Talking Writing features stories, poetry and first-person journalism. Talking Writing is a nonprofit literary site that features essays, first-person journalism, and poetry. New material is published weekly, focusing on provocative themes. ” Great writing makes us want to sing or shout or argue, and TW’s innovative format opens virtual doors to readers and writers everywhere. As the publishing industry continues to transform itself online, Talking Writing exemplifies why luminous stories and well-executed journalism matter more than ever.” Talking Writing magazine publishes four issues a year—Fall, Holiday, Winter, and Spring. Submission deadlines for upcoming themes can be found in TW’s Editorial Calendar. Holiday 2015 – Writing and Faith Submission Deadline: September 14, 2015 How do you tackle life’s Big Questions? During the holiday season, our annual faith issue will examine why writing is such a powerful tool for soul searching, creating meaning, and defining one’s spiritual beliefs.
Author: mcullen
Marlene Cullen is enthusiastic about encouraging people to write, even those who think they can’t write. Her series of books, The Write Spot anthologies, features writing that entertains as well as inspires writing. Every story, vignette, and poem in The Write Spot books include writing prompts motivating readers to become writers.
Marlene hosts The Write Spot Blog, a treasure chest of inspirational gems for writers.
Fulfilling her passion for writing and sharing with others, Marlene has created unique writing environments such as Jumpstart Writing Workshops, where participants often experience transformational changes. Her workshops provide essential elements for successful writing.
Marlene is the founder of Writers Forum of Petaluma, a monthly literary event featuring presenters talking about the craft and business of writing.
Marlene's awarding winning short stories and essays have been published in literary journals, anthologies, and newspapers, including Tiny Lights, Building Bridges, More Bridges, Redwood Writers anthologies, and The Write Spot anthologies.
She is a member of the California Writer's Club.
What if? Prompt #178
What if you start from reality and then use “worst case scenario” to do some writing? Here’s how it could work: Recall a time when you desperately wanted something. Could be a good grade on a test, or a good health check-up, or the biopsy comes back negative, or a divorce, or the cute guy/girl to notice you, or a good job, or any job. Just choose a moment when you really wanted something. Now, shift . . . as you write about this desire, this longing. . . the narrator becomes a character in a story. We’re no longer talking about “you.” We’re focusing on A Character Who Wants Something. Next, as you write, throw in some curve balls, some roadblocks. Give that character an obstacle to overcome. . . the worst case scenario. What is the worst thing that could happen? For example, the character fails an important…
Guest Blogger Daniel Ari: Sense And Specificity . . .
Guest Blogger Daniel Ari writes about Sense And Specificity: The Soul of Great Writing Great art is about balance. Okay, great art is about a heck of a lot of things. But one thing that makes great writing stand out from the superfluity of all writing is that it strikes a balance between emotional abstraction and concrete specificity. We want to read about things like devotion, honor and transformation. But the actual words devotion, honor and transformation aren’t concrete enough to sweep a reader away. As I discussed in “How to Make Your Poems Stand Out: Advice From a Reader” for Writer’s Digest online, abstract nouns can’t be grabbed, and they don’t grab readers. And what’s worse, they tend to come in flocks. Once a writer writes honor, then love and respect want to come in. Then deep, forever, and mutual are at the door, having chased away all the beautiful…
Write a note . . . Prompt #177
Today’s writing prompt: Write a note to someone alive or not, to someone currently in your life or from your past. Start with one of these lines: I forgive you . . . I love you . . . I will always remember . . . This is a note you may or may never send. You can write about something that happened to you, something that happened to someone else or write from your fictional character’s point of view. You can also write to a “thing” . . . to a body part, to something mechanical, to any Thing that was meaningful. Just write.
Start at the height of desire — David Lavender
Many of us have heard “start your story in the middle of the action, or the height of the conflict.” David Lavender suggests “start at the height of desire.” “You need not worry about being dull if you can present within the first few hundred words a definite character in the grip of a definite emotion.” “But introducing a character and his motives to an audience must be done deftly and without explanation. For example, if setting up a boy-loves-girl story, Lavender says, ‘I must show the boy immediately engaged in wanting the girl. I must do it with unobtrusive little touches. I must bring it out through the way he acts and what he says, being at all times careful not to let the reader guess that he is having something explained to him.’” — Nicki Porter, August 2015 The Writer magazine
Sensory Detail – Sound
I cranked up the music to prepare this post and was reminded of the sixties and seventies when I worked downtown San Francisco Monday through Friday. Saturdays were house cleaning days. I centered my Swan Lake record on the turntable and turned up the volume. By the time I was dusting and cleaning downstairs, I was rocking to West Side Story. To finish, I blasted Hair. Odd combinations, I know. But they worked for me . . . a satisfying way to completely clean the house and do laundry. Sound. . . how do we incorporate sound in our writing? But first, why do we want to use sensory detail in our writing? Sound can evoke strong memories: screeching tires, whining four-year-old, grinding gears when learning to drive a stick shift, songs from our teenage years, wedding songs, hymns, sing-song rhymes. When we employ sound in our writing, we transform…
Foliate Oak Literary Magazine wants quirky writing . . .
Foliate Oak Literary Magazine wants quirky writing . . . We love previously unpublished quirky writing that makes sense, preferably flash fiction (less than 1000 words). We are eager to read short creative nonfiction also. We rarely accept submissions that have over 2700 words. We enjoy poems that we understand, preferably not rhyming poems, unless you make the rhyme so fascinating we’ll wonder why we ever said anything about avoiding rhymes. Give us something fresh, unexpected, and will make us say, “Wow!” We are always interested in publishing intriguing photography, artwork, and graphic (you know, comics) literature. Send all artwork as jpg or gif. Always include a short (less than 50 words) third person bio. Submission Period: August 1 – April 24 We are unable to pay for work. If the work we have posted is later used in another magazine, we ask that you credit Foliate Oak for first…
Random word freewrite, using sensory detail . . . Prompt #176
Use these words in your freewrite: cook, chant, winter, smear, blue. Try to incorporate sensory detail. You know the five senses: see, hear, feel, smell, taste . . . and that elusive sixth sense. The sixth sense is known by various perceptions: common sense, telepathy, intuition, imagination, psychic ability and proprioception (the ability to sense stimuli arising within the body regarding position, motion, and equilibrium). Proprioception is further intriguing with this definition: The unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself. In humans, these stimuli are detected by nerves within the body itself, as well as by the semicircular canals of the inner ear. Example of proprioception: Right now I know my ankles are crossed under my blankets. (Thank you, Kathy, for this example). Wikipedia definition of sixth sense: a supposed intuitive faculty giving awareness not explicable in terms of normal perception. “Some sixth…
Guest Blogger Alison Luterman writes about the “shadow”
Guest Blogger Alison Luterman talks about “how to be true to the complexity of intimate relationships, while at the same time protecting the dignity of all concerned.” The other night in essay class, a student read her story aloud. Behind her moving account of her mother’s death, I could sense something missing. “I can tell from your description what a wonderful woman she was, ” I said. “But there are hints here and there about things that might have been difficult as well.” “Yes, that’s true,” she admitted. “We got into some tangles, but I didn’t know how to write about that part. Maybe I wasn’t ready.” I knew exactly what she meant. I also struggle with how to be true to the complexity of intimate relationships, while at the same time protecting the dignity of all concerned. I don’t have any one-size-fits-all answer. I just know that the weight…
The Sadness of Ice Cream . . . . Prompt #175
Today’s writing prompt is a poem. You can write on the theme or mood of the poem, or a line, or a word. Write whatever comes up for you. The Sadness of Ice Cream by Ron Salisbury The emperor had his and I’ve had mine, home churned on the fourth of July, spoon after spoon after she called, gelato in Ravenna, Neapolitan–chocolate was the best– pints, bars, Liz Topps said next summer let’s eat lots, plopped a spoonful of Rocky Road on her bare belly. No more, my doctor says. Cholesterol, blood pressure. Besides, right at the beginning, first cone, bite, spoonful licked off the belly, we begin to measure how much is left not how much there was. The sadness of ice cream. Ron Salisbury is a writer who has integrated his poetry with his business life for decades. Now, three wives deep, four children long, and assorted careers…