The Best Way to Kickstart Your Essay Writing This Summer Is Here
Want prompts to inspire your stories? We've got 91 of them on tap this summer! Grab a spot in one of our three self-guided prompts classes today.
Happy Friday, writers! Before we get into all of these exciting generative writing opportunities, we want to remind you to head here to share your #WeeklyWin — the writing accomplishment(s) you’re most proud of from the week, anything from making a dent in your manuscript to sending out a short story.
Now, onto prompts… Some of our most popular offerings over the past year have been our month-long prompts courses, which are designed to help you break through writer’s block and generate lots of ideas for your memoir writing. Developed by Narratively Chief Submissions Reader Amy Barnes, these self-guided classes help you figure out what you really want to write and how to get it started. We’ve had a lot of requests to offer our original prompts course again—and to debut some brand-new prompts for those who’ve already completed the first course. Ask and ye shall receive! In June, we have the original 30 Days, 30 Prompts class for those who haven’t had a chance to take it yet; July is all about prompts for self-editing your work; and August is our next brand new prompts class, focused on writing about family and relationships. These classes are self-guided and you can complete the prompts at your own pace, so it’s totally doable to sign up if you’re traveling this summer and not available every single day.
June: 30 Days, 30 Essay Prompts: A Month of Generating Inspiration and Ideas for Memoir
We’ve all been there. You know you have revealing and relatable stories to share, but you rarely find the time in your busy schedule to write — and when you do, you catch yourself staring at that dastardly blinking cursor on the white screen and just can’t find a way to start. June is the time to break those habits, get moving on your writing and never look back. Every day, you’ll receive a short personal essay or two to read, paired with a related prompt to inspire your own writing. You’ll set aside a few minutes of your day to respond to that prompt and, if you choose to, share a short piece of writing with a supportive and encouraging community of writers.
July: 31 Days, 31 Revision Prompts: A Month of Self-Editing Your Essays
OK, so you’ve written some essay drafts—maybe even a lot of drafts—but now what? Does the idea of revision and editing strike fear in your creative heart? That’s natural, but it doesn’t have to be that way. This self-guided course is designed to help you tighten, strengthen, expand and contract your essays or memoir. It will help you add depth and background, make your narration shine, be more active with your word choices — in short, take what you’ve already written and prepare it for potential publication. Daily exercises and prompts include creating a narrator personality chart, finding the most resonant starting/point of your essay, and identifying ways to make your writing more active. The overall goal is to provide you with a self-editing toolbox of techniques you can use to polish your current drafts and perfect future essays.
August: 30 Days, 30 Prompts For Writing About Family and Relationships
And here’s the brand new one! Everyone has family issues to write about…and we all put it off, because it’s too hard too complicated, or we just don’t know how to write about the people closest to us. This new course is designed to help you find inspiration, focus your memories, and introduce ways to write about the people and relationships in (and out) of your life. The prompts will help you find your own unique storytelling approach to essays about your family members, and your relationships with them and other people.