PW NEWS

Weekly News and Updates #10

For Dec 11th — 17th

Ravyne Hawke

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Promptly Written

14 min readDec 18, 2021

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Greetings PW Writers and Readers. The pub is open and decorated in holiday cheer! The liquor and beer bar and the coffee and tea bar are both open. The center table is filled with holiday snacks and goodies. Grab yourselves a drink and a snack, and get yourselves settled in.

I want to thank all of you for your contributions, read time, and responses during this second week of December. Remember, clapping and commenting on one another’s work is what makes PW a community. Let’s continue to encourage one another by visiting each others’ stories and supporting one another. I would hate to lose writers because they don’t feel like their work is being appreciated here on PW. Your interactions here continue to make PW a success!

An extra special THANKS to Katrina D. for answering my emergency call on Dec 15th when my power went out. Thanks for lightening my load! Our lovely Alyse Rowe was out of town visiting family — praise be! New Zealand had been on lockdown for a while. I so appreciate you both!

If you have any issues or questions about anything dealing with Promptly Written, feel free to contact me — Email: ravynehawke@gmail.com

🎄🎅🤶SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT🎄🎅🤶

Promptly Written is taking December 24–25th AND December 31st-January 1st off.

What will this mean for you as a writer here at PW? Just publishing turn-around time. The prompts will come out as usual. The pub will be open to receive your work. However, there will be a 48–72 hr publication turn-around time. That’s all.

I want to allow everyone who celebrates Christmas and New Years to not feel constrained to write during this time and to give my editors and me a much-needed break during the holidays. However, should the desire to write appear, you will still have prompts and be able to submit your work.

🩸🩸🩸PERSONAL FYI🩸🩸🩸

On December 28th, I have a follow-up doctors’ appointment from the surgery. I do not expect any unusual problems with your work being published during this appointment. You just may find us publishing your work at odder hours than normal.
Medium’s notification bell is still acting up. If you need an immediate response or have a question, the best thing is to email me directly. I will try to get to all of your comments as Medium allows.

❗❗❗EXCITING NEWS❗❗❗

Did you know that PW has FIVE Features? Well, we do! Check out the HOUSEKEEPING section below to find out how you can get a Featured spot on PW.

Marc Barham continues to delight us with his supernatural horror series The Noise. You can catch up on all parts (there are 21 parts now!) of it by following this link to the first part of the series. Each part is linked at the bottom of the page so you can move freely from one section to the next. If you like Vampires, Werewolves, and other supernatural beings, you will love this! Please stop by, read, clap, comment, and support Marc!
NIDAA has begun a series of flash fiction stories based on the theme “The Dots” and each story is unique and fascinating to read. So far, she has written six — A Never-Ending Love Story, The Healer, The Fallen Hour, The 1 Hour Call, Samuel’s Three-Time Dimensions, The Murder of Mr. Smith. Please stop by, have a read, give a clap and leave Nidaa a supportive comment.
Our very own Fifi Leigh is writing reviews and gifting us with glimpses of her life! This week Fifi has been sharing a lot of her personal life around her routines and happenings with her Alumni. Two of my favorite pieces this week are — Once Upon A Time…In Holywood(2019) movie review and DIY Doggie Decor. You can find all of her reviews, tips, and personal life moments after the Personal Essays section and right before the Articles & Op-Ed section on the PW publication page. Please go have a read, clap, comment, and support her work.
Tunnel Books, author and creator, Francis Edwards has a new featured spot! Here, you can read his poems for this week, Traffic Light Christmas, Cady Cane, and Hard Candy. Francis’ feature can be located right before the Poetry section of the homepage. Please go and support his work.
Our lovely jules has a new featured section called Jules Interpretations Of Poetry. Help her explore the ins and outs of poetry by reading, clapping, and commenting on her pieces. Her two pieces this week are — Big Words Scare Me and Follow Your Muse.

🎇🎇🎇OTHER PROMOTIONS🎇🎇🎇

I’ve started a new publication called Not For Bedtime Stories — Serials for Breakfast. Please visit the Submission Guidelines if you are interested in writing a Serial Fiction with an edge. Suma Narayan has begun her serial All My Sisters and I have begun my serial Revenge of the Ravens. Come check them out and get in on them at the beginning!

We have been in a collaboration with Winston over at Coffee Times for his Coffee Competition. All of the stories that have qualified are currently being judged. Expect the winner's announcement on December 18th. Good luck to all who entered!

PW is hosting Roselyn Violet’s ‘Violet Poetry’ challenge for all the poets of PW. So far 22 poets have contributed poems. All of the poems are at the very top of the PW publication page. You can read all about this lovely venture here

Calling All Poets!

Violet Poetry Writing Challenge

medium.com

Winston is running another competition over at Coffee Times. You may publish your pieces for it here in PW, but due to holiday time restraints, PW will not be collaborating on this competition as we did the previous one. It will be up to you to promote your pieces wherever and as often as possible to get the necessary 1k claps for the first round of this three-round competition. You can read all about it here

Win $100 For Making a New Year’s Resolution

Have you ever seen a writing competition that changes your life just by participating?

medium.com

Don’t forget that Casey Lawrence has some awesome fiction prompts available

13 Fiction Writing Prompts that Don’t Suck

Tis the season for clichéd writing prompts. Help combat the December slump with some unexpected prompts!

medium.com

Penelope Mayfield has a great fiction and/or poetry prompt available

Writing Prompt — Bad Habits Cafe

If you think bad things, you might just get the job

pmayfield.medium.com

Marcus has a wonderful poetry prompt dedicated to the Moon and has said this about the prompt:

It’s also meant as a dedication to Claire Kelly, a wonderful poet and owner of Write Under the Moon, and one of the best people I have met on this platform.

An Impromptu Poetry Prompt

A tanka series for my friend and yours Claire Kelly

medium.com

And finally, Amanda Wilson has created a prompt based on one of ours here from PW. Hers is on Symbols of your Winter Holiday

Symbols of the Season

Significant shapes, symbols, and images I associate with the Winter season and my December holiday.

modernwitch.medium.com

Along with these prompts and the ones here at PW, here are other places to find great prompts

Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她)’s The Brain Is A Noodle

Sahil Patel’s The Summit and Lifeline

Ellie Jacobson ✍🏻’s Flint and Steel

And if you are looking for other new-writer-friendly publications, check out Scot Butwell’s article

Six Great Medium Publications if You’re a Newbie or a Veteran writer

New to Medium and feeling a bit lost? Here’s a helping hand.

medium.com

⚫⚫A LITTLE HOUSEKEEPING⚫⚫

New-To-Medium and PW Writers

You must adhere to Medium’s Terms of Service and Medium Rules. Read them. Memorize them. Do not violate them.
I’ve put up a better explanation on how to submit stories to a publication. You can view it here — Submitting Drafts and Citing Images
Please review the articles at Medium Help for the following:

Writing and publishing your first story
Create, edit, or delete a story
Using the story editor
Using images
Using embeds
Using tags
Custom titles & subtitles
Editor keyboard shortcuts
How to Mention someone in your story (called tagging)
How can I make a single-spaced line break? To make a single-spaced line break (as in poetry) go to the end of your line and press Shift + Enter at the same time. This is available only on desktop.
Emoji Cheat Sheet

4. ❗❗Please polish your stories.❗❗ Check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. ❗❗Make sure your images are cited❗❗ Make sure you are using the appropriate tags :

#poetry for poetry
#fiction for fiction
#articles for articles and opinions/rants
#essay for personal essays, shortform, or creative non-fiction

5. To All Bi/Multilingual Writers — Yes you can write in your native language if you also translate it into English within the same story.

6. ❗Please only submit DRAFTS to PW❗. Do not publish on your page and then submit to PW. Submit to PW and I will publish the piece on my end. I’ve let this slide until now but moving forward, I will only publish your work if it is in DRAFT form.

7. How can you get a Featured section on PW? It’s quite simple. If you have a fiction series, fiction based on a single theme, poetry series, poetry based on a single theme, write reviews or articles on a single theme, you too can get a featured section on PW. Just email me with your idea and we will set you up with your own section. My email address is at the top of this newsletter.

🟤STAT NEWS FOR DEC 11th — 17th AT PW🟤

225 Total Writers (10 new writers Dec 11th-17th)

88 Stories Published

🟣🟣PUB NEWS🟣🟣

You can find all of the current prompts under PROMPTILICIOUSNESS. Feel free to browse the prompts past and present. You do not have to just use a prompt from the current day. Browse them all and find the ones that interest you.
When tagging your stories, please do NOT use the #PWprompt tag. That is for me to use for the daily, weekly, and monthly prompts. You may use #prompt or #writingprompts
If you are publishing your piece anywhere besides PW, please remember to Mention (tag) me (@ + Ravyne Hawke) in the BODY of your story so I can find your work. Do not tag me under the tag section for a publication. I will likely NOT find you that way.
If you are writing from one of the prompts, please leave a link to the prompt in the BODY of your story. Preferably at the end. Check out other writers’ formatting if you aren’t sure.
💥UPDATE💥: Shagufta figured out a way to submit to publications via her Smartphone. She tells you how here.

💥STORIES PUBLISHED BETWEEN DEC 11th-17th At PW💥

POETRY

FICTION

PERSONAL ESSAYS | CREATIVE NONFICTION | ARTICLES

💥💥STORIES PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE 💥💥

This is a list of stories writers published in other publications using PW Prompts!

NOTE: If you wrote a story using a PW Prompt during the week of Dec 11th — 17th, published it somewhere other than PW and I missed it, please leave a comment with the URL to your story so that I can read it and recognize your contribution in the next newsletter! I don’t always receive all of my notifications.

Thanks again everyone for contributing to PW this past week. Please take the time to read your fellow writers’ work. Claps and Comments are always appreciated. I look forward to more of your stories in the upcoming weeks.

Ravyne Hawke, EIC

PW WRITERS

NEW WRITERS FOR WEEK OF DEC 11th-17th

PW NEWS

Weekly News and Updates #10

For Dec 11th — 17th

🎄🎅🤶SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT🎄🎅🤶

Calling All Poets!

Violet Poetry Writing Challenge

Win $100 For Making a New Year’s Resolution

Have you ever seen a writing competition that changes your life just by participating?

13 Fiction Writing Prompts that Don’t Suck

Tis the season for clichéd writing prompts. Help combat the December slump with some unexpected prompts!

Writing Prompt — Bad Habits Cafe

If you think bad things, you might just get the job

An Impromptu Poetry Prompt

A tanka series for my friend and yours Claire Kelly

Symbols of the Season

Significant shapes, symbols, and images I associate with the Winter season and my December holiday.

Six Great Medium Publications if You’re a Newbie or a Veteran writer

New to Medium and feeling a bit lost? Here’s a helping hand.

Written by Ravyne Hawke