Retrospect Returns

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In December, the hearty crew that runs Retrospect crew decided to take a break. They had been true to their promise — creating, posting, and moderating a new writing prompt each week. After nearly seven years, hundreds of authors posted over 3,000 stories on the Retrospect web site. All these stories have remained the property of their authors, many of whom have written upwards of 200 tales each. Now, a new group of administrators have determined that Retrospect, with its invitation to think back and share forward is too precious to lose. They have studied at the feet of the site’s seasoned administrators and are ready to take over Retro’s gears and levers. So feel free to visit, browse through the memories, dreams, and reflections of Retro’s many authors, and — if you’re intrigued, log in or register and…start writing!

Best regards,

Charlie, Dana, Dave, and Jim
The Retrospect Administration Team

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The Adventure Continues Again

We’re delighted that Charlie, Dana, Dave, and Jim felt so strongly about telling our stories that they’ve taken Retrospect under their wings, just as we did four years ago. We hope that writers old and new will be sharing memories here, and that the website will thrive and grow with the infusion of this new energy. We look forward to seeing the next phase in its evolution.

Suzy, Marian, Laurie, & Barb
Administrative Team 2019-2022

Going on Hiatus

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As many of you know, Retrospect has been going through a difficult time this fall, with multiple tech challenges that even our stalwart programmers have had trouble fixing. Perhaps for that reason, or perhaps for other reasons, the number of stories on the last half-dozen prompts has been noticeably smaller than usual. After much consideration, we have decided to take a one-month hiatus in January and then re-evaluate.

The Upcoming Prompts currently visible on the website are the last ones we will be doing for a while. The final one, Retrospect Retrospective, will go live on December 31st and stay up for all of January, to give everyone time to write about favorite prompts and/or stories or how Retrospect has impacted your life. We hope you will do so.

Meanwhile, if you want to print or save your stories onto your computer, go to your profile and click the button labeled Print My Stories. Retrospect will compile up to ten of your stories onto a web page. Use your browser’s File > Print command to print them or save them in a PDF file. If you have more than ten, just repeat the process. See our help page for further details.

Feel free to submit comments via the Contact form if you would like to weigh in on the future of Retrospect.

RetroFlash is Here!

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You may have heard of flash fiction, flash poetry, flash prose, flash nonfiction … they’re all part of an exciting form of “micro,” “sudden,” or “short-short” writing that’s brief, powerful, and most of all, fun. Forms vary from 6 words (our featured image!) to 100, 250, and so on. The popular Modern Love column of the New York Times even has a flash version called Tiny Love Stories … no more than 100 words.

Following their lead here on Retrospect, we’re launching our very own version … RetroFlash. Other than the 100-word limit, no rules. For example, contractions can count as one word or two. Your story can be something you’ve written about before, or something entirely new. It can be prose, or poetry. It can even be a list.

Our site makes it easy because it automatically tells you how many words you have as you write, unlike Word or other word processing programs where it takes a couple of steps to check the word count.

You might be surprised to discover how much you can say in 100 words! Every word counts, so choose your words carefully. You still want to tell a story we can relate to; you still want to inform us, move us, surprise us, or amuse us.

Even though we’re launching the feature this week with the Fads and Trends prompt, feel free to write a RetroFlash any time. When you do, add the note “RetroFlash” or “100 words” at the end of your story which will also make it searchable within our site.

That’s it … have fun, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Suzy, Marian, Laurie and Barb

A New Lease on Life

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Seneca quote about new beginnings

Dear Retrospecters,

We are excited to announce the re-launch of MyRetrospect.com on March 1, 2019. It will be under new management, but still the same Retrospect you have come to know and love (we hope!) over the last several years.

All three of us have written stories for Retrospect. Suzy and Marian have been involved since the beta testing days, while Laurie joined us more recently. We all felt bereft when we learned that it would be shutting down. We decided that we wanted to keep Retrospect going, because of all the wonderful stories already gathered on the site, and all the new ones waiting to be written.

Now that we are starting up again after a two-month hiatus, we hope you will be inspired to write stories, read each other’s stories, and comment on stories. We think that what makes Retrospect so much better than our own blogs is sharing common experiences with others of our generation, and appreciating each other’s experiences through comments.

The first prompt will be, appropriately, New Beginnings, and we hope you will begin writing on that topic now. The stories will go live on Friday, March 1, which is also the date that new people can start signing up for the site. So, tell your friends.

The only difference you will notice is that new prompts will go live on Saturdays instead of Mondays. That way, we hope that people can enjoy reading and commenting on stories over the weekend, which may be a more relaxed time for those of us who are not yet retired.

Happy writing!
Suzy, Marian, and Laurie

The Adventure Continues

We’re thrilled and grateful that Suzy, Marian, and Laurie felt so strongly about telling our stories that they’ve taken MyRetrospect.com under their wings. We’re confident that our labor of love will thrive and grow in their care, and we look forward to seeing this next phase in its evolution. See you on the site!  

John & Patti
Co-Founders