Good evening Horticulturalists, Night Creatures, and Lunatics!
I see you’ve come to the midnight garden to admire the night blooms. Not many people know about this place. Rumors and all. You know, it’s said that magic happens beneath iridescent light, because…
This week’s Writing Group prompt is:
Blooming in Moonlight
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!
This prompt conjures an image of ethereal, midnight beauty. The first thing it makes me think of is flowers. There are several real flowers that bloom in the moonlight (Angel’s Trumpets, Queen of the Nights, Casablanca Lilies…), as well as a vast plethora of mythical ones. You could write about scientists examining the flowers blooming at night, about your characters having a picnic in a meadow under the stars, or else a dark duel covered in petals.
We usually associate flowers with blooming, but when an aquatic, microscopic algae population swells so much that it changes the entire ecosystem, this is called algal bloom. These bloom events vary in color from green, to red, to brown and gold, to even purple, and are sometimes big enough to be seen from space! Algal blooms can be good (providing nutrients and food for other organisms) or harmful (producing toxins or damaging structures that kill aquatic life). If you want to do something really fun and/or wacky with this prompt, tell us the story of one of such blooms. You could write about a fish beneath it, a human population affected by it, or even personify it! Writing about someone from space seeing it could be a particularly interesting application of the moonlight aspect.
The fun thing about this prompt, however, is that it’s not “flowers in moonlight” or “plants in moonlight.” It’s “blooming in moonlight.” It’s the verb—you get to decide what’s blooming. Blooming can apply to more than just plants. Looking up the definitions, it can apply to anything at its freshest and most beautiful. It can refer to a youthful glow about a person’s complexion. Perhaps you want to write about the young debutante coming down the stairs, bathed in moonlight, or else the vampire putting on the guise of a human complexion.
Even music is said to bloom when it has a full bright sound. Perhaps you want to write about a composer seeing their dream fulfilled as they hear their composition bloom, or a teen sitting in their room enjoying their favorite song when they can’t sleep.
When I look up the definitions of bloom, one is “(of fire, color, or light) [to] become radiant and glowing” which I think is particularly beautiful. You could write about fireworks blooming over the water, of a painter mixing the perfect, radiant shade, or of bioluminescent creatures blooming beneath the waves under a moonlight of their own invention.
You can push this prompt to greater limits than that. “Bloom” is a word that can be used poetically. Blood may “bloom” in the water, anger may “bloom” inside one’s chest, even scandalous desires might “bloom” at night. There are several things that happen in the moonlight that you could poetically describe as blooming. You could even describe something like a werewolf transformation like a flower blooming. The sky—or should I say moon?—is your limit. (But, if you go this route, just be sure to make the connection to the prompt clear.)
My challenge for you this week is one meant to help you improve your writing skills. I often talk on streams about using active verbs. (Example: Instead of saying “He held my arm tightly.” saying “He grabbed my arm.” Instead of saying “She was lonely.” saying “Loneliness crept in from the corners of the room.”) “Bloom” is one of my personal favorite active and poetic verbs, so I think this would be a great challenge for this prompt.
Level one of my challenge is: do your best to use active verbs throughout your piece. This is the most lenient level of the challenge—just do your best when and where you can to use active verbs.
The second level of my challenge is: don’t use any adverbs (besides ones like “yesterday” and “tomorrow,” those are fine). This is the next difficulty level—finding adverbs and completely removing them in the goal of using an active verb instead.
The third level is: don’t use am/is/are/was/were anywhere in your piece—always choose something more active. I know, to some, this may seem impossible (it certainly did to me when my English teacher once gave my class this challenge) but you’d be surprised how little you need those verbs, and how often those words can be replaced and improved by something more active. (Example: “I was hot.” vs “The heat clung to me.”)
(You can mix and match the levels to your preference!)
Remember, these challenges aren’t mandatory! They are meant to be a fun bonus if you’d like to have a little extra challenge. But, if you don’t want to use them, please don’t feel obligated to!
My, how you’ve grown, seedlings! Now put those new petals to use and dazzle us.
—Felicia, Kaylie, and Pearce
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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 five stories during each stream, two of which come from the public post, and three 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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