Write into the Week: August 3, 2025

Elle LaMarca | August 3, 2025 |

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
― Albert Einstein

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: Letting Imagination Lead

Einstein wasn’t a creative writer, but he understood something every writer knows deep down: before anything becomes real on the page, it must first be imagined in the mind. Imagination is where we begin, whether we’re building fictional worlds, exploring memory, examining systems, or capturing the subtle poetry of everyday life.

This week’s quote reminds us that imagination isn’t a frivolous escape—it’s the foundation of art. It’s where we preview not only the lives of our characters, but the truths we hope to illuminate, the memories we want to preserve, the questions we long to ask. When we sit down to write, we’re not just capturing what is—we’re shaping what could be.

If you’re staring at the blank page this week, take a breath and let your imagination lead. What’s the most unexpected way into what you want to say? What would surprise even you? What detail, moment, or line keeps resurfacing, asking to be explored?

Don’t worry about getting it “right.” Imagination isn’t about precision. It’s about possibility.

Writing Prompt

Send an invitation to your imagination. If your imagination were a guest you’d like to spend more time with, what kind of invitation would you send?

Write a short letter, postcard, or poetic note inviting your imagination back into your creative space. Be specific. What do you want it to help you with? What tone will you use? Playful, charming, pleading, or apologetic? Let the format be as formal or free-spirited as you wish. Consider what you and your imagination have been through together, and what kind of reunion are you hoping for?

Reading Recommendations:

Fiction:

“Work Experience” by Devon Halliday. This witty short story captures the quiet desperation of unpaid internships with eerie precision. It chronicles the dynamics of ambition and collective hope inside a windowless basement office.

Nonfiction:

“The crushed-shell beach, dazzling white” by Jana Putrle Srdić. In this dreamlike essay, Srdić explores memory, longing, and the dissonance between fantasy and reality. Through daring sensory prose, she captures the quiet ache of a life half-lived.

Poetry:

“Pastoral on the Invention of Screaming” by Benjamin Aleshire. This gritty poem hits like a punch to the gut. With dark humor and stark honesty, Aleshire explores the gap between what we witness and what we’re willing to feel.

Listening Recommendations:

From Poetry Off the Shelf Podcast: “Touch the Moon“. Listen to Philip Hoare on William Blake, revolution, and swimming in the dark.

Publishing Opportunities:

Exposition Review’s Flash 405 Writing Contest – Submission Window: August 4 – September 5, 2025. The Flash 405 writing contest is a celebration of extraordinary short-form narratives, accepting work in multiple genres, from prose to poetry to hybrid and experimental forms. For this round, they’re looking for flash narratives inspired by the theme “Normal,” chosen by contest judge, Expo Associate Poetry Editor Kiana Shaley.
West Branch Literary Magazine – Submissions Open: August 1, 2025. Free to submit, and they pay! Accepting submissions in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and translations. Note: All reading recommendations this week are from West Branch.

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

Note: There will be no Write into the Week Zoom session this Monday, August 4th. I’ll see you next week!

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.

Posted in: Write into the Week

Elle LaMarca

Elle LaMarca is a writer, novelist, and curriculum specialist at Writers.com, where she develops new courses in all genres, and teaches courses on creative mindset and sustainable writing practices. She also writes the weekly Write into the Week newsletter and hosts the accompanying Monday live sessions, where writers gather to set intentions, write in community, and begin their creative week with momentum. Originally from the Buffalo, New York area, Elle now splits her time between Kailua, Hawai‘i and the Netherlands. An avid traveler, she has lived in and explored more than 40 countries, experiences that continue to shape both her storytelling and her perspective on creative life. Before joining Writers.com, Elle worked as an educator and curriculum designer through Teach for America, teaching in Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Boston. She holds a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from George Mason University and an M.A. in Education from Johns Hopkins University. Elle is passionate about well-crafted sentences, memorable metaphors, and helping writers build a steadier relationship with their creative work. She is currently at work on a novel about the complexities of female friendship and a collection of personal essays about creativity, travel, and the search for belonging.