Bamboo Shoots Writing Contest Prompts for July

Aloha to all you writers, and a belated happy 4th of July.  This month we’re going to continue with Jim Harstad’s favorite kind of writing.  So let’s go for exactly 150 words, no more, no less.

Jim’s advice was always to overwrite and edit down.  It’s always easier to edit down than to “edit” up.  If you force yourself to add to your piece, you are basically torturing yourself and your writing.  So (bamboo) shoot for a rough draft of more than 150 words.

As always, please feel free to submit a piece in a language other than English.  And there is no need to provide a translation, although doing so might allow to reach a wider reading audience.

Here are the prompts for July — which, as always, you can choose to ignore and go ahead and write about whatever you wish.

Vacations
Business trips
Planning trips
Packing for a trip
The check-in experience
TSA
Flying
Taking a cruise
Baggage claim
Clearing customs and immigration
Getting around in another state/country
Trains, subways, the “Tube,” busses
Rental cars
Currency exchange
Hotels
Camping
Driving on the right side of the road
Food in other places
People in other places
Guided tours
Walking tours
Souvenirs
The end of a vacation/business trip

Okay, folks, exactly 150 words.  Let’s write.

By participating in the Bamboo Shoots community, you agree to the following rules:

1. We reserve the right to remove content that promotes hate or gratuitous violence. Be respectful and courteous to others.
2. All contest challenge entries must be submitted by the designated
3. Enter as many times as you like using a trigger/prompt (this page).
4. Contest Challenge entries can be prose (including short stories, nonfiction essays, or whatever you write), poetry, or plays -- or any type of hybrid writing you dream up.
5. Every entry must have a title -- unless you choose to enter a haiku, in which case you can simply enter the word haiku in the title section.
6. All content/entries should be original work. You retain ownership of your entries; however, we may ask to use them elsewhere on the site or on social media to help promote Bamboo Ridge and/or the Bamboo Shoots online writing community.
7. Winners will be announced with all possible speed after the end of each month. Winners receive 10 Bamboo Bucks credit to spend in the BRP online bookstore. Bamboo Bucks have no monetary value outside of the online store.
8. Entries may also be selected for publication in the regular Bamboo Ridge Journal. If your piece is chosen, the editors will contact you via the email address on file.
9. Please note that you need not enter the contest challenge in order to post on Bamboo Shoots. You may post other writing if you choose. We welcome that here:  Click this link to go to Shoot da Breeze.