Built by Writers, for Writers
We are refugees from a writing site that was overrun with members who clique-voted their way to the top of contests. They seemed to prefer this method over writing well, reviewing articulately, or improving their skills.
So we sighed, rolled our eyes, and decided it was time to launch a BS-free, quality writing site of our own.
It's such a simple concept: You show me yours, and I'll show you mine. Then collectively, by sharing our thoughts and making suggestions, we'll ALL advance our talent and build a community of creative, like-minded souls with a penchant for the written word.
Heather Wickham
Co-Founder
Rachelle Allen
Co-Founder
Fun & Enriching Pages
Writing Challenges
Bi-weekly prompts judged on craft—best character development, best hook, best conceptualization. No popularity contests here.
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Stimulate discussions on books you've discovered and share recommendations with fellow writers.
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Q&A sessions with professional authors. Ask questions, learn from the best.
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Every week, our founders select pieces that particularly touched them to share with the community.
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Community Board
News & announcements from our founders
WOW FACTORS OF THE WEEK, FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 23 - 28th
Good Morning, beloved CW Members! I hope your week was as fabulous as your published posts were! As soon as I awoke this morning, it dawned on me that I must lead a charmed life. Who else on the planet just LOOOOOOOOOOOOVES Monday mornings? And the reason? Because I get to steep in the joy that comes from the immensely talented writers on this site and announce whose pieces stood out. It's true that other sites have more members, but ours is comprised of exclusively EXCEPTIONAL writers. That's not hyperbole. CollectivelyWrite.com has QUALITY writers, and I cannot tell you how proud I am that you are all here. Please bring our site to the attention of any other exceptional writers you may know. And remember: PLEASE REVIEW the pieces on here that you read. It will keep the inspiration and creativity alive for us all. Okay!! Onto this week's winners!! I had the pleasure of being the judge for both Poetry and Short Story/Essay/Nonfiction this week, and here are my choices: WOW FACTOR POETRY WINNER IS... "SEEKING TOMORROW" BY TIME MARGETTS When I read the opening line, "Today we lay the path for the sins we will commit tomorrow..." I knew, immediately, that I would not be the same after I finished this poem as I was before I read it. And sure enough, so absorbed and intrigued was I that I have read it many MANY subsequent times. Each time, another facet reveals itself and makes me ponder and wrestle with my own life choices and their outcomes. I've felt reminded of the YA book series that instructs its reader to choose between chapters X, Y or Z because it determines the outcome of the book. This poem holds us accountable for every aspect of our lives, but it does so not like a castigating, sanctimonious parochial schoolteacher, but rather as a tender, gentle, omniscient beloved mentor. It reminds us that we were the ones who made the choices we did, and we should own them, warts and all. Tim, your work never ceases to mesmerize me. Also excellent this week was BernietheBard's "DEATH BY CIVILIZATION that, though short, took the educator in me to a place of critical understanding and pain. It was quick and piercing, like a shark bite, and its catalysts, the Kent Nerburn trilogy of books, are now heading my reading queue. Well done, Bernie. Thank you for this important write. THE SHORT STORY/ESSAY/NON-FICTION WOW FACTOR OF THE WEEK IS... NAVIGATING THE JOURNEY TO ME BY DIANE KENEL-TRUELOVE I was all but doing heads-or-tails between this one and Rachel Gosling's "PANDORA'S BOX, PART 9." Two consistently outstanding writers, both making the same tremendously important point, and serendipitously, it's the same one as highlighted by Tim Margetts's aforementioned poem: Your choices are what determine who you are as a person. Rachel presents hers through the tortured Prometheus, who's been commanded (by his wife, the Queen, no less!) to kill her young, lovely, kind servant-girl. In Diane's essay, she shares the dictums of vintage educators of hers who wielded their power and inflexibility like a club and evoked in her a champion-like resolve and ferocity. Both pieces are EXTREMELY well-written. They flow with the ease of consummate writing prowess and ignite so very many emotions in the reader from start to finish. There was simply no "bad choice" here; that's for sure. So, in recognition of teachers' and students' return to school, I chose "Navigating the Journey." As far as the Bi-Weekly Short Story Challenge, there were still no entries, so I'm taking that as an indication that I did poorly offering up a topic. My sincere apologies to you all. CW members are extremely creative writers, so if I can't inspire even one story with my prompt, that's on me. Here's its replacement. Hopefully, this evokes some entries: THE SENTENCE STARTS THE STORY: If only I hadn't taken that shortcut this morning because I was running late... Start your story with that sentence. Minimum 300 words. Contest Deadline: September 12th. Also, friendly reminder about the Month Five Special: a "Duet Poem" Challenge. It comes with a FIFTY DOLLAR BARNES & NOBLE GIFT CARD FOR THE WINNERS! Our beloved co-founder, Heather Wickham, will be the judge. Details in the Challenge tab, above. And FINALLY (yes, yes, I swear I'm going to stop blathering on here soon...), this Saturday, September 5th, is the deadline for the Bi-Weekly Poetry Challenge, the topic for which is "support." Jessica Wheeler is the judge. So, CONGRATULATIONS to this week's WOW Factor winners, TIM MARGETTS and DIANE KENEL-TRUELOVE. You'll be our judges for your respective winning categories this coming week. Please PM me your choices on Sunday, August 6th. Have a fabulous week, Everyone, and, again, thank you for bringing your talents to CW. We are SO extremely deilghted to have you here and will look forward to reading everything you post here this week. Much, much love, Rachelle and Heather xoxoxo
Rachelle Allen · 8/31/2026
WOW Factors of the Week and Bi-Weekly Poetry Challenge Winners (and more!) for the week of August 16 - 22nd
GREETINGS AND HAPPY MONDAY, oh beloved CW members!! I hope you’ve had a fantastic week, with prospects on the horizon for more joy in this week to come. My profuse and genuine apologies for being so late getting these WOW FACTOR OF THE WEEK winners as well as the BI-WEEKLY POETRY CHALLENGE winner published today. Ten demerits for me! Here we go!! THE WOW FACTOR POETRY WINNER FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 16 – 22ND is: ANGUISH OR HERESY? by Rachelle Allen JUDGE TIM MARGETTS WRITES: This one got me. It starts quietly enough, almost as though we are simply looking back at things said during a difficult time, but with each stanza the reason for those words becomes clearer. By the time we reach the final stanza and discover that this is not simply heartbreak but death, those earlier lines have changed beneath us. What really made it the winner for me, though, is that final line. The poem has spent its time talking about words said when grief and anger were overwhelming, then suddenly gives us the one thing that perhaps the writer fears saying most: “Where is G-d? I won't trust Him again.” That doesn't feel written for effect. It feels painfully human. Grief doesn't always behave itself, and sometimes it gets angry with the very things we are supposed to turn towards for comfort. I also like that the Ripple form isn't simply being used because it is there; those repetitions work like memories that keep coming back whether wanted or not. For me, this week's winner because it left me thinking about it long after I had finished reading. Runner-up — THREE YEARS GONE TODAY by RACHEL GOSLING This was actually a very close call. What I loved here is that we don't get some grand portrait of a mother; instead we get the little things that make a person a person. Lavender pillows, glasses perched low while sewing, rice pudding with a toffee crust, apple pie. Those details do far more than simply telling us she was loved and is missed. By the end I felt as though I had been introduced to her. Even “Disdained slack speech; never swore / An English lady” made me smile because suddenly there is personality in the room, not simply memory. And that is why this one came so close to taking first place. It doesn't try to make grief enormous; it makes it intimate. The final return to “Three years gone today” brings us neatly back to where we began, except now those words carry everything we have learned about the woman being remembered. THE WOW FACTOR POETRY WINNER FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 16 – 22ND is: COMING TOGETHER AT THE SEAMS by Rachelle Allen JUDGE KATHARINE FOLKES WRITES: My pick for the Wow Short Story of the week is Rachelle Allen’s account with the clever and witty title, “Coming Together at the Seams,” which introduces us to a story of a forty-year high school reunion put together by eight gals. This poignant, well-talked story is about a quilting event that took vibrant and eager Rachelle down a much enjoyed path to new friendships which have been kept up through the years, and are still active today. She relates how in the beginning, she only knew three of the eight who organized and put it together. However, when one of them suggested making a quilt for the class to be auctioned off, the time spent together opened up a whole new world of friends and conversations of family situations, kids and husbands—relationships, good and bad. Rachelle noted how “with their patchwork of shared memories from their youth, they could stitch their life stories together and create a vivid tapestry that would warm them for all the years to come.” A neat story that made me smile. AND FINALLY, THE WINNER OF THE BI-WEEKLY POETRY CHALLENGE IS: REMEMBER ME by JESSICA WHEELER JUDGE RACHEL GOSLING WRITES: Each of these poems grabbed me - the authors obeyed the Rondelet rules and employed the syllable and rhyme conventions with aplomb. The Requisite was very original in the way it used the theme loyalty - interesting, unique and smart. Leaf captured a single moment in nature and made me remember the beauty of Autumn - simple, cleanly done and very effective. For the winner, it is very much down to personal choice this week. For me, Remember Me, was the poem that had the 'oomph' factor that will stay with me. The haunting theme of growing older, and the longing to still be loved and remembered is such an understandable one. 'Though age may veil the face you knew' captured that melancholic yearning for the past so well. I loved the use of italics for the pleading, repeated line 'Remember me'. Overall, I thought this was sensitive, emotional and haunting. Beautiful. So this means that I get to be both the Poetry and Short Story judge for this upcoming week, and JESSICA WHEELER, you get to be the Bi-Weekly Poetry Judge when the deadline is September 6th. Rachel Gosling will post the Challenge soon that you will be judging. (That’s how we do it on CW. No secrets about who the judges are for any contest…AND anyone who wins one week is the judge for the following week. On our site, we believe that we’re all capable of both writing well AND judging the works of our fellow talented writers.) I’m going to offer up an ADDITIONAL Poetry Challenge this week in celebration of our FIFTH MONTH of existence as a writing site. I’ll post it on the Challenge screen, too, but here’s the description. It is WAY fun, and I really hope to get LOTS AND LOTS of participants. FIFTY DOLLAR BARNES AND NOBLE GIFT CARD to the winners!!!Deadline is September 22nd, because that way, the challenge is good for the entirety of Month Five. POETRY DUET CHALLENGE: 1.) Find a partner – another member on this site. It can be someone you know or, if you’re particularly bold, someone you don’t! – and ask them if they’d be willing to do this Challenge with you. 2.) Together, choose a topic to write about 3.) Agree on a style of poetry, replete with number of lines you’ll each need to write 4.) Then decide – however you choose to do that (could be alphabetical order, could be eeny-meeny-miney-moe, could be heads-or-tails) – whose line goes first. 5.) Combine the poems by taking turns, one line at a time: the first writer’s first line, then the second writer’s first line, then the first writer’s second line, and the second writer’s second line, etc. I was introduced to this idea several years ago by my dear friend Sandy Nelms-Ludwig, who’s also a member on here. We chose as our title/topic “Fidelity,” and here’s our finished product: ************************************************************************* FIDELITY Far beyond the promise to be true, From the cradle some are fed unforgettable heartache Fidelity carries the promise of ferocity when the bond is challenged. Maturing with broken inner workings like an old clock. It’s the bodyguard for the union of two souls, Time after time faithfulness remains a foreign unshared feeling. With heartstrings so entwined, they become a solo vestment for two wearers, Its absence is a wound oozing and tainting most emotional interactions. The embodiment of a shared unity, However, others seek strength in counseling to learn how to suture the open scars And a lifetime suit of armor for the promise of trust inside. Warily accepting that freely giving love and devotion is necessary for healing. When we finished and combined our two poems and read them, we got hysterical with laughter at first, our initial question being, “HOW ARE WE FRIENDS WHEN WE ARE THIS DIFFERENT??????” But then, as we began to examine and discuss it further, we realized that, although our upbringings and life experiences have been extremely different, our creativity and writing prowess and ability to express ourselves is our tie that binds. It was such an eye-opening experience, really. So now we’re passing it on to you, our extremely talented, expressive and creative CW member-friends! Let’s have fun with this. You can submit as many times as you’d like with different duet partners! And whatever topic you choose is fine with us. I’m so excited to read your offerings! On your mark, get set….GO!!! Have a wonderful week. We can’t wait to read everything you post. Much, much love, Rachelle and Heather (AND PS – I’m up for duetting with anyone who asks!)
Rachelle Allen · 8/25/2026
WOW Factors of the Week for the week ending August 15, 2026
Good Morning, oh talented and literarily diverse CW Members! Happy Monday to you all. I hope your creative juices flow abundantly this week and make their way to our site. Here are this week's WOW Factor winners! FOR POETRY, THE WINNER IS TIM MARGETTS FOR "GO ON...I DARE YOU" Judge Katharine Folkes writes: I voted for Tim Margetts, for his clever dare to the members of Collectively Write to leave reviews for the stories and poems they read. It also might urge them to write and publish their works on this site, and enjoy reviews of their efforts. Our writers would be most appreciative. His poem gives examples of the writers’ efforts to put their works out to be read and enjoyed, and Tim repeats his dare, throughout, for any thoughts the reader had about the author's' works. for instance: “No thesis needed, no PhD, No deep critique of imagery, No lengthy prose on what it meant – Just let them know ‘twas time well spent.” Tim's poem is a wonderful challenge, and made a good point. Bravo So, come on, members. Let’s see who will take Tim’s dare. AND FOR WOW SHORT STORY OF THE WEEK, THE WINNER IS: COOL WATERS BY KATHARINE FOLKES Judge Tim Margetts writes: Well, this week gave me a bit of a problem. Three very different pieces to choose from, and one of them immediately complicated matters by announcing itself as Part 1. The Sun-seekers Part 1 was, for me, the strongest piece of conventional storytelling. The world is well realised, the characters feel like a family rather than simply people placed there to explain the setting, and I particularly liked the contrast between Jordan thoughtlessly kicking apart the daisies in his memory and later cradling one as something precious. That small moment says a great deal about everything that has been lost. Unfortunately, Part 1 is exactly that: the beginning of something larger rather than a complete short story. Excellent though it is, I couldn't quite justify giving it the top spot this week. The Perfect Societal Solution takes a very different approach. It's a clever and suitably uncomfortable piece of dystopian fiction, with its mechanically tended babies and algorithmically perfect care creating a wonderfully cold vision of a society which has apparently solved humanity by removing most of the humanity from it. I did think the middle section with the graphs explained rather more than it needed to, when the imagery was already making the point very effectively. But that final invitation to visit the adults' enclosure is excellent and suddenly makes the world of the story much larger and considerably more disturbing. Which brings me to Cool Water. This could so easily have been nothing more than a tale about a broken water main. Instead, giving the job of narrator to poor, long-suffering HP turns the whole thing into something delightfully daft. HP's comments and observations provide the humour while Katharine becomes progressively more tired, muddled and eventually musical. It doesn't try to be grand or profound; it takes an everyday situation, plays with it and turns it into a complete and thoroughly entertaining little story. So, after some head-scratching over chapters, dystopian nurseries, malfunctioning water supplies and whether computers really do gossip about us when we're not looking, my Short Story of the Week is Cool Water. Congratulations, Katharine. SO, CONGRATULATIONS TO KATHARINE AND TIM. And the winner of the Bi-Weekly Short-Story Challenge - making a story from a news item - is: RACHEL GOSLING for THE CLEAN-UP OPERATION It was written in the voice of a cat (Thea) who simply wanted appreciation for her acquisitions of items in the neighborhood that had been untended. Instead, she was made to feel like a common thief by her own (well, "staff;" who doesn't know that adage about DOGS having owner and cats having staff...) who - in front of her, no less - he made calls of apology to the neighbors for the confiscated items. Some gratitude! I loved the way Thea's voice was absolutely purrr-fect (oh - as if I could resist THAT low-hanging fruit pun!) and the way Rachel interwove Thea's disgruntlement with her owner's mortification. I would love to have read the original news article that evoked this clever tail...er, sorry...TALE! Nicely done, Rachel. SO CONGRATULATIONS TO KATHARINE, TIM AND RACHEL this week! This means that Katharine, you will be this week's WOW Factor judge for short storis, and Tim will be our poetry judge. Please have your decisions to me by end-of-business on Sunday, August 23rd. And Rachel, you will now be the Short Story COMPETITION judge, the deadline for which will be August 30th. I will post what that topic will be later today. ALSO...because there is only one entry for the Poetry Competition this week, we're going to extend it an additional week. So, please get those creative juices flowing in RONDOLET form and submit by Saturday, August 22nd. Have a great week, Everyone. we will be looking forward to reading everything you write! Much, much love, Rachelle and Heather xoxox
Rachelle Allen · 8/17/2026
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