As Cora Green stared out her dining room window, contemplating whether her husband Derrick was having an affair or not, noisy lawnmowers could be heard in the neighborhood, and yellow butterflies were still flittering around her lawn, even though the pin oaks had been spitting hundreds of acorns now for the last three weeks. Texas seemed to want to hold on to summer as long as possible, of course, so did Cora. She could handle Autumn ok she guessed, yet the cold brutality of winter made her bones ache, and she dreaded the thought of having to wear so many clothes. She might have been in her late fifties, yet if it were up to her, she would live where it felt like summer year-round. It was the beginning of fall, hard to believe the holidays were around the corner when it was eighty three degrees outside.

Derrick had been working lots of overtime, claiming there was a new project going on at work, a job he hated. He'd been coming home at midnight or not at all for the past two weeks. Cora knew that a lady he sort of fancied from his old job lived in the city where he worked, about thirty minutes from their home. As Cora continued to stare out the window, listening to the traffic busily racing down the main drag, she wondered why they had been growing so distant and was any of it her fault. Of course, she was quick to blame herself, that was just her nature, but had she been neglecting him? Or was he just stressed out from work and family problems. She could not believe he would really cheat on her, not after the last time so many years ago...maybe. The chimes were tinkling next to the empty bird feeder hanging on their iron post in the front yard. As Cora watched, the next-door neighbor walked ou to the mailbox, reminding her she needed to do the same.

The weather had been so wonky the last three weeks, in the fourties and raining one day, sunny and seventies the next. Mother Nature seemed confused as their were brown leaves on the still-green grass, acorns piled in the flower beds, and the soft, damp eath made the job of pulling weeds a breeze. She came back in from grabbing the mail from the box and decided to go out back and do just that, pull some old flowers and weeds from the corner bed. Maybe her mind would go somewhere else if she turned on some tunes and tried to focus on the holidays, events, and concerts that were filling up her calendar so quickly. As she began to attack the job however, her mind went right back to Derrick. No matter how many times she told herself she wouldn't care if he really was having an affair, she couldn't keep from thinking about it.

She may not have been giving him enough attention in the bedroom, yet he didn't seem to be in the mood these days. Every time she brought it up, suggesting they "get together" before they were both to full or tired to enjoy it, he made some lame excuse or brushed her off like she surely wasn't serious. These actions only fed her wonder as to whether he was really working hard at his job, or losing the passion for her he once had. She didin't want to push him, yet she felt like he was lingering in the relationship like summer seemed to be unable to transition to fall. She was aging sure, but she still looked good for fifty seven, her figure was trim and she worked hard to maintain it. Was there another lady in his life that was giving him something she could not anymore? Her mind just kept going back to the whys of it all. Why would he want to get physical with someone else if he was too tired or unable to make love to her lately? Why, if his sex drive had wained, would he be hot for a new love? Was she boring to him now?

She was driving herself nuts with this, she thought as she ripped weeds with painful stickers growing out of the leaves, the leaves! from the ground. She decided she could not sit and contemplate any more, tonight when he got home, after he got a few beers down, she would come right out and ask him. Okay, but what if he was innocent? She was back inside now, watching the leaves falling like rain and then blowing into the court. The cul-de-sac they lived in was so quiet, they knew no one, and she could sit and watch cars come and go, squirrels scurry around trying to gather nuts for the sure-to-come colder weather. It was almost time to go pick him up from work, maybe she would think of a way to talk to him about it on the drive home, or maybe she would continue to wonder.

#Challengeofthemonth

Happy November Writers and Readers;

Fall is a time of change, a time of ponderance, preparation, and preservation. And with the final month of fall comes our first $100 Challenge of the Month, wherein we explore the bright colors and darkening skies of autumn. Not only will the winner receive the $100 purse, we’ll also be sharing all outstanding submissions with our publishing partners and contacts. When you’re ready to get started, you’ll find the prompt here: https://theprose.com/challenge/7775. Best of luck!

With the arrival of our monthly challenge, we thought we’d shed a little light on how we’ll be judging your entries (and how we’ve been judging your entries in the Challenge of the Week). In particular we look for: creativity, fire, memorability, coherence, proper grammar, and linguistic mastery. Let’s take a closer look.

The First Paragraph

We read a lot of your writing, and usually don’t have the time to give every word and sentence the attention they deserve. As such, we will commonly eliminate entries immediately if the first couple of paragraphs are rife with spelling or grammatical errors, don’t read clearly, or don’t intrigue. Our advice - make your first paragraph your best paragraph. Make it captivating and irresistable. Make it shine. More advice on how to do so below.

Creativity

Written creativity can take many forms, and pervades every category along which we judge. It could take the form of compelling characters, exotic settings, unusual word choice, unique story arcs, and everything in-between. We want to think “wow, I would never have expected/conceived of/realized that.”

Fire

Fire is passion. We want to see your love for the craft of composition shine through. Whether a controlled burn, or a raging blaze, we want to see your dedication to the story, the characters, the poetry, and the craft. Some of the best writing reads as though the author agonized over every syllable.

Memorability

This is related to creativity, but somewhat different. It hinges a bit more specifically on the author’s ability to clearly convey that creativity. As we’re reading challenge entries, we keep a list of the pieces that catch our eye. When we’re done, we go back over that list of top contenders and choose the winner(s). More often than not, we’ll choose the stories we remember most vividly. In addition to compelling characters and themes, little details can go a long way towards making a piece more memorable. A perfectly crafted sentence. A witty title. A surprising interaction.

Coherence

Your writing should be lucid and coherent. If it’s hard to follow the plot, be it theater or thesis, it’ll be difficult to win. Avoid rambling, over-description, and muddled thoughts. Read your work back to yourself as though you hadn’t written it. Ask yourself, “what am I trying to communicate? Did I do so clearly? Is any of this hard to follow?” If we find ourselves lost or unsure of what’s going on anymore, we usually move along.

Spelling & Grammar

Do not underestimate the importance of proper spelling and grammar. Here at Prose, we respect, if not revere, the King’s English. While we forgive the rogue missing letter or misplaced comma (it happens to the best of us), repeated offenses and gross negligence are to be avoided at all costs. You are of course free to make stylistic choices like omitting capitalization; but unless it’s in the service of some artistic vision it’ll generally be frowned upon.

Linguistic Mastery

This is the x-factor, and the thing that sets great writing apart from good writing. This is proper useage of metaphor, descriptive language, imagery, word choice, alliteration, sentence/paragraph composition, overall flow, finesse, nuance, restraint, and everything in-between. For examples of “linguistic mastery,” please read some of the winning entries from our Challenge of the Week. The winners typically demonstrate a high degree of mastery in their work. To further illustrate what we mean, consider the following two sentences:

“The crows’ calls blared through the quiet like a siren, a dreadful cacophony that rose and fell like the tide, under the chilling, pale light of the full moon.”

“The shrieking of the crows sliced the silence, an unholy symphony beneath a cold, ghostly moon.”

Both are more interesting than “The crows were cawing loudly in the moonlight.” But the first exhibits a sort of scattershot approach, calls upon multiple disjointed metaphors, and betrays a lack of restraint. The second, by contrast, by surgical use of words like “sliced,” “unholy,” and “ghostly,” evokes a certain eeriness. It feels more intentional, and reads more clearly.

These are just a few of the things we look for, and we urge you not to think of them as some sort of “checklist” or “rubric.” Hopefully this has been informative, and will be of aid to you as your craft your entries.

Happy writes,

Prose.