June 2026 Drafting & Dialoguing Digest
Here’s your roundup and recap of June’s posts and community engagement with some notes and info you’ll want to know about for July, as well as the link to access all of June’s writing prompts.
June was a busy month settling into a new rhythm of Daily Drafts & Dialogues posts and updates.
Please join me in welcoming the new 50+ subscribers who have signed up since our new changes rolled out in May. And help me say thanks to every subscriber who has been sticking around and contributing to this growing community.
I am so glad you’re all here and hope Daily Drafts & Dialogues continues to inspire your reading and writing habits. Truly, thank you for being here. You make this writing thing worth it.
I’m so excited to see what July brings! But first, here’s your monthly roundup and recap for June.
In Case You Missed It
Weekly Public Writing Shares for All
Every Thursday for the past couple weeks, I’ve been sharing Public Writing Share posts in the chat to give all subscribers opportunities to share what they’re working on and will continue to do so as long as there is regular engagement there. I will put links to these chats in the Community Notes section of Daily Drafts & Dialogues posts published at the end of the week, but you can also elect to receive email notifications when you subscribe, so you’ll always know when the chats go live.
Keep an eye out for the image below for new public writing shares.
I hope you’re able to join the chat soon, if you haven’t already! It’s a great way to get the writing support you’ve been looking for, in a friendly, low-stakes online environment. The more engagement we get there, the better the writing shares will be for everyone, so don’t forget to tell your writing friends about them!
Paid subscribers: You are still able to share posts in the chat for whatever writing you want feedback or recognition on whenever you want, including the writing you come up with for Daily Drafts & Dialogues writing prompts.
Daily Writing Prompts
Daily writing prompts are now located behind a paywall at the bottom of Daily Drafts & Dialogues posts. Paid subscribers: You are now able to share your own posts directly in the chat when you want to share your writing for feedback or recognition. The writing you share can include your responses to Daily Drafts & Dialogues writing prompts, or anything else you’re working on and want to discuss.
Weekly Writing Prompts Post
For the past few weeks, I’ve been posting at least one post that is full of nothing but writing prompts. I noticed these posts have been popular, especially on the weekends, so I’m trying to give you more of what you like to see when you like to see it. I likely won’t post more than one of these per week, however.
New Daily Drafts & Dialogues Sections (Receive only the emails you want!)
I get that many of you may not want to receive daily emails, or emails for every type of post that’s published on Daily Drafts & Dialogues. Which is why I decided to divide the publication into sections, as it allows you to customize your subscriber email notifications for Daily Drafts & Dialogues in your Substack account, so that you can control which posts reach your inbox moving forward and which ones don’t.
When you customize your email notifications, you will only receive emails for the posts you can’t miss but will still be able to access all other posts when you visit the Daily Drafts & Dialogues website. Note: free subscribers can access all posts up to seven days after they’re published, and paid subscribers have unlimited access.
Daily Drafts & Dialogues publication sections include:
Book Reviews
Creative Writing
Essays & Reflections
Writing Prompts
Daily Drafters Exclusives (Paid Posts)
Monthly (Includes: Drafting Diaries series posts and the Drafting & Dialoguing Digest– this post)
Please check your email subscription settings in Substack and uncheck the sections of the Daily Drafts & Dialogues Substack publication you don’t want to receive emails for— Apologies! Substack doesn’t currently permit other options for handling this on the publisher’s end. Read this for more details and thank you for understanding.
June 2026 Writing Prompts Are Up!
Fuel all your writing for the upcoming month with all of last month’s writing prompts. Or save the link below to access the prompts whenever you need a bit of writing inspiration.
Community Notes Highlights
See what people are sharing in the chat and join the conversation!
Popular Dialogues in June:
IS CREATIVITY INNATE OR LEARNED?
WHEN DO YOU FEEL MOST LIKE A WRITER?
Egalitarian Book Club
In June, we read Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke— Stay tuned for the chat thread to discuss the entire book together. It will be posted later today or tomorrow.
In July, we’re reading Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond
Recommended Reading Schedule:
Week 1 (July 1-5 )— Prologue- Chapter 1
Week 2 (July 6-12)— Chapters 2-4
Week 3 (July 13- 19)— Chapters 5-7
Week 4 (July 20-31) — Finish Book
July 31st: Discuss entire book in Substack chat thread
Coming Soon:
Look for more occasional opportunities to join the chat as a free subscriber, as well as opportunities to have your own Substack and writing featured in a Daily Drafts & Dialogues post in the future. I want to continue to build the writing community we all deserve here. Tell me what you want to see more of on Daily Drafts & Dialogues so we can continue to build what works for us.
Post Roundup & Recap
Below is a compendium of what was published on Daily Drafts & Dialogues in June, along with some of my reflections.
Please note: All daily posts are free for seven days until they’re auto-archived to paid. You can subscribe for free to read newer posts, consider switching to paid, or start your 30–Day Free Trial for unlimited access to the post Archive to read older posts.
Essays & Reflections
What will Millennial poetry be known for in the future?: A Poem? is part essay, part creative rant. Check it out, then let us know: What do you think Millennial poetry will be known for in the future? Or tell us what your own Millennial poem would look like.
Writing is a window to the soul covers how writing is so much more than static words on a page.
If you hate writing, you might be doing it wrong explores why people might say they hate writing, and what to do if you think you’re one of them.
Cartoon Covers on Romance Novels: Yay or Nay? explores the pros and cons of cartoon covers on romance novels, as well as why they’re becoming more popular nowadays.
Is creativity innate or learned? is a post that launches a thought-provoking dialogue.
Some days I have hope. Some days I don’t. This is why I write. is about how and why writing makes me feel hopeful, which is why I do it every day.
MONTHLY SERIES—> Drafting Diaries: Keeping the Momentum Alive covers my reflections on my current WIP, what’s working and what’s not.
When do you feel most like a writer? covers some of your responses to this question and even includes a graph.
Writer Stereotypes that Need to Die was cathartic to write, so I hope it resonates with other writers too.
Creative Writing
100 Words or Fewer is a piece of creative writing I drafted that has exactly 100 words in it, and was a lot harder to write than I thought it would be. Check out the prompt that inspired this piece in the post, then see what you can come up with.
The Vow is a piece of flash fiction based on the following prompt: Write about a vow that’s about to be broken by someone.
Rage is a free write, where I explore my thoughts and feelings about the emotion.
By the Lake is a piece of flash fiction that ended up being a little more emotional than I had originally planned.
Nearing the Toll Booth is a piece of flash fiction that just might restore your faith in people again.
Refuge is a piece of flash fiction about finding refuge in an unlikely place.
At the Summer Night Picnic is a piece of flash fiction that revolves around a little bit of gossip that goes awry at a summer night picnic.
While out for a run… confronts what it means to run toward and away from something, and how sometimes it’s possible to do both simultaneously.
Upgrade to Paid to see writing prompts at the bottom of Daily Drafts & Dialogues posts, and to share your own writing in the chat.
Book Reviews
Notes on Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke covers my thoughts on the first 90 pages of the Egalitarian Book Club’s June selection, which is also one of the buzziest books out this year. Keep your eyes peeled for the chat thread to discuss the entire book together, as well as my final book review for the book.
Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution by Anand Gopal is around 500 pages long with about 100 pages worth of notes and is as emotionally rich as it is informationally rich, so I decided to split my review up into two posts. Here are my notes on the first half of the book. And here is my final book review, which covers the entire book.
There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm (a.k.a. Sam Hughes) is a compelling high-concept novel that retains many of its mysteries long after it ends and would be a great selection for many Sci-Fi and Fantasy book clubs. But I wouldn’t recommend it to readers who enjoy character-driven novels, or who appreciate clear-cut and easy-to-follow prose and plots, as it includes alternating timelines and identities and physical planes and metaverses that jump around and superimpose over one another. Someone who wants to enjoy this novel will need to remain open-minded yet science-oriented, willing to suspend their current belief systems, and will need to be prepared to pay close attention.
Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julia Langbein is one of those books that pulled me in with its wit and candor right away, almost making me forget that it promised a poignant story about a young woman growing up in the late 90s during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. It had me laughing out loud and thinking deeply at the same time, which is a rare treat.
Angel Down by Daniel Kraus won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and offers much to consider regarding war and human nature, or should I say the nature of men who war? The novel has been lauded for its unique, single-sentence narrative— no really, the entire novel is a single sentence that has no beginning or end, with every single one of its paragraphs beginning with ‘and.’ It’s also been lauded for how it blends genres like horror, allegory, and magical realism. Yet many readers may find it a bit gimmicky and superficial in the end. [Warning: There are a few spoilers in the rest of this review.]
The Hill by Harriet Clark is a coming-of-age novel that offers readers a steady stream of captivating prose that mimics its plot, stuck between the known and unknown. Readers in a more introspective mood will enjoy it, as well as readers who enjoy novels that force them to slow down and witness the intricacies of everyday life in another world rather than experience it at a hurried pace, which is unique for a coming-of-age story, and also what other readers may not enjoy about it.
June Baby by Shannon Garvey is a melancholic novel about dealing with grief when it is tied up with nostalgia and longing. It’s for those readers who don’t always need a fairy tale ending but enjoy an ending that feels like a true and realistic beginning. Though potential readers will also want to note that there is some suicidal ideation in this novel, multiple deaths of loved ones, infidelity, and discussion of abortion.
Writing Prompts
The following posts are full of writing prompts, for whenever you need a bit of writing inspiration.
5 Photo Prompts to Kickstart Your Writing: Summer Edition
20 First Sentences to Kickstart Your Writing (Part XI)
Writing Challenge: Omission Edition
5 Flash Fiction Prompts to Kickstart Your Writing
If you want more writing prompts, check out June 2026 Writing Prompts.
Today’s Dialogue
Take a beat to reflect on last month and celebrate your wins before you start a new month.
Tell us one thing you learned in June. Or tell us something you did in June that you’re proud of or want to improve in July. Are there any milestones you want to share?