Challenge

Freewriting > Journaling
I have beef with journaling, and I'm not entirely sure why. It's definitely not because of any antipathy toward cultivating a strong writing practice - that's the basis for my entire life, for crying out loud!
By Erin Latham Shea2 years ago in Writers
My First Attempt. Runner-Up in Writers Challenge. Top Story - September 2023.
When I was 17 I decided that I'd start writing a fantasy novel. Seems reasonable, right? Did to me at the time, too. I knew absolutely nothing about writing a book, so I simply took up a notebook and a pen and began scribbling. I wrote seven pages in that feverish first session, and figured upon reading that it was good enough (it wasn't, by a long shot!) and that I enjoyed it enough (this, however, completely fair and reasonable) to continue.
By Dave Rowlands2 years ago in Writers
Writing Changed My Life
I can remember loving to write ever since I could string a sentence together. I grew up in a very dysfunctional and abusive environment. Writing became my escape, my therapy and ultimately my passion. At first it started as me just writing down my thoughts in a notebook. I would sit for hours on end letting my thoughts flow onto paper. This was during the days when computers weren't even a thing yet. I took actual pen to paper and wrote until my hands would cramp. I always had trouble verbally expressing myself so writing was my voice, even if I thought nobody was listening.
By Sue McGaughey2 years ago in Writers
Reinventing Poets
My high school creative writing teacher was a legend in our agricultural corner of the county. Well, she was to me. She drove a red Volkswagen Beetle and had two black and white French bulldogs. And she was an honest writer.
By Emma Kate Gee2 years ago in Writers
Becoming a writer
I can't remember the first piece I ever wrote. I expect it was a Christmas story involving elves and a lot of "And then"s to link my ideas. I expect I was at school and it was a task set. I really don't know.
By Rachel Deeming2 years ago in Writers
Losing My Vocal V-Plates
The first piece I wrote for Vocal was called The Squinch. Here it is: I'd come out of a long spell of not writing very much at all (don't ask how long), so I was very rusty. I knew it.
By L.C. Schäfer2 years ago in Writers
A Software Craftsman's Journey to Becoming a Storyteller
When we speak of firsts, a sense of nostalgia brushes against our hearts. It's the delicate and fragile memory of an original creation, the kernel from which the tree of experience grows. For me, that nascent memory takes me back to a Medium article. This treatise tackled the rather cerebral topic of "Understanding Inheritance with C#." If this sounds like a no-nonsense technical document aimed squarely at programmers, you're not wrong. It was precise, unembellished, and intensely pragmatic—much like a well-written code.
By Abnoan Muniz2 years ago in Writers
The G.O.A.T. of Football
In the quiet village of Soccerdale, nestled between rolling hills and lush meadows, lived a most unusual hero – Leo, the Goat of Football. While the world celebrated human football players as the "Greatest of All Time," in Soccerdale, the term took on a whole new meaning.
By Samuel Zigwai Timothy 2 years ago in Writers
When I Began
Late nights, early mornings, a rooster crows... I have had insomnia for as long as I can remember. I always would stay awake long into the early morning, when my siblings would be waking up to go to school but I would get stay home to play all day in my childhood bed which resided in a small office turned Harry Potter-esque closet of a room. What kept me awake? I rarely ever had a nightmare, and if I got scared of the dark I would turn on a night light.
By J "Griffin" Rooms2 years ago in Writers
News Worthy Influenced Writing
Creative writing assignments are wonderful homework exercises unless you allow a parent into the private conversation. Back in grammar school when I brought books like “Black Sunday” and “The Fifth Horseman” into class for the USSR program, better known as unsustain silent reading where forty-five noiseless minutes, everyone read, and the activity demonstrated news influenced my intellectual foundation.
By Marc OBrien2 years ago in Writers
Nigerian Media Landscape
In a bold shift, Nigerian youths are revolutionizing the nation's media landscape, reclaiming the narrative from traditional news outlets accused of distorting facts. This surge comes as a response to concerns that mainstream media has been influenced by powerful interests, contributing to societal challenges.
By Isheno Ebenezer2 years ago in Writers
A Funny Idea I had Recently
So I have read a fair few hundred books in my time, thousands, millions, every book written so I think I am the most valuable source of information on good and terrible books. No, I’m just kidding. But I do love to sit and read a book with a cup of coffee every now and then. So I have read loads of books and I have furtherly enjoyed some more than others. But that is how it goes for the general reader, you have your favourite genres, writers and tropes. For me…personally… It's a dystopian future book that has my heart, or a fantasy world where you need to go on a dangerous adventure to save the world, anything with magic that makes me so absorbed in the book I feel like the main character and if I’m feeling frisky you can’t go wrong with a spicy enemies to lovers romance trope.
By Terri Allen2 years ago in Writers