Weekly Newsletter | Flint & Steel
Sparks №29: Feeling Blech
Your writing prompt resource to spark your creativity
It is four days until spring! Can you believe it?!
I meant to publish this newsletter on Monday. But life has gotten in the way, as it tends to do.
Last week my husband and I took our sons for a little spring break vacation in Wisconsin Dells (trip originally planned for 2020) to celebrate my youngest son’s 14th birthday.
It was a fabulous time except I managed to bring home a case of Covid. Ugh! Thankfully my husband and boys tested negative. I thought it was just an old-fashioned cold, but decided to get tested yesterday just to make sure. I guess if I’m going to get sick, I’m glad it was after we got home. Makes me realize vacations that are mainly indoors still might not be the best choice.
Bear with me as I may be a little slow to publish stories this week. Today, I’ll be publishing the stories that are in the queue throughout the day. The fatigue is heading me the hardest with a persistent cough. I’m extremely grateful this is my week off from school and my husband is able to work from home easily in times like this.
My prompt for you this week is describe a time when you were sidelined. It happens to us all. Describe the emotions connected. How did you get through it? Was there a silver lining?
Upcoming Writing Challenge
Our next writing challenge will be announced here on March 28th. Just like with the last challenge, one winner will receive $50.
Thank you again to those how have donated for the writing challenges via my Ko-fi page. I appreciate it so much!
Supportive Writing Group
Come on over to our writing group over on Facebook. This is a safe, private group to share your writing questions, goals, and advice with writers of all skill levels.
I hope everyone has a wonderful upcoming week!
✨ Ellie, editor Flint & Steel
🎉 Featured Writer 🎉
Penny Grubb is our Featured Writer this week!
When I’m writing, I need to be in the world of the book and it doesn’t much matter what’s going on around me as long as no one is actively demanding my attention. — Penny Grubb
Find out what Penny’s go-to activity is for relaxation and check out her Medium publication recommendations as well!
Do you want to be a featured writer? Read over the guidelines to find out more about being featured.
✨Your Articles ✨
As always, take time to support your F & S writers! Stop by their articles and share your thoughts, claps and highlights.
Those marked with a✨next to their name mean an Editor’s Pick!
Kaori Mitsui wrote, “There are things I stopped doing regularly. But, I realized I need to do those more often,” in “I Leave, Revisit, And Find Values Again,” in response to the freewriting prompt.
Check out what Kaori has been up to the last few weeks!
✨Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) wrote,
“today, ㅤI commit to being ㅤgraceful — ㅤㅤno pirhouettes, ㅤㅤ(maybe, heck, I’d unshrimp for a second, at best) ㅤfor myself ㅤas much as ㅤfor others,”
in “Grace.”
Lucy included an excellent writing prompt asking, “ Why do you deserve less grace and compassion than everyone else?”
Kaori Mitsui wrote,
“‘And this skateboard, he only spent about 40 minutes or so on it from scratch. It’s for you, Buddy. Both of you can try too. But, probably it’s safer to stay on the top of Buddy’s head,’” in “What They Would Try Next Morning.”
I love Kaori’s fiction series she is writing and does the illustrations for as well. She wrote in response to a Creator Hub prompt, “Career Shift,” showing how fiction writers can use the writing prompts for their stories, not just for nonfiction.
✨ VerityAlways wrote,
“Hoping, praying, for light to restore the balance of calm and joy; what was once a picturesque band of blue and yellow,” in “Craning Conviction,” in response to the Freewriting Friday prompt sunflowers.
Each word serving a purpose, leaving us with hope for peace again.
Tamil wrote,
“So, I was determined it will not be another article about an experience that involves only me and the lessons learned,” in “What Should I Write About Now?”
✨ Welcome Our Newest Writers ✨
Ian Hanson — LM — Elizabeth Kasujja — Sandi Parsons — Veronica Haunani Fitzhugh
Calls for Submissions
I welcome writers to share their own freewriting exercises, writing prompts, and writing contest alerts here at Flint and Steel. You can write short-form or long-form posts.
You can find submission guidelines on our Be a Writer page.
✍ Freewriting Friday
In the latest Freewriting Friday post, we are exploring how our lives have changed because of Covid.
📣 Around Medium: Calls for Submissions, Writing Prompts, and Challenges 📣
Check out last week’s newsletter for more writing prompts and challenges.
Tips
As always, review each publication’s guidelines for their prompts. Many prompts do not have a set deadline.
Make sure when you are responding to a prompt, you credit where your inspiration came from, like a link to the prompt article.
Many of these prompts could fall under nonfiction, poetry, and fiction so don’t limit yourself. There is no right or wrong. Use these prompts as a springboard to your writing.
⌚ = time-sensitive writing prompt!
Liberty Forrest, Author, with Hope*Healing*Humour, wrote, “If you’re fed up with the exhaustion and constant output in this way, you can change it. You have the ability to get out of your self-imposed, disconnected, phone prison that keeps you feeling isolated, and allow yourself more actual, meaningful (re)connection with your loved ones and yourself.
What would that look like? What would that feel like?”
Marilyn Flower, with Middle-Pause, asks, “How do you keep the world in your heart while living your life? Is it one or the other? Or can it be both/and?”
Trista Signe Ainsworth, with Thank You Notes, posted the latest prompt about your healing light. “Please share your stories of healing your heart or spirit through a difficult situation. What do you appreciate about your healing process? Who helped you along the way?”
Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她), with The Brain is a Noodle, posted her latest #WritingPrompt: a fork in the road
Ravyne Hawke, with Promptly Written, posted their latest Deliciousness Prompt, mushrooms. Make sure to read over the guidelines for your submission!
Logan Silkwood, with Queerly Trans, posted a prompt, “Things that Make Me Feels (your adjective).” And there are a few extra prompts mentioned in the article as well!
Subscribe to the Sparks Newsletter
If you would like to subscribe to the Sparks newsletter, visit the newsletter page. You can also find past newsletters for more writing inspiration.
— Ellie Jacobson, editor
📣 Attention Medium publication editors 📣
Have a writing prompt, challenge, or a call for submission you want included in an upcoming Sparks Newsletter? Feel free to leave a comment in the latest newsletter, email me at [email protected], or tag me in your prompt article and I’ll include the info in the next newsletter. Newsletters go out weekly on Monday.
Please include a link to the article that summarizes the prompt/challenge/call for submission and if there is a deadline. I will link to the article and to your publication in the newsletter. I also tweet the newsletter throughout the week for added exposure.
💖 Thank you to all the Flint & Steel writers 💖
Sahil Patel, Shirley Jones Luke, Samantha Jensen, MA, MAEd, Trista Signe Ainsworth, MIGHTY MISCELLANY, L Burton, Heathere CW, Kaori Mitsui, Penelope Mayfield, Pierce McIntyre, Pene Hodge, Yean Foong (M.Ed.), Elin Melaas, Sarah Minnis, Mindy Morgan Avitia, JM Heatherly, Nikki, Andria Kennedy, pockett dessert, Dennett, Diana Lotti, Ronald C. Flores-Gunkle, Mulan, Amanda Laughtland, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Penny Grubb, Sorina Raluca Babau, Prashansa Chandekar, Will Hull, Ravyne Hawke, Jane Grows Garden Rooms (Jane Frost), Mimi Bordeaux, Adrienne Beaumont, Karen Schwartz, Divina Grey, Sangeetha Shankar, Ellen Andaya, Barb Dalton, Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她), Beverly Annette Little, Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她), Beverly Annette Little, Aabye-Gayle F., AliciaMarie Belchak | Master Life, Build Dreams, Danielle Hestand, Rick Allen, Jennifer Pierce, Tamil, Amy Rosie, Jennifer McDougall, Susan Poole, Adrienne Parkhurst, Chelsea Marie — Charlie Cole — Katie Michaelson — Sandra B — Buse ermen — E. Katherine Kottaras — Bingz Huang — Winston — Stephanie Stephenson — Marilyn Flower — Kris Bedenian — Kathy K — Nick Stockton — VerityAlways — Makena Darya — Umme Salma — Călina Mureșan — Anne Bonfert — Jennifer Dunne — K-kun Writes! — M Cher — CARMEN F MICSA — Annette Liron — Sam Finlayson
. . . and our 183 followers! 💖
✍ Written by Ellie Jacobson, ©2022 all rights reserved.
✨ I’m a freelance writer and editor from Minnesota, writing my first novel, a psychological suspense novel. Are you a writer? Check out Sparks, my newsletter filled with writing prompts to spark your creativity.
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