Call for Submissions: Adventure

They say marriage is where adventure goes to die. Well we say, they have no idea what they’re talking about! This August, we want you to tell us about that time you trekked around the world, went skydiving, decided what you wanted to do with your life, or when you pledged forever. Next month, terror and excitement meet. So let’s go for a ride.

A quick reminder of how to submit your essay or wedding to APW:

Essays: If you want to submit an essay for next month’s theme, or anything else for that matter, you can do so right here.

Real Weddings: You can always send us your weddings (on theme, or not). For those of you who are new here, we accept real weddings in one of three formats, all sourced from readers:

HOW WE DID IT: Let’s be real: it’s the logistical and financial aspects of how other people planned their weddings that you really want to dig your teeth into. Go here to fill out our How We Did It submission and tell us all the gory details.

Wedding Graduates: If you’ve got a story to tell about your wedding (like about how you planned with an emotionally absent parent, or how you actually kind of hated your wedding), head over here and submit a wedding graduate post. The focus here is on your words, but we like to back them up with you looking hot in your pictures. (You look hot in your pictures.)

Wordless Wedding: This feature is for when you don’t have a lot to say about your wedding, but maybe you think it needs to be shared anyway. Wordless weddings are short on words, big on pictures, and chock full of awesome. Submit your Wordless Wedding right here.

As always, here are the tips and tricks for submitting your story to APW and getting it published:

  • While we don’t exactly have any requirements for post length, essays between 600–1800 words are usually the ones that make it to the front page. Exceptions are always made, so don’t let those numbers keep you from writing what you need to write. If something is too long or too short, but we love the concept, we’ll help you edit it into something we can publish.
  • One of the primary characteristics we look for in submissions each month is a connection to a universal idea. We’re all writing from our personal experiences here, but if you can take that experience and make it something that other people are going to relate to, then we’ve got magic. But that doesn’t mean every post needs to have a big moral or overarching theme. Sometimes the most universal stories are the simplest ones.
  • As always, our themes are meant to serve as a guideline for submissions, but they aren’t rigid. Do with them what you will! For example, if next month’s theme is “Adventure,” but you really need to talk about how you didn’t exactly love your wedding (for example), then we want to hear what you have to say. We’re always after diversity of experience, so the most important thing is that you write something that is authentic to you (particularly if it’s a perspective we haven’t heard from in a while or at all).
  • Also, when you’re submitting for the monthly theme, we don’t want you to feel as though you have to frame your story around the theme itself (i.e., “I experienced an adventure when…”). Heck, you don’t even have to include the name of the theme in your writing at all. Just write what you would normally write, and we’ll figure out if it’s a good fit for the month, or if maybe it would be a better fit for a future month.
  • Lastly, if you have something you just have to get out there into the world, but it doesn’t fit with the theme for the next month, please send it in anyway. Our top priority is always strong content, regardless of the topic.

That’s it! If you have a story to share about what you’ve learned, send it in already!

happy writinG!
Lucy

Are You Having Wedding Nightmares?

I still remember my worst wedding nightmare. It was shortly after Obama’s 2008 election, and I dreamed that it was my wedding day, and he was there. Thus far, this doesn’t have the markings of a nightmare, does it? Well. Obama had showed up to my wedding, and at the same moment I realized we didn’t have a seating chart. Not only did we not have a seating chart, but we’d never even figured out how many tables we needed to fit our guests and if they would fit in the space. They didn’t fit into the space. “Please, just get something set up, and put him in front,” I remember pleading, “I know he’s not the president yet, but he’s very important.”

We somehow got tables arranged badly, and the tablecloths were floral. I still get a knot in my stomach when I remember the dream.

Wedding dreams come in as many forms as you cam imagine. Except you don’t imagine until you start having them, because wedding planning is fun, right? Then the dreams start and you didn’t buy a dress, or you’re not sure you should be getting married in the first place, or your partner cheated on you, or the confetti push pops all explode, or the doves turn into monsters (and why are there doves at the wedding anyway?). And then you jolt upright in a cold sweat yelling, “But we have to do a seating chart, NOW!” and wondering what the hell your subconscious is trying to work out, exactly.

A few weeks ago, some readers requested a wedding nightmares open thread, on the basis that it would be amusing to swap tales. After spending some time vividly remembering my wedding nightmares, I’m not totally convinced there is anything amusing about it, but I do think we all probably want to get the stories out.

Let’s share. (And to hell with it, pregnancy nightmare tales also accepted. That’s the only other time they get quite so strange.)