May 29, 2012

Hi friends & writers,

And there went May, and here it is summer again! Long bright days mean more time to write and to fill the corners of the afternoon with sensory overload (the good kind that comes from the actual senses, not from screens).

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PROCESS: THE BUDDY SYSTEM

It is a summer camp staple for keeping track of kids at swim: give each one a buddy and blow the whistle every five minutes. When the kids hear the whistle, they grab their buddies’ hands and hold them up high. If a kid is foundering, their buddy notices. Just like writing.

Try this: Collaborate with a trusted friend for a daily, weekly, or monthly check-in. Try different models, such as sending each other work at the week’s end, or touching base during the day to keep each other accountable. 

FEATURED VENUE: ORION

Like the night-blooming cereus that blooms only once a year for a single night, Orion Magazine accepts submissions for three short openings each year. One of those “blooms” takes place from June 1-16, so here’s what they want: essays, narrative nonfiction, interviews, and short fiction that are resonant with Orion’s focus on nature, culture, and place.

Submission guidelines here: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/mag/guidelines_for_article_submissions/

PROMPT

“Lessons on how to bloom” (8min)

May 22, 2012

Hi friends & writers,

No news to report, just good days and bare legs and downtown sprouting into summer. Keep me posted on your writing triumphs and struggles and ideas …

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PROCESS: WRITE TO PLEASE JUST ONE PERSON

Kurt Vonnegut once advised, “Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.” Likewise, when Haruki Murakami owned a bar before becoming an author, he observed, “If one out of ten was a repeat customer, the business would survive. To put it another way, it didn’t matter if nine out of ten didn’t like my bar.” Forgetting about all of the potential readers who might not like your writing, and thinking instead of the very few who you hope will LOVE it, can be exceptionally freeing.

Try this: Dedicate a piece of writing to a single “you.”

FEATURED VENUE: THE DRUM

The Drum Literary Magazine is to be listened to, not read. It publishes fiction, essays, and interviews exclusively in audio form. Drum seeks “stories that really do tell a story.”

Submission guidelines here: http://www.drumlitmag.com/index.php?page=about&family=submissions

PROMPT

“The last time I wore that feeling” (10min)

May 15, 2012

Hi friends & writers,

I found a neat essay by writer Steve Almond in the New York Times discussing “The Writing Cure” as our culture’s rising therapeutic model. Hope you get some writing done this week and that it makes you feel goooood ….

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PROCESS: MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO

Inspiration comes from bearing witness to great art and being moved to make our own. Great art could be nature; it could be a well-designed building, a book, a museum, a play, a movie, a dance performance. Bringing new forms of art into the mind strikes sparks – and one of those sparks may keep you burning.

Try this: Seek out a work of art and really look at it as an architect looks at a house – with an eye for how it is built and what it can teach.

FEATURED VENUE: FUTURECYCLE PRESS

In the first quarter of each new year, FutureCycle Press publishes an anthology, both in print and ebook formats, combining poems and flash fiction (defined as fiction under 1000 words). Writing sent now will be considered for the 2013 anthology.

Submission guidelines here: http://www.futurecycle.org/FCFlashSection.aspx

PROMPT

“The story behind this scar…” (8min)

May 8, 2012

Hi friends & writers,

Last week three other writers and I hosted a “Spontaneous Writing Room” at the Modern Hotel. People came in, gave us one word, and we filled up a page of writing on that word and gave it back as a gift.

One person offered the word “quixotic” and then left before he could pick up his page. I loved writing about that word. I’ve been thinking about that word ever since, thinking about the beauty it entails: a quixotic thing is unrealistic, impractical – and yet somehow altogether worth doing.

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PROCESS: MAKE YOUR OWN LENT

Though Lent has passed, it’s not too late to give something up and let writing take its place. Consider it an exercise in exchange: give up that third email check of the morning, and replace it with a fifteen-minute free-write.

Try this: Observe your habits. Choose one time-waster that is not strictly necessary and summon the discipline to remove it for a day or a week. Fill the time with specific writing tasks instead. 

FEATURED VENUE: CANARY

Canary, a literary magazine of the environmental crisis, is named for the canary in the coal mine, a primitive warning system used by miners to detect poison gas in the mines; if the canary died, the mines were unsafe. Canary seeks poetry and short prose year round.

Submission guidelines here: http://www.hippocketpress.org/submit_canary.php

PROMPT

“A quixotic idea” (9min)

May 1, 2012

Hi friends & writers,

Happy May Day! Any gloriously pagan ways that you are celebrating?

Wishing good weeks to you all –

e

PROCESS: THE REAL WHY NOT BEHIND CLICHÉS

We hear it all the time – don’t use clichés – but it’s worth stopping to question why not. The reason is because they are boring, and we read in order to bring new experiences, people, knowledge, and ways of being and thinking into our lives. My personal pet peeves include “this game we call life” and “literally almost died.” But they are all, generally, worth avoiding.

Try this: If you are trying to describe a thing and finding yourself tempted to use a cliché, consider this: has the thing already been described as well as it possibly can be? If so – then what new things could you describe instead, or what new ways of looking at that old thing?

FEATURED VENUE: 5-MINUTE MEMOIR

Every month Writers Digest publishes one 5-Minute Memoir, a 600-word personal essay reflecting on the writing life. When emailing submissions, write “5-Minute Memoir” in the subject line.

Send submissions here: wdsubmissions@fwmedia.com

PROMPT

Write about an escape. (9min)