I’m definitely slowing down on the Meter Cutes for a bit, but I’ve got other treats in store for you! On Sunday, my new podcast Granny Love will be launching! You can hear me describe it in this short trailer.
This means that for the next few weeks, you’ll be getting this Substack on Sundays as well as on some Fridays. Apologies in advance if this throws anyone’s writing schedule off. But what that also means is that you’re getting two posts this week, this one and then another on Sunday! Yay!
In My Writing World
I have a new poem out today in the inaugural issue of Little Free Lit Mag. The cool thing about this journal, edited by Sarah Ann Winn, is that it’s not only available online, but also as a PDF that’s already formatted perfectly for you to print it out and put it in a Free Little Library near you! What a wonderful idea! We have a little library right across the street from me, so I’ll be working on that later tonight! Check out my poem “Fall Sonnet for a Drawer of Old Journals” and then print off some copies for a little library near you!
Time to Write!
Are you ready to write? Me too!
1) Set the timer for 10 minutes. Free write about what was most important to you when you were 10 years old. 10 was such a pivotal time for me. Everything goes back to 1985 for me, which was also when I started keeping a journal (you can tell it took a while for my poem that’s in Little Free Lit Mag to find a home because the math doesn’t fully math for 1985 to 2024). Follow your brain wherever it may go. Maybe you start writing about what was important and then it leads to other memories about that time. Follow that beautiful brain! Editor voice is totally off right now.
2) Set the timer for 10 minutes. Free write about what’s important to you now. Maybe it’s the same thing as when you were ten, maybe it’s not. (This is starting to remind me of the novel Obsession that I read in the 80s). Remember, editor voice is not even on at all right now. Just write for the full ten minutes. There’s no such thing as “off topic” or “writing about the wrong thing.” Whatever you write about, that’s the right thing to write about.
3) Time to en-rhythm! To get a rhythm in your head, pick out a metrical poem you loved as a child. I’m to recommend a poem I really loved as a kid, though I probably didn’t understand it the way I do now. It’s called “Never Love Unless” by Thomas Campion. Remember to read it out loud for the full 10 minutes, yes, the full 10 minutes.
Feeling more like dancing? Then maybe try “Midnight Blue” by Lou Gramm, which wasn’t 1985, but it was just a few years later and I think you might want to rock out this week. Remember, listen to the same song for 10 minutes.
4) Time to draft! Set the timer for 10 minutes. Draft a poem, short story, or essay about whatever’s on your mind. Can’t think of anything? Maybe write something where someone is talking to a younger self. Like, a childhood self. Do they offer comfort? Do they give stock tips? That’s up to you.
Yay! Now you have a draft of something to work on revising this weekend, in the upcoming week, or maybe the 12th of Never, and it only took 40 minutes!
Thanks for letting me stop by, see you Sunday!