Welcome
Submission Guidelines — Playtown
Kindhearted fun and games, tomfoolery, and shenanigans.
What is Playtown?
Playtown is a community for children trapped inside adult bodies, creatives looking for a place to experiment, educators using the power of experiential learning, or anyone that appreciates kindhearted fun and games, tomfoolery, and shenanigans.
Is Playtown just another humor & satire publication?
I sure hope not. Doctor Funny, The Haven, The Pub, Sweary Mommy, Slackjaw, and MuddyUm are some of my favorite places to find laughs. They each have their vibe and tribal following and are stellar at what they do. But after a year on Medium, none of them feel like home.
Why Playtown exists
Play is essential to life, and laughter is good for the soul.
The Question
My oldest daughter entered my home office a few weeks ago while I was writing my typical, uninspired, snarky satire.
Daddy, can I read your story?
She's still in the innocent rainbows and unicorns stage of life, which sadly will not last much longer. The draft on my computer screen was less intense than Grimsby Hackney might pen, but it was certainly not kid-friendly. Embarrassed, I told her, "No."
I want Medium to have a place where I can show my daughter my work, and she can be proud of her dad. We need a playground without worries about younger eyes stumbling across something inappropriate.
R.I.P. Everything Fun
Everything Fun was my favorite publication on Medium. Hollie Petit, Ph.D., and Toni The Talker brought acres of enthusiasm and support to their vision of all things happy, positive, and playful. When it shut down on March 15, 2023, its absence left a larger-than-medium-sized hole in the Medium ecosystem. Playtown wants to help fill that gap. ¹
Is Playtown a replica of Everything Fun?
Not a chance. Besides the fact that I have no idea how to run a publication, so much of Everything Fun's pixie dust was Hollie herself. Contrary to what Philip Ogley believes about me, "I am not happy all the time."
While seeking to be kind and authentic, I will never reach the capacity of heartwarming attention that Hollie gave in her editing and comments — some of her responses are longer than the story she commented on. The best I can offer is a place to play.
What we are looking for
First of all, Playtown is a community. Shoutout to Carlo Zeno for being the first writer to jump on board, while Playtown was only a one-third-baked idea in my noggin. We want writers and editors — double points if you have editing experience — to engage the playground.
This should be a fun, friendly, and safe place for adults and kids. Reading stories from other creative writers makes us ask, "What if?" and want to continue the shenanigans.
Playtown Tags and Topics
- Fun
- Play
- Games & Activities
- Ideas
- Creativity
- Brainstorming
- Experiential Learning
- "How to" Guides for Activities
- Improv
- Practical Jokes
- Embarrassing Moments
- Stories from childhood or about our kids
- Shenanigans, Nonsense, Tomfoolery
- Authors experimenting with new formats or styles
Guidelines
- Play nice with others — No tag storms except monthly writing prompts or newsletters. Please forgive me for the one-time tag storm below.
- All images must be credited.
- Stories should be free of grammatical and spelling mistakes. Unlike this one:
- Run your draft through Spell Check, Grammarly, Snapchat, Hal9000, or other editing software before submitting.
- Leave the A.I. assistance at home. We want human-powered mental tidbits, not ChatGPT's tiresome story soufflé.
- Be gracious with us if your story takes longer than anticipated to be published. We're new at this.
What we will not accept
- Stories that violate Medium Rules
- Stories with vulgar or offensive language — There are plenty of great places on Medium to drop the F-bomb. However, writing playful humor without swearing takes more creativity than having a potty mouth. Any inappropriate words may be replaced by nonsense like fluzznugget or shiggleface.
- Stories involving sexual content or erotica
- Stories that would make Grandma Smillew feel icky or anything inappropriate for a ten-year-old girl to read.
- Bitter, mean, or condescending satire — I know many of my stories would not pass this test.
- Politics
- Anything written by Patrick Eades — KIDDING! ²
How to Become a Playtown Author or Editor
Step 1:
Donate to the Give 500 Books to Foster Kids by Christmas campaign. ³
Step 2:
Ignore the author's shameless promotion listed as "Step 1".
Step 3:
Comment on this story with your Medium handle and "I want to play."
Takeaway
Come hang out with us in Playtown. I formally invite:
Hollie Petit, Ph.D. Annie Trevaskis, Kristen Stark, Srini, Philip Ogley, Kristine Laco, Patrick Eades, Patrick Metzger, Smillew Rahcuef, Grandma Smillew, Miss Catherine La Grange, spinster, Rachel A Fefer, David B. Clear, Michael Burg, MD (Satire Sommelier), KiKi Walter, Christopher Robin, Lindy Vogel, Toni The Talker, Adam Robinson, Raine Lore, Sally Prag, Michelle Teheux, Tejaswini Katreddy, BichoDoMato, Ann James, Kendra Sparkles, John Losey, Selina Miyasia, Jay C Wells, Carlo Zeno, David Perlmutter, Eric Filipkowski, Cristina Cattai, Ajin, Ginger Cook, Philip Mann-Montreal, Tai Le Grice, Jennifer McDougall, Jennifer Barrios Tettay, Robin Wilding 💎, Debra Groves Harman, Susie Kearley, Victor Cardenas, Ajgoodrich, Ed Caplan, Linda Ann Fryer, Jonathan Weaver, The Fifth Pillar, Jim Karwisch, Uvebruce, The Sturg, Natalie, Shirley Laffa, Toya Qualls-Barnette, Don Drewniak, Malky McEwan, Larrylambert, Michelle A. Cmarik, Deb Palmer, William J Spirdione, Bernie Pullen, pockett dessert, Shereen Bingham, Eko BP, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Bruce S. Noll, CPC, Susan Wheelock, Annelise Lords, Dr. Preeti Singh, Mary Chang Story Writer, Trisha Faye, Lori Lamothe, Lu Skerdoo, Dede Pajibo, Kua Lina, Heather Paz, Tom Owens: How I REALLY Feel!, Scot Butwell, Denise Kendig, Pseu Pending (Seu), Ravyne Hawke, Elvira Yuzbay, Douglas Lim, Hermione Wilds Writes, Susan Christiana, Montreal Cursey, BGREAT, Jan Sebastian 🖐👩🦰, B.R. Shenoy, Devette Lindsay, and Grimsby Hackney — if he behaves.
If you enjoy stories of work culture, business, leadership, and productivity by people who can laugh at their mistakes, consider our sister publication Work City.
Cheers,
Footnotes
¹ Hollie Petit, Ph.D., you may read these words and immediately feel guilty. Please do not. You only have so much love to give; your family-family needs you more than your Medium-family. While we genuinely miss you and your magically thoughtful encouragement, you made the right decision to step away and focus on the ones closest to you.
² All Patricks are welcome.
³ For every $15 donated, we give away one Forever Sisters book to needy foster families through our nonprofit partners. I 💗 foster kids.
New to Medium? Want to read stories by authors with immensely more talent than Mark Suroviec, M.Ed.? Join Medium here, and I will share with you the secrets of the universe — Or make fart jokes.
