The well has gone dry, writers! We’ve had a terrific run of guest writers who have explored and shared their creative projects and processes through the Raw Literature series at Carrot Ranch. I’m not convinced we’ve run out of creativity to share because the well is deep and we just need to go further.

If you want to catch up on our 2018 series, be sure to bookmark these terrific Raw Literature Guest Essays:

• Raw Literature: Art is the Active Expression of Our Creative Skills by Kate Spencer
• Raw Literature: Riding the Range by D. Avery
• Raw Literature: Me, Too: Sexual Harassment Before It Had a Name by Paula Moyer
• Raw Literature: Seeking the Well by Charli Mills
• Raw Literature: A Writer’s Journey by Rachel Hanson
• Raw Literature: Meet My Other Half by Juliet Nubel
• Raw Literature: Write a New Ending by Cheryl Oreglia
• Raw Literature: Asperger’s, Voice and the Search for Identity by Sherri Matthews
• Raw Literature: The Power of Words by Hugh Roberts
• Raw Literature: Support System by Susan Sleggs
• Raw Literature: Exploring a New Structure by Faith Colburn

Carrot Ranch offers several options for Guest Posts. They publish on Tuesdays and will run until September. That’s when we start preparing for the Flash Fiction Rodeo. You might want to write a guest post for several reasons:

1. To build your writing portfolio.
2. To expand your writing platform.
3. To bring visibility to a book you or another community writer has published.
4. To try your hand at an advanced creative writing prompt.
5. To get better acquainted with the community at Carrot Ranch.

If you are interested, I’m signing up guest writers for the following:

Raw Literature explores the creative process and early creations in writing. The series is an ongoing conversation about those first works we create as writers, as literary artists. Guest Authors share personal insights on their craft, process, the experience of creating raw literature and what they do with it.

Platform shares successful marketing tactics for authors or bloggers. Carrot Ranch upholds that every writer’s platform is different according to how it’s built from the basic bricks that include branding, credibility, community, and target audience. This series examines how to use a platform for marketing books or developed content.

New! Peer Book Review is intended to grant space to regular writers and readers of Carrot Ranch to share the books of others in the community. Many of the Rough Writers & Friends are authors, and you can find a variety of good reads on the Books page. Reviews are the best way to support authors, and this series seeks to encourage peers to offer thoughtful book reviews.

In addition to guest essays, Carrot Ranch challenges literary writers to push their craft with Advanced Flash Fiction. If you are interested, you can take these advanced challenges at any time. Post on your blog and link back to Carrot Ranch or submit as a potential guest post.

6th Sense Challenge reminds writers to explore the world with more than the eyes. Writers create visual images for readers through all five senses of sight, sound, scent, touch, and taste. This challenge is to write the same 99-word story five times using one of the five senses. In the final sixth story of 99 words, create a sixth overall sense that combines the best of the sensory elements.

History Challenge encourages writers to dig into the past to find forgotten stories. Possible places to look include one’s own family tree, vital records, scrapbooks, school yearbooks, archived newspapers, town histories, local cemeteries and old house records. The idea is to start with a name and date of a person’s lifespan. Using local libraries, museum reading rooms, state archives or online sources, piece together vital facts and imagine a story. It can be told in one, three or five flash fictions of 99 words each.

Ultimate Flash Fiction Challenge imitates the five steps of writing a book. It’s a progressive, five flash writing activity. Your own results will surprise you and improve your approach to book writing. This advanced challenge welcomes all writers, especially those who write books or want to better understand how.

It’s a five-step process:

1. Free write for five minutes;
2. Write a 99-word flash fiction;
3. Reduce it to a 59-word flash fiction;
4. Reduce it to 9-words;
5. Build it back up to 599 words in three-acts.

You can submit a post, essay or story to wordsforpeople@gmail.com.