Where to Submit Roundup: February 27, 2026

Happy Friday!
As we head into the final weekend of February, here’s hoping March eases in gently rather than roaring to life. Mother Nature is a fickle one, of course—so we’ll see what she has in mind.

Whether you’re feeling early spring energy or full-on cabin fever, NewPages is here to help you channel it into your writing and submitting. March brings a fresh wave of opportunities, and several deadlines are closing soon. Don’t miss your window.

Inspiration Prompt: Precious Children

We weren’t called precious because we were adorable and utterly lovable.

We were called precious because of what we looked like.

One child came with golden locks and golden eyes, skin kissed warm by some unseen sun—a living echo of the most coveted metal on earth. Another arrived silver-haired and metallic-eyed, with a cool bluish-grey undertone that made him look like something poured and set, something that belonged behind glass. The third had copper hair, coppery brown eyes, a warmth in her skin that glowed like something freshly forged.

Three children who reminded people of precious metals. Three children who had done nothing to earn that resemblance and nothing to deserve what came with it.

Here is what you get to decide: what does come with it?

Are they coveted, sought after, collected, kept close by people who want to own beautiful things? Are they feared, because what looks rare is also fragile, and fragile things make people nervous? Are they worshipped in ways that hollow a person out over time? Or are they cursed by a world that can’t see past the surface of them, that has decided their worth before they’ve spoken a single word?

Write the life of one, or all three. Write the moment someone first looked at them and wanted something. Write the moment they understood what they were to other people. Write the moment they decided whether to use it or fight it or flee it.

Precious is only a word until someone decides what it means. You be the one who decides.

Three Craft Approaches to Go Deeper

1. Interrogate the Gaze — Who Is Doing the Looking?
The power of this concept lives entirely in how others perceive these children, which means your most important creative decision is whose eyes we see them through. A parent’s gaze carries different danger than a stranger’s. A collector’s eye is not the same as a lover’s or a rival’s. Try writing one scene from the perspective of someone who wants to possess one of these children and then write the same scene from inside the child’s experience of being looked at that way. The gap between those two perspectives is where your story lives. That dissonance—being seen as an object by someone who thinks they’re offering a compliment—is one of the oldest and most urgent things literature can explore.

2. Let the Metaphor Do Double Work
Gold, silver, and copper aren’t just beautiful, they have histories, hierarchies, and symbolic weight that you can layer into character and plot without ever stating it directly. Gold is the standard, the most desired, but also the most surveilled. Silver is secondary in most mythologies—the moon to gold’s sun—but it’s also associated with protection, with mirrors, with truth-telling. Copper is the oldest metal humans ever worked with, humble and useful and often overlooked despite its warmth. Ask yourself: does your gold child carry the burden of being everyone’s first choice? Does your silver child live in a particular kind of shadow? Does your copper child get underestimated in ways the others don’t? You don’t have to explain any of this to the reader, just let it quietly shape who they become.

3. Show Us the Moment Precious Becomes a Cage
The most emotionally resonant beat in any story built around this prompt will be the turn—the moment when being called precious stops feeling like wonder and starts feeling like a sentence. It might come early, in childhood, when one of them first realizes they are being handled rather than loved. It might come later, when they try to be known for something else and find they can’t escape the surface of themselves. Wherever you place that moment, write it small and specific rather than large and dramatic. The cage doesn’t usually announce itself. It closes quietly, one gentle hand at a time.

📬 Want even more writing prompts?

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