Here's a recap of what we posted to our Substack publication, Center Your Writing, in June and July (sorry we're late to posting!).
June talking point
Each month, we pose a question or present a craft technique or writing life consideration and invite comments that become a kind of month-long conversation. We learn from each other and share some of our own tips and advice for getting to the page and sticking to it. Our June talking point asked readers to share with us their boomerang stories, the stories they can’t put down. Check out the responses in the post where we also introduce July’s talking point.
July’s talking point
For July, we asked readers what’s on their summer reading lists, because there are so many such lists plastered all over the web this time of year that we felt compelled to make our own. Check it out in the post where introduce August’s talking point.
More June and July posts by Center Mentors
Each month, Teneice Durrant, creator of Tarot with Ten, uses various tarot and oracle decks to provide monthly readings for writers, with exercises on using imagery and intuition as prompts. June’s prompt was about using the Star card to facilitate healing for your main character, and July’s prompt was about using the Moon card to lead your main character to face their fears.
Helena Clare Pittman, one of the Center’s most dedicated teachers, has written, painted, and taught her entire life. In her monthly Helena Writes series, she shares a lifetime of wisdom, one pearl at a time. In her 91st post in June, Helena remembers when her father taught her to swing, and for July, her 92nd post recalls a childhood walk with her mother that included a larger-than-life question.
In another monthly series, Shawna Ayoub moves “beyond a book review” by not only recommending great books by diverse writers but highlighting a technique to apply to your own writing practice. June’s review looked at messy mothers and the puzzle pieces of identity through Jennifer Givhan’s The Sleeping Sisters. July’s review presented V.E. Schwab’s Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and considered its fresh take on vampires and the potential of women.
Finally, we offered a little introduction to the mentors who make the Center what it is today and introduced a new offering for paid subscribers: a free download of “20 Writing Prompts for Your Work-In-Progress,” created and co-written by us to help writers get un-stuck and keep making progress on an existing work. In a little over a year, we built our Substack community into an 18,700+ subscriber base, without paywalling any of our posts—and that hasn’t changed. Free subscribers still get all posts, but paid subscribers get some of our best non-generative writing prompts, and annual subscribers get all that plus a free evaluation of up to five pages of writing. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do!
Thanks for reading and being part of our writing community!
Until next month,
Stacia
