Writings.

I’m going to be talking a lot over the next few weeks about the long nights, hard work, and general insanity that goes along with National Novel Writing month. Therefore, this week is dedicated to productive alternatives for those of you who want to get in on the spirit of the month, but aren’t up to or just plain don’t want to participate in the official challenge. 

Write an 100 word piece of flash fiction every day. On the 30th, you’ll have a wonderful collection of flash fiction to showcase.

Write a story One Sentence a day. This will be be an exercise in patience. By the end of 30 days, you’ll be dying to write the rest of it. 

READ a new piece of writing every day. An essay, or a published short story, or someone’s online poetry. Becoming familiar with different styles and forms will make your own writing better.

Make up a new character, or choose an old one, and learn one new thing about them per day. By December 1st, you’ll know them like they’re family. 

Keep a journal for 30 days, at one entry per day. You don’t have to write about writing, you can write about what you had for breakfast, or the weather. Keeping a journal is a great habit for writers, improving general craft and storing details for later projects. 

Come up with a one sentence idea for a novel or short story per day. It can be silly or serious, simple or involved. At the end of the month, you’ll have thirty seeds of inspiration to water. 

Hey, what's up, writeblr? Piggying back off this thread is a more formal attempt at getting an idea of who browses Tumblr's writing community and how.

All questions except the ones regarding the time are optional. The time questions are required because those are the three that kicked this whole shebang off, and it's probably the three people are most interested in. The rest are just to get an idea of what folks should best focus on and what's less important.

And yes, you read that correctly: answers are entirely anonymous (to the general public—there's a voluntary question at the end that will tell me who you are so I can tag you when the results come out), but answers will eventually be compiled into one post that will hopefully give writers an idea of when writeblr's actual peak hours are and who their audiences might be. This will hopefully help authors connect with readers—or at least reassure them that they do have readers.

This survey will be open until August 6, exactly one month from now.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. My askbox is anon-friendly, and my DMs are open to mutuals, if you don't wish to ask publicly via comments/reblogs.

Thanks so much for your responses!

1. Most people that submit to literary journals are cis white men. We know this because our journal has an anonymous survey about demographics for people that submit.

2. Most things that get submitted to the creative non fiction section are on the level of middle school “What I did over the summer” essays.

There is so much work from marginalized narratives in litmags these days — people lament there is no representation in media, but that disregards the progress and diversity of the works of editors and writers who help make these litmags possible. 

There is representation, and it is flourishing. They are waiting to be read. 

The Lumiere Review compiles a list of submission opportunities every month, and it are always very useful: 

https://lumierereview.com/sub-sep-oct-2021

List of Litmags that Specifically Look for Work from Marginalized Creators or is Run by Marginalized Creators:

Warning Lines: https://warninglines.com/

With Confetti: https://with-confetti.com/

Giving Room Magazine: http://www.givingroommag.com/

The Bitchin’ Kitsch: https://www.talbot-heindl.com/

Tealight Press: https://www.tealightpress.com/

Tipping the Scales: https://www.tippingthescalesjournal.co.uk/

The Winnow Magazine: https://www.thewinnowmagazine.com/

perhappened: https://www.perhappened.com/

AZE Journal: https://azejournal.com/

Honeyfire Lit: https://honeyfirelit.com/

and so much more!!

(And even if some litmags’ mission statement isn’t specifically for marginalized creators, they will always welcome these narratives.)

Three three three three three. Three three three, three three three three three; three three, three three three. “Three three three,” three three. Three three three three three, three three? Three three three – three three three three three…

With Confetti is set to private, and so only accessible with a Wordpress account. Their twitter last updated in June 2022.

The link for Giving Room is defunct. This is the current link: http://giving-room-mag.weebly.com/

Tealight Press is on hiatus according to their twitter (Oct. 2021), and their website is nonfunctional.

The link for Tipping the Scales is defunct, and does not redirect to their new site. The Magazine has been renamed to The Gillian Literary & Arts Journal, and this is the new link: https://tippingthescalesjo.wixsite.com/thegillian (However, their twitter does not seem to have updated since September 2022.)

Perhappened is on hiatus, but as of Feb 2023, their twitter does indicate something is in the works.

Random asks about your wips

Being tagged in tag games by people you don't know yet

Strangers complimenting your work

Fellow writeblrs striking up conversations

Interaction with new writeblrs in general

And the day I have to put things in my time capsule(s), I will have those to give the world for later.

I firstly want to have a commonplace book for each of my ten core values:

Autonomy, Authenticity, Adaptability, Creativity, Curiosity, Connection, Community, Dignity, Discovery and Exploration.

I then want commonplace books on Value, Integrity, Love, Hate, Purpose, Desire, Violence, Life and Death.

Lastly, I want commonplace books on various systems of oppression, power structures and hegemonies/hierarchies.

One of each: Colonialism and Colonisation, Imperialism, Capitalism, Patriarchy, White Supremacy, Anti-Blackness, Anti-semitism, Anti-Indigenous, Queerphobia, Transphobia, Ableism and Sanism, Lookism and Uglification and Genocide in all its versions. I then want to bind them all together titled "The Hydra". Or maybe I'll buy just a big ass book and make them all a chapter of it.

I want my commonplace books to be part collage, part painting, part paper cut out, part paper pop up art, part essay. I want it to have so much texture and visuals and tie all the words and quotes of others with the reflections of my mind.

“I don’t write every day?” Yes.

“it goes weeks or months between sessions?” Yes.

“my stories don’t get any or much interaction?” Yes.

“I only write fanfiction?” Yes.

“I only write for fun?” Yes.

“someone criticizes my skill?” Yes.

“my family are the only ones who read my stories?” Yes.

“I only write for myself, with no intention of sharing it with the world?” Yes.

“I don’t know writing terminology?” Yes.

“I’m not very good at what I’m doing?” Yes.

“I don’t believe myself worthy of being called one?” Yes.

“the publisher turned me down?” Yes.

“I only write one genre?” Yes.

“I use clichés?” Yes.

“I lack motivation?” Yes.

“I excel at dialogue but suck at description, or vice versa?” Yes.

“I keep abandoning projects to start something new?” Yes.

“I say screw the rules?” Yes.

What is the line between humbling someone and humiliating them?

When it comes to the marginalized undesirables, the disempowered who has low social capital, there is no line. Humbling is a nice excuse for humiliating the humiliated.

Black women, queer and trans folk, they are a joke. Their existence to this antiblack, white supremacist, queerphobic, transphobic cis-heteropatriarchal society is the punchline.

So when the punchline tries to be human, a humbling is due to remind them they are removed from being able to be anything but a joke. You are here for laughs and sneers. For shame and scapegoating. For names and kicking. How dare you try to make your bleeding serious.

[last updated Jan. 21, 2022]

(a list I put together… of lists I did not put together)

For those interested in techniques and genres that are outside of the mainstream market in the West/Americas, here’s a post of resources you can refer to for inspiration, research, or quiet support.

I believe there is no One Right Way to write a novel, and no one right way to present it either. Niche genres do exist, after all, and writing is an art form. Remember that writing “rules” are not a one-size-fits-all deal.

DISCLAIMER !! : Note there will be some overlap and you don’t have to like or agree with anything here. Also, while you may come across books by diverse authors, a lot of the ones listed here are old and probably written by white people, but BIPOC can and should be allowed to experiment with these, too. If content doesn’t interest you then maybe structure will. Form your own opinions.

but first, some recommended reading

Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative  by Jane Alison - in this book, the author explores form and pattern through close readings of various (niche/unconventional) novels.

What is Postmodernism in Literature? - a brief Youtube video presented by Dr. Masood Raja (Postcolonialism channel); simple yet informative.

Wikipedia articles - antinovel | verse novel | defamiliarization | metafiction | digression (literary) | fragmentary novel | weird fiction | new weird | slipstream | experimental literature | postmodern literature | interactive novel | hypertext fiction | LitRPG | cybertext | New Sincerity |

I’ll continue to update this post over time or write up more.

anti-novels

No rules, no problems. Take all the tropes and conventions of the typical novel and bastardize them through chaos. Or throw them out and make your own.

Goodreads: list of 100+

Barnes & Noble: flex your reading muscles

Millions article: long live the anti-novel, built from scratch

a review of Subimal Misra’s work This Could Have Become Ramayan Chamar’s Tale: Two Anti-Novels

bizarre, weird fiction

If you ever wanted to read or write about cat men on Mars, or a bear who talks and plays the saxophone, or people with blue butts… Well, you can.

Book Riot: 100 strange and unusual novels

Bustle: 13 super strange books

Goodreads: Monster/Erotica books

Owlcation: 10 of the weirdest novels ever written

blog post by Z. Burns ft. 7 more weird books

experimental

Hard to define but generally more about form than content. Maybe you want half your story told in footnotes. Maybe your paragraphs are separated from the main body of text and dispersed all over the page. Maybe some of it is upside-down.

Goodreads list

Bustle: 10 experimental novels that aren’t hard to read

Standout Books: 5 experimental novels that will inspire any writer

(preview) Experimental Fiction: An Introduction for Readers and Writers Julie Armstrong

sparse plot / low conflict / books where “nothing happens”

Very basically, a plot is a sequence of events affected through cause-and-effect. In the West, audiences often expect there to be a linear series of conflicts that ultimately leads to a big “showdown”. This is not a universal narrative structure, and personally I would love to see more “cozy” fantasy novels that aren’t about saving the world or destroying an oppressive government.

Reddit recommendations - “a book where nothing happens”

Book Riot: in praise of plotless books

(blog) mundane and slice-of-life SFF recommendations

 sketch story (wikipedia) | literary sketch (britannica)

“I would like to read a novel that is composed of numerous very interesting facts, but which nonetheless fails to cohere for me as a book.”

● source: (blog): I would like to read a dull plotless novel…

List Challenges: novels with no plot whatsoever

Reddit thread on slice-of-life/mundane speculative fiction

recommended reading

the significance of plot without conflict - an excellent post on the kishotenketsu structure, which is influenced by East Asian values such as unity and harmony over conflict and resolution.

what is iyashikei and why should you care? - often found in anime and manga, the purpose of this genre is to provide healing