Write into the Week: August 25, 2025

“The reason the B-side was always better than the A-side is because the artist had more freedom. Less pressure to perform, more room to play.”
–Rick Rubin

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: The Beauty of B-Sides

Not every piece of writing needs to be your “A-side.” The polished, perfected, publication-ready thing. Often, some of our most emotionally honest, artistically strange, or creatively freeing work happens when we stop writing for approval or what we think we should write, and just follow where the language leads. I often encourage writers to play more with their work, but sometimes it’s scary to give ourselves the permission. For some of us, even play has to be practiced. Thankfully, it’s fun! 

Try this: Give your “less important” work more attention. The character sketch that turned into a story. The throwaway line from your journal that still haunts you. The abandoned poem that won’t stop whispering.

B-sides are where we take risks. Where we remember why we started writing in the first place. When no one’s watching—or when we convince ourselves of that freedom—we can let go of the pressure to impress and just make art. Messy, surprising, weird, freeing art. 

This week, honor your B-side work. Revisit something you’ve set aside. Write something purely for you. Follow a tangent. Leave something unfinished. Let the beauty be in the making, not the perfection.

Writing Prompt

Write about something you’ve made or done that never got shared but still means something to you. Why did you keep it to yourself? What did it teach you? What if you share it?

Reading Recommendations:

Fiction:

• “Clear as Cake” by Lori Ostlund. In a college writing workshop filled with awkward critiques, volatile classmates, and a quietly imploding narrator, Ostlund captures the strange tenderness of wanting life, and stories, to add up. The story is funny, and unexpectedly moving in its exploration of storytelling, loneliness, and the things we hold just off the page.

Poetry:

• “Blood Moon” by Anne Waldman. A lyrical prose poem that blends myth, history, and protest. It asks you to consider what we do with power, memory, and fear.

Nonfiction/Writer Interview:

• “River Selby on Wildland Firefighting, Processing Trauma, and Writing For Your Younger Self” — by Jane Ciabattari. In this powerful conversation, River Selby reflects on the decade she spent fighting wildfires as one of the only women on elite hotshot crews. From lighting backfires to surviving addiction and documenting trauma through vivid sensory detail, Selby shares how the job, and the writing of her memoir Hotshot, saved her life.

Listening Recommendations:

• From The Lit Hub Podcast: “Joan Didion’s Privacy, Writers Beware, and Wes Anderson“. This episode covers everything from Joan Didion’s legacy and literary privacy to red flags for querying writers, plus a delightfully nerdy dive into the fake books of Wes Anderson’s cinematic world.
• From the Selected Shorts Podcast: “McSweeney’s 25th Anniversary Extravaganza” – Author Meg Wolitzer  presents stories celebrating a quarter century of clever, funny, playful, weird, and literary writing, in print and online, showcased by the powerhouse indie publisher McSweeney’s.

Publishing Opportunities:

• Aesthetica’s Creative Writing Award 2025 – Deadline: August 31, 2025. Aesthetica is looking for the best new writing talent in poetry and fiction! The Award was launched after the publication of Aesthetica Magazine, as a way to support the next generation of literary talent. 
• Literary Cleveland and Gordon Square Review – Submission Deadline: September 30, 2025. Seeking submissions of poetry, short fiction, and short nonfiction. They pay selected contributors! 

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.

Join us on Instagram for more writing inspiration!

We’re sharing writing tips, creative prompts, and a steady stream of encouragement—follow us @writersdotcom. Click below to check out one of our latest posts on writing creative nonfiction.