Paper Poetry | Writer’s Life | Writing Community
Gratitude Workshop
The doors are opening
“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.” John F Kennedy
For the past few months, gratitude has been a running theme here on Medium.
And rightly so.
Despite everything that is wrong in the world, we have much to be grateful for. It’s important that we give ourselves time to reflect, and opportunities to express gratitude for all that we have, be it big, small, tangible or intangible.
As writers, poets, and artists, we are in the fortunate position of being able to express our gratitude creatively in a variety of forms and formats. Medium provides us with a platform to do that in a way that is both personal and public.
While we might all now be at different stages in our writing-on-Medium journeys, one thing is constant. At some point, each of us found ourselves at the beginning of that journey. And like many new ventures, it was akin to leaping into the unknown. The fact that we’re still here means that we didn’t crash — at least, not fatally.
It means we managed to get some things right. 😊
How much of the ‘getting it right’ is due to our own skills and good fortune, and how much of it can be attributed to assistance rendered by others, is a matter for each of us to determine for ourselves.
As you reflect and mull over your early days on Medium, think about the positives. ● What did you get right? ● What help did you receive? ● Was there a person who made the going easier for you with some well-timed advice, a point in the right direction, an introduction to a publication, an encouraging comment?
We can all be grateful to Ev Williams for having established Medium as an online writing platform for writers, but is there a particular someone in your personal Medium story you would like to thank?
We think there is!
It is with this in mind, that Paper Poetry is hosting the Gratitude Workshop.
Gratitude Workshop
The Gratitude Workshop is an evergreen endeavour with a single purpose — to give you, our Paper Poetry writers, the opportunity to express gratitude to fellow Medium writers who helped you get started.
It’s a place where each of us can share a little bit of our writer’s story while connecting with, and paying tribute to, the people who ‘made a difference’ to us.
It’s a place where gratitude can be both personal and public. A place where gratitude remains abundant and evergreen.
How it works
▣ You are invited to submit an original piece of nonfiction prose and/or poetry based on ONE of your first Medium blog posts. Layout, style and contents is up to you as long as they comply with Medium’s editing standards.
▣ Your piece will most likely include the following –
- A commentary about your selected post — why you wrote it, what you like about it, what you learned from it. You can supplement your comments with quotes and/or screenshots from your selected post. Please include a preview story link to your selected post so we can all read and respond to it if we feel so inclined. Breathing new life into an old post — what fun!
- A brief profile of the person you are thanking — who they are, what they did for you and how that made a difference. The person needs to be someone you interacted with online i.e. not simply having read their articles. Ideally the person is still active on Medium, in which case, feel free to tag them directly into your post. You might also consider including links to one or two of their stories.
- A personalized message of gratitude — this could take the form of a short note, a poem, an annotated illustration or graphic, a short video. Consider making this element the handwritten/crafted component of your piece.
▣ There is no word limit on the gratitude message, however, please limit the combined commentary-personal profile information to 600 words.
▣ Please use the kicker: Paper Poetry Gratitude Workshop (to learn how to add a kicker, go here)
▣ Please use Gratitude Workshop as one of your tags.
▣ We appreciate that you might want to acknowledge the support extended by more than one person but for now we ask that you submit one piece that pays tribute to one person.
▣ Your selected article and the person you are thanking do not need to have any connection to Paper Poetry — you being a current writer for Paper Poetry is the only requirement we make.
▣ The gratitude stories will appear in Paper Poetry’s home page along with the other published content. They will also be posted in the Gratitude Workshop tab for easy access.
The doors are open to everyone
All current Paper Poetry writers are invited to join the Gratitude Workshop.
If you’re excited about being part of the workshop, but you’re not currently a writer for our publication, there’s no need to stress. A quick knock on our door and we’ll let you in! 😃 All that we ask is that you read our publication guidelines here before emailing your request to be added as a writer to — [email protected]
When are the doors open?
The doors to the Gratitude Workshop will OPEN on May 15, 2021. They will remain open until 11:59pm (EST) June 15, 2021.
✨UPDATE — June 14 2021 ✨
📢 Good News!!! 🎉 The doors to the Gratitude Workshop will be open until June 30, 2021. You still have time to submit your story!
As the Gratitude Workshop is an evergreen endeavour, we are looking to refresh the content by reopening the doors periodically to new submissions. We will keep you updated via our regular bi-weekly newsletter.
Here’s one I prepared earlier!
For those of you who prefer to see an example of the finished product before you get started creating your own, I’ve prepared a sampler for you. Feel free to use it as a template for designing your brilliantly unique content on paper and digital canvas.
A shout out to Thank You Notes
Posts about gratitude pop up all over the place on Medium. In fact, if you search the ‘gratitude’ tag, you’ll discover that almost 15K writers have used the tag at some point in their Medium writing life. There is, however, one particular place that deserves a special mention — Thank You Notes.
Thank You Notes publication was launched recently by our friend and Paper Poetry writer, Trista Signe Ainsworth. As the name suggests, it’s all about thank you notes — a place where Medium writers can post their messages of gratitude about anything and everything. Take a look for yourselves here —
“Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” Margaret Cousins
We’re excited to be opening the doors to the Gratitude Workshop for the very first time. We look forward to welcoming you inside. 🙏
Most gratefully,
