Writer Focus

Advice on Basement Living and a Hot Time in the Kitchen

New writer spotlight and update on June writing challenges

What catches your eye in a story and has you reading until the end? That simple question has a complex answer, and there are plenty of writing tip articles on the Medium platform to help you create that story that everyone is going to want to read.

This article isn’t one of those. Instead it is a spotlight on some of the writers that are brand new to the Illumination Publication.

Each day in June I hope to feature a few articles from writers that have just recently been added to the publication. I am doing this because I want to make a point of welcoming and getting acquainted with the new writers, and doing a feature allows me to read some of their work and pick items that catch my eye each day.

I don’t have any particular criteria for who I chose, except that I will tend to focus on writers who have a lower follower count than higher. I am hoping that by highlighting one of their articles they will get a few extra eyes on their writing and perhaps gain a few fans that otherwise might not have seen their work.

I realize that many folks might be accomplished writers, but new to Medium. Or, they might be new to writing entirely. Hopefully shortly after joining Illumination they will submit an author bio so we can get to know them better and they can be added here:

But until then, my aim is to choose a handful of writers from the ranks of the newly added to Illumination and highlight one of their articles. Then I will have an ask of them afterward (Hint: I will ask that they pay it forward by doing the same thing for other writers).

Also, in this series I would like to keep a running list of any writing challenges going on in and around Illumination. That list will follow the feature articles below.

So, without further ado:

New Writer Spotlight

Our first article today comes from Kris Freeman and ponders the question of why we sometimes don’t allow ourselves to be satisfied with where we are in life.

Kris makes a good argument for how we can be happy accepting what we have. She opines that, “Most of the time it seems that you have to find out what you don’t want in order to know what you do want”. Read more of her insight here:

Next is a finger lickin’ good story from Lindsay Brown who relates a tale behind the scenes at a major fried chicken joint.

It is a pretty hot and spicy story, and that just isn’t from the herbs and spices and the deep fryer. Get your hot poultry fix here:

Next, Kyra Krishna provides us with a movie review of The Big Short starring Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt.

If you haven’t seen the film yet, Kyra breaks it down for the reader and offers the movie up as your next quarantine “must see” movie. It only seems fitting to watch a movie about the last financial crisis as we live through this one. Here is Kyra’s take:

And finally, the worst part of living in your parents’ basement really is just admitting that is the case. At least that is how Viggy Hampton, MPH lays it out for us.

Viggy outlines some of the obvious upsides once she decided that she was done apologizing for her living situation. Check out her story here:

Let’s Make a Connection

Next I want to broker an introduction of the new writers tagged in this article and one of our editors and/or writers who has been at Illumination since the beginning (which wasn’t really all that long ago in the big scheme of things).

One of the constant personalities behind the scenes is Illumination editor Joe Luca. Joe is active on Slack and routinely interacts with other writers. Recently Joe responded to another writer’s article on leadership by providing us with some insights of his own.

Check out Joe’s perspective on why leadership isn’t simply a word or concept, but rather, “It’s what makes or breaks the future of any group, company or county.”

If you want to connect with me or any of the editors, please consider joining the Illumination Slack workgroup. You can request an invitation to Slack by contacting Dr Mehmet Yildiz from this link. Please type “Request for Slack” on the heading as Dr. Yildiz has many other requests from this link.

I am always willing to answer questions and provide information for anyone. The other editors and writers are as well. Slack is the best way to interact if you have questions.

If you need some tips to get up and running on Slack, this article is a good starting point:

The Big Ask

As promised, if I featured your story here, or are reading this and feel inspired, I encourage you to pay forward the concept of highlighting the work of others.

Please consider choosing another writer (or writers) and creating a story that emphasizes aspects that you appreciate about their work. It could be their style, topic choices, voice, technical aspects of writing, or maybe you just like their profile picture.

I am confident that when you do this you will find that your own writing work gets better. In many ways I believe that the person that brings attention to others’ work benefits even more than the recipient. That is one of the core premises and values of Illumination, and when you engage you will find that you reap dividends. I encourage you to give it a whirl. And, when you do, tag me in your article. I love being exposed to stuff I might not have otherwise seen.

Bonus Gift — The Writing Challenge

There are two types of writers in the world. Those who have experienced writer’s block, and those that will.

One of the great remedies to the question, “What do I write next?” is responding to a prompt or challenge provided by another writer. I personally have benefitted significantly from this and, to some extent, this section is a bit self-serving because I want to have some handy prompts to write about occasionally.

Older prompts

Some older prompts I have been involved in are: If I wasn’t a writer I would…, Self-Discovery during lock down, a funny video prompt, a musical prompt and most recently a query about what I would do if I suddenly became rich.

List of New Challenges and Prompts

I am hoping to develop a list of newer prompts with their originators. Since I know the “If I Was Rich” article was recent and I know the originator, I will make it first on our list of current prompts:

Kevin Buddaeus

If you are participating in or originating a challenge and you want to include it here for people to find, either respond to this article or hit me up on Slack (@timothykey).

Next Group

Welcome to Illumination! Tomorrow I will pull from this new group of recently added writers:

Leon George, Eva L., Nilesh Khatri, Antony Terence, Shental Rohan, Hector t, Luke Beling, Bashar Salame, Charlotte Ivan, Praveen Vijayan, Austin Chan, Michael Shook, Matt Stevenson, Bill Stubblefield, Akash Ray, Adan Kovinich, Cassius Corbin, Lucy Crisetig, Ben Van Delm, Kristina Segarra, Margaret Eves, Nancy Ann, Harsh D. Singh, MSc, John Cunningham

If you want me to highlight one of your stories in particular, or have any questions just respond to this story, or better yet, hit my up on Slack!

Thanks for reading, I am enjoying getting to know all the new writers on Illumination!

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Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.