Write Different
Plus, a book excerpt and anthology calls
A fun thing happened when I sat down to write a new chapter for a WIP the other day. This particular chapter is for a nonfiction book that is formatted differently than most other nonfiction books. I have to keep the formatting consistent for every chapter.
But my brain had other plans for THIS particular chapter.
My brain is well aware of how all of those other 50+ chapters were written and decided, “Not today.” It was having none of it! My brain wanted me to write the chapter the way most NORMAL chapters in a nonfiction book are written.
Gotta love it when I get ideas for new chapters to write in a WIP, but the actual writing of that chapter is different than the way all of the other chapters are written!
That’s exactly what kept happening for me this week, and it was so annoying.
This same struggle has happened before, when I was writing one of the stories for The GHOST Group series. I wanted to write the chapter in first person, but all of the previous chapters and entire stories were already written in third person limited.
In each of these cases, what did I do?
I allowed myself to write those chapters anyway! If the only way I could write them was with a different format or in a different POV, then I was STILL going to get it done.
I knew this meant a lot of work in fixing the chapters later, but that was not an issue when I NEEDED to write this stuff in my head right then and there. Heck, I’ve put HOURS of work into fixing entire books! Fixing a chapter is a walk in the park.
I had to get these ideas out of my head. That was all that mattered.
These were ideas I had chomping at the bit, ready to come flooding out of the gate. These were scenes that were playing in my head so loudly that the only way I could get them to stop pulling me away into those worlds was to get them down into the book.
So I wrote those chapters, even though they were not written the same way as the others.
And guess what happened after I wrote them?
I was able to go back to these rogue chapters and revise them so that they were similar to the other chapters!
Same format. Same Point-of-View.
I fixed those chapters without any trouble. I realized that it was a lot easier to do this now that I had gotten ALL of that other stuff out of my head and down onto paper. I was no longer in writing mode; I was now in editing mode!
Sometimes, we just need to give ourselves permission to write things the way we want to write them. Every first draft we write is written for us, anyway. This is our playground; we can write any way we want to! We can throw onto that paper everything we’ve got in our Idea Box.
What matters at this stage is to get the story, the ideas and the information onto the page. If it’s different from how the rest of the story or book is written, then so be it. It can be fixed later.
It’s better to write differently now and get your ideas down than to wait until you can write “the way you’re supposed to” later and have no ideas for anything to write.
They say it’s okay to allow yourself to write badly. Well, it’s also okay to allow yourself to write differently, too. So if you want to write something for a WIP that is off the rails compared to what’s already written, then go for it. You can always go back to it later and change it, delete things, and turn it into what it’s “supposed” to look like or what it’s “supposed” to be. For now, just write it!
What’s New This Week
When my dad was alive, and I lived at home, he would ask me, “What’s new?” To which I would answer, “Nothing old.”
Well, here’s something old for this week!
In honor of Father’s Day, here is my blog post: “Father’s in Fiction”
It’s from 2011 and could use an update, sure, but it’s still valid for Father’s Day!
Book Updates
The book that was slated for release this month will now be released in June 2026! (It’s a “June book” so it’ll be out NEXT June!) This decision is one I made myself. I had a feeling that this was not a good time to get this book published – and I was right! Turned out a bunch of stuff happened with the publisher. So I’m glad it’s one LESS thing for her to worry about! And I’m glad I made that decision.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
Week of Terrors anthology series
Twisted Dreams Press is now accepting submissions for a new anthology series! It is seven books with ten stories in each book.
The first anthology will be published in June. The others will follow in the subsequent months. Submissions of stories for all anthologies opens the beginning of April.
Open until each anthology has ten stories. We will announce when an anthology is no longer accepting submissions.
Series Name: A Week of Terrors!
Here are the themes:
Monster Monday: Creature Horror Stories
Terrifying Tuesday: Evil Clowns
Werewolf Wednesday
Thriller Thursday: Zombies
Frightening Friday: Mix of horror subgenres: psychological horror, eco-horror, cyberpunk horror, erotic horror, etc.
Slasher Saturday: Slasher horror
Spooky Sunday: Ghost stories
Payment: One print and digital copy.
Submit your stories today!
Length: 3K-10K words
Reprints welcome! Simultaneous submissions welcome but please let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere.
Email your stories as a Word .doc or .docx file. Google Docs are okay as long as you grant Dawn permission for access.
No PDF submissions, please.
Stories written with AI will NOT be accepted!
When you submit your story, please put the following in the subject line:
Submission: WOT Anthology, (Title), (Day of the week your story is for)
Please include in your email if the story is a reprint as well as your bio.
Please send your stories to Dawn at submissions@twisteddreamspress.com
We look forward to reading your story!
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
Friday the 13th Summer Camp Horror Anthology
It's that time of year again! Time for writers everywhere to start writing some summer camp horror!
At Twisted Dreams Press, however, we horror fanatics just can't get enough of Friday the 13th!
We are announcing a call for summer camp horror stories that take place on a Friday the 13th for our anthology: Friday the 13th Summer Camp Horror! This anthology is scheduled for publication on Friday, March 13, 2026!
Start submitting your summer camp horror stories now!
The deadline is December 5, 2025. Which gives you plenty of time to cook up a story that will knock our socks off!
Check out the graphic above to get the deets! Send us your Friday the 13th summer camp horror stories to get in on this!
NOTE: A tie-in to the movie is not required. No fan fiction, please.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
FUBAR: An Anthology of Tech Horror
Baynam Books Press is pleased to announce they are open to submissions for a new horror anthology:
FUBAR: An Anthology of Tech Horror
Send your stories of malfunctioning smartphones, attacking computers and killer Roombas!
We want them all!
This anthology is looking for horror stories of when good technology goes bad. Whether it’s a brain implant that turns its carrier into a monster, pacemakers that transform people into homicidal maniacs or a self-driving car on a highway to Hell, please send it our way!
Stories must be 2K-10K words
Reprints welcome!
No AI for writing your stories please — but you CAN use AI in your story!
No fan fiction.
Stories containing homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, CSA, as well as discrimination against the disabled and other marginalized communities will be rejected.
Deadline: August 22, 2025
Payment: One digital copy
Publication in 2026.
Send stories to Dawn at DMCWriter@gmail.com
What’s New at SPARREW?
Check out my interview author Megan Guilliams, which was published in the May 2025 issue of the SPARREW Newsletter!
Read it here.
This Week’s Book Promo
Just because it’s Father’s Day, I’d love for readers who enjoy ghost stories to check out my book, The GHOST Group Book Three: The Ghosts of Calliope the Cat and The Fiery Viking.
The second story in this book is the Father’s Day story. Spoiler alert: There is no Viking that is on fire in the story, but there IS an angry ghost haunting a restaurant! This time around, the young members of the GHOST Group team up with the adult members of the Ghost Gurus to investigate the restaurant and try to resolve the haunting!
And because there is so much chaos in the world right now, I promoted my free ebook, Write for Your Life! The Health Benefits of Writing. I have received comments such as “writing keeps me alive” and “writing is my lifeline” while this ebook was being promoted.
I shared with someone online how writing was the thing I clung to when, in 2020, I had almost lost all hope: “When I was recovering from a life-threatening illness in 2017, I was unable to write. It made me very depressed. It was in 2020, after losing my job and nearly losing hope because of all the death from Covid, that I was able to write again.”
I have been doing A LOT of writing during these very trying times. I know it’s not going to make everything better, but at least it is giving me the strength to face another day.
I hope that you also have found strength and healing from writing. And if you’re ever curious about the health benefits of writing, please check this book out. It’s free on Kindle Unlimited.
Now for the book excerpt:
Write for Your Life! The Health Benefits of Writing
Copyright © 2023 by Dawn Colclasure
The Emotional Benefits of Writing
Things can get pretty chaotic at times. We can go through all sorts of experiences just in the span of one day, and sometimes, we are not given a chance to even breathe! We end up turning in circles just to get through a busy day and, meanwhile, we are dealing with certain feelings or emotions we just don’t have the time to even recognize, let alone think about.
That is where writing about them comes in.
By writing about our feelings and emotions, we are able to dig them out from our already cluttered minds and focus on them for a bit, when we finally have the time to relax.
By doing so, we are improving our emotional health. Just taking a few minutes to write about what is really bothering us on certain days or tackling feelings we’ve had tugging at us all day, we can now at least process them better and understand them better. We just may also have the chance to cope with them better – all just from writing about them!
Sometimes our minds get so filled up with various thoughts, ideas, concerns and memories from the day that we are not able to mentally process our feelings. When we write about our feelings and our emotions, this helps us to focus on them better. It helps us to understand them better and deal with them more effectively.
There is another emotional benefit of making writing a daily habit for your life: It will curb your stress and help reduce anxiety. One way to do this is to write about a positive experience. It may seem difficult to write about a positive experience sometimes, especially if you are hurting, but studies have shown that writing about a positive experience can help improve your mood. Writing about positive experiences can also help reduce anxiety.
Even so, we should also take the time to write about negative moments. These are the experiences that we don’t really like to think about or look back on. We usually try to keep these memories locked away in the back of our minds. Some people have even blocked out negative and painful experiences. After my younger brother killed my cat by throwing her into the dryer, I was so traumatized by the event that to this day I can’t remember what happened after I got over the shock and grief of pulling my dead cat from the dryer. I blocked it out. I only remember sitting at the table, crying and feeling the shock of what had happened. Even so, writing about it helps. Writing about that experience allows me to free myself from that pain and shock. It allows me to unburden myself of that terrible memory. Ultimately, it is a way of getting it out of my head and putting it somewhere else. It is no longer bottled up. This same effect can happen for you, too, when you write about painful moments from your past. Writing about painful moments helps us to move through them and in the end, unburden ourselves from carrying those memories around.
When you write something, no matter what it is, you will experience a sense of happiness and satisfaction at getting this task done. Writing can help boost your happiness, just from the very act of writing. You will also feel a sense of accomplishment from having written something.
RE: Writing and health - in 2024 I had one miserable health hurdle after another. In utter anguish, I spent July 4th weekend in Bellevue Hospital, somewhat soothed by the embrace of RX morphine. Thanks to taking too many Ibuprofen, I'd developed itchy weeping welts. CRISIS! So I summoned the ultimate analgesic: The Muse. I began writing unusual werewolf poems. As long as I focused on the werewolfery, the Muse's anesthesia held. My werewolves focused on social woes: sex trafficking, domestic violence, family abandonment, child abuse, etc. Each werewolf poem shape-shifted - - Golden Shovels gave way to Glosa, sonnets gave way to mesostich acrostics, haibun gave way to Echo Verse . . . and each werewolf poem was accepted on its first submission to a zine. Health & haibuns = my RX! :-)