That Place You Love: Real People. Real Stories.
Round-Up on Money; Next-Up Labo/ur. Launching the Zine & how I'm doing it...
Wow, we did it!
16 weeks. 16 prompts.
The first trimester of TPYL is in the books with
8,308 VIEWS
154 STORIES SHARED &
23 CONTRIBUTORS TAKING PART!
That Place You Love is read across 15 US states and 10 countries.
On December 27, 2022, I invited subscribers to write about truth, lies, and the difference between them, to flex their storytelling muscles and refine their BS radar.
Each Friday, I proposed a theme. On Mondays, I shared a personal story related to that theme and suggested a prompt for readers to write on in 250 words or less.
Why the word count?
Restraint makes us specific.
When we cut the fluff, we take ownership of our experiences. We tighten and widen the lens on our point of view and discover what was always there but obscured by rote narration.
A story we’ve told the same way 1,000 times can be retold a 1,000 ways.
Paring down a memory into its essence gives it a bit of shine. Perhaps humor is lurking behind misunderstood circumstance, pain hidden behind comedy.
In other words…
The only TRUTH you can CONTROL is the TRUTH you TELL.
If you’re reading this for the first time…
And want to know more about the ZINE’s mission, go to ABOUT or FORUM on the Substack platform or read the introductory post I WAS AN EASY LIAR.
If you contributed during the past 16 weeks, I’ll be in touch about the ZINE. I’m old school Kinko’s cut/paste, but I’ll figure out how to do this as a website!
Looking for artwork, too! More to come…
Round Up on Money & New Prompt - Labor - below!
In week 16 of That Place You Love…
Our theme was MONEY through the lens of truth.
I wrote about my earliest experiences of pay inequity and how an emergency credit card didn’t help me through an identity crisis.
(in order of appearance)
Carole D wrote about playing the gas game and how betting on variable pricing can be a waste of time more than a saving of money.
Intact Animal wrote about money found, luck misspent, and how the good fortune of a personal reset led to long lasting love.
Amelia wrote about her reliance on credit and a painful intervention by loved ones that gave her the freedom to think of money as a tool for a fulfilling life.
Tabitha B wrote about money’s relationship to happiness, its kindred sibling poverty, and the roast to vegetable broth equivalency ratio: roast always wins.
Melissa S wrote about the artist’s dilemma of supporting oneself in a money-driven world, especially when making money from art is getting harder to do.
Zig wrote about the fuel for an adventurous and creative period in the form of traveling until the cash burned out, creating new impressions & passions.
Zig also returned to week 14’s prompt FORGIVENESS and wrote about how forgiving what others perceive as betrayal is far better for the patchwork of a family than harboring criticism or blame.
READ & HEART these writers & SHARE your own story in the comments.
Next Up: Labor
On Monday, I’ll write about LABOR through the lens of truth and see what I come up with as a prompt. I chose this theme to coincide with LABO/UR DAY in Europe. No hot dogs or fireworks on International Workers’ Day.
However, according to the US Dept. of Labor Blog, on May 1st, 1886, tens of thousands of American workers fought for the eight-hour workday in what became known as the Haymarket Affair.
Something we’ve foregone with the convenience of taking our work with us everywhere we go in our pockets!
Consider where LABOR takes you and share on Monday!
Subscriber Housekeeping
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I won’t take it personally. Honest.
More to come on Monday….
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely, for real.
Michelle