Word of the Day

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

TUESDAY, MAY 5

Zeitgeist

[ZAIT-gaist]

Part of speech: noun

Origin: german, mid-19th century

• The defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.

Examples of Zeitgeist in a sentence

• She wanted to embrace the zeitgeist of the 1980s for her birthday party.
• The bestselling book captured the zeitgeist of the college experience.

About Zeitgeist

It seems like there’s always a German word to express what we don’t have a word for in English. In the case of zeitgeist, you’re capturing a particular mood or characteristics of a certain era. In German, “zeit” means time and “geist” is the spirit.

Did you Know?

If you see a flapper dress you think of the 1920s. Hippie bell bottoms bring to mind the 1960s. Hoop skirts will place a woman in the mid-19th century. Articles of clothing can quickly identify a period of time, but other things such as music, political ideas, and philosophies will also define the zeitgeist of a generation.

PicFic 2020

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

It's been quite a while since the last PicFic Challenge post.  PicFic has been a part of Section VII since nearly the beginning.  Initially it helped fuel the addition of hundreds of stories into the MFU archives on fanfiction.net, with a terrific roster of writers contributing to those increases.

Marian, aka mrua7, has been the overseer of this challenge since its inception, but as of this date she's still without internet after moving into her new apartment in the midst of the current situation.  Obviously, companies are not sending technicians into homes at this point, but we're hopeful that will soon change and we'll have Miss Marian back among us.

In the meantime, I'm offering a photo prompt for a PicFic Challenge.  I did post a variety of prompts as part of the Daily Prompt, including photos.  But this is PicFic, and it stands on its own as a Section VII Challenge. I hope the writers will find something interesting or amusing in the photo.  Reach down and stir the muse, desire has nearly as much to do with writing, or any creative endeavor, as the inspiration that comes from outside of ourselves.  

Challenge yourself to write.

PicFic guidelines are simple.  I'm changing it up a little and giving you two prompts. Write a story using one of the photos for inspiration, Gen in content with a 500 word minimum.  Stories for this prompt will post next Tuesday, May 12.

Let's write some stories.

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