The Real Writer

AUTHOR SALON: Where Writers Produce Publishable Work and Where Agents and Editors Find Them

I recently joined a website which I would categorize as a mix of online conference, peer critique, and matchmaking with agents and editors. Author Salon provides writers with the visibility and promotion necessary to get them “published by major players in the business.”  It's a Literary Social Network.

Why a site like this has taken this long to come into being, I don’t know, but thank goodness it's here!  It’s a terrific way to be part of a committed, talented group of writers, receive valuable critique, and make you and your book visible to the agents and editors looking for new work and new voices.

At present, membership is free because the site is in Beta testing, but only for a short time, then it’s $9.99 per month with a portion of the fee going to Smile Train, a charity created for children born with clefts. 

Once you become a member, you fill out an extensive profile, which takes a couple of hours (so don’t start this on your lunch hour at work). The profile includes details about your book such as word count, genre, comparables, synopsis, hook, conflict, protagonist, unique world, and climax/denouement. You also provide the first two pages, about 20 lines of your best dialogue, and two short prose samples. There is also a section for your bio and background, your writing life, what inspired the book, and what you’re reading. In this way, you give an agent or editor a sense of who you are, your work, and your platform.

That said, you don’t have to be an accomplished writer to join the site, but you should be committed to becoming one, which includes honing your craft and building your platform.

And you have to be committed to the Author Salon process because it is rigorous.

There are three phases: In Production, Editor Suite, and Marquee Lounge.

During the In Production phase writers friend each other and ask five people in their genre to critique their profile. Once they receive a certain rating or above, the writer moves to the Editor Suite phase where the same process takes place, and 50 pages of one’s work is also exchanged with another set of five reviewers. Each writer reads the work of five others he or she has agreed to work with and critiques and ratings take place again.

In the third level, the Marquee Lounge, the writer’s profile is now open to the agents and editors looking for work to represent or publish.

This ensures that only those who are committed to the process, not just of Author Salon, but of writing a great, marketable book, make it to the final level because along the way writers are told by their peers and Author Salon staff what works, what doesn't work, and what needs to be developed further - while they can still do something about it - and before an agent or publisher shuts the door in their face.

There are several wonderful aspects of Author Salon.

First: The people. I’ve met friendly, creative, determined writers on this site. Their critique comments are well thought through and demonstrate how seriously they take the process and how much they have engaged with my work. Every genre is represented here: young adult, middle grade, fantasy, sci fi, narrative nonfiction, general nonfiction, fiction (women’s upscale, literary, historical), thriller, mystery, detective, romance, paranormal romance. I know I’m missing some. Whatever you write – it’s in here and there are plenty of other people in your genre ready to sign on to work with you.

Second: It’s professional. The structure, the content, the feedback. Weak and poorly filled out profiles are not approved for membership. You can’t be half-assed here. You have to mean it. You have to more than mean it actually! This site asks you to be ALL IN. So you have to ask yourself: How much do I want to be published? Then give it everything you’ve got because the site requires no less of you and you should require the same of yourself. Otherwise you're wasting your time and everyone else’s.

Third: The tech factor. There is a forum for chatting and for the critique process. There are audio and visual components so you can post a book trailer or a recorded reading you gave (video or audio). You can send email via a profile link within the system, but also start private conversations in the forum itself. You also have a personal blog tab on your profile.

Fourth: Expert bloggers. There’s a whole section where writers, editors, agents, anyone and everyone associated with the biz have been invited to blog. You can find anything you want to know in this section. Recently, Author Salon itself posted an article on how to write the six act novel.

Did I mention that the biggest and best agents and editors are there? They’ve sold books to or work for Random House, Viking, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Little Brown and more. Maybe they are looking for a book just like yours.

Convinced yet? Check it out yourself: Author Salon.

See you there. 

What's Your Writing Life or Writing Goal Theme for 2012?

I'd like to share a quirky little ritual I do every New Year's Eve.

I'm a writer so I'm imaginative. I love the symbolic and figurative. And this ritual is that!

You need:

- 15-30 minutes of undisturbed quiet

- Some pieces of paper or better yet, a journal

- Something fun to write with. This is not the time for the boring ballpoint pen (although I love them for writing in general). Get a colored marker or pencil or even crayon. Or that fancy fountain pen someone gave you years ago that you never use. Or a quill if you're into period dramas on PBS, like me!

- A drink. Something to toast with. That can be tea or wine or whiskey or water. Up to you.

- A fireplace or big spaghetti pot or ashtray, and matches.

You may have heard of this type of  'write it and burn it' thing but bear with me. I have some fun and important questions ahead.

And, it's really helpful to release a year. To 'complete' it so to speak. The good and the bad, in order to move towards the writing life and goals that are important to you. You can't do that dragging around your perceived inadequacies and failures from the previous year. 

Note I said perceived.

I always say there is no failed writing and I say the same for whatever you reached for this year: some contests, a fellowship, an agent. If you didn't get it either you're not ready and there's still practicing to do (don't you want to give your best?), or there's something better around the corner for you to receive. I tend to think it's both. So take heart!

(Pardon me, I'm feeling colorful today.)

Read through the process before beginning.

Take out your paper and write all the crazy, complicated, depressing, sad, frustrating, heartbreaking things that happened this year related to your writing. Just purge everything.

For me, the biggest thing was that I lost my 18 year old Westie, Keegan, a once-in-a-lifetime-extraordinary dog  and went through a period of considering giving up writing for a while. It just didn't feel important or necessary anymore. Here's my boy a month before he let me know he was ready to go:

He was as delicious as he looks.

Anyway, the LAST thing I felt like doing was writing. I talked this over with my writing group and they were very supportive. I kept going to the meetings and workshopping their pieces. And I didn't write for several months - about four. Usually I write to get through a sad time, but it didn't work for me this go round. I couldn't read either.

Eventually, in late May, I wrote some poems, then pulled out a novel idea I'd been wanting to start, and in a weekend I had the outline. I felt a glimmer of 'good' about writing again and decided to start slowly, about 10 pages a month. And now I'm in the last third of it and it's turning out really well.

How about you? Get it all out. Everything that makes you sad and mad about your writing and writing life in the last year. No time to write because of the kids? Lost your job so all your time was spent looking for a new one? No money to go to the conference you've been dreaming of? It all goes here.

Here are some questions to help organize your thoughts:

1) What were my biggest lessons and challenges in 2011?

2) What were my biggest disappointments in 2011? 

3) What am I ready to let go of from this past year?

 Now do the same for everything that went right. The goods, the surprises, the gifts of ideas and characters and images and poems. Maybe you were really disciplined this year about writing and kept your butt in the chair when you were supposed to. Maybe you won a scholarship to a writing conference or won or placed in a contest. Maybe your query letter garnered full manuscript requests from 75% of the agents you queried. Even if no one took it - that's a success. And they gave you feedback in their response, so USE IT to make the book better.

1) What am I most proud of in the past year?

2) What surprised me about myself?

3) What made me feel great about my writing and my abilities? 

My big 'good' this year was that I traveled to England for a Jane Austen pilgrimage, something I'd wanted to do for a long time (sad fact: I was only able to go because Keegan was gone - he'd been too old to board for many years so I hadn't traveled in long time).

Not the sites where the adaptations were filmed, but some of the sites related to her - her grave and the house where she died in Winchester, her portrait at the National Portrait Gallery, her home in Chawton, for example. It was marvelous, everything I'd wanted and more, plus I received an exciting novel idea on the trip that I quickly outlined so that's waiting for me after I finish the current one. Can't wait! (If you'd like the posts about the trip, I just put up #3 of 4 here: Jane Austen Pilgrimage)

Here's her beautiful home, now a museum:

I also took a class there called Writing the Ideal Heroine, taught by Austen's great-great-great-great-great niece, Rebecca Smith. To read about the class and the exercises we did: Writing the Ideal Heroine.

The best part: I saw a Westie the first day of my trip, within one minute of walking out of my hotel so I knew Keegan approved. :)

Now it's time to create a personal theme for your writing life and/or goals in 2012!

Using what you've just written for reference, answer the following questions:

1) What have you put off or avoided this year related to your writing?  What's the next logical step you're not taking because it scares you? Because you have to put yourself out there?

Has your novel been ready to go but you haven't written the query letter so you can send it to agents?   After all, if it's still in a file on your computer, it can't be rejected, right? It's perpetually a work of genius. :)

Or you need a critique group but you don't know if you can take their critique or where to find a group or how to run it?

Or you have lots of notes but haven't actually written the book you say you want to write? You could also have notes for poems or poems that need revising but you just haven't gotten to it so there's no collection to send to contests.

2) Write about how you have been feeling in 2011 and choose how you want to feel about 2012. 

Has this year been all about frustration because you didn't have enough time to write? Disconnection because you haven't been writing or your critique group disbanded and you need a new one? Or you haven't been attending events in your writing community?

Maybe it's been a great year and you've had lots of success - you did most of what you wanted to do. In fact, you worked your ass off, but now you want to slow down, take some time to do research, or just write flash fiction, send out the work you've written rather than write something new for a bit, or catch up on books on craft and try the exercises.

3) What do you want more of in 2012?

Time to write. Recognition. Ideas that flow easily. Getting out of your own way and letting the story through. Opportunities to read your work.

4) What is something big that would blow your mind if it happened in 2012? Blue sky this - no limit.

Remember, writing related. So you could win the lottery, but a portion of the funds should go to you renting a house in Italy for a summer so you can write. That sort of thing.

I don't suggest the lottery, though, I suggest being less specific in that case and saying, "I receive funds that would allow me to rent a house in Italy for the summer so I can write." That way you're not limited to the lottery!

Reread what you've written and write down five key words that jump out at you. Perhaps you've written 'recognition' somewhere, 'community' or 'creativity.' I'm talking abstracts here, not 'novel' or 'conference' or 'critique group.'

Pick the words that excite you and/or make you nervous (that's really excitement masquerading as fear, our ego getting in the way).

You can either choose one of the five words that really resonates with you, that you instinctively know is what you should claim for 2012 by completing this sentence: 2012 is the Year of ___________,

OR write a sentence that encapsulates the theme: Recognition for my writing. Or: Connecting with a supportive writing community.

Write this on several pieces of paper or Post Its and put them where you can see them - wherever you write, one in your car, one on the bathroom mirror.  It might make you feel silly but do it anyway, at least for a few months.

This is NOT a resolution, it's a theme for your life in the next year. You are writing the story of your life every day. Keep this word or sentence in mind and make choices accordingly.

You might want to go a bit further and write down three things you can do in January to get started on honoring this theme. To get recognized you have to get out there, so maybe the list looks like this:

 - research and write query letter draft and give to writer friends to critique

- look for critique group (make a flier and put it up in libraries, the local Whole Foods, church if you     go to church. Post it on Craig's List, or in the forum of your state writer's association).

- enter one contest a month (Poets & Writers is a great resource for reputable contests: Poets & Writers - Contests and Grants).

If you can only get one completed, start the next in February. The point is to KEEP MOVING FORWARD with your theme in mind.

It shouldn't bore or annoy you to do it because hopefully you were very clear and picked what excited you. That excitement will give you momentum.

If it doesn't, do the exercise again. Perhaps you knew which word you should choose, but you chose another out of fear.

Choose the right one now.

You don't have to know how it will be supported. Just know that if you commit to it, it will.

I'd love to know your writing life/goal theme. Share it in the comments section.

Mine is EXPANSION.

When I thought of what that would look like, being a very visual person, I got a picture like this:

The universe - which seems appropriate somehow. Find a picture that symbolizes your theme and put that up instead of the word if that works better for you.

Keep what you've written for your 2012 theme where you can refer to it whenever you like for inspiration. And especially for next New Year's Eve, when you do the exercise again!

NOW WHAT?

BURN IT. In a SAFE place, fold the list you made of the goods and bads in 2011 to symbolize completing them, place them in the pot or ashtray and burn the list (or throw into a fire if one is handy - that's the safest way). If you can, feel grateful for all you learned, struggled with, and received.

DRINK IT IN. Next - hopefully you've brought your drink outside so it's handy - raise your glass to yourself, your next year of creativity, and say the word or sentence that symbolizes your theme.

Happy New Year!

Greek Out Your Sentence Structure

As writers we love language. We love the sound and texture and rhythm of words fitted together.

We get a visceral thrill, a little wordgasm, if you will, when we encounter the “best words in their best order,” as said by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (actually, the ‘best words’ applies to poetry. For prose he said ‘words in their best order’ but I think ‘best’ should apply to prose as well).

That's a lot of pressure when building sentences. So, first off, let me let you off the hook. That kind of building should be done in the revision process, not during the writing process.

I’m going to add technically here because the more familiar you are with various techniques, the more they will naturally slide into position at the appropriate moment during the writing process. You won’t have to dig for the tool later; it will present itself in the moment. But, for now, just write however it comes out and do the building later.

And so begins a series on sentences.

I want to start with the two types of sentences recognized by ancient Greek critics: periodic and loose.

In another post we’ll dive into some rhetorical devices with tongue twisting names like homeoteleuton or ones that sound like a illness like paronomasia. In the last post we’ll go into the sound, rhythm, texture idea (kennings and diction and polysyllabic words, Oh my!) and I'll give you some other fun sentences to try.

Yes, it’s important to try them, to make a mess of some and a triumph of others. In writing, as in everything else, we practice.

We’re starting with periodic because the great Roman orator and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero  was considered the master of these. Okay, he’s Roman, not Greek, but he introduced Romans to Greek schools of philosophy and was a translator so…

Let’s hear a bit of what Cicero has to say about sentences (the translator was British, so note British spellings):

“But of sentences, there are as many different kinds as I have said there are of panegyrics. For if teaching, we want shrewd sentences; if aiming at giving pleasure, we want musical ones; if at exciting the feelings, dignified ones. But there is a certain arrangement of words which produces both harmony and smoothness; and different sentiments have different arrangements suitable to them… "

And another!

“For it is a fault in a sentence if anything is absurd, or foreign to the subject, or stupid, or trivial; and it is a fault of language if any thing is gross, or abject, or unsuitable, or harsh, or far-fetched." 

Guess he told us.

(By the way: Translated by English historian Charles Duke Yonge, Cicero’s preface to Orations of Demosthenes and Aeschines de Corona).

The Periodic Sentence

In Greek the name means “speech turned or guided to an end” (and there’s a metaphorical component – the idea of guiding a racehorse around a track with the start and finish in the same place).  It has a beginning, a turning point, and an end.  A purpose.

Components of a Periodic Sentence

• markers introducing subordinate phrases or clauses point ahead on the path. Signs prepare the reader for what lies ahead. Some markers used could be who, which, first, then, after, where
• expectations are set up and fulfilled
• reader should feel the appropriate end has been reached
• the thought of the sentence is not complete until the end

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER:

When composing sentences, it’s the thought that drives the structure!

EXAMPLE:

Well, as you may imagine, this is not a popular device, but it’s one you can adapt. Perhaps, instead of having six or seven subordinate clauses and phrases (or more, trust me, there can be more) you only have two to three of them.

For example, a reason poets use this device, delaying the verb or the completion of the thought several lines, employing the rhetorical devices we’ll discuss in a later post (like anaphora), and building the idea, is to create tension and momentum that keep the reader reading.

Check it out - I just wrote a short periodic sentence right there using parallel phrases:  delaying, employing, building.

The payoff isn’t until the end of the sentence.  Why do poets use this device? To create tension and keep the reader reading. You have to get to the end of the sentence to find out.

It’s worth trying.  Learn to direct your reader through the sentence as if it is a channel of water flowing out into the larger paragraph of the sea….

Sorry. It just came over me.

I could tell you things like, “It’s the basic art form of the humanists” (Michael Baxandall, Giotto and the Orators, Oxford 1971 – Look! Citations! Fancy!) or that it was the “model for modern prose from the Renaissance onward” (Hardy Hansen, Greek Sentence Structure, City University of New York) to beef it up but I’m pretty sure you already hate me for making your brain hurt.

This is good hurt people. It makes you smarter, better, bolder, more skillful, more beautiful. Yeah, sentences can do that. Instead of suck it up I’m saying SOAK it up. Invent some new neural pathways.

Because I feel for you and want you to like me, I will give you an easy, short example.

It’s from Edward Gibbon's, "Memoirs of My Life." (Yes, he also who wrote "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." “Top of my reading list, for sure, Chris,” I can hear you snickering. But it should be.)

It’s one of the most famous periodic sentences written in English (I know, I know, SO exciting!):

Unprovided with original learning, uninformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved -- to write a book.

Take note of the device of repeating words with the prefix ‘un’ creating the same basic idea of lack and ignorance.

The technique has both elements of the rhetorical devices anaphora (starting phrases and clauses the same way) and parallel structure (ideas related to each other in parallel form, elements alike in meaning and function).

Now that wasn’t painful was it? I could have given you one from Samuel Johnson’s preface to his edition of Shakespeare. He uses "consolatory expedients" in it. I know you’re disappointed. But we must move on to…

The Loose Sentence!

Just hang on, this one’s easier.

The Greek for this means “speech strung together.” Think beads on a necklace. Statements follow one another without indicating another will be coming. The sentence ends in a place where it doesn’t matter. It could have ended earlier or later. It would make no difference. It lacks the beginning, turning point, and end.

EXAMPLE:

Well, what I just wrote above is an example. Here’s a more interesting one from Ernest Hemingway’s "The Sun Also Rises":

The bus climbed steadily up the road. The country was barren and rocks stuck up through the clay. There was no grass beside the road. Looking back we could see the country spread out below. Far back the fields were squares of green and brown on the hillsides. Making the horizon were the brown mountains. They were strangely shaped.

Got it?

Cause that’s it. Here, watch “Marcel The Shell With Shoes On” to clear your head. You did good.

(If you want to read a really long periodic sentence, it’s just past the video below. Dare you. Come on, it's Gogol. You know you love Gogol.)

From Nikolai Gogol’s famous short story, “The Overcoat”:

Even at those hours when the gray Petersburg sky is completely overcast and the whole population of clerks have dined and eaten their fill, each as best he can, according to the salary he receives and his personal tastes; when they are all resting after the scratching of pens and bustle of the office, their own necessary work and other people's, and all the tasks that an overzealous man voluntarily sets himself even beyond what is necessary; when the clerks are hastening to devote what is left of their time to pleasure; some more enterprising are flying to the theater, others to the street to spend their leisure staring at women's hats, some to spend the evening paying compliments to some attractive girl, the star of a little official circle, while some—and this is the most frequent of all—go simply to a fellow clerk's apartment on the third or fourth story, two little rooms with a hall or a kitchen, with some pretensions to style, with a lamp or some such article that has cost many sacrifices of dinners and excursions—at the time when all the clerks are scattered about the apartments of their friends, playing a stormy game of whist, sipping tea out of glasses, eating cheap biscuits, sucking in smoke from long pipes, telling, as the cards are dealt, some scandal that has floated down from higher circles, a pleasure which the Russian do never by any possibility deny himself, or, when there is nothing better to talk about, repeating the everlasting anecdote of the commanding officer who was told that the tail had been cut off the horse on the Falconet monument—in short, even when everyone, was eagerly seeking entertainment, Akaky Akakievich did not indulge in any amusement.

New Rules For Writers by Anis Shivani - Ignore Publicity, Shun Crowds, Refuse Recognition....

This is an awesome article. He's passionate and opinionated and I love it. I don't play these games and you shouldn't either - resist the machine!

From the opening:

"These "rules" totally go against every prescription for writing success you'll hear as a young writer from all quarters: the conformity-driven MFA system, the publishing industry's hype-machine, successful writers who act either like prima donnas or untouchable mystics, the marketing experts who seek to impose advertising rules on the writing product. Overpaid editors, illiterate agents, arrogant gatekeepers, and stupid reviewers want you to bargain away your soul for a pittance -- the bids in the market escalate downward, a reverse auction where you compete with the lowest of the low to be acknowledged as an entity that counts.

Why take part in the game at all? Who has ever come out of it alive, able to set up tent and build followers on the other side? Why not accept the reality that writers aren't forged in social harmony and peer input and obedient fellowship, but in a region where madmen and insomniacs find no comfort? To get you started on a regimen designed to pull you away from the mother-teat of the writing industry, here are the ten commandments..."

Read more.

Lean Back

What I want to tell all you writers and poets out there is - lean back.

If something you're working on isn't working, be it poem or essay or song or story. Stop. Lean back. Let it go. Take a few days off from it. A week if you can.

If you're sending out your writing with an anxious heart, desperate to be published, making a big production out of it (scouring The Writer's Market until you can't see straight, spending tons of money on contest fees) and no one is accepting your work and you're not even getting honorable mention - stop. Lean back.

You're getting too intense. You're crushing the possibility of your success with the weight of your need.

There's a moment when you cross the line from just believing in your writing and working to get it out there as part of the process - submitting to lit mags and contests, querying agents - to trying to force something to happen - the exact thing you want to happen, in exactly the way you want it.

You have to lean back to receive.

Critique Groups: Good and Bad Things

My latest post on critique groups is up on WebdelSol's The Writer's Edge. See left hand side bar for the link.

Love the Inner Writer

Today of all days, take a moment and appreciate yourself as a writer. Your passion, your inspiration, the finished pieces you love, the pieces you're still struggling with, that gaping dry well you sometimes think is your imagination, the one you're sure will never flow with creative juices again. (And then it always does.) Love your Inner Writer. Read some of your favorite writing to her/him. Appreciate yourself and all you do to honor your love of writing. Oh, and eat some chocolate. That's an order.

Gangs & Graffiti

I'm buying a house (still in looking stage - perfect time to buy and there are so many out there in my range), so I wanted to get more involved in the community as a homeowner and find out about crime in my area - Southeast Baltimore. Last night I went with a friend to the monthly local police meeting and had the best time! Not to make light of the seriousness of what was presented and discussed, but it was quite a show - between the officers and the community members. You could just spot the people who LIVE for these meetings. They practically set up shop at their table - with leather portfolios filled with legal pads, pens, highlighters. They bring water bottles and fliers and highlight the agenda. They ask many many questions. They are known by name by the officers. Still, I could appreciate their fervor. It's people like that that keep the police informed and keep an eye out for bad behavior.

The police were great, actually - funny, friendly, passionate about what they do, committed to being good communicators and responders to community needs. About 7 of them were in on the presentation (which included PowerPoint! There were many misspellings so my friend and I are going to volunteer to proofread for them next time). They passed out so much helpful material on gangs - how to spot them, how to talk to parents who might have a child in a gang, what they're doing about it, graffiti, etc. My friend showed me a picture of a bit of graffiti that had been on the wall of the bank across from Creative Alliance (I hadn't even seen it!) - a Bloods symbol. It was all fascinating and I feel more informed already. I'm working with a group that mentors young girls (the police said the girl gangs are more hard core than the boys) and I plan on contacting the youth division to ask them to come and present to the girls - before it's too late!

What I wanted to pass on to you, Dear Writer, is yet another reminder to step out of your comfort zone. Until my friend mentioned this meeting, I didn't know they existed. Saw some of my neighbors there. I took so many notes on people, things said, and other info, that I might use later in my writing. Look for something like this where you live. It doesn't have to be a police meeting - it can be some event or museum or organization or store you've been meaning to check out and haven't gotten around to. My advice to you? GO. You never know what you might see/hear that will inspire you to write. Get out there and keep your eyes open!

(And consider finding these meetings in your area and attend them and/or volunteer to mentor a young boy or girl (your police department will have lists of these organizations in your area). Your involvement could make all the difference and ensure they don't get sucked into a gang. I know plenty of people who just complain and complain about the police and never go to a meeting like this and share their concerns. They forget it's a partnership. The police need our help as much as we need theirs.)

Writers: Ready, Set, Slow Down

It's the end of the year and all around me writer friends and students are vowing to write more - more words, more pages, more often. There's a desperate tinge to their voices that worries me. 'Cause that's not what it's about. These resolutions will fall by the wayside, just like the ones about exercising, quitting smoking, and they will feel like crap about it and sink deeper into not doing what they most want to do. You know the name for it - self-sabotage.

Not to depress you - some people will make their resolutions stick, and that person may be you. It's just a lot of pressure to put on yourself. I'm an expert at doing this, so I know of what I speak.

What I want to say to you is this: TAKE YOUR TIME. Decide that's what you're going to do. Writing is not a race to finishing the most pieces or publication. There is a spot for you in the publishing world somewhere - it will be your turn at some point, so you don't need to compete or speed up or write about things you think people want to read, publish, etc., but that don't really interest you. All of these things will derail you, guaranteed. You will get there. You will find the right place and right time. Slow down.

Best thing to do is to sit down and make a list of your writing-related accomplishments this year. No matter how small. Even if you have two, or one, that's one more than you had last year, right? Good for you. That's movement. Then, make a list of 3 things (ONLY 3) you want to do this year with your writing. Notice I said want to do - not have to do or think you should do. WANT.

Maybe take a class, read certain books, try a form you haven't tried before, finish a writing project. Pick the thing that makes your heart leap (even if it leaps in fear, that's a good thing) when you think about attempting it.

That's what you're going to start with. You don't have to wait for January first, start it today and work on it UNTIL IT'S FINISHED. Work on it when you want to, but make sure you spend time on your goal every month. Even if it's just one day a month, that's something. For example, I've been so busy that I'm only able to write 2-3 days a month, just prior to the meeting of my peer workshop - so I have pages to turn in. But I sit down the weekend before and I write the entire time as I promised myself I would. The pages get written, I enjoy it (most of the time), and I feel great for sticking to my goal. My workshop meets every 3 weeks, and I'm already at page 200 in just 4 1/2 months. That's a novel in about 6-7 months. Pretty good.

Here's the biggest reason people quit - they expect their writing project to be perfect, or they themselves to be perfect (keeping to a schedule, for example) and if they don't write or read for a week or skip a class they tell themselves they've already failed so why bother continuing? That's just too easy and also lame. So stop it right now. :) You may write two books before you get a book right. You might write 100 poems or stories until that perfect one. You might go through some classes or books to read until you find one that connects with you.

It's all part of the process - learning, growing, exploring, experimenting, practicing. You don't go from zero to perfect without some sweat in between. That's the deal. So suck it up.

Work on one thing and take your time. When you finish it, move to the next thing on your list. Again - it's not a competition. It's not a race. You will get there if you take each day of the process as it comes, do what works for you, and congratulate yourself for keepin' on.

How much would you like to bet you get through that list this year?

6 Things

In her essay, "The Art of Finding," the poet Linda Gregg talks about giving her students the daily exercise of writing down 6 things they notice in the world around them, through the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, in case you can only remember four of them!). One caveat - no embellishment or poeticizing. Just write - straight on - each item, as it is. This is hard to do, especially for writers/poets, but as she says, a simple beauty comes through from things such as "a mirror with nothing reflected in it," that we might not normally see because we're too busy trying to impose our own interpretation of something's beauty, or even substituting or inventing it, if we don't like what's there or what's not.

Here's my list for today:

1) Hearing my name over the loudspeaker every half hour at the downtown Barnes and Noble announcing the workshops I was doing there for CityLit Project.

2) A medium sized soy chai latte for free because the barrista misheard my order (originally a small).

3) The flute and tin can sounds of bells and wind chimes on the boats in Fells Point.

4) A pair of yellow kayaks across the harbor, not side by side, but nose to end.

5) A westie named Truly running down the dock after her owner.

6) A rowhouse's living room window open just enough to show piles of laundry on the back of the sofa - socks, distowels, sheets.

Your turn - head to another one of my blogs, "6 Things," read those posted and leave your list as a comment. I'll post them as they come in, along with my own lists.

6 Things