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Tamer of lions
One of my college writing professors—either the man who styled his hair like Alice from Dilbert or the woman who always wore a bandanna low on her forehead á la Bruce Springsteen circa 1987— made some analogies about writing short stories that have stuck with me. The professor compared a story’s title and opening sentence to circus posters and carnival barkers, respectively. Good titles, like good posters, grab the readers’ attention. Good opening sentences engage them and shove them into their seats to watch the show.
My brain has extended this metaphor and cast me as the lion tamer in this paper circus. When thick in the process of editing, I’ll imagine myself with whip and chair holding back those ferocious words and commanding them to lie next to each other in a row. If I’m lucky they’ll even do a somersault. Sometimes that little visual reminder of who’s actually in charge is all I need to silence them when they roar, you know?
What lions did you tame for us this week? If you find yourself lacking in feral animals there’s always the optional prompt:
What did you find there?
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. Already have a docile lion to entertain us? 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.
Lion Taming 201
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 #222 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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