Inspiration Monday XII

Last week was rife with the (unfounded) insecurity of Rewriters who didn’t like their pieces but had the courage to post them anyway, much to the delight of the readers, who found them as good as ever. Be sure to read around!

Also, in case you missed yesterday’s post by TragicPete, be sure to pop over. “Pete” is my long-time critique partner and also happens to be my brother. He mentioned he needed an outlet for some of his shorter work, and just last week it occured to me that inviting him to join my blog would be the perfect solution. He expects to post once or twice a month, and you’ll probably see him around in the comments.

***EDIT: Check out the InMon page for official InMon badges created by Marantha!

Jinx and two

Patti

Marantha

Mike

Ken

Scribbla

Kay

Billie Jo

Drew

Hugmore

Fredi

Char

Carl

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before6 pm CSTon the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

Paper towns*

The firing squad couldn’t face him

 Seemed like a good idea at the time

Unorthodox alarm clock

You wouldn’t think to look at her

If you want to share your Inspiration Monday piece, post it on your blog and link back to today’s post; I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at stephanie (at) balcomagency (dot) com.

Happy writing!

Today’s first prompt brought to you by a book of the same title, by John Green.

Inspiration Monday XI

I think you guys are the nicest people on the planet. And also some of the most talented. Thanks for being so understanding about everything, thanks for being encouraging both to me and to each other, and thanks most of all for writing! I think words are more powerful than any of us realize.

Rashmi told me how to get the poll up – so if you haven’t already made your opinion known in yesterday’s comments, click through to my home page and click on the poll on the right sidebar.

And click on some of these names! All of them are well worth the read (or the listen!)

Kay

Fredi and two and three

Jinx

Drew

Carl

Billie Jo

Marantha

Hugmore

Patti

Scribbla

Char

Mike and two and three

Mark

Barb

Also, Drew, the Rewriters’ resident composer, actually produced an actual song based on lyrics he wrote for InMon VII – actually a real song! Go check it out.

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before6 pm CSTon the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

The curse of immortality
War was the least of our problems
Sun sets, curtain rises
Declared independence. Nobody listened.
One man’s trash

 

If you want to share your Inspiration Monday piece, post it on your blog and link back to today’s post; I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at stephanie (at) balcomagency (dot) com.

Happy writing!

Change coming to Inspiration Monday

 

Dear, dear, dear Rewriters,


First of all, don’t panic. It’s only a small change, and I think it’ll hurt me more than it hurts you. In fact, I’ve been arguing with myself over it for the past two weeks.

Time constraints dictate that, for future Inspiration Mondays, I can only promise to read the first ten unique submissions (“unique” meaning from different people). This doesn’t mean I won’t read your submission if it happens to be number eleven. It just means I might not read it. I will also continue to link to ALL submissions (so keep linking back!).

This is in no way a guilt trip or a veiled request for less participation. The whole point of InMon is to write more! I hope that more people will continue to be regularly involved, and if any of you even thinks of apologizing for participating “too much,” I will hire a private investigator to find out where you live so I can go smack you upside the head.

Really, this was bound to happen sooner or later. If I want this thing to grow, I can’t limit it to what just one person can keep up with. But even now, as my cursor hovers over the “Publish” button, I am hesitating. I don’t want you to think I don’t care, or that reading your work is even a chore – it’s not! This is like giving up chocolate or something. All week long, I was reading submissions, thinking – what if she writes something this fantastic next week and I don’t even read it? What if he tops himself again next week and I miss it? Plus, you’ve all been so kind and supportive. So even though this is torturing me, I wanted to be up front with you guys about the what, the why and whatever else.
First Tuesday posts, now InMon reading, are you slowly inching away?
No! I’m simply instituting practical guidelines for myself so I can keep this good thing going. There’s so much I want to do with this blog! But I only started blogging seriously last February, so I’m still gauging how much I can handle.
Will there be any other changes to InMon in the future?
If the submissions keep building, I may have to limit links. For instance, if we get up to 40 or 50 per week, I may only link to the first 25. But for now, I’ll continue linking to all submissions.
The only other changes I can foresee might be how I select the 10 to read or the 25 to link – I may start choosing randomly, or focusing on new faces. Also, there may be some “break” weeks for holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Super Secret Project.

 
What is the Super Secret Project???
I can’t tell you yet! But I’m about 25% of the way into preparations.

And another thing…
I don’t want you to look at me as some kind of faceless, inaccessible “expert.” First, I’m not really an expert. I’m still learning, too. Second, this is a community; we should help each other. So talk to me! Ask me questions! If I can possibly help, I will.

A question to leave you with:

What do you guys think about maybe, possibly, sometime in the future self-publishing a collection of the “best of InMon” in a book? All the Rewriters would pick the best of their submissions, and we’d put them all together in a book through Lulu.com or something like that. Nothing fancy—it would only be marketed to our small community—but I think it would be cool. I’ve created a poll (click through if you are reading through email/RSS), and feel free to elaborate on your thoughts in the comments.

EDIT: Okay, I can’t figure out how to get the poll up. Just let me know what you think in the comments.

Inspiration Monday X

Whew! More submissions than ever this week – 28! It also happens to be the tenth InMon, and we are well over 100 submissions total. Seems like we should have some kind of anniversary celebration. Happy InMon to us, happy InMon to us! Click the links, they are genius. Happy InMon to us!

Woah. Unintentional rhyme!

Kay

Carl

Mike and two and three and four

Sonia

Marantha and two and three 

Drew

Janel

Billie Joe

Patti

Char and two

Jinx

Mark

Scribbla

Rebekah

Indigo Spider and two

Fredi and two

Jenna

Debra

BlueSkyPoet

Barb

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before6 pm CSTon the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

A man with no fingerprints

The day the earth stood still*

Atlas shrugged*

The other me

Things only children know

 

If you want to share your Inspiration Monday piece, post it on your blog and link back to today’s post; I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at stephanie (at) balcomagency (dot) com.

Happy writing!

*Obviously, these are titles from famous works. I wasn’t impressed by either film version of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and I’ve never read Atlas Shrugged, but both phrases fascinate me, and I’m eager to see what you guys do with them. Have at it!

Inspiration Monday…uh…IX

Brilliant work again this past week, and one or two new faces! Be sure to read and comment! Rewriters, don’t forget to pingback, and don’t worry if I don’t respond right away. I might not get the chance to read up ’til Friday or Saturday, though I try to approve pingbacks daily. Thanks for bearing with me. : )

Marantha

Drew

Kay

Patti

Sonia

Mike and two and three

Otakufool

Char

Carl and two

Spewit

Debra

Jinx

EDIT: I missed Rashmi’s awesome piece! and Indigo Spider’s, too!

The Rules

There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.

OR

No really; I need rules!

Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before6 pm CSTon the Monday following this post.

The Prompts:

The exits of the world*

You don’t think of it as murder

Postcard from hell

In a better place

Life in a box

If you want to share your Inspiration Monday piece, post it on your blog and link back to today’s post; I’ll include a link to your piece in the next Inspiration Monday post. No blog? Email your piece to me at stephanie (at) balcomagency (dot) com.

Happy writing!

*Today’s first prompt brought to you by the original Trock band, Chameleon Circuit, from their song, Exterminate Regenerate.

NOTE: It occurs to me that all the prompts this week seem to be about death. This was not intentional. Please feel free to interpret them differently!