New Writer Welcome & Writing Challenges

Your July Challenge; Day 1

A warm welcome to new Illumination writers and some fantastic writing prompts

In June, I introduced writers just recently added to the Illumination publication by featuring a few of their stories each day. It was a great way to find some excellent writing and to get to know those newly added to the ranks.

The thing is, those features took a bit of time to produce, and I found myself slipping behind on writing and responding with everyone else.

So, for July, I am taking a slightly different approach. I still want to welcome the new writers…

Welcome New Writers!

But instead of sifting through your stories myself, I am going to offer you a chance to write a new story that responds to one of the awesome writing prompts that I will list later in this piece. When you do, be sure to tag me (@timothykey) and say that you are a new writer responding to one of the prompts.

I will then include that in an upcoming “Your July Challenge” piece.

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.

I am melding this particular story into the end of June’s feature. We have one additional new writer to highlight here:

New Writer Spotlight

For the last piece of our new writer spotlight I am only going to include one article, by request. Today brings a somewhat melancholic and haunting piece that remembers Susannah MacKinnie‘s father.

Written with evident passion and emotion, this poem manages to capture the gamut of emotions that can exist within a family unit, and the relationships we inevitably have to reconcile in some way or other over time. This one absolutely demands a read, and I thank Susannah for highlighting it for me:

Now that you are a writer on Illumination, the whole team of editors and writers are ready to support you and promote your work.

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

One of the 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:

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:

Curation Stars

The environment of encouragement and support can be substantiated just by looking at the many writers that are seeing their stories get traction and curated by Medium. Here is a great article giving tips and pointers, as well as links to curated stories of Illumination writers:

Today’s Challenge and Response

Today I took on Dr Mehmet Yildiz‘s challenge to highlight my five best stories. Here is a link to his original challenge:

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:

First is another one from Dr Mehmet Yildiz that asks us to now review someone else’s response to the above challenge — sounds like a good one!

Next is a great prompt from Tree Langdon ♾️ that has been getting a lot of response, and generating some excellent new words:

Then, there are two from B. A. Cumberlidge. that started last month, but I haven’t had a chance to answer yet; can’t wait to tackle those.

I want to hear about your challenge or writing prompt!

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!

Tatiana Crucero, Dionne Charlet, Craig Brett, Param Hegde, Shivali Joshi, Xaviery, Queen Gigi, Stef Kons, Susannah MacKinnie, Kylie Fuller, Sina izi, Kim Krause Berg, Abu Bakar Pasha, Maximus Brown, Adam Winstanley, Melissa Speed, Chelsea Wong, Agni Kumar, Çınar Kızıltepe, Simona Rahmanova, Lisa Orban, Patricia Joseph, Pusteblume, Varun Joshi

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.