Imagine a room full of people, they are looking at a speaker behind a podium. They want to know more about the topic. In a way, they want to be entertained, even though it’s a somber occasion. They are talking about you . . . in the past tense. Who knows more about you than you? Who best to talk about the essence of you, than you? For today’s prompt, write about you. Provide enough information so the reader or the person in that room has a view of your life. Write about high points, achievements, life markers. Write about what is important to you. You can make a list in chronological order of events that have shaped you. You can look up various years and discover what historical events took place in particular years. Write what your life was like during those historical events. Did they affect you? Today’s…
Got a short-short? WriterAdvice wants your story.
WriterAdvice seeks flash fiction, memoir, and creative non-fiction running 750 words or less. Enlighten, dazzle, and delight us. Finalists receive responses from all judges. First prize is $200. Submit to the 9th WriterAdvice Flash Prose Contest by April 18, 2014. Complete details at www.writeradvice.com.
Transforming Depression Into My Writer’s Muse — by Teresa LeYung-Ryan
Transforming Depression Into My Writer’s Muse — by Teresa LeYung-Ryan What do I have to be depressed about? I am blessed with friends, writing colleagues, housemates, spouse, family members, coworkers, a half-time day job, health insurance, my intellectual properties . . . and what friends call a sense of humor. But I don’t feel like laughing in my condition, maybe later. I may have inherited the depression gene (or genes) from my loving mother. While I sympathized with my mother’s illness (my novel Love Made of Heart was inspired by her), it would take experiencing the illness myself before I could gain empathy. Poor health of the physical nature (especially with overt symptoms) alerts us to seek help; poor health of the mental nature (especially the first occurrence) usually has no clear signals. Depression snuck up on me, in my forties. The symptoms didn’t look like my mom’s. I had…
How to go for the gold.
What percentage of being an Olympic champion would you attribute to hard work versus natural talent? Kristi Yamaguchi answers: “I think it’s drive over talent for sure. I was not the quickest learner. When I was 7, my mom said, ‘You need to work harder because everyone else is learning faster than you.’ Skating taught me to have a work ethic—in order to improve, you have to put the time in.” Quote from Parade magazine, January 19, 2014. Same with writing, right? You know the drill . . . butt in chair. Warm up with a freewrite, using a prompt. Then keep going. Just write.
What trolley did you get on? Prompt #43
When using prompts for writing, you can answer from your personal experience, or from your fictional or real character’s point of view. Feel free to let your imagination meander. If you only know where the trolley you got on would take you . . . What trolley did you get on, and where did it take you? What other trolleys were running then? What if you had taken one of them? Not had kids, had kids, chose to live on the Atlantic instead of Pacific, gave up art or gave up law, married him/her or didn’t. Tell us about your trolley. Prompt: What trolley did you get on?
Are there rules for essay writing?
Pat Olsen has written an excellent article about writing personal essay in the December 2013 issue of The Writer magazine. Highlights: “. . . when I am so obsessed about an idea that I can’t wait to put pen to paper, the essay almost writes itself. That’s not so say I don’t struggle over every word, or that I’m done after the first draft . . . Some of the best advice I’ve received is that it’s not only what you choose to include in an essay that’s important, but it’s also what you choose to omit.” She gives an example and then goes on to ask: “Are there actual rules for essay writing? If so, not all writers agree on them.” After consulting essayists, here’s what she discovered: Kate Walter: “‘An essay should have a universal theme . . . No matter how unusual a story may seem,’ she…
I stand on the edge of . . . Prompt #42
When using the freewrite style of writing . . . write freely with no worries about the end result. The editor that sits on your shoulder, the inner critic. . . out the door. Give ’em the boot. Not invited to this party. It’s not about the writing . . . it’s about the process. The process of letting go. Trust yourself. Go with your imagination. Go with what’s on your mind. Today’s writing prompt: I stand on the edge of . . .
Phantom Drift accepting submissions.
Phantom Drift accepting submissions Jan. 1 – March 31. Fiction: Looking for fabulist flash fiction and short stories: stories that favor the unusual over the usual; stories that create a milieu where anything can happen. Poetry: Prefer poetry composed in the new fabulist tradition: that shatters or valuably distorts reality, whether this means surrealism, magical realism, fantastique, or bizarrerie. Non-fiction: Looking for essays on New Fabulism (or the range of imaginative literature generally referred to as slipstream, new weird, magic realism, fabulist and cross-genre fantastic literature difficult to categorize). Art: Looking for fabulist art for cover and for b/w interior. We are not looking for realist or abstract art. Please acquaint yourself with surrealists and artists of the fantastic. Artwork may be based on myths or dreams or purely imagined, but must complement the range of literature we seek
Guest blogger Victoria Zackheim, “If we want to live full and creative lives . . . “
Guest Blogger Victoria Zackheim writes: How many of us are beset by that nagging voice that tells us we’re not good enough, not thin enough, not smart, tall, educated, talented enough? I don’t know about you, but I face this every day. It used to run my life . . . now it’s a tiny slice of annoyance that I can easily push away. It took years—decades, to be honest—but those demons are silenced. When they try to reappear, they’re quickly vanquished. Not dead and gone, but shoved aside where they can do no harm. It wasn’t always like that . . . and for many women, and those of us who spend our lives not only writing, but putting our words into the world for everyone to read . . . and judge . . . fear is often the rule, whereas a sense of security is the exception….
The only way to get better at something is to do it.
Ray Engan, winner of the 2013 Toastmaster International Speech contest for District 57 (Northern California) says, “Everybody in this world has a story to tell and they should share their stories.” Engan believes we learn how to overcome adversity when we share our stories. Engan had to overcome his fear of public speaking. One of the people he met in Toastmasters, Darren La Croix, said something that inspired Engan, “The only way to get better at something is to do it.” So, what are you waiting for? Write that story that’s been simmering on the back burner. Just write! Ray Engan is a humorist, sales trainer and executive speech coach whose lively stories can be heard every month at West Side Stories Petaluma. Ray will be giving a seminar to add humor to presentations and your life in Petaluma, CA. Details soon on his website.