Forum Replies Created
-
Replies
-
Oh and if we do Zoom, I’ll just email y’all the link. Sally, I think I have your email, but can you send it again in case?
Y’all, I love the idea of talking about publishing and stuff too! Maybe we can check in on Friday when we meet and see if we’d rather write for a power 30 minutes too, or just talk/share our pieces.
Hmmm, I’d hate to swap platforms, but Zoom is only free for more than 2 people to meet for 40 minutes. We can always sign off/sign back on, but it tends to interrupt the flow of hanging out. We could alternatively meet up on G-Chat, if either of you are familiar with that! It’s the Google Chat that’s completely free; it’s less popular than Zoom, but if you have a gmail account, it’s right there in your mailbox. Either one works for me!
I’d actually love to have your thoughts (and Joe’s!) about how to structure this next meeting. Last week, Joe and I just talked about writing for awhile, and then Joe read a section of his novel aloud that he was having trouble with. I really enjoyed that.
There are two ways I think next Friday can go:
1) We do something similar to what Joe and I did last week, and one/some/all of us read passages and get feedback on it.
2) We talk about our projects, break and write for thirty minutes, and come back and talk about it.
3) We just meet and touch base with what we want to do then.Either way, I’m sure we’ll all talk a lot about writing in between! Let me know what works for you – and Joe, if you read this, hop on and give your thoughts too! I’d love to have a really fluid meetup on Friday :).
Absolutely! Over the past two years, I’ve submitted this story to sixteen places.
Thirteen were rejections, one was a competition where I made quarterfinalist (but didn’t win/get an honorable mention), and one is still pending for accepting it as a reprint after Typehouse publishes it first.Earlier this year, I did a massive rewrite of it, and that latest draft was *still* rejected six times. Plus, all those rejections don’t include the two my other short story has already gotten…
We just have to keep putting ourselves out there. If we’re confident we’ve written the best piece we possibly can, then the piece will find a home. It has to!
Thanks, Kirk! It’s also still up for consideration at PULP Magazine, which does reprints. They were excited for my acceptance and still down to consider it. I’ll even take that as a win!
It was also a quarterfinalist in the Adrift Short Story Competition earlier this year, which is one of the better ways to get rejected, I guess. Things are finally moving for me!
Sally!
Joe and I talked about meeting two Fridays from now. I thought we could either do some writing together or exchange feedback/read excerpts. Any preference? We can just see what a trial run would feel like with the three of us and go from there.Y’all! So exciting!
The short story I’ve been tinkering with since grad school, “Such a Peach,” just got accepted with Typehouse Literary Magazine. I’m *elated* – it’s been a steady 2 years of rejection by the creative writing gods, so this is such a win and exactly what I needed to hear! What a good way to crown this year off :).
It’ll get published in January.
Weeeee!
Yes! That’s how I feel about my novel. I’m 16000 words in (and counting), and just feel like it would be silly to write a totally new thing. I’m just trying to do 1000+ words per day on this current project instead of starting a new thing.
I emailed you about the novel excerpt – so hopefully we can get back in the swing of things and give each other feedback this week. Let’s all coordinate a time. I’m pretty free; how about you?
As for that notion of positive feedback; I absolutely LOVE it. Let’s see how that goes for our first time and then talk about what happens when we hold that space for each other. I love a revolution that starts with tenderness, and we could all definitely use a little more of it.
Yay! Okay! I think that sounds great. Joe suggested that in our monthly bits, we read our passages to each other and ask for advice on those. What do you think?
And if it’s okay with you all, I’d love to start with the three of us at some point this week and just see how it goes :).
(Anyone else who reads this is welcome to join, too!)
I read it and loved it and shared it on my Twitter, but didn’t say anything til just now! Absolutely beautiful. Great work, Joe :))
I firmly believe there’s nothing as gut-wrenching as those stories about girls who were close when they were younger trying to keep their tenuous world together! I’m actually writing something that’s very different in plot, but with the same sentiment. My main character is arrested at a queer bar in the 1950s, and tries to maintain her closeness to her very straight-laced sister, who was her best friend growing up.
I love me some girls-becoming-women drama! You know I’m always here if you need someone to read it 🙂Yes! The more I grow as a writer, the easier it is to speak to those moments and give them voice.
I’ve never heard that quote about dying being a way of going home, but I believe it. What a beautiful thing to say to your brother after he passed; I’m glad y’all got to share that, even if he had already left his body!
Sally!!
I’m so excited to hear this! The Artist’s Way was a complete revelation for me. I also really appreciated the spiritual element of the book, and the way it was meant to draw us in from different practices and walks and complement it. It brought me a lot of solace and wisdom, especially these days. It is such a bright spot to hear you’re getting progress out of it too.
Even just writing the morning pages (whenever we can manage!), is such a treat and really does get those juices flowing. Tell us about the novel you’re picking back up!
What in the world! I wrote a response here about a week ago, and I just circled back and saw it isn’t here anymore – maybe I typed it all up and never pressed send?
Darn. But, basically, what I said was that your relationship to physics and the death of your mother is a beautiful harmony, and one that I’m sure changed your spiritual relationship to yourself forever. I think a parent dying when you’re younger does that for some reason. They’re supposed to be these immortal mountains, and when they’re abruptly gone, it draws everything else up for scrutiny, too.
The death experience of your brother as well, seeing something in that final moment, is amazing. Something to look forward to, I guess. One of my dad’s favorite quotes was from Peter Pan, when Peter says, “To die will be an awfully big adventure.” Since my dad took his own life, I like to imagine that was his very last thought. And if anything, his death only made me more certain of that quote – and who knows what we see in that final moment?
While I hope to live to be 100, I also am looking forward to greeting that day with the same pa-zing I’ve greeted my twenties :).
This city has layers that I’m getting acquainted with in the harshest light right now. We’ve been here about 6 months, and our big plan is to leave the country in the next year or so, but I’m grateful for this city (and all its problems) right now.
And yes! New opportunities! An old client actually reached out a few days after, asking me to write articles for him. He works with ending systemic oppression of young people of color through social capital and job opportunities, and getting to write articles for him right now is going to be such a salve and really help me feel like I’m doing SOMEthing other than standing on my street waving a cardboard sign.
I’m glad you liked it! Ethan Hawke always has something interesting to say.
