Flint & Steel
The “Full Circle” Writing Challenge Shortlist
Winner will be announced on October 6, 2022
Thank you to ALL the writers who submitted their “full circle” pieces for Flint & Steel’s latest writing challenge. I truly appreciate you all taking the time sharing these moments with us all.
You all made my job so much harder (in a good way!). I struggled with creating a short list because I find value and strength in each and every submission. As with all writing, it is subjective. So this shortlist is a collection of stories that strongly resonated with me.
The winner will be announced on October 6th!
Our next writing challenge will be announced in December.
The Short List (in no particular order)
From the total of 21 submissions (one came in after the submission deadline), I narrowed the list down to a shortlist of eight.
Kunal Mehra wrote,
“I, the earth, am moving around myself, and the sun, and I’m changing every moment. Some changes, you might sense; others you may not.”
Nancy Blackman wrote,
“Yes, you crushed my spirit for a quick minute. But it was only a minute.”
Terry Barr wrote,
“In that regard, I want my students, and myself, to confront a textual theme: of women being abused and overpowered and cowed by rich white men. I want us to focus on the power that has always been held in elite patriarchal white hands. I’m assigning two texts for this purpose and “On Purpose”: Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple, an 18th century novel and John Wood Sweet’s The Sewing Girl’s Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America.”
Judy Walker wrote,
“Like white waters, change is unpredictable. It will pull us down, spit us out, spin us around in an eddy, and then as if nothing had happened, we’re floating down easy stream once again. That’s the beauty and charm of change and also its downfall.”
Susan Poole wrote,
“I’ll forever picture my kids’ faces when the school bus drives past my house without pause. Moments of melancholy will always arise, and I wonder whether I’ll ever stop wishing for a time machine to send me back.”
Courtney Capone wrote,
“Can you call it a memory if you don’t actually remember it? It’s more of a story that I’ve been told so much that it feels like a memory but those shoes were slipped onto my feet when I was only two years old.”
Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages wrote,
“I had lived 20 years of my life chained to society’s rules. A victim of the 9–5 rat race. Running on the hampster wheel as fast as I could, going round and round and never getting anywhere.
For the first time in my adult life, the world was my oyster again. My sense of freedom came from deep inside my soul. I had shed it all. All of the walls that I had built around me that kept me from living the life I wanted, had now been taken down.”
Bingz Huang wrote,
“Launching this first book into the world set off profound shifts within me. In my first book, I shared the idea of how we need to keep processing our thoughts and feelings intuitively, such as through dancing, singing, and writing.”
Challenge Submissions
Please bookmark this post so you can spend some time reading, commenting and liking each article as each author brings inspiration in the telling of their “full circle” moment.
Courtney Capone wrote,
“Trust and light are reflected in the soft warmth of their fur and slobbered kisses on my cheek. They gave me permission to heal. Because they did. I can’t say that I’ve truly come full circle yet… but I’m getting there.”
Nicholas Tarleton wrote,
“It appears to me that every time I form a sort of plan for my future that life in return doesn’t just give me plain lemons; it delivers explosive ones! I have been, not too long ago, in the place of feeling depressively sorry for myself and wallowing in dark places, but this time around, something is different.”
Jennifer McDougall wrote,
“‘Oh my clean, clean car,” I whispered towards the shiny dash, in the creepiest of creepy voices. ‘I love you.’”
Susan Poole wrote,
“Fear of dying transcends from the periphery.
No longer obscure,
But a real danger —
Grounded in lab results.”
Jason Edmunds wrote,
“These are questions that pop into his mind regularly. It’s his daily struggle — heavy stuff for a 12-year-old boy to handle.”
Sam Finlayson wrote,
“The strength it takes to lay your soul bare for all to see is immense. Feeling scared but doing it anyway, choosing to be vulnerable when every part of you screams no. That’s powerful.”
Sanghita Pal wrote,
“Taking the last sip, I was thankful, and felt grateful for the beautiful realization and memories entwined with it.”
Buse ermen wrote,
“Because I’m not going to waste my life by wasting all of its energy just like the hamster keeps turning and turning all the time in the same circle.
It was a tremendous decision that got me out of that full circle. Everything in my life suddenly started to increase in value.”
Beth Peterson wrote,
“Would it be his last drink? I wondered. Would he take his final steps on the red desert dunes? Or would he make it through and continue down the endless path?”
Cristina Cattai wrote,
“ I made peace with the environment in the end, and the cicadas became just one of the many particularities of the place. They were integrated into my camping experience, or, the other way round, I became a conscious part of their territory.”
Kunal Mehra wrote,
“Personally, part of the reason I sometimes don’t like coming around full circle is because it involves something fundamental and unavoidable: change.”
Rosy Gee wrote,
“My father had to identify his son’s body and I don’t think he ever recovered from seeing his child lying on a mortuary slab having been fatally injured.”
Anne Bonfert wrote,
“Then I fully tighten all the straps and connect the passenger with 4 hooks onto myself and the parachute. It’s the time when those who weren’t nervous up until now, get nervous and I can feel their heart racing since we’re so close to each other.”
Write for Flint & Steel
I welcome you to write for Flint & Steel. Read over our submission guidelines and let me know if you would like to be added as a writer.
About the Writer
Ellie is a freelance writer and editor from Minnesota. She is writing her first novel, a psychological suspense novel, while finishing her MFA at SNHU.
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✍ Written by Ellie Jacobson, ©2022 all rights reserved.