Hi! My Name is Marilyn and I’m Addicted to (and Love) Medium Prompts!
Featured Writer at Flint & Steel
How did you discover Medium and how long have you been writing here?
One day I’d never heard of Medium, and the next day I was hooked, and have been reading, writing, clapping, commenting, stats checking, you name it, on it daily ever since.
That occurred in March of 2019. Most likely, I discovered an article about writing by Shaunta Grimes which spoke to me so I followed and signed up. Her coaching and mentoring walked us Ninja Writers through how to post and format step by step. I landed in the right place at the right time. And it just grew on me.
Before I started posting, I read and commented. Much to my surprise, I had followers before my first post in June of 2019.
What are you reading, listening to, and/or watching these days?
Books, books, and more books!
I read in the categories I write on. Mainly, but not only, fiction, spirituality, creativity, and everything I can get my hands on writing. The art of writing. The craft. The life. The joys. And with less enthusiasm, publishing, and marketing.
On my bed at the moment:
Fiction: Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress and Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
Spirituality: How God Changes Your Brain by Newberg and Waldman
Writing: Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury and Writing Poetry from the Inside Out by Sandford Lyne
Memoir: Educated by Tara Westover
History: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabell Wilkerson
I listen to/watch my favorite late-night comics, Trevor Noah and Stephen Colbert. They take the rough edges off the news before bedtime.
An eager Ninja Writer student, I currently take Zoom classes on creative nonfiction, short stories, blogging, and designing book covers.
What is around you while you write? Describe the places you like to write, using all the senses.
I adore visiting cafes, sharing superficial gossip, and worldly wisdom over steam wafting up from minty mochas.
But I’m hardly the cafe writer I used to be.
Back before PCs, I would bring a journal, eavesdrop on the next table for character traits and snatches of dialogue, and make my pre-designer cappuccino last for hours.
All with writing friends up in Berkeley, where all the cafes were one-offs. Well before Starbucks homogenized the experience. I enjoy cafes–-for a treat. A reward for going to the dentist. Not the daily fix some would have it be.
Here at home, I sip chai. Spicy, peppery nose candy perched on my cup warmer. On a cold day, I press my cup against a cheek and let the steam fog my glasses.
Desk-wise, I have my journal, my to-do diary and on my right, cuddly Kermit the frog. On my left, the silky satin-caped William Shakespeare. My high and lowbrow twin muses. Rumor has it these lovers tryst at night while I snore, dreaming Elizabethan reptilian erotica.
What is your guilty pleasure(s)? (Binge-watching something, reading, baking cakes, what do you do for yourself?)
The last thing I remember binge-watching was the HBO series, The №1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, based on Alexander McCall Smith’s books. I love, love, loved it. All characters therein are delightfully well drawn. Grace Makutsi, the secretary being my favorite.
When COVID first hit, I watched a lot of opera and stage plays that were put up for free. And of course, reading, reading, reading.
Playing on Canva.com. I Soul Collaged, but sadly my group has been on hiatus. I now make collages in Canva I can post without worrying about copyright violations.
I relish is author branding–a great excuse to go down the Canva rabbit hole, losing myself for hours. I designed my website, ebook cover, and Insta posts there.
What must be in your fridge (and/or cupboards) at all times?
Chocolate. Lots and lots of dark chocolate. Flavored creamers for coffee and tea–preferably hazelnut, but vanilla’s okay, too. Pumpkin when I can get it.
Almonds. Flavored teas. A roasted grain coffee substitute. I order Roma online. I’ve cut way down on caffeine after some scary episodes. So my tea is much greener and my coffee much grainier.
If you could travel anywhere right now where would you go? (in the perfect bubble where money, covid, and the world is not an issue)
I’d start on the British Isles. I have extended family near Cambridge and York. My dear Medium Ninja friend, Marla Bishop’s in London. This time I’d go boating on the Thames, take in some literary walking tours, and West End theater.
Marla and I have family in Dublin. So unless she’s planning to swim across, we could go together. Do some more literary walking tours as well as theater. And explore Scotland and Wales while in the vicinity.
My writing role model buddy, Ryan Frawley’s back in Europe. In the south of France. So I’d cross the channel and go down the coast before heading to Paris, then Amsterdam, and take a river cruise up the Danube to Prague.
Ann Frank’s house and Auschwitz. Not aware of any family members caught up in the holocaust, but its ghosts haunt my soul.
I’d get my butt to Denmark and Iceland. While my sister loves its puffins, I’m fascinated with its culture. And creative sustainable enterprises as well as the northern lights.
Tell us about one of your Medium articles that you loved writing, that you are the most proud about?
A writer on Muddyum turned me on to poetry parodies. One of my first attempts was To Tree or not to Tree, followed by explorations of muting, niching, and masking. I’ve parodied Poe, Donne, Whitman, and others.
The hardest, believe it or not, and one I’m most proud of, is Dr. Seuss. Oh, the Pieces You’ll Submit Without Getting a Hit, reveals my take on formatting and curation. Seussian rhythms eluded me more than Shakespeare’s. I’d been reading him all my life, penning many a Cat in the Hat spoof, so go figure.
Tell us about your favorite Medium writers, ones you read on a regular basis.
Ryan Frawley: Words flow from him like golden honey, caressing my imagination with images natural and philosophical. There’s a scene in As Good As It Gets where Jack Nicholson pulls his foot out of his mouth by telling Holly Hunter, you make me want to be a better man.
Well, Ryan makes me want to be a better writer. I often inhale one of his posts before I exhale one of mine. My most lyrical ‘posts’ on this platform are my comments on his. Nevertheless, I did attempt something more ambitious:
Other people I adore include Carol Lennox, Bebe Nicholson, Debbie Walker, Shaunta Grimes, James Knight, Katie Michaelson, Marla Bishop, Alison Acheson, George Kao, Ellie Jacobson, Gary Chapin, Susan Brearley, and Smillew Rahcuef. I’m an editor for Middle-Pause so I read and help shape everything we publish.
And your favorite Medium publications to write for and why?
Flint & Steel because of the community here and the proliferation of prompts. I’m a prompt junkie through and through. I often do better responding to a prompt off the cuff than carefully planning something of my own.
Know Thyself Heal Thyself and their prompts propel me deeper inside myself than I imagine it’s possible to go. Another supportive community as well.
Coffee Times hosts a book section I adore writing for, as well as monthly challenges. I’ve entered 5 out of their 6, and even won #4, pushing me beyond my self-promo comfort zone.
My humor’s over at MuddyUm. They offer lots of prompts with hands-on editors who nudge me into shape. Scoring a well done from one of them thumps my heart.
And Middle-Pause for the cause. Serving on a great team, helping new writers get their first distribution thrills me no end. I enjoy hands-on editing.
I thought it would entail a lot of work, and it certainly can, but I love it! It’s like sculpting in many ways — shaping, structuring, and cutting away the marble to reveal David in the stone. Many of us don’t realize that we can cut our way to stronger writing. We think we have to manufacture more metaphors. Nope. Vivid verbs!
Where else can we find you outside of Medium?
I’m on Facebook, Substack, Twitter, and Instagram. I designed my author’s website. They’re all right here and more on Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/marilynflower.
Thank you, Ellie, so much for this opportunity to share. Writing this stretched me in nicely nuanced ways.
Thanks so much, Ellie Jacobson, for hosting the featured writer column! Here’s the info so you, too, can be featured!
Marilyn Flower’s the author of Creative Blogging: Ninja Writers Guide to Character Development and Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Follow her Sacred Foolishness and Stay in touch!