Write into the Week: March 8, 2026

“The short answer is doing the thing.”
–Ernest Hemingway

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: Advice I Return To

I rely quite a bit on the wisdom of writers whose work I respect and admire. I think of them as mentors, even if they have no clue who I am. I often find myself returning to pieces of writing advice that feel less like instruction and more like permission. Here is one I think about often when the blank page starts to feel intimidating and the blinking cursor becomes a foe.

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft—you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft—you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it’s loose or cramped or decayed.”
—Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

What I love about this passage is how gently it dismantles the myth of perfect writing. Even if, like me, you know you can’t write a perfect first draft, we often still try. Lamott reminds us that clarity and beauty rarely appear in the first pass. That’s what revisions are for. Writing is a process of discovery—of getting something messy onto the page and slowly shaping it into something fuller, truer, and more real.

If your draft feels rough or uncertain this week, you’re probably exactly where you’re supposed to be. The work of writing isn’t producing brilliance on demand. (Go back and read that line as many times as you need in order to believe it.) It’s showing up long enough to move from the down draft to the up draft, and eventually to the dental draft.

Writing Prompt: Missed Connection

Remember the old Missed Connections section on Craigslist? I loved reading those small, hopeful posts written by strangers trying to reach someone they briefly encountered. It was often a person on the train, a woman in the grocery store, or man they bumped into at a local café.

Write a piece about a missed connection.

It could be a fleeting moment between two strangers, an almost-conversation that never quite happened, or someone you noticed once and never saw again. Perhaps it’s a person you regret not speaking to, or someone who passed through your life so briefly they feel almost imagined.

You might focus on small details that made the brief encounter linger: a gesture, the few words said, the colors in the room, or the strange certainty that something important almost happened.

Wordy Facts: Eavesdrop 

I love learning about the etymology of words, and it frequently influences my writing. The origin of the word “eavesdrop” truly surprised me, as its foundation is in architecture. The eavesdrop was the narrow strip of ground beneath the edge of a roof where rainwater dripped from the eaves of a house. In earlier centuries, if someone stood there long enough, it was often because they were lingering outside a window or wall, quietly listening to the conversations happening inside. (How cool is that image and origin story?!)

Over time, the image stuck. To eavesdrop became shorthand for secretly listening in on something not meant for you. For writers, it’s also a reminder that some of the best dialogue begins by paying attention to the fragments of real life around us.

Listening Recommendations:

• From The New Yorker: The Writer’s Voice Podcast – “Addie Citchens Reads ‘The City is a Graveyard'” – Citchens is a Mississippi Delta-born, New Orleans-based writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her first novel, Dominion, was published in 2025 and was short-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.
• From the Dialogue Doctor Podcast – “Episode 318 – Broken Stories and Ones that Work – A Time with Tom” – In episode 318 of the Dialogue Doctor Podcast, Jeff and Tom talk about stories that work and stories that don’t. They discuss new stats on authors using AI to write and publish. And they talk about the state of their own careers and endeavors.

Publishing Opportunities:

• Oxford American – Submission Deadline: April 3, 2026. From their website: The Oxford American is now accepting pitches for their special Summer/Fall 2026 double issue dedicated to Home. It’s an idea as gloriously complicated as the South itself, and they’re interested in works across genres that tackle it from all angles. Home can be our sanctuary, but also our cage. It can represent our connection to a community, and can be troubled by violence, displacement, and loss within that community. It’s deeply personal, but always political.
• Deep Vellum Publishing – Submission Window: April 1-30, 2026. Open call for poetry collection submissions. There are no reading fees, but submissions are capped at 500. A Submittable link for submissions will be available on their website on April 1st. Get your manuscripts prepped! 

Residency, Retreat, & Fellowship Opportunities:

• Hedgebrook Writers in Residence – Application Deadline: April 18, 2026. Hedgebrook’s Writer-in-Residence Program supports women-identified writers from all over the world for residencies of two to three weeks. The cottage, all meals, and the entire residency experience at Hedgebrook is free to selected writers. They accept applications for writers working in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, and playwriting.
• The Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize 2026 – Submission Deadline: May 1, 2026. Awarded for the best piece of writing on the theme of JOY. Submissions can be fiction, non-fiction, or non-academic essays up to a maximum of 1,250 words. The top three submissions win a monetary reward. Please see the website for more details.

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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