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Summer 2025 Writing Advice

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September Writing Prompts

Write about a September memory:

September is a month filled with memories. The prompts below start with some of mine and expand. You can write about one of them or anything they trigger. When you have a draft, we’d love to read your work if you’d like to share it. More about that at the bottom of this segment. So get to it. 

Write about a September memory:

  1. Maybe it has to do with the start of school.
  2. Maybe it has to do with a best friend no loner being in your class or your town.
  3. Maybe it has to do with making a team or getting a role or the right chair in the orchestra.
  4. Maybe it has to do with not getting what you tried out for.
  5. Maybe it has to do with a child entering kindergarten.
  6. Or a new home.
  7. Or new wrinkles you discovered on your body.
  8. Or the first September you were married.
  9. Or separated or divorced or widowed.
  10. Maybe it was about being without a job for the first time in ____ years.
  11. Maybe it’s about what happened on 9-11.
  12. Or the time you were caught in a hurricane.
  13. Or the time you had a Labor Day picnic that went incredibly well.
  14. Or the time the picnic went horribly wrong.
  15. Or the year you celebrate another September holiday that sticks in your mind.

TIPS:

  • Start late in the action.
  • Make your characters 3 dimensional.
  • Let us care about them.
  • Have something important at stake.
  • Draw readers in and hold their attention.
  • Make your scenes memorable.
  • Use sensory details if they’re appropriate.
  • Be sure every detail adds to the point the story is making.
  • Make us say, “WOW!”

Want to send us your story? Please do. If you have questions about it, please ask. If we decide to share it, we’ll pay you $25. Right now, this is separate from the contest. Just a simple submissions opportunity.

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Kimberly Lee, the author of Have You Seen Him, shares some inspirational tips in this article. Below it you’ll find important links and her bio. If you’d like to send a note to the author, I’d be happy to forward it for you.

 

Words of Wisdom

By Kimberly Lee, author of Have You Seen Him

When we moved into our current home, I claimed a small room near the laundry area as my “writing retreat.” Its closet holds teetering stacks of books and magazines on the writing craft. When I’m feeling uninspired, I grab the first one I see and flip to a random page, hoping for a perfect dose of motivating advice. Words of wisdom sometimes come from another place—an article, a podcast, a conversation with another writer. Below are a few that have stuck with me:

If you do not record your own story, your tiny bit of the history of the human race is lost.—Pat Schneider. I reread this one anytime the question “who will want to read this?” arises. The way she chose to phrase it makes writing—whether memoir or fiction—seem doubly important. Writing isn’t just for ourselves and our readers, it’s part of a legacy. It says, boldly, “we were here.” Like fingerprints and snowflakes, our stories our unique and deserve to be told.

No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.—Robert Frost Often what keeps me from the page is not knowing exactly what I’m going to write in the next chapter. I might have an idea of what I want the characters to do, or the next steps I want the plot to take, but it’s not fully formed. Frost’s advice is a reminder that sometimes you can’t know all of that. You don’t need to, and maybe it’s for the best that you don’t. Just start. Watch as a memorable encounter you experienced or witty dialogue you overheard floats to the surface and inserts itself in just the right place. Get going and allow the writing to lead to a place you couldn’t have planned for.

Write what you don’t know, about what you supposedly know, write what you haven’t ever felt permitted to call knowledge, about what you you see and feel and live. Show that which exceeds your ability to tell it. Tell what exceeds your ability to show it.—Elaine Castillo I heard this while listening to Castillo’s How To Read Now. I pressed rewind a couple of times to let the words sink in, this nuanced response to those early writing craft lessons we all get— “write what you know,” “show, don’t tell.” Your voice, your style—these matter the most. My takeaway: learn and honor the craft, but let go of teachings that seem restrictive or overly prescriptive, especially during the first draft. In the initial stages, let your writing evolve naturally. You can revise it later.

Take joy.—Jane Yolen. Just seeing the binding of Yolen’s book Take Joy: The Writer’s Guide to Loving the Craftreminds me that although it may come with challenges—self-doubt, uncertainty, not knowing—storytelling is something my heart wants to do. It’s a calling and a gift. Breathe in, smile, and take delight in writing the next word.

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About the Author

Kimberly Lee, JD is the author of the riveting thriller Have You Seen Him. A versatile writer, editor, and creativity coach, she has a passion for nurturing the imaginative spirit and helping others reveal their own inner wisdom.

Kimberly is an Amherst Writers & Artists affiliate and serves on its board. She is a certified facilitator of SoulCollage®, Journal to the Self, and Guided Autobiography, as well as a joyful meditation teacher and Groove Method provider. A teaching artist with Hugo House, Women On Writing, The Writing Salon, and Loft Literary, Kimberly has led events at numerous retreats and conferences. Recent collaborations include Esalen Institute, Omega Institute, Arts & Healing Initiative, the Expressive Therapies Summit, and Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center.

Kimberly’s writing has appeared in a variety of publications and anthologies, and she has served on the staffs of Literary Mama, F(r)iction, and Carve Magazines. Kimberly trusts in the magic and mystery of miracles and synchronicity, and believes everyone is creative and has unique gifts to share. Connect with Kimberly on Instagram @klcreatrix or at KimberlyLee.me.

Thrilling, exploratory, and propulsive, Have You Seen Him is a story of lost identity, dangerous secrets, and a deeply personal pursuit of the truth.

  • PUBLISHER: Butterfly Effect Press
  • ASIN: B0F9TJYN8V
  • ISBN-13  979-8991867207
  • Print Length: 268 pages

Purchase Links:

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What Romance in Fiction Can Teach You About Yourself

By Megan Michelle Author of Skylark

Books have a unique ability to teach us. Non-fiction has the direct purpose of educating. Poems trigger emotions and show us things that may be buried deep within ourselves. Fiction, on the other hand, educates through stories, offering up a mirror, a lens through which we can catch a glimpse of another world and ultimately, we learn something.

While writing my debut novel, Skylark, I discovered several hidden sides of myself. Writing became cathartic as I processed my own trauma from past relationships. In writing my main characters, Rachel and Christopher, I discovered a type of love that was truly built on mutual respect and trust. An unwavering bond that could never be broken. It taught me that something better was out there, that the relationships I’d been in up to that point weren’t cutting it. I deserved better. The more I wrote, the clearer I got on what I was looking for in a partner, how I expected and deserved to be treated, and what love meant to me.

Romance can be escapism, but it can also be exploration. I’ve never actually dated an assassin, for example, but the touch her and die vibes . . .  yeah, maybe I’m looking for a partner who I know I can rely on to stand up for me, to have my back always? That hot billionaire offering you all the material possessions you could ever want while he guards his heart and feelings? Well, we all have our own way of showing love, and romance novels can be a good model for different love languages, different communication styles.

It doesn’t matter the trope. Romance novels offer an endless variety of fantasies that we can explore in a safe way and test the water so to speak. Is this something for me? Maybe not, but maybe I’m into part of it. Maybe I can’t relate to this character but the way she stands up for herself and sets boundaries with her partner is something I aspire to.

As a romance author, I get to write my ideal relationship, my ideal partner. By writing my male main character, Christopher Williams, I was able to identify a lot of personality traits and characteristics that I’m looking for in someone. He’s the book boyfriend I wish were real. Every single character I write teaches me something about how I love and how I want to be loved. How I expect to be treated in a relationship.

Reading and writing romance novels has given me a clearer sense of self and helped raise the bar, set the expectation of what a healthy relationship looks like, and what I’m looking for in a partner. Similarly, there’s a part of me in each of my characters. Writing romance is like therapy. A fun way to heal, to explore, to dream of what one day could be, without the fear of getting hurt.

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Megan Michelle writes dark romance for the fearless women who are ready to reclaim their power and confront the shadows of their past. Her stories blend the raw emotions of military life, the strength of feminism, and the passion of forbidden love, all while guiding readers on a journey of self-discovery and healing. Through dark romance, she explores the complexity of love, power, and identity. Her stories invite you to dive deep into the hearts of women who don’t just survive—they thrive, reclaiming their power and rewriting their stories on their own terms.

Stay in touch with this author by subscribing to her website’s newsletter and following her on Instagram. If you have questions for her, please post them below. Many thanks!

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Prompts for August (or any month): 

1. Write about heat—any kind of heat. What is it look like? How does it sound? How does it alter your plans? Is it good heat or bad heat? Write a scene affected by the influences of the heat.

2. What happens in your life when heat shows up in your life? Show us in a poem, story, or essay how physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual heat initiated a change. What happened to you and those around you? How did it all turn out?

3. Has the heat ever distorted your vision or perception? What was that like? If it hasn’t, what do you imagine it would be like?

4. What is your favorite summer meal? Is it hot or cold? Who do you like serving it to? How do you feel when you put it on the table?

5. Do you know someone with an August birthday? Who is/was he/she? How did this person affect you? List ten traits the person is/was known for. Tell a story or write a poem about one of those traits.

6. Make a 3-minute list of everything you associate with August. Pick one to write about. Try including the words heat, river, and starlight in your piece. That’s optional, of course. 

7. OR write about the subject that keeps coming up in your mind—whatever it is.

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Editor’s Note: Sheila Bender is a poet, but you can also apply these principles to prose as well, whether it’s fiction or creative non-fiction.

Why write poetry?

From a Substack post by Sheila Bender

It is to live into moments and then live them again by remembering the details of what I’ve seen, heard, smelled, tasted and touched.

It is to make leaps of association to other moments to feel discoveries that live in the leap and the landing.

It is to refuse to have an intention that will bend the words to what I want to say when they are leading me.

It is to let alliterations entertain me. Locautious loquats. Silent silk. Vicious Velcro.

It is to repeat one word until it sounds like a bird chirping or the flapping of wings, wind through the trees or even a glacier calving.

It is to rephrase a phrase that others refuse to relinquish.

It is to use a word I have just learned in a context I had not dreamt.

It is to feel my way into the insides of words like I would a room someone else has furnished.

It is to abandon the idea that the writing will earn me anything but the love of having made it.

It is to rejoice when the poem reaches out to another poem.

It is to have created a circle of worthy company sharing the vulnerability poetry requires.

It is to hear the sound of my own heart opening.

@@@ Sheila Binder is the founder of WritingItReal.com, poet, essayist, memoirist and writing instruction author. She facilitates others writing from personal experience with articles and writing to help them grow rather than tear their writing apart via traditional critiquing. Her substack is https://sheilabender.substack.com/

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July prompts

Pick one of the topics below or adjust it to your own story. Set a timer for 20 minutes. Don’t stop to edit as you write. When you’re done, read it over. Highlight 3 phrases or sentences that have energy for you (whatever that means). You can use them for additional prompts on other days. 

  • Write about a race in a swimming pool.
  • Write about the moment you discovered a new purpose in life.
  • Ever had insights come to you in the kitchen as you prepared a meal? Write about it.
  • Write about the cycle of the seasons and how it affects you, your family, or someone you know.
  • Write about something real or imaginary that you found in your mailbox in the last week.

OR use one of these sentence starts. Finish the sentence. Write the next sentence. Keep going. Write for 15-20 minutes. Please leave a note saying whether the writing ended up where you thought it would or not, and share the piece if you’d like to. Write fiction, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, memoir, or a combination of genres. Write in first, second, or third person. Make it historical or romantic. 

  • Once the sun went down…
  • When I looked in the dog’s eyes I saw…
  • Because I heard a screech…
  • The creamy chocolate frosting…
  • I wasn’t prepared for…

We’d love to read what you wrote. 

 

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. B. Lynn Goodwin says

    If you’d like to share your writing on any prompt for July or August, we’d love to read it. We’re really curious to see how these prompts are being used. Thanks!

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