker” was published in the April 5, 2024 issue of The Big Windows Review.

Beyond Words: A Different Literary Magazine

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Beyond Words Magazine features literary works with beautiful visual art from creatives around the globe. “We offer a warm and welcoming stage for emerging writers and visual artists. We encourage diverse voices from different cultures and backgrounds. Share your works with us!” Beyond Words accepts submissions of short stories (up to 1000 words), poems and visual art. Thanks to Rebecca Evans for letting me know about Beyond Words. Her writing will appear in the May 2024 issue.

Why Follow Submission Guidelines?

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Guest Blogger Tish Davidson writes: Don’t Sabotage Your Submissions What is the first thing you do when you cook a new recipe? Read the directions to determine if you have the necessary ingredients. What is the first thing you do when you assemble a piece of Ikea furniture? Read the directions. So why do so many writers seem unable to read and follow the directions when submitting to a journal or contest? I’ve judged a lot of writing from independently published books to high school writing contests. I was an editor of the 2019 CWC Literary Review with responsibility submission intake as well as judging. What I’ve learned is how few supposedly literate people read and follow the submission directions. Maybe because they are called “guidelines” people consider them optional. Or perhaps the requirements seem overly picky or silly. Take fonts. Why use Courier as requested when your work will…

It’s All Grist for the Mill: Weathering the Ups and Downs of the Creative Life

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Photo Credit: Erin VonRuden Guest Blogger Mary Kole writes about the creative journey: As much as I wish this wasn’t the case, the creative life is full of ebbs and flows, highs and lows, and any other image you want to ascribe to the push and pull of the artistic temperament. Whether you admit or not, you are a writer, a creative, and an artist, whatever that means to you. If you find yourself grappling with writer’s block or struggling to reignite your passion for writing, fear not. This is perfectly normal, and every writer faces these challenges at some point in their creative journey. And it is a journey. Some writers are only interested in publication, and I can absolutely see where they’re coming from. But they will be in for a long and disappointing ride if they can’t derive pleasure, satisfaction, and fulfillment from the act of writing…

The 7 Secrets of Essential Speaking

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“The 7 Secrets to Essential Speaking: Find Your Voice, Change Your Life,” by Dr. Doreen Downing Review by Lee Glickstein This is the definitive book for solving public speaking anxiety. Most every book about getting over public speaking anxiety comes down to performance techniques, some version of “fake it till you make it.” But this only works for people who have a capacity for faking. The rest of us need an organic way through that gently taps into our essential authenticity. Step by step, Dr. Doreen Downing lights up that path with easy-to-read clarity, compassion, and emotionally intelligent insights. Lee Glickstein is founder of Speaking Circles International and author of “Be Heard Now! Tap Into Your Inner Speaker and Communicate with Ease.” He works with clients ranging from professional communicators to “non-speakers” with severe stage fright, and is committed to facilitating ease, power and effectiveness for anyone who needs to or…

What if we could change the past? . . . Prompt #671

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What if we could change the past? According to Sam Keen and Anne Valley-Fox, in “Your Mythic Journey,”  we can change the past simply by retelling it differently than we usually do. “The past is open to revision because memory is a function of present intention. You can turn your story over (and over) and find new perspectives on past events and emotions.” —Sam Keen Think about some stories you have told over and over again. It could be a little thing or a big thing. It could be something that happened a long time ago, or recently. It can be repetitive thoughts you have. Choose one story or one repetitive thought. In your mind, “see” that story you have been telling and re-telling. Pause, while you choose a story. See this scene as if you are looking at a wide screen. You can see everything in this scene. Where…

Children of the Decree

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Children of the Decree: A Journalist’s Battle to Save Romanian Children and Herself by Maria D. Holderman. Review by Janis Couvreux Many of us remember the children’s adoption scandal in Romania of the late 1990s. Thanks to the dogged efforts of journalist Maria Holderman, this scandal came to light. However, this is only a fraction of her story, as Maria sorts through the social, political, and ideological events and issues of Romania’s Communist regime during her childhood and the post-1989 Communist bloc break-up. Through her personal story that intertwines with a 40-year timeline, Maria reveals how she became passionately involved in seeking and bringing about changes through her investigative journalism. Then suddenly it all comes to an abrupt halt. Like a cat’s nine lives, Maria has lived several as well, vanquishing tragedy to fall back on her feet. This is a story of a remarkable woman told through her own…