The mind sludge and the don’t-wannas
After a long break to refill my creative wells and fine tune some existing work, I’m starting to shift back into the mindset of generating new writing. Trying to dedicate 30 minutes of writing a day after 32 days of editing, reading, but mostly playing game apps on my tablet is daunting. The words just aren’t coming to me as fast as they did before my break. My plot and character ideas are weathered nomads wandering around my skull before moseying down to my fingertips. TBH, I feel a little like the dinosaur in this picture. I used to start new stories and poetry all the time, but the pencil just feels too big in my hand and my T. Rex arms feel too puny. But I know the more I stick to my daily habit the easier the words will flow. What are your tricks for jumpstarting creativity? How do you overcome the mind sludge and the don’t-wannas?
September Poetry Slam: Sijo
What poem blends the best elements of haiku, sonnet, and ballad? The Korean form called sijo! Busy with back-to-school? Don’t worry. It’s also short! Learn to write a 3-6 line, 40-50 syllable poem – with a twist – in this month’s slam.
Prompt Up!
Prompt Up is our optional weekly writing prompt for the fiction|poetry challenge! Here’s how it works: we choose a sentence prompt from last week’s winning nonfiction post and announce it in the kickoff. It’s your job to use that prompt in your poem or story and then run with it. The prompt is just a springboard, though: feel free to use it as your first sentence, move it, change it, or float it down to other territories.
This week’s prompt up comes from Michelle’s post Promises: I wasn’t my father. I was responsible.
How to submit and fully participate in the challenge:
Basic YeahWrite guidelines: 750 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Sunday; fiction or poetry only.
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; and
5. Consider turning off moderated comments and CAPTCHA on your own blog.
Submissions for this week’s challenges will close on Wednesday at 10pm ET. Voting will then open immediately thereafter and close on Thursday at 10pm ET. The winners, as always, will be celebrated on Friday.
Thank you for sharing with us your hard work! Good luck in the challenge…
Loading InLinkz ...About the author:
As a professional editor and writer, Nate has published his work in numerous English and history textbooks and in online reading programs. In February 2014, he found his way back to creative writing and began submitting to YeahWrite. Soon after, he became an editor of the Fiction|Poetry challenge. You can read his work at northwest journals, a blog that has been recognized by WordPress Discover, Five Star Mix-tape, Genealogy á la Carte, The Drabble, and BlogHer’s Voice of the Year. He lives in Chicago with his partner and a mini-Bengal tiger.
