PW NEWS

Weekly News and Updates #9

For Dec 1st — 10th

Ravyne Hawke

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Promptly Written

14 min readDec 11, 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. This is a bit of a long newsletter, so get yourselves settled in.

I want to thank all of you for your contributions, read time, and responses during this first week-plus 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!

A big THANK YOU to my Editors, Alyse Rowe and Katrina D. for all your hard work this week. Thanks for lightening my load!

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

🩸🩸🩸PERSONAL FYI🩸🩸🩸

My surgery on the 6th went well. I am now home and still needing much rest. So please continue to be patient as we, your editors, publish your work.
On December 15th and 28th, I have follow-up doctors’ appointments from the surgery. I do not expect any unusual problems with your work being published during these two appointments. 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. The connection between Medium and Twitter was on the fritz off and on yesterday, or maybe it was just my slow computer. I always try to submit your pieces to Twitter, so please forgive my absence from doing so over the last day.

❗❗❗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 19 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-plus, Fifi has been prolific with her writing! She currently has 11 new pieces in her featured section — everything from reviews, tips, and snapshots of her life. Her Reviews — A Deeper Look At The Tenant (1976 Movie), Days of Heaven (1978) film review, and American Beauty (1999) Film Review. 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, Wreaths and Christmas Card, and his essay, Love, Love, Love. 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. She currently has two in her new section — A Thief Among Us and Mirror Mirror On The Poetry Wall.

🎇🎇🎇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

Take Part in Our Coffee Challenge and Win $50

Tell us a convincing story that makes you believe in shoutouts

medium.com

While the door to actually enter has closed as of Dec 10th, it is not too late to help writers still gain those 1000-claps needed to qualify. And I want to thank all the PW writers and readers who helped when I did a Call-To-Action on the 8th.

PW was gifted with 11 entrants for the competition. They are all wonderful essays on the Pro-Shoutout Movement. Check out this list for those who chose PW to publish their pieces:

Ghina Zaidi’s piece needs just a little push to cross the 1-k threshold. Let’s get her there!

How To Go From Feeling “Meh” To Feeling “Powerful”? Try Giving A Shoutout.

“In response to Coffee Challenge; Why I am a pro shout-out movement”

medium.com

KM Bernard’s piece is a bit of a late entrant and she still needs help reaching the 1k-goal. So please stop over at her essay and push her over the threshold!

Like a Skittish Cat

In response to Coffee Challenge; Why I am a pro shoutout movement

medium.com

💖💖💖HONORABLE MENTIONS💖💖💖

T. Mark Mangum is currently working on a children’s book called Lina Explores. Please stop by and support his efforts.

A work In Progress

Lina Explores

tmarkmangum.medium.com

And for all of our fiction writers here on PW, did you know that T. Mark Mangum also runs a publication? It is called Total Fiction. Check out his Submissions Page. This may give you another place to post your fiction pieces! And if you are a fan of fiction, go check out the wonderful stories being published there!

Submission Guidelines

Total Fiction is an On-Line Publication that publishes Fiction writing. Total Fiction will publish all Genera and all…

medium.com

SME Consultant has found another paying site for writers. Check out their article about it here:

This New Site Really Pays Well

I joined it, you should too !

medium.com

Our very own Casey Lawrence has come up with some awesome fiction prompts for you to use. So if you cannot get enough prompts, head on over to her page and check this out:

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

Jared Griffin has completed his series of “A Series of Short Poems That Tell a Long Story of Love”. If you love Urban poetry, rhymes, and fast-paced storytelling, you will love Jared’s series. You can read all of them here — First Rocket, The Second Challenger of Love, Lamb, Shepard, Wolf, and Pasture

⚫⚫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 1st — 10th AT PW🟤

215 Total Writers (15 new since Dec 1st and Penelope Mayfield has rejoined us!)

107 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 1st-10th At PW💥

POETRY

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 1st — 10th, 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 1st-10th

PW NEWS

Weekly News and Updates #9

For Dec 1st — 10th

Take Part in Our Coffee Challenge and Win $50

Tell us a convincing story that makes you believe in shoutouts

How To Go From Feeling “Meh” To Feeling “Powerful”? Try Giving A Shoutout.

“In response to Coffee Challenge; Why I am a pro shout-out movement”

Like a Skittish Cat

In response to Coffee Challenge; Why I am a pro shoutout movement

A work In Progress

Lina Explores

Submission Guidelines

Total Fiction is an On-Line Publication that publishes Fiction writing. Total Fiction will publish all Genera and all…

This New Site Really Pays Well

I joined it, you should too !

13 Fiction Writing Prompts that Don’t Suck

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

Written by Ravyne Hawke