Sophfronia Scott
Writer's Habits: The Importance of Non-Writing Writing
...if you saw me by the side of the road, perhaps taking a photo with my phone of some wild grapes, you wouldn’t think I’m writing, but I am—more non-writing writing.
Self-Deception in the #PublishingPaidMe Marketplace
If I think too much about the racial inequalities in the publishing industry, it might push me to the point where I stop writing.
A Quiet Truth
In America they kill their children.
Someone thinks this of us. It may be true. If we are brave enough to see and accept that it is, what will we do about it?
A Quiet Truth
The poem read: "In America they kill their children." What if there’s a quiet truth to what this person, and most likely many others, think about our country?
A Longing for Change
It’s the season for change. Recent graduates are settling into their new lives. School is about to begin. Do I need change? I feel the tension of this energy, that if I don’t create change for myself it might be thrust upon me in a terrible way.
Hope's Fragile Wings
It’s been over a year since the Parkland, Florida shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and over a year after the massacre in Las Vegas. It’s almost three years after Orlando, almost four years after Charleston, and six years, three months after Sandy Hook...We must seek light and joy again and we must do it with all our heart and soul because what is the alternative? Darkness.
The Grace of Waiting and Its End
There’s a magic that comes of waiting and watching—a magic only apparent when the waiting is over. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Queen of Waiting. I have no problem waiting out anything, even if it takes years. I have a patience born of soap operas.
Of JAGGED LITTLE PILL and Possibility
Yes, I had witnessed the tears falling every night. I felt the energy whoosh through the room like a cyclone. I couldn’t believe anyone could walk away from that show and not be transformed. And I know that Diane also felt and understood the transformative power of theater.
The Shape of Grief
In the minutes after I learned of Katy’s death, the cold wrapped around my insides so I was shivering even in an overheated room. In the ensuing days I would have to take long showers and sit in hot baths. This sensation of grief is not unfamiliar.
Talking About Love
When the worst has happened, when your life seems irretrievably shattered and nothing makes sense, then here’s what you can do: CHOOSE. You can choose love. You can choose to see love at work in your life. You can choose to act out of that love. You can choose to have love sustain you.
When Summer Speaks
This quiet, then and now, makes me feel like I’m cupped in the palm of a hand. But who is holding me? Is someone beyond the summer speaking in this silence? I’m not sure it matters—not as long as I keep listening.
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The Waking is an online literary magazine and a part of the Ruminate creative community that houses high-quality literary writing about what it’s like to be human. We are interested in short-form prose and image-text hybrid work. This art can be beautiful, it can be strange, we just ask that it feels true.