✍️ I haven't Been Writing...
Salaam friends,
I haven't been writing. This is hard to admit because I'm the person with categorized checklists, multiple calendars, and reminder apps. My lack of writing has very little to do with finding the time and place to write. I have often wrote during the busiest periods of my life. I think it has something to do with not having a story to write. At least that's what I have been telling myself.
But we are full of stories.
Even though I haven't been writing, my writer's mind will not let me be. Every time I have a conversation with my mom, an uncle, or my wife, my brain notes things I should write about. Like the story of my mom swimming in her village's river, which she retold me on my last visit. There was a detail there I hadn't noticed until that day. She always went to swim alone, for fear that her siblings or cousins would tell her mom, who didn't like her daughters swimming in the open. The question that circled around my head was, "What if a villager saw her and told her mom? What would have happened?" Details like these would stay in my mind for days until they faded out. My mistake is that I didn't take advantage of their inspiration to write my mind onto the page— until earlier this week.
I sat down, set my timer for 10 minutes, and began to write. The first thing that came to my mind wasn't my mom's story, although I had wanted to write it. Instead, it was a frustration my wife had shared with me from her last visit to her doctor. When the timer went off, I stopped writing and closed the computer. The next day, I wrote for another 10 minutes.
Lesson: All it takes to write is to sit down and wait for all the voices to quiet down and began typing. What it takes to write stories that make people read is an endless cycle of editing (more on that later).
📖 Writing Prompt
Exercise: Characters and Ways of Seeing
Title: Ways of Seeing
Imagine a person with an idiosyncratic way of seeing the world (for instance, an occasional drug dealer who, because of amateur status, is more than usually prone to seeing danger where is none; an entomologist who tends to categorize the world dryly, as if seen through a microscope; a world-class athlete in top shape whose clarity of vision is almost hallucinogenic). Have this character witness a traumatic event that does not directly involve her/him. Narrative the event from a first-person POV, making sure that the perspective is carefully built around the idiosyncrasies of this personality. 600 words.
Source: The 3 A.M. Epiphany* by Brian Kiteley
🔎 Word of the week
Bolster (vb):to support with; reinforce
Bolster (n): a long pillow or cushion
Source: The Merriam-Webster Dictionary
📨 Where to submit
The McNeese Review is now open for submissions. This is the
Open Period: June 1 - August 31
Submission Fee: $3
Word limit: Short fiction up to 6,000 words or flash fiction of no more than three pieces, under 1,000 words each in a single file (They only accept one submission per writer per open reading period).
Good luck!
🔖 Quote to ponder
"Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating
— John Cleese
Source: Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon
A question to consider❓
What is excuse I tell myself that comes between me and my writing, and how can I deal with it?
📸 Through My Lens
