Weird Circular #21 June

The June Weird Circular

This month's Weird Circular is live with submission ideas, prompts, and more!

Welcome to the Weird Circular

Dear Fellow Writers of the Weird:

Summer is officially here. For me, it's a nice slow time when I get caught up on my reading. I find a lot of inspiration in the works of authors that I love. My reading tastes have expanded as I've gotten older, but they've also contracted because I have so little time to read. One of my new goals is to be better about tracking books I want to read on Goodreads. 

What are you reading these days? In a lot of ways, reading an author that you don't like can be as much of a learning experience as reading one you do like. It teaches us that everyone is different. And that's a good thing, because reading outside of our own world helps us see what's out there. 

Summer's also a great time to catch up on those projects you've been putting off all year. Take some time for yourself, sit by the pool, and write! 

- Holly 

Submission Calls

 Speculative drabbles (Flash that is exactly 100 words). Pay .10 cents/word. 

Other Upcoming Submission Windows: 

Need more submission ideas? Check the

newest markets,

, Duotrope's

,

, or Literary Mama's

.

YOU SHOULD BE WRITING

Prompt #1: Take a book outside. Go to the pool or the park, or just sit on your patio. This works best with a novel or a poetry book. Open the book to a random page. Pick a few random lines from that page and write them down. Write a piece using one of the lines. (Need a book suggestion? Pick up The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. It's dark and historical enough to jolt you out of your summer haze.) 

Bonus Round: Go back through the piece and take out the original lines that inspired it. How different is it now? 

Prompt #2: What does a tidal wave feel like?

Bonus Round: How can you hold the tide back?

Prompt #3: Write a piece about summer. Make it your setting, either in poetry, a short story, a scene in your book, or an essay. Think ice cream cones, dragonflies, bbq, beer, kids out from school riding their bikes, beaches, and sunscreen. 

Bonus Round: Look back at your piece. Insert a section of weird or uncanny description. It could be description of a character or description of a place. See if you can take the light and twist it. 

Editing tip of the month: Radical revision is sometimes necessary. If you've got a piece that isn't working for you and your critique partners, here's a challenge: Get radical. Take a small section like a paragraph that you like, and cut it into a new document or write it out by hand. Now, start a whole new story with just that section, doing your best to forget the past work. See where this exercise takes you. Playing around can sometimes teach us what we don't know about our writing. 

Inspiration from the Ether

♛ Weird Story of the Month: The Third Martian Dick Temple by Sheila Marie Borideux ♛

➳ Craft Article of the Month: Just Admit it, You Wrote a Memoir by Rebecca van Laer ➳

☢ Weird Inspiration from the Real World: I Just Wanted to Show You These Corgis ☢

News From Your Corporeal Host

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