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Empathic connections
“Obviously I don’t know how it feels to be a feral child, but I know how it feels to be an outsider, to want to be something you’re not, to be uncomfortable in your own skin. You just have to use that autobiographic thread as a rope— and then you can fill in anything.” ~Porochista Khakpour
I took a writing course on backstory last week. There were 15 of us sitting around several tables arranged in a quadrangle. I was having a hard time focusing on the conversation. The room was stuffy. The woman next to me kept fanning herself with her legal pad, causing a rhythm of yellow flashes in my periphery. The facilitator had to leave to ask permission to open the windows.
Eventually, the facilitator read quotes about backstory aloud. My attention latched on to a quote from the author of Sons and Other Flammable Objects. The author was talking about her belief that authors can write about anything as long as they make a personal connection to something they’ve experienced in their life. She called it an “empathic connection.”
I’ve always been told to “write what I know,” so this transitive idea of emotions unlocked some doors for me. It gave me permission to write from a parent’s perspective; I have loved someone in a fatherly way. It gave me permission to write as a murderer; I have felt the repercussions of rage.
Are there any niggling stories you’ve been afraid to write because you doubted your credibility? Let her rip. We’re listening. We even have an optional prompt to get you started:
How hot is it?
The optional prompt can serve as inspiration for your fiction or poetry. Use the question, word for word, in your story or poem, or just answer the question. Is grandma keeping an ice pack under her muumuu? Or are you wrapping your kids up in six layers of fleece? We want to know. Already have a different story thought up? No problem! Use the prompt only if you need it.
We’ve gone unmoderated for the summer months. That doesn’t make it a free-for-all, as posts still need to meet the minimum guidelines listed below, but it does give you some more room to get creative.
Icarus gave up too quickly
Looking for a challenge? We’ve got many options to choose from. Here’s a list of all of the poetry slams and focus on fiction features so far. Feel free to revisit a fiction genre or poetry form you enjoyed, or catch up on something you missed the first time around. Still drawing a blank? You can also find writing exercises in the coffeehouse to get things started.
Is this your first time here?
Check out Sunday’s post which kicked off the week here at yeah write. If you don’t think you can remember to check back every Sunday, sign up for our email blasts. We send them directly to your inbox. No fuss!
Yeah write #221 fiction|poetry writing challenge is open for submissions!
Basic yeah write guidelines: 750 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Sunday; fiction or poetry only.
How to submit and fully participate in the challenge:
1. In the sidebar of this week’s post, please grab the code beneath the fiction|poetry badge and paste it into the HTML view of your entry
2. Follow the Inlinkz instructions after clicking “add your link” to upload your entry to this week’s challenge grid
3. Your entry should appear immediately on the grid if you don’t receive an error message
4. Please make the rounds to read all the entries in this week’s challenge
5. Consider turning off moderated comments and CAPTCHA on your own blog
This summer, all our grids are unmoderated which means submissions meeting the basic guidelines will be published Thursday on yeah write. Those entries will be open to a popular vote with the winner celebrated on Friday.
Thank you for sharing with us your hard work! Good luck in the challenge…
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