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Power of observation
Who hasn’t felt like they’re drained of writing ideas? I’ve felt this way, maybe a thousand times. One method I like to use to kickstart my creativity is practicing precise observation, aka “paying attention.” It isn’t enough just to be aware of your surroundings—you know what your living room looks like, where the piles of papers are; you’ve memorized the stains on the rug.
Paying attention—precise or mindful observation, whatever you want to call it—involves looking at an object or a scene as if you’ve never seen it before, describing the details in your head. Doing this on a regular basis opens your eyes to thinking anew about everyday objects—a vase, building, street—in ways that open the door to creativity. Try this: as you walk down a familiar street, imagine you are new to the neighborhood and you’re seeing the houses, the yards, the mailboxes for the first time. Keep paying attention in new ways every day. Eventually, your openness will free your mind to welcome creativity.
Don’t write a mere blog post or a diary entry in response. Your creativity deserves an essay—whether it is memoir or a persuasive piece.
Labor Day micro challenge
Also in the U.S., Labor Day is a week away (9/5/16). We’ll be mixing it up over on the fiction|poetry grid by offering a micro challenge, reminiscent of the old days of early 2016. If you’re looking for something new to try or missing our old challenge, make sure you check that out NEXT week. (I’m telling you now so you can cancel your plans and get ready.)
Also, make sure you stay tuned in the coming weeks for announcements regarding our next super challenge. This one will be for all you fictioneers out there so don’t miss out on any updates. Sign up for our mailer today! We promise not to spam you.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Nonfiction know-how is back!
Well, not quite, but soon! Keep an eye out on the first of September for its return. In the meantime, you can always check out our archives if you’re needing a little more inspiration this week. Happy writing!
Want more info?
Is this your first time here? Check out Sunday’s post which kicked off the week here at yeah write. Our email subscribers can also join us in the yeah write coffeehouse at its home on Facebook. If you’ve never taken the time to read them, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with our submission guidelines. The rules are a little different for each of our challenges and we’d hate to have to send back great writing on a technicality.
Did you happen to end up here because you suddenly saw yeah write in your stats? Sometimes members of our community spot excellent writing and they send those posts on over to us. We hope you don’t mind. Take a look around and get to know our community. We’re sure you’ll be happy here.
Have questions you can’t find the answer to by poking around the site? Email us or find us on Facebook and Twitter and we’ll happily help you out.
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How to submit and fully participate in the challenge
Basic yeah write guidelines: 1000 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Sunday; nonfiction personal essay, creative opinion piece or mostly true story based on actual events.
1. In the sidebar of this week’s post, please grab the code beneath the nonfiction 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
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…[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
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