I may be sunning, but I’m writing just the same (thought by thought, word by word).
Where are you writing today?
Photo courtesy of V.M.
Notable Reads on Submissions and Writing
This is the last week of school for my kids, which means this is the last week I’ll have extended periods of uninterrupted writing time for a while.
So, in lieu of spending two days writing a blog post (which, inevitably, is how long it takes me to get it to a self-satisfied publishable level), I’m leaving you with a few links to some great reading I’ve bookmarked.
Submissions
1) You may have seen these tips before, but it never hurts to read them again: 5 Writing Lessons 1 Writer Learned From Being an Editor, by Emily Wenstrom.
What makes a story good? Which will appeal to my readers? What’s the difference between a story that’s truly awful and one that is simply not up my alley?
2) And this reminder, in From the Slush Pile: Have You Got What It Takes? by Sarah Banse, to keep submitting, even when one editor turns you down:
Art is subjective. Readers have individual sensibilities and biases. Believe in your work and have faith that someone shares your artistic vision.
Writing
1) It’s all about perspective. In The Map and the Trail, Donald Maass highlights the importance of giving readers both the big picture and the close-up view of your character’s journey.
So, day-to-day what mostly do you observe in your life…the forest or the trees? Probably it depends on the day. That’s as it should be. And so it should be for the characters whose paths we hike in your fiction.
2) I love the saying that the real writing happens in the rewriting. In On Multiple Drafts, DM Gordon explains well how revisiting drafts (again and again) works for us, not against us.
[E]ach story has its own questions and each answers to its own world.
What have you bookmarked lately?
Published!
The road to publication requires persistence, and patience. This is true whether you’re on the editing side of the table or the side of writers writing. Then, submitting. Then, biting nails, waiting and hoping and anticipating.
Last week, COMPOSE, a new literary journal online, released its first issue. As Assistant Editor, I participated in the behind-the-scenes work that comes with putting a journal together–not an easy task. As Suzannah Windsor says in From the Editor, “the challenge [of creating a literary journal] is greater than just finding some writing and publishing it. The challenge—if a journal is to be successful—is to go beyond the ordinary, to create something that stands out for its content, design, community, and professionalism.” This first issue looks amazing, and I couldn’t be more proud to be part of COMPOSE.
Just as exciting, I lived through the writer’s side of journal publication by having one of my short stories chosen to appear in the inaugural issue of COMPOSE. I worked on this particular story for a long time, and Tamara Pratt, one of the Fiction Editors, gave me wonderful feedback that helped make my work stronger. Thank you to her and Suzannah for giving my story a home.
I hope you’ll take a look at the journal as a whole. And, if you’re partial to fiction, take a peek at my short story, The Saint of Lost Things.
Then, if you like the look of the journal (and I think you will), consider submitting your own work.