Writing Exercise

Lit Lit 4
Welcome to my Wednesday think-about-something-other-than-challenge-results post! Apparently, I'm two days early for challenge results (I don't have a horse in this race). Oops! I loved Mad Libs when I was a child and love them even more as an adult. I make my own now, from great works of literature in the public domain (can't afford to face a lawsuit from the Steinbeck family).
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Writers
Lit Lit 3 Results
It's time for the results of our Mad Libs from last week. The poem I used for this was Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" (one of two villanelles that don't make me crazy, and, yes, the other one is "Do Not Go Gentle . . ."). Why do villanelles make me crazy? Too much end rhyme and too much repetition, usually of ideas that don't bear repeating. However, for a Mad Libs, I though a (good) villanelle would be fun. Instead of having participants fill in a jillion verbs, I simply conjugated the ones I asked for in the refrain.
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Writers
Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival: Day Two
On day two, I woke in the dark to the sound of a long hiss, followed by… beeping? I lay there for a minute while the grogginess slowly faded. Then I remembered, despite my beautiful surroundings, there was a servo (gas station) next door, and someone was probably pumping up their tyres.
By Sandy Gillman4 months ago in Writers
Kwitcherbitchin. Content Warning.
I’m of Northern European and Native American roots, pretty sure the Germanic folk hailed from the small hamlet of Kwitcherbitchin, eventually breeding with travelers from Fixyerfuckingrammar and Punctuateyergoddamnsentences, on the other side of the mountains, leaving those lands after some time to marry in with inhabitants of Bespecific and Showdonttell. Eventually, their descendants got on a ship, and there were some illicit relations with Concretelanguage, resulting in the bastard births of Strongverbs, Subversion, and Sensorydetail before making landfall on Literaryallusion at the mouth of the River of Alliteration and settling in Citeyoursources, on the banks of Lake Threedimensionalcharacters, in the shadow of Realisticdialogue Mountain. I am all of my ancestors and carry the maps of their native lands in my blood.
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Writers
Catharsis
Many readers and writers enjoy horror as a cathartic experience. My guess is that they’ve had less genuine horror in their lives than I have. Fear is not my friend, and I will not recreationally seek it. Does this mean catharsis is absent from my experience? Absolutely not—it just means that I find catharsis elsewhere.
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Writers
A Weird/Normal Dream
I dreamt I was at a very big store, hanging out with Catherine, my former coworker, and Mary, our former boss. We end up sitting at a super long table in the employee basement and reconnecting. I think at one point how I’m glad I can be so far from them, and that Catherine should be farther away from Mary.
By Gabriel B. Shames4 months ago in Writers
Listening to Mambo No. 5. Top Story - May 2026.
I saw recently a video about a writing technique used by Stephen King. Allegedly, Stephen King listened to Mambo No. 5 so many times while writing one of his novels that his wife threatened to divorce him. Now, maybe I’m just perpetuating an internet rumor, but I decided the concept of listening to one song over and over again was intriguing to me. The idea is that endlessly listening to the same song puts you in a kind of flow state for lack of a better term. So, I thought I’d give it a try.
By Raine Neal4 months ago in Writers
Before Reading or Listening to Peter Thwing (AI Intro - ChatGPT). AI-Generated.
(This reader’s guide was drafted with AI assistance through ChatGPT and shaped from a broader conversation about how Peter Thwing’s essays, stories, podcast episodes, and series function as a connected body of work.)
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Writers
Creativity Is Synthesis, Not Spontaneity
The False Image of the Sudden Idea Creativity is often imagined as something sudden, mysterious, and self-contained. The common picture is a flash of inspiration that arrives whole, clean, and complete, as if the creative person simply receives the idea and writes it down before it disappears. Under that view, real ideas are supposed to feel untouched by process. They are supposed to appear naturally, without visible effort, refinement, conversation, revision, or struggle. Anything that emerges through articulation, outside feedback, tools, or repeated attempts can then be treated as less authentic because it did not arrive in its final form.
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Writers
Before Reading or Listening to Peter Thwing (AI Intro - Grok). AI-Generated.
(This reader’s guide was drafted with AI assistance through Grok and shaped from a broader conversation about how Peter Thwing’s essays, stories, and series function as a connected body of work.)
By Peter Thwing - Host of the FST Podcast4 months ago in Writers
He Was Rewritten After His Death. Honorable Mention in The Posthumous Author Challenge.
To comprehend Tim Carmichael, one must first descend into the shadowed recesses of Spillcorn. Deep within the ancient hills of Madison County there lies that forgotten settlement, hidden as though the mountains themselves had conspired to hide it from the modern world. No roaring highways disturbed its solemn quietness. No vast academies, no glittering halls of commerce, no restless tide of tourists found passage there. Indeed, many among the citizens of Asheville dwelt for decades within neighboring valleys without once hearing the name Spillcorn uttered aloud. Yet from that profound isolation there emerged the strange and singular imagination of Carmichael, whose spirit was forever marked by the loneliness of those remote elevations.
By Tim Carmichael4 months ago in Writers
Lit Lit 3
Who wants to think about something other than "Did I place in the challenge?" Me, too. That's why I'm doing a Mad Libs every challenge results day, to help take the edge off and calm the nerves. I will only use great literature for these delightful corruptions, and this time, I'm not saying what we're destroying. Have faith that it will be fun and irreverent.
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Writers