M.M. Schreier's Blog

The Writer’s Workout is a writing community.

I kept pondering how to continue that sentence. I decided that it is enough as it is – The Writer’s Workout is a writing community. Hard stop.

WW hosts an amazing writers conference, countless articles and resources, a beautifully curated lit mag and regular themed anthology opportunities, and an online meeting space where people can chat, trade beta reads, promote their work, ask questions, and connect with other writers. All for free.

Oh, right. There are also a bunch of no entry fee contests.

The big one — the Writer’s Games –has become somewhat of tradition for me. It is intense, but I look forward to it every year. For five weekends in a row (six if you count the practice event) writers receive a prompt and then have 72 hours to write a short story.

This year, for the third time, I’ve managed to win overall. Two of the five stories I wrote — “What Makes a House a Home” and “Sailcloth and Oars: A Bard’s Tale” — will be found in the anthology, which will be out in a few days. (Follow the socials for the announcement!)

In the meantime, you can see a wee little “winner’s circle” interview with yours truly. Enjoy!

If you have ever wanted to hear my work in audio format, you now have the chance! Writers Playground has started a new podcast where they read winning stories from their contest and discuss them a little.

It’s a fun venue – the stories are short fiction and the commentary is generally brief so the episodes are about 20-25 minutes long. Just right to listen to while commuting or walking the dog.

The contest has no genre requirements, so featured stories can be anything from contemporary or literary fiction to a wide range of genre and speculative work.

I’m excited that my piece “When the Soul Catcher Knocks” is featured on today’s episode. I’ve never actually listened to my own work read out loud before, so it was a little bit of a surreal experience. They do a nice job adding some effects as well.

If you enjoy listening, consider subscribing and check out the other stories. New episodes release every other Thursday. It’s a fantastic way to consume some really well-written short fiction.

Listen at:
Apple
Spotify
iHeart
YouTube

The final craft essay in my series at Intrepidus Ink deals with one of my favorite writing topics:

Learn the rules, follow the rules, break the rules.

I talk about why we have rules in the first place, when and why we might break them, and give tips on how to go about it.

Many thanks to my friends at II for inviting me to guest on their blog the past few weeks. I had a lot of fun finding and analyzing the example stories, and I hope you reader/writers found the essays helpful.

Breaking the Rules: Doing It With Intention and Style

The second essay in my craft series at Intrepidus Ink is out today. This time I’m talking about how to get reader buy-in when introducing the weird and fantastic in stories set in the real world. Enjoy!

Metaphor or Magic: How to Get the Reader to Accept the Absurd

I am delighted to announce that the good people at Intrepidus Ink have invited me to run a guest series of short craft essays. If you haven’t already been following their blog series, definitely check it out. There are some excellent essays on conflict and worldbuilding, writing emotion and action, branding and much more.

Reflecting their love of flash, all of II’s craft essay’s are short, but packed with insights, examples, and practical advice on how to “get it right.”

I always love working with II’s editor in chief, Rhonda Schlumpberger. She’s smart and talented, and has the ability of helping every story, every essay be the best it can be while staying true to the writer’s vision. She’s probably one of the kindest, most supportive and positive editors in the industry. As an author, I couldn’t ask for a better partner for my work.

The first essay is now live – I hope you enjoy it!

Character Voice: It’s Not Just What They Say

I have a new piece of flash fiction out at Sci-Fi Shorts today. It was a lot of fun diving into my love of cyberpunk for this one.

Often when we imagine tech-dominated futures, we picture them as noisy, full of lights and whirring, rife with hustle and bustle. For this tale, I explored a world that went in the opposite direction.

What would happen if technology became intensely personalized? What if everyone had a computer in their head, so entertainment, marketing, even communication was beamed to each person digitally and directly. What if transportation and machinery was designed to be noiseless, and even the sidewalks were created of a kind of spongy polymer that muffled footsteps, and created a largely silent society?

Hope over to Sci-Fi Shorts and find out!

“Laugh Out Loud”

Out of a field of over seven hundred contestants, I was very excited that my short story “When the Soul Catcher Knocks” earned third place in the 10th Writers Playground Challenge.

I’ve participated in (and placed) in in this contest a number of times and keep coming back to it. It’s a fun competition, as it allows for a little bit longer word count at 3k, and there is a list of character and setting prompts that you are allowed to choose from, which makes for creative flexibility.

In this story, I chose the character prompt of a hunter and the setting of cemetery. All the stories also had to include a well. I had a good time writing this dual POV ghost story. It’s always a fun challenge to create distinct voices for two main characters. I hope you enjoy it!

“When the Soul Catcher Knocks“

Excited to have this little SciFi piece–“They, Her, Us“– out at Just Keep Up Magazine today.

It’s a quick read, but it feels pretty salient right now. I’ll admit, it’s hard to keep the social commentary out of my writing these days.

I hope you enjoy it!

I am pleased to have a creepy little crow story out today in the new issue of The Stygian Lepus called “Tap, Tap, Tap.”

I’m no stranger to writing about older characters, but these ones were definitely a joy to put on the page. The story returns to my love of literary horror. Hope you enjoy it! (Don’t forget to check out the other great stories as well. It’s a fantastic issue!)