Hello, Botanists and Druids!
Do you have a green thumb? Maybe a gift for working with plants? Do you feel more drawn to greenhouses and garden centers, or even fields and forests, rather than the paved and manufactured feel of the city? Then get your fertilizer and trowel, because…
This week’s Writing Group prompt is:
Conquered By Nature
RULES AND GUIDELINES BELOW!
Make sure you scroll down and read them if you haven’t! You may not be eligible if you don’t!
We’ve seen it time and again, haven’t we? Mostly on television, sure, in those “explorational specials” or documentaries on ancient civilizations. But imagine what it would be like to push through the vines and the brush and find evidence that you weren’t there first. Imagine how utterly mind-blowing it would be to discover someone else had already come and gone, hundreds of years before you were even a thought.
Now is your chance to explore from the comfort of your home! Now you can venture out into the uncharted lands of wherever and beat back the vines and the brush. What would you discover?
Perhaps a long ruined city stands before you, trees growing through what little of the buildings are left standing while vines and briars twist, turn, and snake over everything in sight. Wild roses and all kinds of flowers and vegetation grow wherever they please. Where artificial colours and places once stood, where bustling and numb crowds once called home, now a whole new kind of life thrives freely.
Only your imagination and research can tell what truly happened here. Maybe the animals in the zoo finally broke out of their domesticated life and wiped humanity from the slate. Or maybe it wasn’t a zoo at all, but a council of druids that were tired of humans taking advantage of Gaia’s gifts, and taking her once lush and lovely world for granted. Perhaps the ents that guard the oldest forests finally rose up to topple the logging industry, and the rest of civilization with it for fear that it would just start all over again.
Every tree tells a story, but only if you cut it down and count the rings. Will your curiosity be sated just to look upon the overgrown greenery, or will you dig too deep and suffer Gaia’s twisting and entangling wrath?
Now that the seed is planted, nurture it, and let it grow into whatever lovely idea it wills itself to be. Drink from its sweet nectar to feed your imagination and fuel your pen.
—Shawna
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Remember, this is part of our weekly Writing Group stream! Submit a little piece following the rules and guidelines below, and there’s a chance your entry will be read live on stream! In addition, we’ll discuss it for a minute and give you some feedback.
Tune into the stream this Saturday at 3:00pm CST to see if you made the cut!
The whole purpose of this is to show off the creativity of the community, while also helping each other to become better writers. Lean into that spirit! Get ready not just to share what you’ve got, but to give back to the other writers here as well.
Rules and Guidelines
We read at least four stories during each stream, two of which come from the public post, and two of which come from the much smaller private post. Submissions are randomly selected by a bot, but likes on your post will improve your chances of selection, so be sure to share your submission on social media!
Text and Formatting
- English only.
- Prose only, no poetry or lyrics.
- Use proper spelling, grammar, and syntax.
- Your piece must be between 250-350 words (you can use this website to see your wordcount).
- Use two paragraph breaks between each paragraph so that they have a proper space between them (press “enter” or “return” twice).
- Include a submission title and an author name (doesn’t have to be your real name). Do not include any additional symbols or flourishes in this part of your submission. Format them exactly as you see in this example, or your submission may not be eligible: Example Submission.
- No additional text styling (such as italics or bold text). Do not use asterisks, hyphens, or any other symbol to indicate whether text should be bold, italic, or styled in any other way. CAPS are okay, though.
What to Submit
- Keep submissions “safe-for-work”; be sparing with sexuality, violence, and profanity.
- Try to focus on making your submission a single meaningful moment rather than an entire story.
- Write something brand new; no re-submitting past entries or pieces written for other purposes
- No fan fiction whatsoever. Take inspiration from whatever you’d like, but be transformative and creative with it. By submitting, you also agree that your piece does not infringe on any existing copyrights or trademarks, and you have full license to use it.
- Submissions must be self-contained (everything essential to understanding the piece is contained within the context of the piece itself—no mandatory reading outside the piece required. e.g., if you want to write two different pieces in the same setting or larger narrative, you cannot rely on information from one piece to fill in for the other—they must both give that context independently).
Submission Rules
- One submission per participant.
- Submit your entry in a comment on this post.
- Submissions close at 12:00pm CST each Friday.
- You must like and leave a review on two other submissions to be eligible. Your reviews must be at least 50 words long, and must be left directly on the submission you are reviewing, not on another comment. If you’re submitting to the private post, feel free to leave these reviews on either the private or the public post. The two submissions you like need not be the same as the submissions you review.
- Be constructive and uplifting. These submissions are not for a professional market, and shouldn’t be treated as such. We do this, first and foremost, for the joy of the craft. Help other writers to feel like their work is valuable, and be considerate and gentle with critique when you offer it. Authors who leave particularly abrasive or disheartening remarks on this post will be disqualified from selection for readings.
- Use the same e-mail for your posts, reviews, and likes, or you may be rendered ineligible (you may change your username or author name between posts without problem, however).
- You may submit to either or both the public/private groups if you have access, but if you decide to submit to both, only the private group submission will be eligible.
- Understand that by submitting here, you are giving us permission to read your submission aloud live on stream and upload public, archived recordings of said stream to our social media platforms. You will always be credited, but only by the author name you supply as per these rules. No other links or attributions are guaranteed.
Comments on this post that aren’t submissions will be deleted, except for replies/reviews left on existing submissions.
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