Feedback Monday and roundup

I want to hear from you!

Hello writers! How are your summers going? I’ve had a super busy—but mostly fun—July, and consequently have slacked a little at putting up weekly writing prompts here. After this week things should ease up a bit. But since there was no prompt last Friday, today I thought we could do a sort of free-share. Today, you’re welcome to share:

1. Anything you’ve been working on—poem, essay, short story, free write

2. Any writing frustrations or difficulties you’ve been having, or questions for your fellow writers

3. Something you’ve been reading lately that you love! or

4. If you’d like to do a quick free write with a prompt, I’ve been thinking a lot about what my friend Kate (who writes at

   Life at the Bottom of the Canyon
   ) said to me the other day: “People tell the truth when they feel free.” Set a timer for half an hour, forty-five minutes, or an hour, and write about whatever comes up in response to that statement. (I’ll share mine in the comments.)

Some recent events

In case you missed it, one of our community members signed a contract for a memoir last week! Carly Butler’s book, Apocalypse Child, will be published this winter by Caitlin Press. You can follow Carly’s journey to publication on her Instagram.

We also had a wonderful guest post last week from my editor at Broadleaf Books, Lisa Kloskin, who shared about writing and selling a memoir:

And my dear friend, Fen Druadìn, hosted a free Zoom call that some of you attended, to talk about the process of publication, and share their work as a “Book Midwife.” Fen has offered to host a special call some time just for the members of this group, so we are going to line that up for the fall. You can learn more about Fen and their work here.

Feedback guidelines

Okay, let’s share! Here are the guidelines for giving each other feedback on our writing:

First, feedback posts are behind a paywall to protect your privacy and support my work, but everyone who subscribes gets a free month’s upgrade to paid benefits so you can check out the space and see if it’s a good fit for you. And if you ever need more than a month comped, please just let me know.

The guidelines:

• You can post up to about 1500 words in the comments on Substack, which is about 3 typed, double-spaced pages. That’s a good limit, I think, to what you should share here, including any special requests or comments.

• Please put content warnings for any violence, sex, trauma, death, etc. This helps us all make informed decisions about whether we’re up for reading about those subjects.

• If you post something for feedback, please give other folks feedback! If you’re able to comment on more than one other piece, that’s appreciated, but please do at least one.

• Unless the person specifically asks for other feedback, please answer one or both of these questions:

1. What moved you in this piece, whether it made you smile, or laugh, or tear up, or feel righteously indignant on the author’s behalf, or just made you think?

2. What made you want to know more? In other words, if there were another page, what would you hope it would expand on?

The focus here is on positive feedback, on identifying where the energy is in the piece and how to build on that, rather than critiquing what doesn’t work. However, feel free as the author to ask additional questions, like, “What do you think of the description of the mummy? Was it scary enough?” or anything you are open to feedback on. If the poster has asked a specific question like that, you can offer a little bit more of an opinion, but still please be kind. :)