Hello Berserkers, Fanatics, and Water Molecules!
Oh, alright, alright. I know you all are excited for the prompt. There’s no need to push and shove…
This week’s Writing Group prompt is:
Let’s Calm Down, Shall We?
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 the image of strong emotions, and a conversation. There are many feelings one might need to “calm down” from.
The first emotion that comes to mind for me is anger. Words like these, if spoken directly in a fight, would likely do anything but make someone calm. The quintessential “I AM CALM!” fight. You could write about someone who is angry, or otherwise upset, who won’t be calmed, no matter how much the other person tries. Or maybe, the person is indeed calm. Sometimes those who remain calm and collected are much more dangerous than those fuming and shouting.
Panic would be another emotion one would need to calm down from—whether that fear is an overreaction, or well founded. I could hear someone saying this phrase while handing their panicking friend a paper bag to breathe into. Or the words could be spoken gently, as a friend crouches beside another, wiping their tears and telling them to point out the things in the room they can see, and feel, and smell to ground them, and pull them out of their panic attack.
“Calm down” might not be the initial reaction to sorrow, but someone could react to sadness in a way that garners this reaction. It could be a relative blubbering too loudly at a funeral. Or a child wailing because they didn’t get the toy they wanted. Or perhaps a child is crying because of their nightmares and their parent sings them a lullaby. Someone could even be faking tears and told to calm down.
However, the emotions don’t have to be negative. I can think of several ways in which this prompt could refer to excitement. Teenage girls squealing because they got tickets to see their favorite band…or adult men squealing because they got tickets to see their favorite football team. Little kids running around at a birthday party, high on sugar. People at a church shouting “AMEN!” a little too loudly, distracting the preacher.
But the phrase doesn’t have to refer to a conversation in which one person is upset, and the other is not, either. It could refer to multiple people who are feeling emotional together. Maybe, in the middle of the fight, a couple realizes, in a healthy way, they both need to calm down before continuing. It could refer to two people grieving together. Perhaps your characters are spies who just watched someone they loved get hurt, or worse, and they have to calm down in order to do their job. It could even refer to two people being extremely excited together, like the kids under the blanket fort, realizing they should calm down before they wake up the rest of the house.
You could even be saying this to yourself. One of the most fascinating takes I can see on this prompt is to write about someone who’s upset trying to tell themselves to calm down. This too could be a good thing or a bad thing. You might be crying and telling yourself to bottle up your emotions and not feel. Or you might be angry, gently telling yourself breathe. As you’re panicking, it may even be a mantra repeated in your own head, over and over, against the rising tide of fear.
My challenge for you this week is to use this prompt to write about something wholesome. There are many ways in which you could do this—whether it be through hurt/comfort, or excitement, or humor.
I will add on to that, that due to my own emotional struggles over the personal tragedy I mentioned, my own emotions are on high at the moment. I am in a grieving process over the death of my friend. I set this as your challenge for the week, not just because I think it’d be a fun challenge—and not the first place one’s mind goes to—but because I may struggle with the more dark and intense stories this week. It’s up to you what you decide to write, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. But I’d appreciate it if you decided to provide some more positive stories to read.
Okay, don’t panic. You have plenty of time to….are you hyperventilating? No, it’s not worth getting worked up over. Just take a bit of time and clear your thoughts.
—Pearce, Kaylie, and Paul
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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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