"Write now is good."

Announcing "The Bookmark Contest"

Opium Magazine is running another fine contest. The deadline is February 8, 2008, so write it in your calendars and take some time to write a pithy, precise 250-word piece of flash fiction. The details:

Our rotation of oddball contests (Seven Line Stories in Opium4, and 500-Word Memoirs in Opium5) has led to some of the most jaw-dropping, exciting work we've read. That leads us to our all-new competition for Opium6's "Go Green!" issue: The Bookmark Contest judged by Aimee Bender.
The deal: write a 250 word story, and the winner will earn their spot on the  bookmark that will be slotted into every issue of Opium6. Inarguably thrilling!
The Reward: $1,000, and publication in Opium6 in bookmark form
The Cost: $10 for a single entry; $17.50 for two
How to Submit: Send your memoir to OpiumPrize@gmail.com, and pay the entry fee(s)
The Odds: We can’t know this until all entries are in, but know that we did publish seven stories from each of our last two contests.
The Judge: Aimee Bender is the author of three books, the most recent being Willful Creatures. Her short stories have been published in Granta, The Paris Review, Tin House, McSweeney's, Harper's, GQ and more, as well as heard on "This American Life."  She lives in L.A.

If you enter, drop a comment so we can root for you. Good luck, everyone!

Little, powerful

Photo: monarch butterfly by The Divine Miss K

When multiple butterflies appear out the living room window, above my car in traffic, and overhead in the park, I know it's September. The monarchs are migrating southward.

One recent blustery noon, we stopped to gaze at a monarch, grasping tightly to a flower, being buffeted around by strong winds. The gusts were so powerful that the flower the butterfly held was completely horizontal at times. The flower would lay parallel to the ground, until the wind threw it upright and then down in the opposite direction. Still, the butterfly hung on. We watched for ten minutes, mesmerized. We looked as we walked away, witnessing the wind continually toss the migrating butterfly every which way.

At last look, the monarch was beating the wind.

This image stayed with me. Wanting to understand the monarch's power, I did some research.

Now, imagine that you are a monarch:
- You weigh between 0.25 and 0.75 grams (for comparison, a dime weighs 2.3 grams).
- You can fly 12 miles or 18 km per hour. If you have to, you can fly much faster for quick sprints.
- You fly, on average, 50 miles (80 km) per day.
- In 30 days, you will have flown 1,500 miles (2,414 km).

It might be pure instinct that drives the monarchs. There is definitely an internal mechanism that switches on and guides them when the time is right. I understand science's take on all this.

Then I go back to what so amazes me:

Their delicate, paper-thin wings. Their spindly legs. Eating only flower nectar and water for fuel. An ability to travel hundreds, even thousands, of miles. Seeing monarch after monarch this time every year and ruminating over what they encounter on their journey, only more mystery fills my thoughts and drives my imagination.

Monarch facts and map courtesy of Monarch Watch

For more takes on the Sunday Scribblings prompt "powerful", click here.

My new favorite holiday is...

Photo: apostrophe by dAVIDb1

National Punctuation Day! It just occurred a few days ago (September 24th) and celebrates:

"...the lowly comma, correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods, semicolons and the ever-mysterious ellipse."

For the kids, there's Punctuation Playtime, an educational workshop that visits elementary schools around the world. The holiday even has an "official meatloaf" in the shape of a question mark (photo and recipe PDF available on the NPD site).

I'm writing this in my calendar for next year. Here's wishing you and yours a happy, belated National Punctuation Day!

It's time to get on "Off The Bus"

 

Attention, writers interested in covering the U.S. presidential elections in 2008. Read on about an opportunity to be a vital part of Off The Bus—Campaign Coverage by People Who Aren't in the Club:

Do you obsess over politics? Are you tired of the same-old horse race coverage? Do you enjoy writing or making videos?

Then you might be exactly who we're looking for.

OffTheBus, a renegade citizen media effort co-sponsored by the Huffington Post and NewAssignment.net and a nationwide network of citizen journalists, is looking for campaign correspondents. Responsible for covering and examining presidential campaign and grassroots activity, especially in their own backyards, our correspondents will provide an alternative look at the upcoming election. Correspondents will also be featured prominently on OffTheBus, as well as on the Huffington Post.

A bit more about us. Our goal is to provide the most authentic account of the 2008 presidential election contests. Unlike traditional political reportage, we make no assumption that leader boards and point ticks in the poll tell anything of value about the real stories behind an election cycle. Instead, we think you—with the unique perspective you bring that is distinctly NOT part of the journalistic machine—can provide a much better account of what this election looks and feels like...

If you're interested in signing up or have any questions, go here.

I'll be writing for Off The Bus, and I'm so excited about being part of the media coverage for what will definitely be an intense, fascinating election. When I post there, I'll cross-post here.

Get ready to WRITE!

Sharpen your pencils, fill your pens with fresh ink, and fire up your keyboards — the sign-up for the wacky, wonderful wordy-ness that is National Novel Writing Month begins in one short week (October 1).

Join me and thousands of others worldwide aiming to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November.

Note: This post is a preview. More is soon to follow. Be intrigued — be very intrigued.

Write to "The Envelope Collective"

Do you long to write a real letter to someone? Forget e-mail, IM, and text messaging for a moment — an innovative art group wants to hear from you via snail mail:

The Envelope Collective is an ongoing collaborative experiment in art that uses the transportation of mail as a medium. The website is an online gallery for those pieces that we receive.

What can you send them?

This is the fun part. Send us anything you want. Tell us a story. Tell us a secret. Don't tell us anything. Draw a picture, paint a letter. Send us a blank piece of paper. What is your dream? What is your fear? Send a postcard. What is your most favorite thing in the entire world? Who was your first crush? Who do you love? Don't be constrained by the proportions of an envelope. Send a box. Send a box with something in it. Decorate this box, make it into a piece of art...

If you need more ideas or just want to see what others have sent in, view the gallery. On the EC site, you can also chat about mail art with other "mail fine artistes" in the forums. If you have any additional questions, especially about how to send the EC your mail art, read their FAQ.

I'm having fun thinking about what the postal employees who deliver their mail see every day. Are the Envelope Collective addresses on the most desired mail routes — or the most dreaded? How do the mail-sorting machines deal with all the sculpture-like envelopes?

The Intergalactic Collector's Dilemma

Photo: Spaceship by Bialy-Fox

This week's Sunday Scribblings prompt is "collector personality".

Rusty rocket ship gears
Meteorite flakes
Pluto pet sheddings
Luscious lunar cakes

Jupiter storm-cloud vapors
Frozen comet dust
Vintage Venus trinkets
Ancient starlight crust

Little Dipper droplets
Nebula nectar divine
Gauzy Saturn saris
Moody Martian wine

Intergalactic travel has
So much to do and see.
Now I must land my spaceship—
There's no room left for me!

I wrote the poem's end first, then went back to the beginning, and wrapped up with the middle. The image of a crowded, souvenir-filled spaceship propelled it forward.

Read more takes on "collector personality" at Sunday Scribblings.

Writing tips for travelers

Photo: suitcase collection by Supercapacity

Travel provides fertile ground for the writer's mind. It breaks our outmoded patterns, creates new movement within, and offers fun and adventure. Follow these tips if you want to maximize travel's effects on your wordiness:

1. Designate a notebook solely for your trip. Treat it as your own travel guide in the making.

2. Write freely and often.

3. Observe. Look. Listen. Get your eyes out of the guide books; focus on what you see and what you are experiencing. Treasure your own takes on your travel.

4. Listen to your subconscious. Do you find yourself writing down things that don't make sense? Is your written voice taking on a different tone? Unfamiliar parts of your creative mind are waking up — welcome this change.

5. Preserve the details. Write down back routes you've followed, places you've stayed, people you've met, what you've eaten, ways you've gotten "un-lost". As your trip memories lose their freshness, you'll be glad that you've recorded so much, to inspire future writing, to give travel recommendations, and to plan more trips.

6. Invite others to write. If you're traveling with friends, pass your notebook around regularly and let travel companions write you a message and record their own trip observations. Encourage their own travel journaling, and write in their notebooks. You'll love looking back on these shared scribblings when the trip is over.

7. Write home, even to yourself. I'm a prolific postcard writer when I travel. My family and friends can always count on a getting a quick jot from me from somewhere along the route. Drop a couple of postcards to your own address. You'll have the stamp and postmark as souvenirs; these are fun to add to your travel journal when you get home. They also provide frozen snapshots of you (and your imagination...) at different points along the trip — priceless.

What are your tips?

What do you write in your notebooks?

Photo: keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether by rutabegabunny

Inspired by this list from "Life is a Journal" by Allen Galbraith, I ask you, Dear Blog Readers:

What do you write in your notebooks?

After flipping through the notebook I'm currently using, I've culled a top 5:

1. Blog post ideas
2. Various writing drafts (though never the final one)
3. Lots of poetry and poetic phrases/imagery
4. An occasional to-do list
5. Ideas, ideas, and more ideas!

From my quick study, I've realized that I use my notebook for everything. Though I try to keep phone messages on their own pad, quite a few have sneaked into the place I use solely for "creative expression".

Found at Moleskinerie

Welcome to Writers Island

Photo: Flat Island by Nature Explorer

While writers of the past have often worked in complete isolation, writers in 21st-century Blogville regularly congregate online. We cyber-writers now have a new destination for meet-ups: Writers Island.

If you already participate in an online writers' community like Sunday Scribblings, haiku: one deep breath, or the (late-great) Poetry Thursday, you'll be familiar with the Writers Island format:

If you are a writer, this is a place to express yourself. Whether you write poetry, short stories, essays, or prose -- you are invited to join in. Every Saturday a writing prompt will be posted here on Writers Island. Every Tuesday at approximately 12:01 AM, U.S. East Coast Time, a post will open for you to submit the "link only" to your contribution for that week's prompt.

The first Writers Island prompt, "my imaginary life", will be available to receive your links next Tuesday, September 11.

Prompts + community + weekly deadlines can really spur writing output and boost creativity. Laini Taylor, one of Sunday Scribblings' co-creators, just shared an exciting example of this last Sunday:

I also have a very exciting announcement to make! When Meg and I started this site last year, my motivation was to get myself writing new and different things -- and it really worked! I wrote stories, and I loved some of them. And my husband/illustrator Jim and I got the idea to propose a collection of three of them to some publishers as an illustrated book for young adults. Well, I am so thrilled to announce that we have just sold that book, Goblin Fruit to Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic. Yayyyyyy!!! It is comprised of two long short stories and one novella, each of which began life as a prompt HERE. The prompts were: "real life," "music," and "the monster." The stories are creepy, sensual, supernatural romance for teenagers and the book will be fully illustrated in the manner of a classic fairy tale book. So, a BIG tip of my hat to writing prompts, and to this wonderful community of scribblers. Yay! Thanks to all who've participated for the past 75 weeks!

Alright, you Writers Itching to Write—I recommend you give one of these communities a try, if you haven't already. You'll feel challenged, exhilarated and connected. If you've been suffering from writer's block, these prompts will help dislodge it. Prefer to draw? Sketch something based on the prompt, add some words, and post it. Care to compose something musical? As long as there's a writing component, it's allowed. Get creative, and enjoy!