I wanted to find a super basic and general starting point. I found this article written in 2022: The article doesn't have too specific of a point, besides the fact that tiktok language is confusing to most people. I found it interesting nonetheless. An interesting quote, “However, the rise of the social media platform TikTok has compounded this effect, generating new words exclusive to Gen Z and reinventing the meaning and usage of existing slang.” Another good quote, “However, our research also showed that many of these words caused confusion, whether it was users in the app Googling to discover the meaning of these new terms appearing or those outside of the platform that had seen these used elsewhere.” This is useful information, but perhaps not the most relevant to my point.

One of the first thing I did in my internship technically started before the internship. I was in the Arrow Rock class and helped a lot with uploading pieces to the Arrow Rock Website. Later, during my internship, I finished this process, as well as proofreading the issue: I also managed the Arrow Rock social media, primarily Instagram.

I didn't think I would be so busy this summer. I started the summer off with plans to write a lot, but I also happen to have a lot of other responsibilities as well. I sometimes envy people who have endless time to pursue their passions, but I think that the most important thing for me currently is to make the most out of even what little time I have.

The Collector of Spare Keys was a very fun piece to write. It was published at Just a Cuppa, a literary journal started by one of my classmates at Lindenwood. The theme of Just a Cuppa's first contest was "Spare Keys." As a lover of horror and an avid reader of Stephen King lately, I felt the urge to write something more horror/thriller related.

Ms. Shirley's house is a very unconventional poem I recently had published in Arrow Rock, my school's literary journal. Ms. Shirley's house began with me recounting a story of something that had happened when I was younger, during our first year after moving to our new house. I had never experienced racism in that way before. I had been bullied before, called names and such, but it was always because I was weird and nerdy, and always from other children, never from adults.

Time Moves Slow is about change. I wrote it for my Creative Writing class in which my professor encouraged us to try out ekphrastic poetry. I was searching through pictures on my phone and came across a picture of me and some work friends. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it sort of symbolized the last moments before a high amount of changes in my life occurred.

I recently had a story published titled My Mother Rusted Early. It was published at Sufferer's Digest, a place for writing that explores human suffering. I originally wrote this story with Rougarou in mind. Rougarou is a literary journal that one of my professors, Joe Baumann, was previously an editor for. The theme for their issue was “rust.” Instead of going for fiction or poetry, nonfiction just seemed right to me.

I’m still not brave enough to ask for help. I know that the scritch-scratching of lead on paper will yank my attention like a chain. I know that the strong perfume will cloud my mind with sickly-sw…

Hey, it's been a minute. I've been very busy. It's finals week and the last few weeks have been heavy crunch time. I also had some personal stuff I was dealing with. However, I have a lot of great news! I had about nine things published and two more on the way! I'll link them all here, but I plan to talk a bit about each one over the next few days.

About poetry: So I've been participating in Napowrimo. Every week day, I've been writing a poem. It's good practice. Yesterday, I was ruminating on the word "rutabagas" so I wrote a poem about rutabagas. I think that if you take the pretentiousness and elitism out of poetry, it can be a fun method of self-expression. While I certainly value well thought out, intricate and delicately crafted poetry, I don't think it's all poetry can be.

I had something specific in mind to write about today, but I decided against it. Instead, I’m writing about not writing. It’s weird putting things here because no one will read it, but that could change some day. I watch a youtuber named Derapy who did youtube for years before gaining popularity last year. He did it for the love of the game.

I got the first issue of my lit mag up! It took a bit more work than I thought it would, but I'm very proud of it. I have big plans for the site and I'm really excited to continue working on it. The biggest thing to do next is to create social media for the Grotto. I have so many things in the works, I can't wait to share them all.

Very soon, I'm going to add a page to track my author progress. I may make it the homepage, like many author sites I've seen. I need to have a better categorization of blog posts as well, but that will come later. I've got big plans at the Grotto soon too. For example, I will be posting the first batch of accepted works tomorrow (hopefully)! I have so much more coming, but baby steps for now. Thanks 👍🏾

My bad, I was premature about the big news. I'll have big news NEXT Friday, the 18th. Sometimes I make foolish mistakes about things that should be clear but for some reason are not. It's something about the way my brain works. I am smart, I know that, but sometimes my brain doesn't make connections the way most people do so there's something that's obvious and I just don't see it.

So I got my first ever acceptance recently! It's supposed to be up tomorrow and I'm very excited! I will post here about it and give some commentary as well. I can't wait! Thanks 👍🏾

So I’ve been writing a poem every weekday for National Poetry Writing Month. I would upload each poem here, but sometimes many publications don’t accept work posted to your personal website. Why? I would love to post finished pieces and poetry I’m working on and things like that, but the fact the so many places don’t like to publish things already on your personal site makes me hesitant.

I'm a really hard worker. Always have been. This year, I've been learning about the value of breaks. I would love to be able to work endlessly with no sleep and no rest, just pouring out passion for what I love, but the world doesn't work like that. On days where I have an abundance of social interaction, I need a break after.

"the doctor didn't say when you were due but i lost my job and my rent is soon stop looking at me like i'm lazy the world is tough out here for babies." ~Pleasantries, I Am Your Baby

I hope you find yourself I hope you take your mask off... ~Tyler the Creator, Chromakopia

How to write a cover letter for a literary journal Introduction Online literary magazines, or lit mags for short, are websites that publish written work such as poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction. Some also share content similar to that found in physical magazines, like comics, interviews, opinion pieces, and art. These lit mags often publish content sent to them by aspiring authors.

Hello all! I am happy to announce a new kind of post starting next week: quote of the day. Whether it be a quote from me, a poet, a movie, a song lyric, or something that I heard a random lady yelling into her phone, I'll post an interesting quote every week day. This will ensure that even on days where I don't post a full entry, there'll still be a reason to visit my blog.

I write every day depending on your definition of writing. Throughout the day I make notes of random thoughts, 5-minute poems, and voice memos of ideas for future stories. I guess I'd consider this writing. I am almost never lacking ideas, only time. However, sometimes I'm working on a story and it's not working and I need to take a break to write something else.

I've been single all my life. There are many reasons for both that and why I didn't have friends most of my life either. One big reason is that I was homeschooled and lacked the same amount of exposure to other people that most people get. Also, for the longest time, I had a mindset of only focusing on work and school.

Works by Joshua Hammond