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First Prompt "Competition" Ever EmptySun Sep 17, 2017 7:10 pm by tbyronk

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» My Writing Was Compared to Vonnegut!!
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» Hello and Happy New Year!
First Prompt "Competition" Ever EmptySun Jan 04, 2015 11:55 am by lauralin74

» Lightning
First Prompt "Competition" Ever EmptyThu Sep 25, 2014 12:55 pm by Tom B

» Dogs Don't Bark at Parked Cars
First Prompt "Competition" Ever EmptyThu Sep 25, 2014 12:48 pm by Tom B

» 'These Hills.........Will Always Keep Calling You Back"
First Prompt "Competition" Ever EmptyThu Sep 25, 2014 10:30 am by Tom B

» Glen Alton Poetry
First Prompt "Competition" Ever EmptySat Aug 09, 2014 3:37 am by tbyronk

Lightning

Fri Dec 13, 2013 7:21 pm by queengoogoo

In the evening when the day is done
And no more is the light from the sun,
I look upon the stars Heaven high
And find gratefulness deep inside.
But then there are nights a storm rolls in,
And the twinkles disappear above the lightning.
The thunder accompanying the flash,
Lets me embrace the rain's splash.
These strikes pealing within the darkness
Makes me feel I have been blessed.
For there is …

[ Full reading ]

Comments: 1

Suggestions, Opinions?

Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:07 pm by cuthugas

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to see if anyone has anything to say now that you've had a chance to use the forum a bit.

Is there anything you don't like? Something you would like to see changed? This site gives us a lot of flexbility to modify just about everything you see, so if you can't stand something, or have a suggestion on how something should look/work, let us know.

Comments: 0

New Forum Format

Fri Jan 07, 2011 12:46 am by Admin

Hello Everyone,

This is the new format for our WVW Writing Forum. The hope is that this will better facilitate the membership's need for interaction, and will also act as a centralized location for news and information about WVW upcoming events and news. Please feel free to start a conversation, ask for advice, or just voice your opinion about a topic. Please thoroughly read our rules and …

[ Full reading ]

Comments: 2


First Prompt "Competition" Ever

+8
tseffers
stopeka
Karen Nowviskie
Admin
salou
cuthugas
ChristinaFreeburn
writingdianet
12 posters

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First Prompt "Competition" Ever Empty First Prompt "Competition" Ever

Post by writingdianet Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:28 pm

Greetings West Virginia Writers:





I used to eschew writing prompts. Recently though, I am enamoured with them. They have been like coffee to my writing life. I would love for you to experience the creative buzz also. Therefore, I am initiating a first here at the WVW forum--a Wednesday to Wednesday prompt-driven writing competition.

For this initial endeavor, the word I would like you to utilize is . . . drumroll please . . . MOUNTAIN. Your entry must be more than 27 words and equal to or less than 270 words. Feel free to write in the genre of your choice.

Competition will close next Tuesday night at midnight as the calendar turns over to March 7, 2012. At that point my secretly selected judging panel and I will determine which entry we are most enthusiastic about. Winner will receive a) bragging rights and b) 27cents next time I see you.

Fondly,

WritingDianeT

writingdianet

Posts : 23
Join date : 2012-02-21

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First Prompt "Competition" Ever Empty No time like the present:)

Post by writingdianet Thu Mar 01, 2012 11:49 am

Just so you all know, you can post your entry any time between now and next Tuesday at midnight:)

writingdianet

Posts : 23
Join date : 2012-02-21

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Post by ChristinaFreeburn Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:53 pm

Ms WritingDiane, does the entry need to be one newly created just for your prompt or can it be from something that we are working on?
ChristinaFreeburn
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Post by writingdianet Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:59 pm

What a GREAT question, Miss Chris!!! Feel free to use a previously created piece. Just make sure the prompt fits and is within the word count range.

On your mark, get set, WRITE!!!!!

writingdianet

Posts : 23
Join date : 2012-02-21

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Post by cuthugas Fri Mar 02, 2012 3:45 pm

Okay, here is my attempt. I'm not very good at flash fiction, so be gentle!!



They didn’t do what other mountains did. They didn’t loom, or look majestic. They lurked. She could feel it, like an itch in the back of her mind, always.

She told her husband this the day they had chosen the little field amidst a copse of trees as the place for their cabin. They had traveled many miles by horse to reach it, and Samuel began cutting trees right away. She was pregnant, and they would need a dependable shelter. Winter was on its way. Melody told him she didn’t like the mountains, rocky spines like a dragon’s back, peaks piercing the sky like spear points. He’d laughed, and said it was perfect. There was a river in the valley below, and plenty of forest in which to hunt. And, she trusted him. He was rough and strong as the hand hewn logs he used to build their home. But, she didn’t trust those mountains.

That had been many years ago, and yet, every time she went outside to hang the laundry, or to butcher a chicken, she averted her eyes and refused to look at them. In her dreams, they came for her, lurching forward, breaking the ground before them like giant glaciers of stone. They fell upon her, the tons of rock crushing her bones. Samuel patted her bottom and told her she was being silly.

But, then he traveled into the valley, among the shadows, for the first time three days ago. She knows that he will never return. She holds their son and stares with loathing at those mountains, lurking in the distance.
cuthugas
cuthugas
Admin

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Post by writingdianet Fri Mar 02, 2012 5:41 pm

Nice. We thank you for participating.

writingdianet

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Post by salou Fri Mar 02, 2012 8:57 pm

I'm working on a poem that I wrote two years ago, and your prompt inspired me to revisit it, dust it off a bit.

When it's ready, do I submit it in this space?
salou
salou

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Location : Morgantown

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Post by Admin Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:21 pm

Salou,

Absolutely. As long as it meets the length requirement. If you have a longer piece you want critiqued, you can post it in the poetry section as well.
Admin
Admin
Admin

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Post by writingdianet Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:56 pm

Yes, please. submit by clicking 'quick reply.' We can't wait to see it!

writingdianet

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Post by salou Sat Mar 03, 2012 11:21 am

Behold Mountainous Strength





Who can appreciate the depths to which the mountains guard their souls?

Amber striations like giants’ bones,

Slope outward in horizontal walls and vertical ledges of sheer strength,

To surround thrill-seekers who bob and weave in rafts over rocks,

Near fly-fishermen casting and catching slippery, against-the-flow-swimming, salmon mystery.



Who will tap this fluid mystery?

Who can bottle the Rockies’ strength?

Released like treasures they hold in their souls,

They'll shake and quake their unsettled bones,

Leaving gemstones prizes, glistening rocks.



Climbers stretch long legs to reach distant rocks,

Toiled muscles spent, the altitude saps men’s lungs and strength;

While the grizzly bear emerges refreshed to test her bones,

After months drowsy in caves of mystery,

Her cub bites its first catch from waters beneath the mountains’ souls.



Last winter, snow cascaded in avalanche, blinding souls,

Sucked into mountainous graves without rocks,

Its victims buried under weight of frozen strength.

Only the mountain-Maker holds gravity’s mystery;

Mother Nature, never bending; indifferent to their bones.



Climbers reach the summit, rest their bones;

Cup their hands to a quenching lava lake mystery;

Pure waters seem to saturate even the rocks,

While sulfuric fumes foreshadow explosive strength;

Volcanic ash spews from the depths of their souls.



Their waterfalls rush, cloaking cavernous souls.

Mountains stand as sentries guarding an ancient mystery.

Backpackers hear them rumble, see tumbling rocks,

Watch as rivers carve like snakes deep within their bones.

By evening, under star-filled skies, beholders soak in healing minerals of Eden strength.
salou
salou

Posts : 6
Join date : 2012-03-01
Location : Morgantown

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Post by writingdianet Sat Mar 03, 2012 1:46 pm

Well done, Salou. Thank you for participating.

writingdianet

Posts : 23
Join date : 2012-02-21

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First Prompt "Competition" Ever Empty The Barrens

Post by Karen Nowviskie Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:44 pm

Here I go! Do you know how much courage this takes for a newbie?


The Barrens

Every morning, the woman
leaves her house
to search the hills for
one perfect flower--
a yellow buckwheat,
the white-haired leather flower
or mountain pimpernel,
tenacious specimens that cling
and root deep into the mountain.
Higher she climbs and higher,
turning over loose shale
that bounces from the backs
of the beasts that clack and rattle 
along the track below.
Nothing lives on the barrens,
only the dust that stains her
black as the coal running in her veins.
By night, she wanders claustrophobic rooms,
preparing labels for empty jars
and writing epitaphs for garden walls.
Flowing formations growl
within the belly of the earth,
but no words guard the door
of the house of the poet.

Karen Nowviskie

Posts : 17
Join date : 2012-02-21

http://keepingsecrets-karen.blogspot.com

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First Prompt "Competition" Ever Empty Re:Salou

Post by Karen Nowviskie Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:54 pm

By the end of the first stanza, i was enthralled by the visual detail and remained that way to the end of the poem. You beautifully render the strength, majesty, and soul of the mountains, along with their gifts to us.

Karen Nowviskie

Posts : 17
Join date : 2012-02-21

http://keepingsecrets-karen.blogspot.com

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Post by writingdianet Sun Mar 04, 2012 12:04 am

Lovely words. Thank you for sharing.

writingdianet

Posts : 23
Join date : 2012-02-21

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First Prompt "Competition" Ever Empty The Waterfall

Post by stopeka Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:52 am

Here's mine, Diane, I am submitting a scene from my work in progress.

The Waterfall

I looked on in awe as the water jumped off the rocky ledge, an Olympic
diver, in hopes of a perfect score for grace, elegance, and technique. A
talent it had practiced many times and perfected. I watched it leap
over jagged rocks, tumble over the mountain’s edge, and collect in the
pool below it. Through moss-covered trees, filtered sun projected a beam
of light atop the water; the rocks glistened. I stood mesmerized by the
beauty of the rocks, by the beauty of the fall. The mystic path had
been one well worth taking. ~Shirley Keefer Topeka~

stopeka

Posts : 1
Join date : 2012-02-29

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First Prompt "Competition" Ever Empty Eden, Imagined

Post by tseffers Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:59 pm

OK, newbie terror showing, but we press on . . . .

I wrote this recently for a contemplative spirituality group meeting in the Blue Ridge (I live in the Eastern Panhandle, on the Shenandoah). I wanted them to be grounded in the beauty of our mountains.



Eden, Imagined
Stand with me. Cupped hands held before you: this long valley.
Breathe gently, just so: rolling clouds, morning fog.

With silent house behind you holding its breath, imagine:
divine Breath sweeping back the mist of centuries, revealing this land

as it lay, unbound by roads or cables, innocent of buildings,

engines, factories, unmapped save by the feet of those
who walked its intimate paths, knew its nameless hills.


Now further back. Hands, palms to sky: imagine this valley no valley at all,

this hawk-stitched ridge the sunless floor of a quiet inland sea,

familiar green stories of dogwood and trillium, acorn and hickory
not yet written on the folded land. Troubled spine of limestone

waits for its moment of upthrust and heave, creatures of shell and salt
hover, patient, for the glacial movement of water's perfect truth to find its way,
make a road for sea to become river, wear the mountain down.


Can you hear the questions that breathe out
from these stones, these woods and waters?

What shattering raised the stony crest now shielding your softest heart?
How many tears, and whose, flow in that river sweetly bearing away,
grit by bitterest grit, the ache that even now grinds itself in your bones?

What new paths will open in your heart, when that holy Joy,
laughing, sweeps away the fears that tangle there? What Hand
will invite you into what green dance, across what white-blooming field?
tseffers
tseffers

Posts : 6
Join date : 2012-03-04
Age : 58
Location : Shenandoah River, WV

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Post by writingdianet Sun Mar 04, 2012 3:05 pm

Hawk-stitched. I like that. Like it alot. Thank you for joining us.

writingdianet

Posts : 23
Join date : 2012-02-21

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Post by Karen Nowviskie Sun Mar 04, 2012 3:18 pm

Beautiful, tseffers!

Karen Nowviskie

Posts : 17
Join date : 2012-02-21

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Post by salou Sun Mar 04, 2012 3:32 pm

Karen Nowviskie wrote:By the end of the first stanza, i was enthralled by the visual detail and remained that way to the end of the poem. You beautifully render the strength, majesty, and soul of the mountains, along with their gifts to us.

Thanks so much, Karen. I appreciate feedback.

I also appreciate your being a "newbie" and so creative!

And Diane, thanks again for the prompt that brought my work out of stagnation. I had been playing with a poetry format where you use the same series of words at the ends of the lines, then repeat the last word of the stanza in the fisrt line of the next, and so on, until the desired emphasis is reached.
salou
salou

Posts : 6
Join date : 2012-03-01
Location : Morgantown

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Post by salou Sun Mar 04, 2012 3:34 pm

stopeka wrote:Here's mine, Diane, I am submitting a scene from my work in progress.

The Waterfall

I looked on in awe as the water jumped off the rocky ledge, an Olympic
diver, in hopes of a perfect score for grace, elegance, and technique. A
talent it had practiced many times and perfected. I watched it leap
over jagged rocks, tumble over the mountain’s edge, and collect in the
pool below it. Through moss-covered trees, filtered sun projected a beam
of light atop the water; the rocks glistened. I stood mesmerized by the
beauty of the rocks, by the beauty of the fall. The mystic path had
been one well worth taking. ~Shirley Keefer Topeka~



Lovely imagery as the writer meditates on the water's movement and power. Nice!
salou
salou

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Location : Morgantown

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Post by writingdianet Sun Mar 04, 2012 3:38 pm

Nice work, Shirley. I'd like to be there right now. Thanks for sharing.

writingdianet

Posts : 23
Join date : 2012-02-21

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Post by tseffers Sun Mar 04, 2012 4:13 pm

writingdianet wrote:Hawk-stitched. I like that. Like it alot. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you! I'm still getting used to that no-pants-on-the-bus feeling of putting your work out there for other, more experienced writers to see and comment on. No better way, and from what I can tell--no better group!
tseffers
tseffers

Posts : 6
Join date : 2012-03-04
Age : 58
Location : Shenandoah River, WV

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Post by writingdianet Sun Mar 04, 2012 4:28 pm

Dear Tseffers:

In my experience, prompt-driven events are very friendly and encouraging. A wonderful way to ease your writing into the public eye.

Thank you for being brave. I enjoyed your piece very much.

writingdianet

Posts : 23
Join date : 2012-02-21

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Post by AliciaWright Sun Mar 04, 2012 6:40 pm

I am revisiting and uprooting work I'm not happy with the specificity of lately. Here's a bite:

Today we watched the sun set
Over Maryland -
In the final glow before it sank
Beyond the mountains
The trees were red
And golden monsters
Hovering above our heads
Waiting to cover us
With autumn

AliciaWright

Posts : 2
Join date : 2012-03-04
Age : 36
Location : Waverly

http://traverser.nu

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Post by writingdianet Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:16 pm

The trees were red and golden monsters. How wonderful. Thanks for joining in, Alicia.

writingdianet

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Join date : 2012-02-21

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