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Writing Challenge

My Funny Valentine?

We blog for a million different reasons, but in the end we’re all storytellers. Writing Challenges help you push your…

We blog for a million different reasons, but in the end we’re all storytellers. Writing Challenges help you push your writing boundaries and explore new ideas, subjects, and styles.

To participate, read the challenge instructions and write at least one post in response. Tag your post with DPchallenge and include a link to this post to generate a pingback. Make sure your post has been specifically published in response to this challenge. We might just highlight some of our favorites on Freshly Pressed, on our @postaday account on Twitter, or in our quarterly newsletter.

My first date with the person who ended up being my (fortunate?) wife was the day after Valentine’s. We’d thought about getting together for a while, but meeting in the run-up to this organized heart-shaped extravaganza felt at once tacky and stressful. Would we just be auditioning each other for an upcoming candle-lit dinner? Our annual un-Valentine’s has since become an inside joke and a beloved ritual.

What’s your Valentine’s story?

Of all the different holidays on the calendar, St. Valentine’s Day, coming up this Friday, might be the most fraught with conflicting emotions. It feels strange to be explicitly against a day celebrating love and commitment. But it’s hard not to feel self-conscious — if not completely unoriginal — when walking on a sidewalk teeming with other flower- and chocolate-wielding lovers.

What about those of us in unhappy relationships, non-traditional ones, or enjoying a fulfilling, solitary life? The terrain can get rocky, fast. Can one single day encompass the richness and diversity of experience — from the heartwarming to the heartbreaking — that love can produce? Does it even make sense to channel so much emotional energy into 1/365th of the calendar?

In your posts for this challenge, feel free to take the discussion in whatever direction inspires you. You can share your most unabashedly romantic Valentine’s story, or write about why you shun the holiday altogether. You can describe a funny (or touching, or poignant) scene you’ve witnessed on a past Valentine’s, or tell us about an alternative celebration you’re planning this year to mark your most meaningful relationships.

If you’re looking for more specific writing prompts, here are some you might have fun with:

  • You’re an intergalactic visitor who just happened to land on Earth on February 14. Describe the weirdness you’re seeing.
  • Write the Valentine’s card you’ll never have the courage to actually send.
  • Invent your own love-themed holiday: what would it encompass?

Whether or not you’re in the mood for love, we look forward to reading your posts — have fun writing!

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    1. It’s fine if it’s on topic! I’d recommend, though, adding a pingback just to the first of your posts, and then link to other related posts within your own blog — that way you won’t sending multiple pingbacks to the same post here.

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  7. My first date with the man who became my husband was to a valentine banquet at our church. The church I grew up in and he recently began atttending. They had each couple sit on a white wrought-iron bench and took our picture. That was 54 years ago. My valentine is in heaven now, but I still have the picture and the memory to treasure.

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  8. My posts will be poems of love lost, love unrequited, and the hopes and promises of a new love, that which will set your hearts aflutter, and more.
    I hope you enjoy reading my work. More importantly you relate to it, and relive some cherished memories, and never doubt the eternal magic of love.

    You can read my entries related to the challenge here

    http://sameernahar.wordpress.com/category/poetry/love/valentine-week-2014/

    Cheers. And let there be love. Lots of it. 🙂

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225 Responses While this challenge is closed to new entries, we encourage you to visit the Reader to find other avid bloggers.