It's a blog that occasionally rises out of the silent mist then vanishes into the vapor again. Or maybe it's the blogger himself who's pops up, then disappears for an eternity. Perhaps I am secretly the subject of folklore. Sigh – there really is no really mythical reason to why I’ve been gone. My internet and router were ackinafool for awhile, but that all has been fixed. Therefore I’ll be back posting soon – I have some interesting news and notes, but I want to spread it out instead of committing an info dump. Be good, and I’ll be back soon to blab about my recent poetry contest win and some upcoming publications and other random thoughts.
Random Thoughts
I need to sit down and write.
I just realized this fact. But it is a good thing.
It’s not that I’ve been lazy. The day job has been hella busy, and thank God I am still employed, so I‘ve been putting in the time needed to keep ahead of the workload. Writing has to take a backseat to my career at this point, unless somehow writing can miraculously become my career. And since we are in a recession, I doubt that’s happening anytime soon.
I’ve been blessed in the past six months - a lot of my fresh work and newly revised pieces have been accepted. Right now, I only have a few short stories and a handful of poems to circulate around, and I don’t want to over-submit those pieces. Believe me, I’m far from being a shotgun submitter. I try to learn all I can about most places I’m considering submitting to, read past issues, study their website, etc. So I don’t want to overextend the pieces I have and flood the same poems and flash fiction pieces to every place on earth.
Being an active writer and also an active submitter has put me in an envious position amongst most emerging creative-types: if I’m going to continue submitting to magazines, online journals, and contests, I need to generate new material. I also need to get back to reading more. For me, reading begets writing.
So I’m focused on this weekend coming up. Going to get some good music ready and spend a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday trying to read and/or write myself out of a creative funk. Hopefully this goal will evolve from theory to reality.
Alternate definition.
Writing is the watering hole and safe house for dreamers and malcontents who never got around to reading the memo that people aren’t supposed to be creative anymore.
Hello, old friend.
You know how it is when you get to spend time with a friend who knows you really well, how you can just fall back into conversation when you see them, like nothing’s ever changed? That’s what it was like when I found time to do some writing this evening. Like I never even had a hiatus from it at all.
Happy Corporate Sponsored Manufactured Romance to Force Millions to Buy Cheesy Greeting Cards and Candy for the Purpose of Sparking Our Ailing Economy Day!
Just kidding. Or am I? Happy Valentines Day either way. :)
It’s not you. It’s me. Really, I mean it.
Nothing personal. I just fell off the grid a little bit. Day job and real life got a little too hectic for me to blog and write as much as I would have liked. This weekend is about catching up. Writing, this blog, reading, emails, whatever. It’s time to get it in.
Redefine the Dream.
Remember the Dream.
Game Plan.
I’m 75% done with the truth handbook. My estimate - I’m 10-12 poems away from being finished with the first draft. It’ll probably take me writing 20-25 poems to get to those 10-12 that actually fit with the rest, but so be it. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, I’m almost at the finish line, insert appropriate cliché, etc. My goal is to have the manuscript tight and refined by April or May – then I’ll have two poetry manuscripts to throw at the book competitions and open calls for submissions. Plenty of unpublished material to submit to lit mags and contests as well. After that, I want to rededicate myself to writing fiction for the remainder of the year.
When putting together my first (still unpublished) book, My Own Brand of Blues, I used to just write poems that were eventually drawn together into a manuscript. Now I'm writing poems to go into a book - though of course not just for the book, but in large part, most of the new pieces I’m composing will go into it. I find this somehow focuses me...even if there's not even a chance anyone will publish these manuscripts at all. Sigh.
The Beauty of Feedback.
Lit mag editors who give constructive criticism with their rejections do a great service to the writing community. I realize time constraints prohibit most from giving feedback aside from pre-written rejection slips or emails, but when a writer sees why his/her piece didn’t make the cut, it is enlightening.
For example, I recently received response back from an online journal that rejected several of my works. However, included were responses from the editorial staff that gave me insight into why my poems weren’t up to their standards. Some suggested changes that I think would damage the original creative vision of the poem. Others made suggestions of cutting out fluff that wasn’t needed – edits I agreed with and did right away. Instantly those pieces became stronger because of those comments.
Even if I disagree with an editor’s opinion, it’s enlightening to see how my writing is perceived. For example, one poem did contain a commonly used phrase, but I had employed some wordplay that I felt took that phrase away from its clichéd meaning. However, the editorial staff instantly stamped this phrase as hackneyed. Have I eliminated the line from my poem? Not yet – I still feel the wordplay is slick, and I’d have to come up with a line better than it before I just give up on it. But their comments have me thinking about it, revisiting its structure, trying to find a way to circumvent the cliché.
That’s where feedback helps – I wouldn’t be thinking about this line it wasn’t for the comments. Now I have a chance, whether today or a week from now, to take an idea from a brainstorming session and see if it “fits” in this poem to replace the (perceived) cliché. Their comments moved this poem from “finished” status in my mind and challenged me with the notion that it still may need work.
Does this happen for every piece that an editor may comment on? No, there are some comments that I’m admittedly just too pigheaded to accept. But the fact that the right criticism might spur a writer to refine a piece is priceless. It makes writers better at their craft and their next submission more polished, so editors can have a stronger pool of work to review and, in turn, create a superior publication/literary journal. It’s a win/win, in my view. There is only so much we can get out of peer reviews – it is the opinions of editors that really matter.
Editors, I know your time is precious. But when you do have the time, even if it is just for one poem or story, please let us know what didn’t work in our writing. We all want to get better to make your job easier and only submit pieces that are publishable. I appreciate the comments, even if I don’t always agree. I’m sure other writers do as well.
First Post of 2009.
Meant to post this yesterday, or the day before that, but my truncated attention span got caught up with going places and watching football and and work other minor diversions. Sigh.
Rather than bore you with the typical clichéd “what I did and didn’t do right in 2008” self-absorbed writer’s blog babble, I’m just going to say last year was good, but I am looking to grow - both as a writer and a person. I want to get my poetry manuscript in the hands of someone who wants to publish it, finish the second poetry book that I am approximately 75% done with, and start back to writing more short fiction. Oh, and get a little more reading time in, since I feel like I’m a much better writer when I’m a more active reader. All of those things seem like accomplishable goals, if I put my mind to it. I can raise the bar to unachievable levels later, there’s plenty of time left in this year to shatter dreams and create doubt.
2009 - A glorious new year of opportunity. Or the same shit in a different toilet. Either way…Happy New Year to all of you.
Incoherent babble and upcoming stuff.
Been writing poetry like a madman. About halfway done with my second poetry manuscript, tentatively titled the truth handbook. Hard for me to work on the second book when I have yet to find a publisher for the first one, but I have to push on.
I have yet to learn how to control my muse, so I have not written much fiction lately, but hoping that will change soon. Obviously I let that NaNoWriMo goal slip past me. I didn’t even feign trying. I didn’t even sign up. My bad. I’ll get ‘em next year.
My poem Hello Songs, winner of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire’s August 2008 contest, was recently published in The Poet’s Touchstone.
My poem Tell Me Lies in a Dead Language, which appeared online in The Shine Journal, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize – click here for proof. Yay! I consider being nominated a huge honor, so big thanks to editor Pamela Tyree Griffin.
My poem Prophecy will appear in the online journal Stone's Throw, a literary magazine based in Montana featuring writers and artists from around the world. Sweet. Thanks to poetry editor Tami Haaland for the chance to contribute.
My poem Seasonal Affective Disorder will appear in Main Channel Voices, a literary journal based out of Winona, Minnesota. This is my second chance to be part of this “dam fine” publcation, and I definitely appreciate the opportunity.
Well, it’s past 10 PM. Time to write. Such is the life of an insomniac creative. Be good…
Go on and brush your shoulders off, Mr. President-Elect.
Anything is possible. The end.
Vote.
If you call yourself a writer, then write.
As a writer, as well as in life, I practice the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, continual improvement by taking small steps.
Adhering to this principle, I don’t intentionally set out trying to write a book manuscript. I simply write a page here and there, sometimes just a paragraph, and sometimes only a sentence or a phrase. But I attempt to do that daily, and I find the small steps add up to a greater journey. True, I often have to sift through some awful pieces of prose and crappy poetic pieces to find something that I have the nerve to send out to publishers. But that is part of the greater journey that I just mentioned.
It’s about continuous progress as a writer, even when I fall short of capturing everything my mind was trying to express. No matter what happens, good or bad, I just keep writing.
That is the point. If you call yourself a writer, then write – don’t just talk about writing, do it. Don’t get all wrapped up in what magazine rejected your story, what contest snubbed your poem, or who booed you off the stage at a local poetry slam. Within each failure is a success, because you are busy doing while other people are reacting. Take from their reaction, grow, and then try again.
Put a stamp on it. If you can still afford one.
Yes, the USPS is now the official front runner in the glamorous world of extortion.
I just felt the pinch of the latest news from the United States Postal Service. That's right, people: We can look forward to yet another postal rate increase! (It felt like just the other day that the cost of a first-class stamp went up to $0.41, right?) This bothers me because I send out so many submissions to contests and magazines via snail mail - which makes the economics of being a practicing writer even more depressing.
The new rates take effect on May 12. So there is plenty of time to stock up on those "Forever" stamps. But still...damn.
Remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - January 21, 2008
Ten quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
1. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. -- "Stride Toward Freedom," 1958.
2. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. -- "Strength to Love," 1963.
3. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963.
4. Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. -- "Strength to Love," 1963.
5. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. -- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963.
6. The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men. -- "Strength to Love," 1963.
7. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. -- "Letter from Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963.
8. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. -- "I Have a Dream," civil rights march on Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963. (Source: The New York Times)
9. Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. It is a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. -- "Why We Can't Wait," 1964.
10. The security we profess to seek in foreign adventures we will lose in our decaying cities. -- [Referring to U.S. Vietnam policy.] Address at Riverside Church, New York. (Source: History Today, April 1998)
...now we are here.
Happy New Year. Welcome to 2008. Is it everything you dreamed it would be?
Are we there yet?
Don't know why, but I'm just a little impatient to finish this year and start anew.
Hard at Work Writing Masterpieces?
Or maybe I'm screwing around and just surfing the net? :)