Write into the Week: March 22, 2026
Elle | Community Manager | March 22, 2026 |
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
–Shunryu Suzuki
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: Surprise, Surprise!
One of the things I love most about writing is how often it surprises me.
Most days, I sit down with a writing plan—a scene I think I understand, a character I believe I’ve unlocked—and still find myself pulled in a direction I didn’t expect. Maybe a sentence shifts, a new image appears, or something small catches my attention, and suddenly the piece begins to move in a new, unexpected way.
It’s tempting to ignore these moments, or to think it means you’re unfocused, because this surprise is taking you off track. My instinct used to be to push myself toward the version I’d intended, instead of the one that suddenly emerged. But I’ve learned that these small, unexpected turns are often where the real energy of a piece lives.
Welcome these surprises! They ask for a different kind of attention—one with less control and more curiosity.
This week, you might try following one of those moments instead of correcting it. Let the sentence go a little further. (Who cares if it’s a run-on?) Let an image expand. (Follow it past cliché.) Let yourself be surprised by what shows up.
Sometimes the most meaningful parts of our work are the ones we didn’t plan to write.
Writing Prompt: The Unexpected Turn
Think of a time when something unexpected happened in your life or the life of a character—a moment that didn’t go according to plan, but ended up leading to somewhere meaningful or surprising. Write about this specific moment, but let your imagination run wild with it. Blur the lines of nonfiction and fiction. What if that moment had been a scene in a story? An epic poem?
Try to let the scene evolve beyond the real experience. Follow a thread of the unexpected, and surprise yourself with what you come up with. What new directions does it lead to? What other characters, ideas, or moments begin to emerge from the original surprise? The more you allow yourself to be open to surprise, the more creative the piece will feel.
Let your writing reflect the serendipity of the moment!
Wordy Facts: Serendipity
I adore the word serendipity. It feels like something soft and surprising, even before you know what it means.
The word was coined in 1754 by writer Horace Walpole, inspired by a Persian fairy tale called The Three Princes of Serendip, whose characters were always stumbling upon unexpected discoveries—finding things they weren’t actively looking for.
Now, we use serendipity to describe those same kinds of moments: the ones where something or someone meaningful appears when we least expect it.
For writers, this feels especially true. Some of the best ideas don’t arrive when we sit down and try to force them onto the page. They show up while we’re wandering, noticing, following a small thread of curiosity that leads somewhere we didn’t plan to go.
A Poem to Ponder: “The Thing Is” by Ellen Bass
to love life, to love it evenwhen you have no stomach for itand everything you’ve held dearcrumbles like burnt paper in your hands,your throat filled with the silt of it.When grief sits with you, its tropical heatthickening the air, heavy as watermore fit for gills than lungs;when grief weights you down like your own fleshonly more of it, an obesity of grief,you think, How can a body withstand this?Then you hold life like a facebetween your palms, a plain face,no charming smile, no violet eyes,and you say, yes, I will take youI will love you, again.
This is a poem that moves, and is moving. It begins in heartbreak, with the kind of loss that feels impossible to move through, and yet, slowly, almost imperceptibly, a shift begins.
What I love about this poem is how it doesn’t rush that shift. There’s no forcing of a resolution or an off of easy comfort. Instead, the poem stays with the heaviness long enough for something else to emerge alongside it. It’s bit quieter, but just as real. There’s a flicker of beauty, a return to the body, and a reminder that even in grief, the world continues to offer itself to us in small, unexpected, and beautiful ways.
“The Thing Is” is a powerful example of how writing can hold more than one truth at a time.
As you (re)read, you might consider:
- Where do you feel the poem begin to shift?
- What details or images carry the shift?
- What is the poem saying about the relationship between pain and presence?
- What does the poem suggest about staying open to unexpected moments, even in difficult times?
Publishing Opportunities:
- Elsewhere: A Journal of Place – Submission Deadline: March 30, 2026. Currently seeking submissions on the theme “The End of the World.” Open to submissions of essay, fiction, poetry and interviews. Here’s what they have to say about their choice of theme: “We understand that it might sound downcast and as if we’ve surrendered. But that is not the case, quite the opposite – we remain firm believers in solidarity and hope. So send us your writing about how things end, or about how they begin again. Play around with the end of the world, or have a picknick at it. Surprise us.”
- Changes Press – Submission Window: April 1-15, 2026 – Changes, a new book publisher, is hosting their first ever opening reading period for manuscripts of original poetry, poetry in translations, and proposals for archival projects. Open to emerging and previously published poets! Submissions do not open until April 1st!
- 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!
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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