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.
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 All work must be previously unpublished.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…
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!
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…
33 Ideas You Can Use for Sensory Starts Prompt #278
I bet you have heard “Show. Don’t tell.” What does that mean? And how does one do it? Answer: Sensory detail. As described in Imagery and Sensory Detail ala Adair Lara Prompt #277: Make a list of images Expand into sentences Use sensory detail Not interested in making a list? You are welcome to use any of the 33 ideas listed below to start sensory writing. Or just look around, choose items within your view, and write, using sensory detail, of course. Scroll to bottom of this post for links about using sensory detail in writing. Expand these images into full sentences, using sensory detail. Write as if you had to describe these visions to someone who has never seen or experienced these things. What do these things look like? How do they sound, taste, feel, smell? Answer these questions and that’s using sensory detail in writing. Write a sentence…
InfectiveInk wants you to have fun and submit.
Do you have a snippet of writing, more than one snippet, longer than a snippet? And you just want to submit somewhere. InfectiveInk.com may be the answer. InfectiveInk: “Instead of focusing on genre or style, we inspect themes and universes . . . all based on the same prompt.” “A haunted house doesn’t have to be a horror story, in fact a haunted house could simply refer to a memory or a family that has endured a tragedy. Zombie tales can be hilarious, and the word ‘zombie’ could refer to any number of things. Mysteries can find their way into any situation. Be creative, push your boundaries, have fun, write great stories.” “Write to the prompt and HAVE FUN!” Please read Submissions Guidelines and Author Agreement. 2016 PROMPTS: Submit by July 28, 2016: Little mistakes, big trouble We all make mistakes, usually small, and usually inconsequential, but sometimes those little things lead to surprising and…
Imagery and sensory detail ala Adair Lara Prompt #277
“Write five images every day, for seven days, using as many of the senses as possible.”— Adair Lara From Adair’s book, Naked, Drunk, and Writing: “Writing is turning your thoughts, abstractions, generalizations, and opinions back into the experiences you got them from.” Adair’s example: “Not ‘women my age become invisible,’ but ‘they handed drinks around and forgot me, again.’” Using imagery involves the details about what happened. Show what happened so that readers can see the scene, hear the sounds, feel the sensations, taste the elements, and smell the aroma. Adair advises, “. . . every time you write a sentence, ask yourself, How can I show this? Try to get image and detail into every sentence. ” Tidbits from Chapter Six, Using Images and Details: “We want experience, not information. ‘Joan was distressed’ is information. ‘Joan looked away’ is an image. The reader notices Joan looking away, and has…
Vegetables – Not Just For Eating . . . Prompt # 276
What are vegetables good for, besides eating? Some gardens are bursting right about now with zucchini, green beans, summer squash, cucumbers, yellow squash, kale, rhubarb, patty pan squash, lettuce, have I mentioned squash? Here in northern California, growing squash is easy and so abundant that we don’t leave our car doors unlocked, or we might find a bushel of zucchini on the seat. Write about other things that vegetables can do. Inspired from Adair Lara‘s writing workshop. Write about new uses for vegetables.
Grist, The Journal For Writers
From the Grist Website: Grist seeks high quality submissions from both emerging and established writers. We publish craft essays and interviews as well as fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—and we want to see your best work, regardless of form, style, or subject matter. We read between June 15th and September 15th. Please note that we do not accept snail mail submissions. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable as long as we are immediately notified if the piece has been accepted elsewhere. Please do not mix genres in the same submission. We do not consider previously published work. Our submission fee (waived for current and new subscribers) is $4 for three to five poems, for one work of fiction up to 5,000 words, or for one work of non-fiction up to 5,000 words. The bulk of our reading fee goes to paying our writers; the rest covers our Submittable fees and a portion of our print…
I just don’t feel like it. Prompt #275
Write about something you do not want to do. Will you end up doing it anyway? Will you be bitter, annoyed, resentful? Will you do it with grace, composure? Or will you rant and rave the whole time? Maybe you just won’t do it. Maybe it’s too silly to even think about. Or too petty, not worth your time. Write . . . just write about something you don’t want to do.