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Header illustration by Raúl Gil for Reedsy

I’ve been helping judge the Reedsy Prompts contest since 2020. In this weekly short story contest, we supply five loosely themed prompts, and writers must base their stories on one of those five. Winners earn $250 and the chance to be featured in Reedsy’s anthology, Prompted.

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image source: Unsplash

If we take care of ourselves, get our steps in, maybe eat the occasional vegetable, we might live to see Batman’s 100th birthday in a decade or so.

The Batman we celebrate in 2039 might not look anything like the Batman we know today, though. Because the Batman we know today isn’t a whole lot like the Batman of 1939.

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I have writers asking me all the time to write about writing poetry, and the question always makes me want to run. I don’t know how to write poetry, but I do write and publish a lot of it. My fans seem to really like it, and say things like, ‘wow, you really are a brilliant poet, some of your lines are genius.’ What? Well, thank you. Really, thank you thank you thank you. But to me it’s just the way my brain works and it doesn’t seem like genius and I don’t feel like I’m brilliant.

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Over the years, I’ve been published in quite a few anthologies—sometimes cold calls via submissions, and other times from a private invite. But every time I send a story in to an editor, there are things I think about, and consider, as I try to address the theme, stay true to my voice, and yet still stand out in a crowd. Here are some tips from my experiences.