Tying up Loose Ends
Quick Recap Questions:
How has your writing nurtured you? (The process and/or the products.)
How have you challenged yourself lately with your writing? How did it feel to stretch?
What have you read recently that has inspired you?
Have you plotted your -ologies? Was it helpful or insightful?
What I’ve been doing writing-wise:
(1) I recently attended a workshop offered by Sophie Strand, “Myths as Map-making.” It was something that felt rich and loamy. The information she shared, the exercises she offered, the history recounted was layered, fertile, amazing. It was an honor and her generosity in sharing the recorded sessions is so appreciated. You know what it’s like to be in the presence of idea-generating conversation and your pen cannot move fast enough? The moment is rife, so you aren’t able to contain all of the wonderful-ness? To be able to listen again to the content is such an invaluable gift.
(2) I know people usually share when they have had something published, but I’d like to also share my rejections as well. Rejections show you’ve been putting in the work—I’m sending my work out; people are reading what I’ve written. It is a confirmation of my continuation in the process of writing and engaging with my projects, therefore, it is something I feel good about sharing.
In that vein, so far in 2024, I have sent out 165 packets of poetry, so approximately 660 copies of my poems. (I think I have about 70 poems in rotation.) So, that’s what, 146 rejections? Something like that—I’m not even counting chapbook rejections.
I just want to put these numbers into perspective: I’ve put myself out there a lot, gotten 146 rejections, and it’s been a great year for me! I’ve been engaged with my writing, have been riding the wave of the work I’d done in 2023 and I got a lot published: 19 poems and one chapbook. In addition, I compiled and now have three additional chapbooks that are ready to be sent out to (hopefully) become published. It takes years, sometimes, to get to the 20% mark of having the poems in a chapbook published—I had two reach that attainment this year. Also, I’ve finished rough draft one of a nonfiction book.
What I want to emphasize is small steps REALLY DO make so much progress. And once you do enough small steps, those steps become habit and you are able to incorporate them into your daily activities. Then when you add new, small steps to your routine, they carry you even farther.
What I’m reading:
(1) After that workshop with Sophie Strand, my reading list has become very inflated and my new small step is to read at least 10-15 minutes a day. Damn, it’s hard to work in new steps! (See above paragraph for motivation, Loralee.)
(2) Cara Finnegan and I both purchased “Surfacing: Closing Practices for Creative Writers” by Emily Stoddard. After the last time we wrote together, we did closing practice #13: Find a line that feels like it’s fishing for something, that’s waiting for something to catch, that’s trying to hook on to something more. What are you or a character longing for in this writing? What are you longing for in your creative practice? How did you try to bring it closer today? I am enjoying delving into this book!
There are so many guidelines for “how to” write and this is such a unique volume about what to do after the writing. It is introspective and deepens the quality of my writing, I find.
Something for you:
A couple of free write topics in case you are interested/feeling uninspired/want to squirrel them away for later: “I believe” and “When I am silent”.
(The photos are of ferns my friend gave me for an early Christmas present, a moldering squash from Halloween that went bad before I could roast it, and a tree that lives near my house with its November dressings.)
