We blog for a million different reasons, but in the end, we’re all storytellers. Creative Writing Challenges are here to…
We blog for a million different reasons, but in the end, we’re all storytellers. Creative Writing Challenges are here to help you push your writing boundaries and explore new ideas, subjects, and writing styles.
To participate, tag your post with DPchallenge and include a link to this post, to generate a pingback and help others find and join the challenges. Please make sure your post has been specifically written in response to this challenge. We’ll keep an eye on the tag and highlight some of our favorites on Freshly Pressed on Friday.
My last relationship, which turned into a marriage, was unexpected — nurtured on the internet, with me in San Francisco and my husband-to-be in Cairo, in the form of Twitter @replies, Skype chats, and long epic emails. I even mused about it on my blog for readers — many of them strangers — to read.
I have told the story about how we met — and how “us” materialized — many times. Some people have very different stories about love and romance and marriage. Others nod their heads in agreement and have experienced quite similar paths.
Long-distance love. Nomadic relationships. Online dating. Marriage in the time of Facebook. Today, love can be complex in new ways. What is love in this digital age? How do we define it? I’m a big fan of the New York Times’ Modern Love series for this reason — it’s a varied collection of personal essays on contemporary relationships, often poignant and heart-breaking, that reveal how undefinable and elusive love can be.
For this challenge, we want you to write about 21st-century love. We encourage you to get personal and share your own story, but if you don’t want to go that route, we welcome commentary, opinion, and even humor pieces on your definition of love in this modern age. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
- Romance on the internet: describe a relationship that blossomed online.
- Online dating disaster: tell us about your awkward avatar-to-flesh encounter.
- Love, longing, and long distance: write about a romance halted by the many miles in between.
- Contemporary love commentary: muse on the role of social media in relationships.
We’re really excited to read your stories, essays, and commentary.
Too old for this challenge as when my husband and I met, there was not social media and we still had landlines. 🙂
janet
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My niece and her husband have a beautiful love story. It was birthed in World of Warcraft. Go figure. 🙂 Hope I have time to write it this week. I have her permission. It’s truly beautiful.
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Sounds like an interesting story! Hope you get a chance to write about it.
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What do we need to tag etc?
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@Sarah-Jayne — tag your post with “DPchallenge” so we and others can find it on that topic page.
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Sounds like a good blog post to publish!
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How nice 🙂
though I don’t have a good story (or reality) to tell of my own will be interesting to write on this
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You don’t have to tell your own story (or a story of someone you know). You can write an opinion piece, or even a piece of fiction!
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Yes I know 🙂
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Ah, geez. I have a story I could contribute, but I’ve already discussed it a lot and even a year later, it still rips me up. Also, the last time I mentioned it, I got targeted by a bunch of woman-hating racists, for some reason.
Maybe I can discuss it in more general terms.
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How did racist men hate on your story? Everybody is entitled to their opinion, I would love to read your story Andrew.
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All right, here’s what I have. A mediation on online dating, based on what I’ve seen and experienced first-hand.
http://kingdomofsharks.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/wwc-dating-and-the-internet-a-synthesis/
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what exactly is a pingback? New to the blogging scene…
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A pingback is a type of comment that’s created when you link to another blog post where pingbacks are enabled. More on this here: https://wordpress.com/support/comments/pingbacks/
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thank you 🙂 very helpful
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This challenge is why I like to participate in these. I’d never independently choose to write on love but I’ve drafted something for this that I kind of like.
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Love in the 21st century? This reminds me of something similar I wrote in February, the Valentine month: http://teeceecounsel.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/the-season-of-love/
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Hi @teeceecounsel — for this challenge, you’ll need to write a new post specifically in response to this prompt. Thanks, though, for sharing this link to your older post.
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Weekly Challenge:
http://theseeker57.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/a-moment-of-love/
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This inspired my new blog “Picking up the Pieces,” please read it at:
http://ladiesorwhat.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/picking-up-pieces.html
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Not romance but nonetheless love. In the 21st century. Just like it was in every other century.
http://teepee12.com/2013/06/24/weekly-writing-challenge-love-in-the-21st-century-pass-it-around/
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Weekly challenge : http://theflowersofmymind.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/im-thinking-about-you-2/
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I’m so in. As a gamer and aspiring psychologist, this topic excites me to no end thinking of all the potential material that can be brought up to discussion. I can’t WAIT to read the other bloggers’ stories and vintage points on this subject.
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My whole website started as a result of love thwarted by government and 12 months spent apart fighting to be reunited. That whole saga is now a book, self-published, titled LOVE VERSUS GOLIATH.
Visit my website and read about it – maybe even buy the book! 🙂
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Not trying to get a pingback, but this challenge is kinda funny considering I have an entire blog on this subject LOL http://sexycynic.wordpress.com/
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You too huh? 🙂
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LOL yes. I hate the dating world and I seem to only meet freaks or jerks. How about you??
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No, mine is COMPLETELY different – married a (are you sitting down?) an asylum seeker (SO socially unacceptable, don’t you know) and wrote a book about the battle with the government.
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You just got a follow. I wanna learn more.
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Thank you so much Cheri! We appreciate every speck of interest we can get. 🙂
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My love story is too long to fit in one post, I am writing a ‘How I met your father’ with 9 seasons in mind 😀 I wrote a small part of that story as my tribute to telegraphy – a communication method that is probably unknown to many. The last telegram will be sent in India on the 15th of July this year, after a 165-years of service! And I have a telegram that played a major role in my life. We have had long-haul flights, emails, IRC chat, long-distance telephone calls and snail-mail all play a role in our love story. We have gone from standing in queue at the post office to send each other packets to standing at the DHL vending machine to get packets ordered through Amazon for our two kids, I hope that my children find the same kind of happiness as I have whichever medium they choose to use.
My post on telegraphy;
http://kallucuriocorner.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/the-importance-of-punctuation/
I am going to read a few of the love stories with a happy continuation…
Have fun blogging, my fellow bloggers,
Kallu
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Online Romance isn’t just for singles (or creepers). My love story pre-dates internet dating and Skype and status updates… but we’ve embraced virtual flirting as an old married couple.
http://soheresus.com/2013/06/25/romance-in-the-digital-age/
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This one came out different from what I expected…
http://bumblepuppies.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/superficial-love-insults-my-intelligence/
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After meeting my now hubby at my birthday party (he wasn’t invited, he went with a friend of a friend of a friend, and so on…) I couldn’t remember his name, so I googled what I remembered from our conversation and found several possible email addresses, and the right one answered. Google made my 21st century love story possible hehe 😉
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Reblogged this on One Good Tale.
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read my blog for the challenge.
I Found Love, 21st Century Style. http://wp.me/p3DMQo-26
Great Read!
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Love?????. 😦 😦 😦 😦 :(, What’s that????? 😦 😦 😦 😦 :(.
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I know, right?
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What about a bad ending?
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For me love is like elastic it can stretch over most of any pain and disappointments experienced in romantic love to the joy of love offered and given by Children, Grandchildren and friends. If you are open to it, free and blessed enough to be a parent /Grandparent just LOVE then see what happens.
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Just in case I did not correctly used the tag or posted the link, here is my entry for this challenge: http://loucyoreviews.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/love-online-of-course-you-can-ask-mmoers-they-can-tell-you/
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I decided to write a motivation letter to a potential lover. This is what I had to say: http://ladylebz.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/dear-lover/
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Wow! I just wrote a short story along this theme. Coinky-dinky! Now I’ll post it on the blog. Thanks for these great challenges and inspiration!
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I hope you like! http://unknowinglee.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/oh-what-a-tangled-website-we-weave-weekly-writing-challenge-love-in-the-21st-century/ Please send feedback 🙂 Thanks!
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My entry ~ http://afineprintblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/digital-love/
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A different kind of love http://diannegray.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/21st-century-online-love/
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