Writing Exercise
🎉 The July 8 Birthday Poetry Challenge (Unofficial) 🎉
To celebrate my birthday, I am inviting you to write a poem for my birthday party. The goal is simple: write something memorable, creative, funny, heartfelt, or anything you think would be amazing to hear read out loud at a celebration.
By Tim Carmichael4 months ago in Writers
Weird Laws
Sometimes I amuse myself by reading the strange state laws that are still on the books and imagining the stories behind them, and two in particular appeal to me from the point of story, and they’re both Carolina laws concerning animals. The first one is from South Carolina:
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Writers
Lit Lit 6
First, I want to thank everyone who plays these nerdy-wordy games with me. It's refreshing to look at great literature and have some silly fun with it. Creating them helps take my mind off waiting for challenge results, and I hope that playing along serves the same purpose for those who participate.
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Writers
A Splintered Gyre
Historical Context and Mythological Backdrop William Butler Yeats published "Leda and the Swan" in 1924, a period marked by both personal artistic transition and intense political upheaval in Ireland. In the overarching framework of his philosophical system, outlined in his work A Vision, history moves in two-thousand-year cycles called gyres. Each gyre is initiated by a dramatic, violent intersection of the divine and the human.
By Tim Carmichael4 months ago in Writers
Gatekeeping in Writing Communities. Top Story - June 2026.
Not every harsh opinion is valuable, just as not every valuable opinion has to be harsh. -Annam M. Gordon Writing communities can be strange places sometimes where gatekeeping is alive and well in many of them. Most writing forums seem to have its share of drama, cliques, and people who appoint themselves the authority on what counts as “real” writing. Reviews and comments can quickly turn into status signaling, where “real writers do it this way.”
By Annam M Gordon4 months ago in Writers
Why Is Publishing a Book Easier Today Than Ever Before?
Once upon a time, not that long ago, publishing a book was a difficult, multi-year process. This complicated limitless negative letters, a hopeful search of a literary agent who may or may not return your calls, and a dauntingly large publishing house that held all the cards and the power. We're talking criticism, rejection, and persistence.
By Herta Hilpert4 months ago in Writers
EN REALIDAD
This is an old writing. My AI, when I asked it to analyze this called it "prose-poem manifesto". I cut maybe 3-5 words from the original and had my AI create breaks to make it more readable or digestible, if you will. But the writing, every word, is mine. Enjoy..or not.
By Victor Mendez4 months ago in Writers
The Cask of Amontillado
I started this series a few weeks ago, and since I know everyone is anxiously awaiting the challenge results today, I’m going to update in real time. If you want to play, look for Lit Lit 4b on my page (that link is glitching with the embedding tool. Alas, I shall not send a ticket but go around it instead. https://vocal.media/writers/lit-lit-4b
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Writers
Lit Lit 4b
Here’s something to distract you while you wait for challenge results, a literary version of Mad Libs. It looks like I got ahead of the challenge results. I seriously doubt that will be my worst mistake this week. Moving on. Yes, I love y'all so much that I've made a second classic literature mad libs to entertain your nerves while you wait to see if you've won in the latest challenge. In case you’re wondering why I don’t post my own list, it’s because I know what the text excerpt is, which feels like cheating to me, so I abstain.
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Writers
