Write into the Week: September 28, 2025

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.”
–William Wordsworth

Dear Writer,

I hope you’re having a good start to your week. In this newsletter:

• A writing prompt to inspire your creativity.
• Reading and listening recommendations in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
• Publishing, residency, and retreat opportunities available now.
• Join our free Monday and Friday write-ins, and meet our community of writers.

Happy writing this week!

—Elle, Curriculum Specialist & Community Manager

Writer to Writer: Beating Breaths

Wordsworth’s reminder is simple, but it cuts to the core of why we write: to give shape and meaning to what stirs us deep within. When we sit down with our notebooks or laptops, it’s tempting to aim for cleverness, precision, or polish pages. But what if, at least in the first draft, we shifted our focus to breath and beats? To the rhythm of the heart, the pulse of emotion, and the rise and fall of thought?

Writing from this place of vulnerability doesn’t always feel tidy, and is often uncomfortable.  Sometimes these words arrive as short fragments, sometimes as long, winding rambles, but those raw outpourings onto the page often contain our deepest truths. They remind us that writing isn’t only about communicating to others; it’s also about listening to ourselves.

This week, consider what it might mean to write directly from the “breathings of your heart.” Maybe it’s a private notebook entry, maybe it’s the opening lines of a story, maybe it’s a single sentence that feels so true you can’t stop reading it back to yourself. Trust that whatever form it takes, those beating breaths matter. 

Writing Prompt:

Take a few minutes to sit quietly and notice what’s stirring inside you. What comes up? Is it a memory, a worry, a flash of joy, a passing thought. Focus in on the details. Then, begin with the line:

“What my heart is trying to say is…”

Write without stopping for 10 minutes. Let the words tumble out, messy or clear, without judgment. Don’t worry about form or function, just let your writing be the breathings of your heart on the page.

Reading Recommendations:

Fiction:

• “Willow Tree Fever” by Hananah Zaheer. This short story unfurls like a fever dream, where a neighborhood tree becomes refuge, rebellion, and resistance.

Poetry:

• “Via Negativa” by Edward Sambrano III. Considerations on the limits of language that capture how words can slip away, even as they offer small comforts in solitude.

Nonfiction:

• “Slipsilver” by Jill McCabe Johnson. This flash essay deftly weaves history, alchemy, and motherhood.

Listening Recommendations:

• From The Lit Hub Podcast: “The Disappearing Internet and a Culture Schlock” – Writer Maria Bustillos discusses her recent piece “The Bigger Threat to Books than Bans” and how everything on the internet might not be forever.
• From the Memoir Nation Podcast: “Elizabeth Crane on Point of View in Memoir” – This episode examines point of view in memoir, and talks about personal narrative that falls outside of first person, which means points of view that are second, third, and plural. 

Publishing Opportunities:

• Blackbird Journal – Submission Window: Open. Open call for fiction submissions. From the editor, “I want be surprised…I want ficiton to catch me off guard with its content and the way it plays with language. I’m drawn to stories with strong emotional engines…stories that grapple with our imperfect understanding of our own lives and the world around us.” Does that sound like your writing? Submit! 
• Black Fox Literary Magazine’s The Black Fox Prize on the theme: Liar Liar – Submission Deadline: November 30, 2025. This contest is open to submissions of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction with loose interpretations of the theme, liar liar. More on the theme at the link. 

Monday and Friday: Free Group Writing Sessions

Come write with us! Community write-ins are a great way to meet other writers, and carve out space in your calendar for your writing.

Monday: Write Into the Week with Elle

Join me (Elle) for an hour of mindset support, goal setting, community, and dedicated time to write! We’ll meet on Monday at 11 AM Eastern time, at this Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83999379617

Friday: Open Write-In

Join the Writers.com staff for a 90-minute writing session each Friday from 11 AM to 12:30 PM Eastern time. We will write together for the first hour. In the last, optional half hour, we’ll share our writing with one another and connect.

To add yourself, join our newsletter using the join box above, and add yourself to the “Friday Write-Ins” list at the bottom of any email. We’ll send you a Zoom link the morning of the call.

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