Day 116: 5 Minute Freewrite: Monday

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Please welcome the newest freewriters!! Visit, comment, and vote on their posts. We all love that, right?
@eyedreemit

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A couple of things I want to bring to your attention.

See the long list of names towards the end of this post? That is all of you - I hope. To my dismay, I found out today that I had missed adding someone to the list. I am so sorry about that!!

Please check and see if your name is there - and while you are at it, please make sure that I spelled it right. I often work on these prompts late at night and my brain and/or my eyes are not always awake anymore.

Also, if you want your name removed, let me know as well.

Today is the last day to enter @byn's contest. Don't miss it!! If you have been freewriting for awhile and are not reading the info below the prompt anymore, please, check in with the contest section ever so often.
@moneyinfant is curating a daily post with all the writing contests out there - including their deadline. But if you,one of the freewriters, host a contest, let me know and I will list it.

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Over 20 Club

Here are the invitees for this week

@f3nix
@fireawaymarmot
@mr-neil
@whatisnew
@marcoriccardi

The Over 20 Club is a way to allow some of those long forgotten pieces to shine again and give the authors a way to get a bit of a payout.

Here is how it works:

I have a list of writers who have written at least 20 freewrites.
Every Monday, I will invite 5 authors to write a post showing us 3 or more freewrites they liked and are past their payout.
The writers have until Thursday evening to post their showcase post.
Several of us have committed to giving that post a 100% upvote.
Friday's prompt will have links to the showcase prompts and hopefully, many of you will give it an upvote as well.
It is up to the writers and the voters to participate - you are free to choose.

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Prompt: canal

Set your timer for 5 minutes
Start writing
Use the hashtag #freewrite
Publish your piece (include a link to this post if you wish)

Copy and paste your URL into the comment section of the prompt post.

Or, if you don't want to publish your freewrite, just copy and paste as a comment under the prompt post.

If you don't know what a freewrite is, here is a link to the introduction post.

Here is @snooks excellent tutorial on how to join our freewrite adventure

And @improv's input:

Two things I do a little differently. I just type "timer" into google and it pops up a 5-minute timer. I also type directly into steemit. I also rarely use a photo, don't I? So that's three things.

Please read, comment and vote (if you have voting power) on each others freewrites as much as you can. Especially if you are new to the platform, you will be surprised how many friendships are formed by reading and commenting on each other's work!

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Help Wanted

You might have noticed that at least one person comes to read your freewrite - and leaves you a link for the newest prompt. In the beginning, I used to do that and then, I needed help and a wonderful handful of freewriters answered my cry for help.

Our group has grown and many days, we have close to forty wonderful and amazing freewriters molding the daily prompt into all kinds of stories. It is so much fun to read how many different tales the same prompt can inspire.

That said, reading 40 posts takes a lot of time - even 40 short ones.

This is where you come in. Please consider to join the freewrite encouragers.
All you need to do is this

pick a day or two on this spreadsheet
co-ordinate with the other encouragers for that day how you want to divide the visits
visit the freewriters
read the post
make a comment about their freewrite
Leave a link to the newest prompt

Your help is very much appreciated!!! And don't worry about not having any voting power yet!! A comment is much more valuable than a vote!!

Here is the link to the spreadsheet - just add your name...

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Contests by our Fellow Freewriters

@byn and @serapium decided to have a contest. How we met. Looks awesome!! Check it out
@fireawaymarmot has a very special contest. Listen to his music and then, write your story!! How cool is that!!! Go to his profile for the latest prompt.
@improv is the master of puns! Enter his Punday contest here
The Constrained Writing Contest by our fellow freewriter @svashta is on! Check his blog for the latest contest. Click here to join
@miniature-tiger is hosting a 50-word story challenge. This is the opposite of what we are doing.
Here, you spill your gut out typing fast! The timer is beeping any time.
There - think about every word. You only get 50 to tell the story!
Click here to accept the challenge! and check his profile for the newest updates..
If you like a picture to be the prompt, check out the #365daysofwriting challenge hosted by @mydivathings. Every day, a new picture to entice you weave a story.

Contests Galore

@moneyinfant posts a daily update of writing contests!! Go to his profile and start winning :)
Another compilation of all kinds of contests by @artz A new one comes out every Monday!

Voting

Remember to check your voting power. Do not vote for a while if you are under 90!
https://www.steemnow.com/ or use https://steemworld.org/

Here is an excellent article explaining how to maximize your vote by @taskmaster4450. It helps you to grow to vote wisely!! And a more recent one

And here is a counter opinion on voting by our freewriter @improv

This post is talking about using your vote for maximum curation. Thank you, Asher @abh12345 Read the post here

Bandwidth Problems

I know that many of you are very new to the platform and your wallets are pretty empty. Believe me, we all started there!! Here is an excellent article which explains what bandwidth is and why you might have a hard time logging in some days - or posting. Thank you @jrswab for this explanation

There are many contests on Steemit. From art to music to writing and everything in between. Enter as many as you can!! And take advantage of the free money people give away I listed in the money section below.

Can one of the newer Steemians please let us know if this is still a problem?

Great Opportunity

This is a great opportunity for those of you who are more serious about your writing and are ready to take it to the next place. The Isle of Write just announced their new project. SBD can be won and you can even make it into a print edition. Read the details here.
An update on how to enter your work.

Writing help

A free app: Grammarly. A lot of us are not native English speakers and I am finding it a helpful app. It will underline spelling and grammar mistakes. Just remember that is is not always right -especially if you use complex sentence structures. Here is the link
Remember The Most Dangerous Writing App. You set the time - 5 min - and start typing. Don’t stop!!! It will destroy what you wrote if you stop for more than 3 seconds - and backspace does not count as writing on the app. If you are prone to stop and think - this app forces you to keep going. You can make corrections after the 5 minutes are over.
A timer. Egg timer is a free tool you can use on your desktop to set a time. This is useful for our freewrites or if you want to work in blocks of time and then take a break. Here is the link
Our fellow freewriter @arbitrarykitten has a business here on Steemit. Several editors are offering to edit and format your post for a small fee. Check out their intro post
Our discord channel Isle of Write has workshop rooms for fiction, non-fiction, and poetry where some of the experienced writers might be able to give some tips. Join with this link https://discord.gg/zfXNRnK
If you are ready to get serious about improving your understanding of the English language check out @majes.tytyty blog. He has lots of useful information to understand words and their roots better. If you have questions or need help, leave a comment on his blog.
Check out @ghasemkiani if English is not your first language. He explains many idioms. Often to use those correctly is the biggest struggle when using a foreign language. He uses #idioms-tutorial
If you know of other helpful tools or people, please share with us!

Money

There are several people who offer SBD for free on this platform! How great is that!!

Here are a few

@fisheggs - follow this account and you get upvotes at random times.
@sydesjokes - he rewards his followers with SBD for any kind of interaction with him- comment, vote, resteem.
@craigcryptoking- he does a giveaway a few times a week. All you have to do is to be the first, or fourth or eight commenter. And he added a few more.
@danielsaori - he does a comment contest. A new challenge every week.
@rexusmo - I think a few of you have started to leave links to your post. Every day, he has a cheering up post. You leave a link to a post you are proud off and you might get a reward. Keep trying!!

Steemit Tools

This is the most comprehensive list of applications on this blockchain I have seen. I highly recommend that you bookmark it!! I also will include it in the growing resource section in the future. Steemit Tools