Writing prompt 7

Today's post contains both this week's writing prompt and my first ROW80 Round 3 check-in.

Prompt:
Uncomfortable truths

This can work as a warm-up equally well for fiction, creative non-fiction, or poetry. If you're writing fiction, try making a list of uncomfortable truths from the perspective of one of your characters. They can even be things that the character is not conscious of. If creative non-fiction or poetry, it would be from your own perspective.

I recommend just freewriting for five or ten minutes. Don't think about what you're writing down; just write anything that comes to you, regardless of whether it makes sense or whether you think it's true. Some of my favorite things I've written have come to me this way.

ROW80 Check-in

Yesterday (July 1) was the first day of Round 3. I have to admit, I've been a bit busy, but I'm looking over my goals now and making some adjustments as I realize what a crazy-pants I am in the goals department. Even my revised goals might be too ambitious; we shall see.

1. Continue: going to readings, writing monthly VoiceCatcher articles, doing monthly author interviews on this site (did you see the June 30 interview with self-published romance author Zoey Derrick?), and posting writing prompts on this blog on Wednesdays.

2. Do a minimum of fourteen ten 30-minute writing sprints (total seven five hours) each week. As I mentioned in this post, the 30-minute sprint seems to be working really well for me so long as I have the intention of just showing up to writing for that time rather than trying to get a particular word count. The other key to this goal is not saying, for example, that I'll do two sprints a day because I need some flexibility. Might be that I can do three hours one day and none the next.

3. Research places to publish. Goal is to write a blog post on one market (i.e. journal, magazine, or website) each week that includes my notes on their submission guidelines, whether or not they pay, the quality and style of work they publish, etc. In order to do that I'll have to read an issue of the market. The reason I want to do blog posts is so that a) I have a record, and b) I can share what I learn with you in hopes that it helps you, too. [Note: I think once a week is overly ambitious, but I'm going to leave it. If I end up doing even one a month I'll be happy, but maybe this way I'll do more.]

4. Learn more about traditional book/chapbook publishing. I know people who know publishers, so I'll see if I can set up some informational interviews. Aim for 3 informational interviews during this round. I'm particularly interested in understanding the services they offer, who does the work, what they expect/want from their authors, etc. Perhaps will post interviews on this blog? What do you think - would that be useful to you?

5. Read/comment on at least five other ROW80-ers posts each week.

What are your writing-related goals for this next quarter? What do you want to learn about and/or practice to grow your writing?


This is a blog hop! Click here to read the other ROW80 participants' check-ins.