Webb Writing Challenge

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Several years ago, my daughter introduced me to reading challenges and I have been loving them ever since. True, I don’t always complete them but I have fun trying. Reading challenges often led me to books, authors and genres I never would have chosen. Some I loved, some I didn’t but it did open me up to new things. And we all could use a little touch of the unexpected in our lives.

Instead of a reading challenge, I’m offering you a writing challenge. A list of writing suggestions and a year to complete 12 of them – one a month or all twelve in one month, whatever strikes your fancy. You can even do all 15! Don’t restrict yourself – if the challenge doesn’t specify, try fiction, nonfiction, memoir, essays, children’s, poetry. So, in the next year, whenever you’re feeling uninspired pull up this writing challenge and give one a try.

Let’s not tackle this writing challenge as a solitary endeavor. Feel free to share how you’re doing with the writing challenge in my future Muffin posts or on my blog Words by Webb. Did the writing challenge lead you to a new type of writing, publication, or maybe an idea for a longer piece? Let's begin the Webb Writing Challenge!

1. Write a poem. Rhyming not necessary. If poetry is a challenge for you, try a haiku.

2. Use your name as a writing prompt. My surname is Webb so I could write about spiderwebs, spiders, Spiderman or even weaving (webb means weaver). How about you?

3. Pen a flash fiction(1000 words or less) in a genre you don’t usually write.

4. Find inspiration in a favorite song – either the lyrics or memories connected to the song.

5. Everyone loves a surprise ending. Write something with a twist.

6. Try some epistolary writing – tell a story through other writing (letters, texts, emails, diary entries, police blotter, etc.)

7. Learn something new and use it in your writing. What plants are poisonous? Who created the first hot air balloon? How do you juggle? Here’s your chance to learn something you’ve always been curious about and use it to enrich your writing.

8. Write about a place you’ve never been – an actual place or an imaginary world you create.

9. Create a random question (or use a question generator) then answer it with a piece of writing. When did things go wrong? Why did she come to town? What happened to the missing shoe? The crazier the better.
10. Condense the time period of your piece – have it happen in 24 hours or less.

11. Be someone new! Write from a viewpoint different from yours – different age, gender, religion, politics, financial situation, time period, profession, etc.

12. Choose another piece of writing as your jumping off point, anything from a novel to a news story to a birthday card from your Aunt Marion.

13. Berkley researchers pinpointed 27 emotions: admiration, adoration, aesthetic appreciation, amusement, anger, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, craving, disgust, empathic pain, entrancement, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, relief, romance, sadness, satisfaction, sexual desire, surprise. Focus on one in your next writing.

14. Allow the next person you eat a meal with to suggest a writing topic.

15. Infuse an inherently unlikable character with traits that make your readers root for them.

Have fun and don't forget to let all your fellow writers know how you're doing with the challenge!

Jodi M. Webb writes from her home in the Pennsylvania mountains about everything from DIY projects to tea to butterflies.  She's also a blog tour manager for WOW-Women on Writing. Get to know her @jodiwebbwrites Facebook and blogging at Words by Webb


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Interview with Betsy Andrews Etchart: 2025 Q2 Essay Contest Runner Up

Sunday, June 22, 2025
Betsy’s Bio:
Betsy Andrews Etchart’s award-winning articles have been featured in magazines throughout the Mountain West, and several poems for children have appeared in Cricket Magazine. She’s led large-scale public art projects with high schoolers, and teaches multimedia sculpture to elementary students through her company, ColorWheels, which focuses on building confidence and community through the visual arts. She also teaches adult workshops in memoir, journaling in clay, and bookmaking. Betsy’s currently working on a graphic memoir based on a daily sculpture journal she initiated to help her navigate her departure from a traumatic marriage. She lives in Arizona with her teenage sons and a dog named Eloise. To connect with Betsy, visit her at ColorWheels, BlueSky @Betsyauthorartist, or Instagram @BetsyEtchart 

If you haven't done so already, check out Betsy's award-winning essay "My Marriage, in Five Tables" and then return here for a chat with the author. 


WOW: Congratulations on placing second in the Q2 2025 Essay Contest! How did you begin writing your essay and how did it and your writing processes evolve as you wrote? 

Betsy: I’ve known I needed to write about the first table for over ten years, when I first realized I saw myself in it. As a new wife and then mother, I developed a strong empathy with these fundamental objects of daily life—they stood at the center of community, rituals, meals, creative acts, yet went largely unseen. But the tables’ history was so entangled with my own, it seemed too daunting a task to write the story. The small container WOW offered—1,000 words, and about ten days—was what I needed to finally get it down on paper. I gave myself even tighter boundaries: five tables, 200 words apiece. Suddenly, writing about this huge, difficult thing seemed possible. 

WOW: It’s fascinating to hear how constraints can actually open up a world of possibility in our writing. What did you learn about yourself or your writing by creating this essay? 

Betsy: I reconnected with the joy I find in lyrical writing that’s concise and true to my experience. I learned I can write—on a short deadline—an essay that resonates with readers. I was reminded that I work well with tight boundaries. I tell my art students every day that boundaries are their friends, but it’s easy to forget it in regard to my own seemingly enormous projects. When I discovered Maggie Smith’s You Could Make This Place Beautiful a few weeks after writing the essay, the sentiment in the title made me think of my last few lines, and I realized how widespread that urge and that belief are, among women, among humans—to make our place beautiful. And so, creating this essay strengthened my sense of community, and belonging. 

WOW: The graphic memoir you describe in your bio sounds exciting! Please tell us more about that project and your process. I’m interested in learning more about your sculpture journal and how you draw story ideas from it. 

Betsy: Thank you for this question! Aside from entering a series of the sculptures in a gallery exhibition, I’ve only shared them with friends and fellow writers/artists, and students of my Journaling in Clay workshops, which they inspired. I’ve recently begun in earnest to focus on the graphic memoir based on photos of them. The journal began as a way of processing the cognitive dissonance around my attempt to remove myself and my children from an unhealthy marriage. There was so much uncertainty, so much to fear. The State and my husband were telling me it would be safer to go back. Everyone and everything else was telling me it would be safer to keep moving forward. The stakes were so high, and of course, I’d learned so well not to trust myself. Before I'd married, I'd been a professional magazine writer for a decade. I scribble down all the funny things my sons have said over the years—piles and piles of scraps—and writing has always been a part of how I make sense of myself and the world. But through the course of my marriage, I lost my words. I lost the ability to write about my emotional reality. I was overwhelmed. But I’d become an art educator, and I had clay. One night, ten weeks after the boys and I had moved out, I sculpted a little figure with its legs wide in an attempt to keep its balance, and its arms thrown up as though to protect itself from an invisible hurricane. That’s how I felt. It was hugely therapeutic to see it—to give literal shape to my internal reality, to give literal weight and space to something that I was being told didn’t or shouldn’t exist or if it did, didn’t matter. In making the sculpture, I literally made it matter. Creating a small, expressionistic sculpture—often a self-portrait—at the end of each day became a moving meditation, and eventually led me back to words. Now, as I manipulate clay, or wire, or beads, or magazine scraps or half a plastic Easter egg, the work of my fingers connects my thoughts to experiences, relationships, gives me time to mull over strong emotions, fears, helps me connect with my body—many of the sculptures reflect my posture, which I’ve learned is a physical manifestation of deep emotions and beliefs. And they’ve allowed me to connect to possible futures that were so long hidden from me. 

WOW: Thank you for sharing an intimate part of your process. It’s so wonderful to hear how it has helped you to find your voice, your confidence, yourself, again. This is very powerful. Which creative nonfiction essays or writers have inspired you the most, and in what ways did they inspire you? 

Betsy: Oh, so many! I’m a huge fan of great science writing—I discovered Stephen Jay Gould in high school and marveled at the precision, humor, refusal to accept preconceived notions, and the sheer joy he expresses at truth, whatever it may be. I love the beautiful, probing essays of Jill Sisson Quinn, and essays that distill wisdom from widely disparate sources, like those of Maria Popova. Leslie Rubinkowski, a mentor in grad school, was famous for asking, “What’s it REALLY about?” But it was ten years after I met her that I began figuring out what my personal writing was really about. Only when my marriage had deteriorated so badly that the only way out was through a door marked “self-awareness: enter at your own risk.” The poet, essayist, and activist Diana Hume George, another mentor, taught me that it’s okay to write and choose to not publish. So, while I thrive on connecting with others through writing, there’s great liberty in recognizing I have a choice. 

WOW: That’s such an excellent point – there are so many purposes for writing that don’t relate to or lead to publication. If you could tell your younger self anything about writing, what would it be? 

Betsy: Oh my goodness, so much. But she wouldn’t have listened! Or rather, she wouldn’t have been able to hear. I would have said: you are stronger than you think you are. You are better at taking criticism than you think you are. Say yes to opportunities, even if they’re not in exactly the direction you think you want to go. I would say: make choices and take responsibility for them and move boldly forward through the consequences. And most of all, nurture friendships with those whose paths you cross. Because one plus one is always way more than two. Now, these things may not seem to have to do with writing. But for writers, everything has to do with writing. 

WOW: Thank you for that advice! And yes, writers do seem to be able to equate anything with their writing. Thank you for sharing your writing with us and for your thoughtful responses. Happy writing! 


Interviewed by Anne Greenawalt, founder and editor-in-chief of Sport Stories Press, which publishes sports books by, for, and about sportswomen and amateur athletes. Engage on Twitter or Instagram @GreenMachine459.
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Interview with Mihaela Stoicovici, WOW! Winter 2025 Flash Fiction Contest First Place Winner

Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Originally from Romania, Mihaela has been living in Tokyo and the US for the past 15 years. A former management consultant, she discovered her passion for creative writing quite recently after trying to encourage her own children to improve their language abilities. She admires the work Melissa Uchiyama is doing in Tokyo with children, eatenjapan.com. She is fascinated by myths, old tales, dreams and everything that hints toward the old archetypes of the human mind.

--interview by Marcia Peterson

WOW: Congratulations on winning first place in our Winter 2025 Flash Fiction competition. What prompted you to enter the contest?

Mihaela: I have been playing with some ideas for a long time now, for a few years, but I never had the courage to finalize anything on paper. I had half stories or bits written everywhere but never finished. My intention was to use the contest as a way to discipline myself. I realized I need a lot of discipline. I'm actually afraid to finish a story, I keep going back and forth.

WOW: Can you tell us what encouraged the idea behind your story, “The Snow Woman?”

Mihaela: The idea has been brewing for a long time in a very unclear way, connected to my life experiences. I was trying to make sense of what was happening to me. Over time I became very sensitive to some ideas and paid attention in a different way to things that were happening around me in real life. When I read the original Japanese tale of Yuki Onna for the first time, everything started to make sense. I could see a path forward. I loved the idea of finding magic and the sacred in ordinary life.

WOW: What advice would you give to someone wanting to try writing flash fiction for the first time?

Mihaela: I don't think I could give advice to anyone when it comes to writing, I'm a beginner myself. What I like doing and it works for me is to start with a feeling, connected to what happened in real life or to something I read. And then I follow that feeling, I give it space and I listen to it. Sometimes it's a dream I have at night, I like to pay attention to the dreams, it's amazing how they can have a language of their own.

WOW: You mentioned that you discovered your passion for creative writing quite recently. What’s next for you on writing journey?

Mihaela: I want to have more discipline, write more and finish the stories I think about. I bought some books on creative writing and I plan to study more about technicals and the inner workings of writing.

WOW: Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Mihaela. Before you go, do you have a favorite writing tip or piece of advice you can share?

Mihaela: I like how little, apparently ordinary daily things can have a deeper meaning than I initially thought. When I find that magic thread behind a small thing, that's when I feel I can write a story about it.

***
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Interview with Brigid Boettler, Runner Up in the WOW! 2025 Q2 CNF Essay Contest

Sunday, June 15, 2025

 


Brigid is a global health professional turned stay-at-home mom to twins. When she isn’t chipping playdough from couches or chauffeuring kids to ninja class Brigid works on women-led grassroots initiatives in Northeast Ohio. Creative writing is her throughline as she navigates motherhood in an era of chaos and climate change. Her children’s stories have made the shortlist in the 2024 WriteMentor Novel & Picture Book Awards and the 2025 Cheshire Novel Prize Kids Top 100. 







 ----------Interview by Renee Roberson 

WOW: Hello, Brigid, and welcome! Your essay, “A Silent Explosion,” is a great example of a braided essay. How did you get the idea to weave the recollection of your dream about the moon explosion with preparing your Thanksgiving turkey while processing your mother’s terminal illness? 

Brigid: This is the first creative nonfiction essay I’ve written, so honestly, I’m not well versed on essay techniques and I wrote this without a specific format in mind. I knew that I wanted to write about my mom and this big, heavy, existential loss in my life, but grief on its own is intangible. I needed a hook to snag the grief from the swirling ether and anchor it in the realm of the everyday. That’s where the turkey came in. I’d become the family’s new holiday host because my mom would soon be gone, and the turkey prep – organ bag and all – was a physical manifestation of the anguish I felt. It was only once I started writing that I recalled my moon dream, which I’d had around the time of my mom’s cancer diagnosis a year earlier. The silence of the explosion and the jarring realization that nothing is ever permanent stayed with me and weaved itself into my current narrative. Like the moon, women set the rhythm of family tides in a way that’s often invisible until they’re gone. And in the chaos that follows we find their presence in the smallest things, like handwritten recipes and holiday dinner traditions. 

I think most women can relate to a life braided with abstract dreams, ethereal emotions, and mundane earthly demands. My mom passed peacefully a few weeks ago, and even now I fold away my grief like laundry as I head to the kitchen to talk yogurt flavors with a beguiling kindergartner. 

WOW: I am so sorry for your loss and I understand what you mean about folding away the grief. I feel like it's something women and mothers have become used to doing in so many ways. What was the process of drafting this piece like? Are you a fan of revision or not? 

Brigid: I used to view revision as a sign of failure. I naively felt that if I poured my heart onto paper and it wasn’t perfect, then it wasn’t worth writing. That held me back from ever putting my writing out into the world. But then I read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, and I found the wonderfully empowering concept of the ‘shitty first draft’. Now when I feel the urge to write I let my brain dump words onto paper with little restraint. Then I set about shaping them into something more meaningful, and as I do, I often surprise myself with new connections to unexpected things (like a moon dream from a year earlier). After that I walk away for a few days and come back to tighten everything into a third and final draft. Giving my brain that break between revisions makes it so much easier to kill stubborn darlings and stay true to my throughline. An added bonus of the ‘shitty first draft’ technique is that I can always go back later and mine it for future topics and twists. No writing is ever wasted! 

WOW: As much as I hate revision, I'm happy you had that shift in mindset after reading Anne's book! You mention in your bio that you also write stories for children, and it looks like they have been very well received! What are some of the topics you’ve explored in those works? 

Brigid: I started writing children’s stories for my twin toddlers during those mind-numbing days of the pandemic lockdown. My background is a mix of marine biology and global health, and my stories mirror that a bit. Recently I’ve been using examples of symbiosis in nature to discuss social/emotional issues: Woolly bats and pitcher plants show us how new beginnings can bloom in unexpected ways; Pom pom crabs and anemones show us that when we lift someone up, we lift ourselves too. Life on Earth is only possible with teamwork, and the natural world is full of clever teams solving tough problems! 

These little stories started as something fun to do with my kids, but they’ve had a profound impact on my writing. I tend to take on topics that are far too broad and hard for a reader to connect with. But a picture book demands that you whittle a concept down to its innermost core – and use very few words to do it. It’s a great writing exercise! 

WOW: Selecting a unique topic can be one of the most difficult things to nail down when writing creative nonfiction. What would you suggest to writers seeking advice on selecting themes to write about in essay form? 

Brigid: A good theme is like the ocean. At first glance it’s this solid-looking thing, but when you zoom in, you find that it’s liquid – ever shifting, ever flowing. It looks different every time you approach it because it’s teeming with life. But I think we can get overwhelmed with the idea that a good writing concept must be something no one has ever thought of before. The human experience is defined by common themes (i.e. mother-daughter relationships, death and loss) and most readers want to see or feel something of themselves in the work. 

Coming back to the wisdom of Anne Lamott, she has an anecdote about a student who wrote an essay on loss by describing her painstaking attempt to sew a button onto her dead mother’s burial coat. Death may be a common theme but anchoring its profoundness with the unexpected simplicity of sewing a button is what made the essay great. To me, it’s the unexpected anchor that makes a topic worth writing. It grounds the reader in something real while they sip on the existential questions that haunt us all. 

Another great example of this is Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s exquisite memoir, A Ghost in the Throat. She takes the soaring topic of the historical erasure of female narratives and anchors it in the quiet domestic moments of her life as a stay-at-home mother. And so many of the essays published by WOW! find equally eye-opening ways to give shape to the invisible burdens of women. 

WOW: These are all excellent examples and I love your point about how the human experience is defined by common themes--it's the way we approach those themes that can make for a stellar essay. What is your favorite time of day to write and why? 

Brigid: As a mom of six-year-old twins, I have no control over my own schedule! In a perfect world I would spend my nights forming creative possibilities and then spend my mornings putting actual words to paper, but in real life I just jot my ideas down in a never-ending Google doc and squeeze in some actual writing when I can. It’s chaotic and messy…but then again so is life.

WOW: Ah, so true! Brigid, thank you again for stopping by today. We wish you continued success in your writing endeavors. 


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What if a Favorite Work is in the Public Domain?

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

The Dover cover.

I recently discovered that one of my favorite childhood books is in the public domain. The book in question is the 1924 The Box-Car Children by Gertrude C. Warner. In 1942, a shorter version of the book was reissued by Albert Whitman and Company, and a whole series of books followed. Since 2023, Penguin Random House has published the series. 

Only the first book is in the public domain but I quickly pulled out my copy.  Do I have the 1924 title?  No.  I have the 1942 book, but I want to see how different the original is.  Fortunately it has been reissued by Dover. 

Beyond reading both versions, what can I do? I wasn’t sure so I did a bit of research. 

When a book is no longer under copyright, it is in the public domain. It can be reprinted, produced as an ebook, sold and adapted by you, me, or anyone else reading this post. You can even sell your new creation on Kindle. But it has to be differentiated which means that you have somehow made it different from the original. 

There are several ways that you can, according to Kindle, go about this. 
  • Translation: If you are fluent enough to translate The Box-Car Children into another language, feel free to do so. You could even create a series with the book translated into Spanish, French, Mandarin, or Twi. 
  • Annotation: Not qualified to translate? You could also annotate the book. Annotations are any commentary or explanation added to the original text. Annotations could include historical information such as “At the time this book was published…” Or they could be biographical information about the author and how the book parallels the author’s life. Note: I don’t know that this is the case with The Box-Car Children. I simply used that as an example. 
  • Illustration: Are you a skilled illustrator? You can publish a Kindle book in which you have added at least 10 of your own illustrations to the original story. These could be photographs that you have taken, drawings, or digital artwork. 
You can copyright your differentiated work, but there’s a catch. You cannot copyright the original text. This is because it was already copyrighted by someone else. That means that if I were to annotate The Box-Car Children, I would include a note with the copyright statement. “The original children’s novel, The Box-Car Children, is in the public domain. The annotations are my original work and are copyrighted . . ."  

Do I plan to differentiate The Box-Car Children? I do not. But maybe just maybe I’ll differentiate something else. I am curious to see how Dover has made their publication unique.

--SueBE

Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 60 books for young readers.  

She is also the instructor for 3 WOW classes which begin on the first Monday of every month. She teaches:
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Interview with Wendy Fontaine, WOW! Q2 2025 Creative Nonfiction Contest Runner Up

Sunday, June 08, 2025
Wendy Fontaine’s work has appeared in Jet Fuel Review, Short Reads, Sweet Lit, Sunlight Press, Under The Sun and elsewhere. She has received nonfiction prizes from Identity Theory, Hunger Mountain and Tiferet Journal, as well as nominations to the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net anthologies. A native New Englander, she currently resides in southern California and serves as the flash editor at Hippocampus Magazine.

--interview by Marcia Peterson

WOW: Congratulations on placing as a runner up in our Q2 2025 Creative Nonfiction essay competition! What prompted you to enter the contest?

Wendy: I’ve entered the contest before, and I always found the winning essays to be impressive. I routinely take classes through WOW, so the contest has been on my radar for a while.

WOW: Many of us can think of instances where, as a young woman, we sensed something was off with a person or situation and thankfully acted for our own safety. Your essay, “Lucky,” is a compelling look back at your own experience and other events where luck, randomness or fate spares a person from something tragic. What inspired you to write this piece?

Wendy: That moment in the parking lot has stuck with me for 35 years. Over the decades, I’ve wondered, why not me? Why do bad things happen to some people but not others? There are answers to that question and yet, at the same time, there are no answers to that question. This moment and many others, including 9-11 and the Boston Marathon bombing, make me think of how close we all come to tragedy every day, whether we know about it or not. And when we do know about it, we try to make sense of it. We try to give it a narrative or some kind of explanation, but of course there are times when no explanation can be made. We just “got lucky,” as they say.

WOW: How do you find or make time to write? What works best for you?

Wendy: I wish I could say that I have a regular writing practice, or that I have the discipline to set aside time and abide by any kind of writing schedule. But I just don’t. I’m sort of a mad scientist writer. When an idea takes hold, I go to the page. I write and write and write, then I stop. I tell myself that I’m done for the day but within minutes, I’m back – drafting and redrafting. Then I might go weeks without writing again. It’s cyclical. I write whenever the mood strikes. I’m also in a writers’ group that meets monthly, which means I’m on the hook for new or revised material every time we meet. That really helps. My writing group keeps me generating new work.

WOW: Are you working on any writing projects right now? What’s next for you?

Wendy: I’ve been writing shorter pieces these days, usually flash CNF. Part of this is because of how my attention span changed during and after the pandemic. The other part is that I’m really interested in the heat and power that comes in the flash nonfiction form. I have a few essays that I’ve been submitting and a few that I’ve been revising. I also wrote a murder mystery novel, which I hope to revisit and send out to some new agents this summer.

WOW: Best of luck to you with your novel! Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Wendy. Before you go, can you share a favorite writing tip or piece of advice?

Wendy: Whenever I’m struggling to find writing time, or I need some inspiration, I sign up for a writing class. I find Chelsey Clammer’s classes to be particularly generative. Most writing courses are online now and easy to fit into a working person’s schedule. I also rely on Sonja Livingston’s book “Fifty-Two Snapshots,” which has 52 writing prompts for nonfiction and memoir. I’ll flip to a random page, then set a timer on my phone for 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes is usually enough time to get something on the page, but not so much time that you start editing yourself. This feels like a good way to get something true on the page without second-guessing what it is that you’re writing.

***
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Writing with Your Five Senses

Thursday, June 05, 2025

Writing lessons can be found in surprising places. Like a Kindergarten classroom. Or more specifically, the bulletin board touting the five senses.

Sight. Hearing. Touch. Smell. Taste.


For years I’ve been told to use all five senses in my writing so the reader can feel more fully immersed in the reality of the world I’ve created. But, to be truthful, I’ve been leaning toward sight with the others occasionally making it into the rotation. But after writing an essay for a journal with the theme Noise, I’m rediscovering all the senses. So let’s talk adding senses to your writing.


Sight


Most of us will agree that this is the easiest one. Describe what you’re seeing in your mind’s eye when you imagine the scene. Because it’s so easy to write, I often use sight to give readers subtle clues. The brief glance between characters, a seemingly random object on the bookshelf that becomes important later, a gesture or habit that gives us a hint about a character’s personality. These more subtle uses of sight don’t often appear in the first draft. They have to be planned and added in subsequent drafts.


Hearing


Sound is something I often ignore as I bustle about my day. So, if I want to go beyond the vague crash, bang, slam in my writing, I really have to slow down and think about noises. Does my dishwasher hum or whirr or thump? What are the noises a house makes at night? Can I add modifiers to give a sound more meaning? Was the train whistle haunting or spirited? Can a recurring sound forewarn my reader that something important is about to happen?


Touch


Too often I think of touch as my fingers examining something. But our whole body is touching things constantly. Clothes, furniture, the ground, the wind, the sun, other people. It isn’t just what character’s feel but how they react to it. Does the borrowed flannel shirt feel awkward and stiff or cozy and warm? Does the gun feel like a familiar friend in their hand or do they recoil from the cold metal? Even a casual touch between characters can reveal something. It’s a great way to hint at emotions they are trying to hide. The tensed muscles of fear? The tight grip of anger?


Smell


Like hearing, smell is something I don’t often take time to label in my daily life. So when I want to add it to my writing it takes time and thought. What does the air before a thunderstorm smell like? Or a wet dog? (I’m thinking a weird mix of Fritos and rotten potatoes.) Also, I try to avoid the easy choices “flowery perfume” or “acrid smell of the burnt out house” that often make their way into first drafts. I try to choose original or unexpected smells to make a scene or character memorable.


Taste


If you have a food scene, hurray for you. Two characters sharing sweet watermelon suggests romance much more than bitter coffee dregs from the bottom of the pot. Of course, I guess it depends on your characters. Taste isn’t just about food. Characters can taste something in the wind or a kiss. For me, taste is the toughest sense to add to a scene. In fact, if anyone has suggestions I welcome them.


Do you have a favorite sense to use in your writing? Or would you like to share a sentence or two using rich descriptive language including several senses? Try using the photo above as a prompt.

Jodi M. Webb writes from her home in the Pennsylvania mountains about everything from DIY projects to tea to butterflies.  She's also a blog tour manager for WOW-Women on Writing and a writing tutor at her local university. Get to know her @jodiwebbwritesFacebook and blogging at Words by Webb. 
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Unearthing True Crimes From the Archives

Tuesday, June 03, 2025

When I started my true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas, five years ago, I thought I would be focusing solely on missing persons cases in North and South Carolina. My creative muse had other ideas. Little did my muse know that scanning old newspaper archives would lead me to intriguing crimes from the past (many with no digital footprints) and inspire me to broaden the context of my storytelling. 



I could give many examples of how this has happened, and by reading e-mails and reviews from listeners I know they appreciate the historical crimes and stories of missing people just as much as I do. 

Most recently, I was researching a missing persons case from the 1980s in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the story of Mary Kathryn Ennis, when I learned that her disappearance was solved when two prison inmates contacted the police with information. This was strange enough, but in one of the newspaper articles reporting the discovery of her body, I learned an enterprising young college student in the area had been murdered when he tried to enter the home of a family he didn’t know in the middle of the night. Of course, then I had to follow that rabbit hole to its conclusion. These were crimes I had never heard about, so I’ve documented them for my listeners in Episode 140: The Kidnapping and Murder of Mary Kathryn Ennis and the Death of William McMichael in North Carolina. 

A few months ago, I decided to research serial killers in South Carolina, as I’ve already produced an episode on North Carolina serial killers and it received more downloads than my usual content on missing people. That’s when I discovered a man named Lee Roy Martin had terrorized a small community by kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and strangling young women in Gaffney, S.C. in 1968, and the media eventually dubbed him “The Gaffney Strangler.” 

Martin called a local newspaper editor and anonymously confessed to his crimes before he was caught, and he even shared that he had murdered a woman whose husband was convicted of the crime and was sent to prison. This case was even more fascinating because two concerned citizens, driving around to search for one of the missing teenage girls, spotted Lee Roy trying to hide the body of one of his victims. If they hadn’t followed him and taken down his license plate, police might have had a harder time finding the killer. This story has been featured on numerous true crime documentaries, including “A Crime to Remember.” 

Writing about true crime was never something I imagined myself doing, but I find myself drawn more and more to these old cases. I think I appreciate the challenge of finding the long-forgotten primary sources and making sense of them in a new timeline. 

One of my listeners commented the following on a social media post about a 1972 crime: 

I love that you report on so many crimes I’ve never even heard of! Than you for giving a voice to these victims. 

When I first created my podcast, I never knew I’d had have the opportunity to share these stories in such great depth and even provide closure for family members who never knew the full details of these crimes. 

Renee Roberson is an award-winning writer and host/creator of the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas.
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