Day 119: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday

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A quick note. If you don't have pictures for your freewrite or rather have a graphic, here are a couple of ways to make that happen.

You can go to https://www.canva.com/ and open an account. The basic Canva account is free and gives you lots of options.

Use the following dimensions: 800 x 480.

When you download your graphics use the JPG option or it will not show as a thumbnail in the feed. PNG will show up in your post, but not as a picture in the feed. Why? I don't know.

EDIT. This is not true anymore. One of the updates took care of this problem and you can download as PNG.

OR

Ask me to make you one. They will be simple like these examples. It helps me to know what colors you like or if you have a photo you like as a background - send it to me. You can just drop it in the comment section of the post.

Here are some examples which will give you an idea.

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Imgur Imgur Imgur

Of course, they are all the size of the blue graphic for this post.

Speaking of the blue graphic Imgur I think it is best we leave it for the prompt only. Less confusing when people are looking for the prompt.

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Our fellow freewriter @wonderwop could use some help to win a contest. Go here to vote for him and leave a comment. You need to choose at least 2 entries.

Over 20 Club

We have the beautiful review of our resident cat lover @whatisnew. Give her some upvote love, please!

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Prompt: fried chicken

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

Thank you to all of you who already have joined the freewrite encouragers!! We now have a secret room on the Isle of Write discord which is only for the prompt delivery group. Please join the Isle of Write here and then look for the freewrite- retreat and let me know you have arrived. I will then add you to the private group.

If you don't know what we are talking about - read on.

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

@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! Check the profile.

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
@scrooger - you have to upvote the post and get upvotes. Check it out
@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