This morning I drew my third Inspiration Starter, and the first one that caused me to make that strange sound created by sucking air in through the mouth around clenched teeth. I love playing this game, of seemingly random choices, that actually aren’t random at all. I know I am being guided. And my rule is, I draw a folded slip of paper out of the jar and that’s my activity for the day. No do overs.
This one is one of the biggies, pushing me out of my comfort zone and stretching me to take what I do to a different level. This is good, right? This is what I wanted…and I wrote out the activities, knowing my stomach would tighten a little in response to some of them.
Today I drew:
I selected a slip of paper early, so I could think about the activity as I worked this afternoon. Before dipping my hand into the jar, I asked aloud, How shall we play today? This was the answer.
I am grateful for Google. As I turned my attention to this project late this afternoon, I posed another question, this time to that online helper.
Where can I submit essays for publication?
Instantly, Google supplied an answer. I was directed to an article by The Write Life, with a list of 19 websites and magazines to submit essays for publication. What a helpful page this turned out to be. I have spent time this evening studying options, looking at the publication websites, and taking notes.
Yes, I still like the scratch of pen against paper. Plus the action of writing allows my thoughts to flow. By the time I had visited my top picks for submission, reading through guidelines and sample essays, I was able to narrow my selection to seven choices.
This was a good exercise for me tonight. In truth, I am very content to write blog posts. After almost four years of daily writing, I have found a niche that I enjoy. I don’t have a burning desire to write a book. I am happy to be a blogger.
However, these Inspiration Starters are designed to ignite a fire and challenge me. And I am ready for that. I have 1,437 blog posts. Tonight I selected several that I am reframing slightly into more essay like formats. An essay is an opinion piece. And basically, most of my blog posts fall into that category.
Tomorrow morning I will submit 1 – 3 essays to a site called Narratively, that became my top publication pick tonight. I feel good about kicking my writing up a notch. And in the process of doing research, I discovered The Write Life, a great site for freelance writing, marketing, publishing and blogging. And I found another site called Travelista that accepts travel stories.
That’s good. I know there is an Inspiration Starter in that jar about submitting a travel piece.
