Throwback Thursday Week 12 - The Proser Edition

This week, we bring you a change of voice. We approached our Proser pairing, @LillyZ and @DaveK late last week to ask them to contribute towards our Throwback Thursday features. We felt like what the community needed is a voice from within the community to host a couple of these features per month, giving you all a break from our voice, hurrah! So without further ado, I bring you, Lilly and Dave. 

From One Proser to Another,

Looking back, I remember the first time my finger hovered over the publish button, anxiety snaking its way from gut to skin and spilling out in the form of sweat and fidgeting fingers. I remember the agonizing wait, a flood of questions, doubt and fear circling like a halo above my own shattered self image. Rejection was coming, I knew it was. It had always been like this. Part of me is out there for this little corner of imaginary space to reject. I'm on display, and it hurts. I read my post again, tearing it apart, hating it, despising every word and comma and ambiguous thought. But, this is Prose, and someone bookmarked it, then a comment. I read the words like they're a cure, and they are. A well of acceptance springs up telling me someone out there understood and appreciated these words I'd never had the courage to share. Someone out there is trading precious moments of their life to read and comment about my exposed heart. Another bookmark, another comment, and I am moved to tenderness. I am shattered with hope, driven and compelled to return this precious gesture. I read and comment and bookmark and bare the deepest parts of me to strangers, hoping in some small way to give what I have received.

I have never experienced such kindness, not from family or friends, as I have experienced on Prose. I believe it comes from all of us being cut of the same cloth, being broken in the same way and exposed together in a sea of vulnerability. You all are my remedy for writer's block. If I have no words or inspiration, I take a stroll through the art gallery of your souls, breathing it all in, taking each piece as its own brilliant display. This community, the Prosers together, create in me emotions from scratch, giving the gift of pain and hope I couldn't touch on my own. Somehow in all of this, I was lifted from obscurity to spotlight. With all my heart, I thank you all. I hope every Proser here knows how much they are appreciated, and I hope this write and these tips can in some way, in any way, make your experience here more fulfilling.

Tips: Getting The Most Out of Prose

Read, Read, Read. - There is enough talent on Prose that you are not God's gift to writers. You are one voice of many. Show gratitude and respect by reading the work of other authors. Let them know you were there with a comment or a bookmark or a repost. It means more than you know that you took time to see them and feel their words. Let them know you looked into their depths. Don't be just another view, be part of something more.

Follow – The best leaders follow. Do likewise.

Listen – Feedback is not an insult. It's a nod to your talent. You are good enough to improve. You are not a lost cause. Feedback means you're worth the effort.

Contribute – If you have ideas on how to make Prose a better, more welcoming, or more efficient experience, share your mind

Challenges – Challenges are a great way to grow as a writer and to push yourself to write about topics and styles and depths you didn't know were there..

Write Without Chains – We all write things that fall flat. Lose that fear. Don't ever be afraid to write badly. We all do it. Join us in the muck and have fun!

Get Personal – Prosers are not random, lifeless avatars. These are real people with real lives, real problems, real hopes, and real words coming from real places. Treat each other as people, and you will also be lifted up. And you will lift others up. Every heart and every opinion matters. This is not an app; it's a community.

*Lilly's Heart in Dave's Voice