Today we are celebrating Polly Prose. Since Deadlines for Writers started in 2017, many of our writers have gone on to publish and accomplish great things with their writing. The Prompt to Publication emails are all about celebrating these writers and their wonderful stories.

I hope these interviews will help and teach you how to use Deadlines for Writers to build your author platform.

Scroll to the end to watch Polly’s interview.

Author feature: I’d like to introduce Polly Prose

Have you completed any of the challenges on Deadlines for Writers?

Polly Prose: Yes, I’ve completed 2 challenges in the past year. I joined DFW in October of 2023. And I just finished 12 Short Stories and 12 Poems challenges. It’s been an absolutely amazing experience.

What have you published?

Polly Prose: This is my debut, a collection of poetry called Echoes of Silence. It’s the first book out of 3 in a series I’ve been working on. It started off with an idea for one book only and somehow snowballed into 2 more.

I do have a dream of publishing a novel at some point. Who knows. 🙂 I hope to be brave enough to take that leap.

Has Deadlines for Writers helped you as a writer?

Polly Prose: Most definitely. From late 2022 I revisited a long lost dream of publishing a book, when I changed my internal doubts and started saying “Why not?” Instead of “I can’t”. And from there on I started to look into how one could self-publish. During one of the self-publishing courses I took, I was introduced to DFW. I would say that the encouragement AND the deadlines have helped to keep me going, and not to give up.

What did you learn that you applied to your work?

Polly Prose: I guess the greatest lesson I’ve learned, is the importance to give yourself enough time to revise and edit your writing. And be open to feedback. That’s the only way to grow as a writer.

Working from prompts has been an amazing experience. Sometimes it’s been easy to come up with ideas, but other times it’s required a bit more patience. But it’s the whole process of experimenting that’s been incredibly inspiring.

The feedback has been very helpful. I’ve always struggled with sharing my writing with others, so doing so on DFW has been such a big step in overcoming that fear.

But the constructive and encouraging feedback has helped me to not give up when I’ve been discouraged and felt I’m not good enough.

It’s also taught me that we all have our own unique voice. And I appreciate very much the honesty and the technical pointers I’ve been given. It’s especially valuable to me since English is not my mother tongue.

Also, having a deadline has helped a notorious procrastinator to press send “on time.” 🙂

In the beginning I kept writing the assigned text on the day of the deadline, and I didn’t leave much time for editing and revision. Most comments suggested to leave more time for editing. And I totally agreed with them.

Then I tried to start the first draft earlier in the month, leave it for a few days, and then revisit to edit the text. It helped me enjoy the process more and feel more confident about posting on deadline day.

I’ve also loved the word count within the short story challenge. All of it has pushed me out of my comfort zone.

What is your favourite story you wrote for 12SS?

Polly Prose: It feels weird saying I have a favourite story of my own work, but if I were to mention one, it would be “Bottoms Up, Honey!” The prompt that month was “Cheers!”. https://deadlinesforwriters.com/bottoms-up-honey/

I never wrote many short stories before I joined DFW, so that in itself has been a learning curve.

With this particular story I started early in the month to write and plot so I could experiment writing from a different point of view and within a new genre.

Like always, I was very anxious about sharing what I’d jotted down, but giving myself enough time to edit and revise helped a lot.

Biography:

Polly Prose is an aspiring writer and poet from the vibrant city of Reykjavik, Iceland. Coming from a small island she always had the desire to explore the world and lived in her 20’s and 30’s in London, Canada and Norway. She now resides in the beautiful city of Copenhagen, Denmark, ironically the place she swore she’d never move to. Life is funny that way.

Polly has been writing poetry and stories since her early teens. Being a lover of the written word she always had the dream of publishing her own book.

Finally in June 2024 her dream was fulfilled when she self-published her debut book of poetry, Echoes of Silence.

In addition to writing, Polly has a deep love for music and studied piano from a young age.

Her passion for music, singing and writing are the things that help her keep a positive spirit and outlook in life.

When she’s not working she loves hanging out at her favorite café drinking coffee and coming up with new plots.

She also loves spending time with friends, and especially her 2 nephews and niece who are in her opinion the most amazing children.

She hopes to continue to learn and write for years to come.

Read Polly‘s work

This poem is called Change of Perspective. It was my attempt to fight getting depressed on a very gray day. 🙂

Today I woke up deciding

Not to let the darkness overtake.

It was gray outside

Gloomy and dreary.

A perfect setting

for a somber state of mind.

I paused for a moment

And gazed into emptiness

Only to realize the wonders

unfolding around me.

Wind, rain, darkness,

The usual suspects,

My mortal enemies.

A pause

A breather

A restart was all it took.

So, I took another look.

My normal nemesis turned into

great assets.

The wind picked up

A slight drizzle dramatized

The shadows of darkness

And the leaves started to dance

in the street

Surrounded by a chain of

unveiled trees.

I’m glad I woke up today.

I’m thankful today was gray.

Buy the book.

This is the first book of three in the Finding Yourself Series, an intimate poetry collection by Polly Prose.

This collection addresses subjects such as anxiety, self-doubt, and the road to finding your voice, freedom, and way. As some of the poems were originally written as slam poetry it can add extra depth to read them out loud to feel the rhythmic beat of the puns and prose play together.

In whichever way you decide to read, I hope you enjoy and feel the effects originally intended.

Enjoy the journey!

Read Polly’s blog: Polly Prose

Watch Polly’s interview here

Well done, Polly!

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