Your July Challenge; Day 20

No Matter How Good We Are, We Can Always Improve

A warm welcome to new ILLUMINATION writers, the Daily Tip, and some fantastic writing prompts

For the month of July I am doing a daily feature that highlights ongoing writing challenges, provides a handy Daily Tip for all Medium writers, provides opportunity for collaboration on the ILLUMINATION Publication, and extends a warm and heartfelt welcome to new writers.

Welcome New Writers!

In June I highlighted existing stories of new writers, but this month I am offering writers, both new and not-so-new, a chance to:

Write your own new story!

This feature has a list of writing prompts, and we want to see your writing. Pen a response to any of the prompts, tag me Timothy Key and also mention if you happen to be one of the new writers on the publication.

The onus is not only on you however, I will be attempting to respond to one challenge or prompt for each day as well. I wouldn’t want to ask you to do something I wouldn’t be willing to do.

Regardless of how long you have been with the publication, be it a minute, or since day one, we have a whole team of editors and other writers that are ready to support you and promote your work.

All any of us ask in return, is that you do the same.

Keep on reading to see how you can engage with others, but first:

The Daily Tip!

Check your settings! Are you getting too many emails from Medium? Or too few? Not sure if your account is connected to Facebook or Twitter?

It is probably time to do a little audit of your account settings. You may find that you preferences have changed, or that there are features you did not know about. Just click on your account picture and find the “Settings” link towards the bottom:

Create your writer bio

One of the best ways we can get to know you is for you to provide a writer’s bio. When you do, Dr Mehmet Yildiz will highlight it in his daily bulletin and it will be added to our collection of writer bios. Check out the rest here:

Daily distribution list

Another fantastic way to get engaged with other writers on the ILLUMINATION publication is by checking out Dr Mehmet Yildiz‘s daily distribution list. In it he includes all of the stories in the last 24 hours. When you write something and publish on ILLUMINATION your article will appear there too!

Here is a link to the bulletin:

Let’s Connect

If you want to connect with me or any of the editors or writers, 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:

Meet the Editors

And newly published, is our list of Editor bios! Get to know your editors and our backgrounds in this illuminating article:

Today’s Challenge and Response

B. A. Cumberlidge. asks new writers to make some observations on what could be better about Illumination. The idea is to make positive suggestions rather than poke holes.

And here is my response:

Upcoming Challenges

In the coming days I will be tackling each of these challenges, and I am listing them here to help you get your writing pump primed as well:

Sherry McGuinn is back with a new prompt; What is Your Mantra?

Geetika Sethi tagged me in a prompt originating with Brett Christensen. It is to write a Haiku or Tanka with the prompt “Dry”:

Finding wisdom among the highlights. Britni Pepper suggested this one:

Find a story you like. Pick out a sentence you like — the sort you’d normally highlight — and present it as if it were a notable quote from a famous person.It is rare that someone writes a story without some snippet of wisdom that can be highlighted and expanded. Awesome point Britni!

We keep seeing Holly Jahangiri‘s name in here, and this time she has collaborated with another notorious figure, Rasheed Hooda to offer this challenge to, “Highlight the work of four different Medium writers with stories they have posted on Medium that do not all appear in a single publication.”

Dr Mehmet Yildiz suggests that we create at least one testimonial for another writer whom you admire. He offers this one as an example:

And I am actively looking for new challenges!

Rear view mirror

Here is a list of the challenges I have completed:

Week 1

In the first week of July I responded to challenges issued by Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Tree Langdon ♾️, B. A. Cumberlidge, Holly Jahangiri, Rasheed Hooda

(a couple of them had two challenges to total seven). Read all of them in a Your July Challenge compilation article!

Week 2

This week I took on challenges by Desiree Driesenaar, Sherry McGuinn, Infiniti, Rasheed Hooda, B. A. Cumberlidge., Zach J. Watson, and Holly Jahangiri Read all of them in the Your July Challenge; Week Two:

Week 3

This one is in response to an idea generated by Desiree Driesenaar which has some (at least partial) origin with Holly Jahangiri. It is to create an Abecedarian poem. I think the topic is open, although Desiree chose to use life perspective.

Dr Mehmet Yildiz asks us to write on a topic, and proposes: “Jealousy”:

Charles Roast asks you to write about a very special tree. He chose a poem format, but allows that we can create in any format we wish:

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).

List of New Writers

Each day I will tag one of the more recent groups of new writers added. I hope these stories provide a warm welcome and give some insight into many of the fantastic things happening every day at Illumination!

Pavi Sandhu, Nathalie Weisz, Kristina Coggins, James Michael Knauf, Jen Kleinknecht, Katrina Paulson, Chris Gage, James P. MacLennan, Momna Jamil, Hope Coalesce, Sorin Malcolm, Marco Tiro, Katie Russell, Bernadette DeCarlo, Kaneptune, Thaddaeus Amralo, Thaddaeus Amralo, Njide Mkparu, Kitami Prescott, Scott Hickman, 360 Stories, Aaliya Gul, Kerl Galindo, Tanush Prem, Susan Scandiffio, Mohammed Smani, New Kid on da Rock, Terry Matlen, Luxiya D., Noah Ingram, Keara Lou, the-writingelk, Sydney Reis,

Illumination is all about being engaged and positive interaction. New writers, we can’t wait to hear what you have to say!

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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.