Weird Circular #50 November

The November Weird Circular

November 01, 2021

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

Welcome to the Weird Circular

Dear Weirdos,

November is usually NaNoWriMo month for me, and this year I'm taking part by teaching a journaling 

! It's fun looking at NaNoWriMo from a newbie's perspective again. This year, I'm planning on working on the outline for my next book (spooky middle grade fiction with a feminist twist!) and maybe getting some work done on a potential long-form poetry project. 

December is going to be a big break for me. It's been a super busy year. I taught a ton of workshops, published my debut full-length book of poetry (

!) and all in all, it was a good writing year. As of 2022, I will have taught over 10 4-week writing workshops. That's pretty great and way more than I thought I would ever accomplish.

I hope your year-end is restful and a time for you to reflect on all you've done. I bet it's more than you thought!

Your corporeal host,

Holly 

Submission Calls

Upcoming Submission Windows:

November

  • Apex Book Company, Holiday Horrors, deadline 11/15: Flash Fiction that is holiday-themed (Halloween). 250 words or less. 

  • Strange Horizons, deadline 11/30: Short fiction (under 10k, under 5k preferred). Pays $.10/word. 

December

Need more submission ideas? Check the

newest markets, Duotrope's

,

, SFPA's

, Moksha's

or Literary Mama's

.

My book of bone poems came out in September and I would love you to the depths of my bones if you considered reviewing it on Amazon! :) 

YOU SHOULD BE WRITING

Exercise: Write a poem, story, or essay where the title is a pun or play on words. Try the Pun Generator if you get lost.

Bonus Round:

Bonus points if your title is funny, but your piece is serious.

Exercise: Write a piece that explores a problematic character, or character that routinely is stereotyped as a villain. The deadbeat dad. The addict. The teenage dropout. Etc. 

Bonus Round:

 Bonus points if you can twist the reader's expectations so that the character becomes deeper than their trope. 

Exercise:

 This exercise is about blending genres. Pick two genres you love. Write 3-5 aspects or tropes about that genre. (Ex: Horror: ghosts, monsters, gore). Pick one from each genre and try to combine those elements in your piece. This works great for essays as well (Ex: Films that utilize book techniques). 

Bonus Round

: Think about what emotion each genre utilizes. How can you use the two emotions from your two genres in your piece?

Editing tip of the month: Sometimes it helps to just take a nap. 

Inspiration from the Ether

News From Your Corporeal Host

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