The Time for Nominated Stories Has Come
This should allow the thriving Scribe community to shine a little brighter and attract new bees!
Dear Reader,
The writing prompt dedicated to the arrival of spring continues to welcome new and wonderful stories and poems! I am very excited, as we are at twelve entries so far, making this prompt the one with the most entries since the birth of Scribe! Maybe you’ve already read this week’s three new gems, written by Sofia Chen, Sam Aureli, and Erika Burkhalter: We Were Afraid of Heights. Revival. Full Crow Moon.
You may notice the generosity of our dear Erika as this is the second piece she has submitted, so don’t be afraid to send me others too if you feel like it, it will make the final collection even more beautiful!
The prompt ends on March 20, so you still have time to write about what the blooming trees and returning songbirds mean to you!
I had the great pleasure to welcome a new writer, V Rose, with three poems! Frances Farmer Will Have Her Repose, Untitled Track: A Song There Is No Music For, and The Mind Is the Limit are respectively the first, second, and third poems published by Vivian on Medium! I think it’s time to say hello and give her a warm welcome!
Some of you may be interested in this: I have updated the guide to poetry with a slight reorganization and the addition of this well-researched and inspiring story written by Marc Smith: Why We Should All Read Poetry. I will not teach you that poetry is good for the soul and the heart, but it’s free to spread the word, so we might as well do it as much as possible! Thank you, Marc! So I created a part 4 in the guide dedicated to poetry collections. If you’d like to add one of your own, or if you know of any that are brilliant, let me know and I can add them to the list!
Tony Stubblebine announced earlier this year that Medium was launching its own instance on Mastodon, the famous decentralized social media platform that everyone is talking about since Twitter is less and less sexy. I didn’t mention it here because I was a little skeptical about this new initiative and was waiting to see how things would develop.
Last Monday, Medium said it was opening its server on Mastodon to all members of its community. As a curious person, I wanted to explore this new space by creating my profile. I must admit that I’m pleasantly surprised by what I’ve been reading since then.
The community of poets on Mastodon seems particularly lively and Medium writers appear to have already tamed their new garden. That’s how I met Marc Smith, among other great people like Duvy McGirr.
I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but what I find interesting is the total complementarity between Medium and Mastodon, since the me.dm instance is driven by Medium and the community of writers and readers is present there. If it will help our Scribe family read more of each other while attracting the attention of word lovers not familiar with the publication, then I say yes.
I invite you to try the exploration as I did and see if you like it. My profile is here. Alex Benzer’s article explains in detail how to join the Medium instance on Mastodon, but doesn’t hesitate to ask me if you need help setting up your profile. I will probably start sharing your stories and poems on the Medium instance soon, so feel free to let me know what you think and if you have any other ideas for our publication.
Now I come to perhaps the most exciting news of the day! Folks, I’ve officially been chosen by the Medium team to be one of the first editors and publications to join the pilot program that will allow me to nominate high-quality stories to get a boost! We’re not in a hypothetical future. As I’m writing this, I’ve already prepared a first set of pieces that I’ll be sending to Medium editors today!
In concrete terms, this is how it works: I’m now able to nominate 3–5 stories per week, which I’ll send to Medium every Saturday to be boosted. For those of you who aren’t sure what that means, I’ll refer you to Tony’s article. Medium’s internal curation team will then validate (or not) the stories so that they get more exposure on the platform. The final say is of course Medium’s, but it’s now my job to provide them with quality stories so that they are mostly accepted. This shouldn’t be too difficult for me, because everything you write here is stellar!
Maybe you haven’t been among the lucky ones to have your stories boosted by Medium yet. Just so you know, it happened to me with my heron story. The consequences? Views, reads, claps, responses, and earnings went up significantly. It also allowed me to share and discover new writers. It happened to Erika Burkhalter too, she briefly talks about it here. She may share her feelings here in the responses.
Now I have the ability to tell Medium which stories I would like to boost. I’m so excited to bring your stories and everything that makes you talented writers into the light a little more! I’m sure this will help the publication grow, whether it’s by bringing emotion to even more readers or attracting new wonderful writers. A new era begins for Scribe, which I hope will be long and prosperous!
Please excuse me for this new and long newsletter, but you know me, I don’t do things by halves. And anyway there were plenty of exciting things to tell you! I’ll let you absorb all this information, and of course, the weekly digest is waiting for you with some tasty reading.
Thanks again for being here, and keep writing! 💛
Weekly Digest
The Sorcery of Poetry, by Connie Song. Fly High, Little Dove, by Q. Imagine. Revival, by Sam Aureli. Gently, Lightly, Indelibly, by Sofia Chen. The Hidden Sound, by Paul Mulliner. Aromas of Nostalgic Ambition, by Somsubhra Banerjee. Stars and Sadness, by Micah Josiah. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Repose, by V Rose. Birds of the Blue Mountains, by Lark Morrigan. When I Look at You, by Anna Krasko. Courage Was Not Required, by Louise Foerster. Acrostic Poetry as a Forcing Function, by Mark A. Schrader. Turbulence, by Bradley J Nordell. Full Crow Moon, by Erika Burkhalter. A Layered Heart, by Marijke McCandless. Travelling in the World of Ghosts, by Nik Hein.
Community
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