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November 18, 2009

Reject me, please

Chris Rodell is a freelance writer and author who blogs at www.EightDaysToAmish.com

I’m nostalgic for the days when I used to gauge my how hard I was working by the frequency of my rejection letters. I knew I wasn’t working hard enough unless I was getting at least one rejection a day. This made sense because if the rejections were coming with regularity it meant that my stuff was being considered elsewhere and would by the law of averages produce a positive result. These days I rarely count on getting either the rejection or the positive result. It’s a Twilight Zone existence where I spend my days yelling down a long canyon and hearing no echoes. After a fun and fruitful decade as a freelance magazine writer, I’m using the godforsaken downturn in that field to sharpen and pitch four book proposals (an upmarket satirical novel, a downmarket non-fiction humor book, a memoir and a fantasy tale about how the world would be better a place if Dick Cheney was a kindly undercover superhero). The general reaction has me thinking maybe it’s time to come up with a fifth book proposal. I spend about half my time sending out fastidious query letters to agents and publishers and the other half wondering why no one bothers to respond. The obvious answer is, of course, I’m a unqualified hack and that my ideas suck.

But there is evidence to the contrary. I’ve worked with some of the snazziest magazines in the country -- and I’m talking about ones that still exist and actually lived up to their commitment to pay me. My ideas have earned flattering interest from top ranked industry people who tell me my offbeat stuff’s great, but just not quite right for them. “Just keep pitching,” they say, “You’re bound to find the right person. Good luck!” So pitch I do. I pitch the way the sweaty guys in the locomotive coal pits did when they wanted the train to make it up a really steep grade. I just keep on shoveling. But despite all the evident energy, the wheels on my locomotive just keep spinning. There is no progress. No advancement. I get a real surge of satisfaction after I’ve spent a couple of hours pouring through the top dealmakers at Publishers Marketplace until I’ve found 10 worthy targets and tailored my lively query letters to their specific interests. How can it miss? I never do it like this, but I wake up those mornings feeling like I ought to shave and put on a really nice shirt.

I’m sure two or three of the recipients will respond with hosannas about my proposals, ask to see more or -- hallelujah -- offer me a contract on the spot. But no one responds. Never. They don’t say yes. They don’t say no. I don’t know whether they got them and are considering them, if they rejected them outright or if they didn’t get them and are sitting there banging their heads on their desks and beseeching, “Why on earth won’t somebody send me a proposal about Dick Cheney in cape!” It’s worse than even prom time in high school when at least I knew by the hysterical laughter that I’d earned yet another rejection. Then there are one’s like this that came last month from a top editor: “Thanks for sending this! I’m going to read it tonight and get back to you tomorrow.” I still haven’t heard back. Has she been abducted? Should I call? Send flowers? Form a search party? If she has been abducted and I succeed in saving her from lost time space ship experimentation you’d think she might look favorably on my proposal -- or at least respond to my query with a crisp, “No thanks.” I guess maybe I was raised differently. If someone asks me a question, I answer. I respond to all my e-mails, even ones from students or fellow freelancers who are struggling and seeking veteran advice. I tell them what I can but always include the Bob Dylan line from the 1997 song “High Water” to add necessary perspective: “Don’t reach out for me, can’t ya see I’m drowning, too?” Pity my poor wife. She sees no result and certainly no income. In weaker moments, she counsels that maybe it’s time for me to find what she calls “crap jobs,” as if my professional existence could possibly become any crappier. Bless her heart, she just doesn’t have a clue.

There are no crap jobs and it’s too late for me to pack a lunch pail and head to plumber school. I’m in it up to my neck. The only thing left for me to do is to continue to fail at a more spectacular level. I can’t quit. I have to believe I have good ideas and one of them is soon bound to bear fruit. And on that happy day there will be a grand party. There will be extravagant booze, cigars, succulent seafood and dances of mutual joy until the sun comes up and the band slams the trunks on their battered instruments and heads for home. It’ll be one of the world’s greatest parties. And, by God, you’re all invited. Just be sure to R.S.V.P. It’s only proper.

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Posted by Chris Rodell 

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November 17, 2009

What Sex and the City Taught Me About Writing

Caroline Hagood is a poet and writer living in New York City. Blog:http://carolinehagood.typepad.com/. Twitter: http://twitter.com/Caroline_Hagood


Now, I realize that Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) is no Simone de Beauvoir, but the sight of her at her computer, doing the writer’s jig that turns thoughts and experiences into words, still gives me chills.  The very phrase, “I couldn’t help but wonder,” that signals the beginning of her musings on sexology, can propel me into convulsions of creative identification.

 

I came to rely on the formula of her posing the question, followed by what she finds out about herself, her friends, her world, as a result. That one little sentence, along with the image of her wispy body poised before her Mac, sometimes with a cocktail, sometimes a cig, has become one of my archetypal images of the working writer.  Unlike the promise of dolorous sentence scrawling offered by so many of the other far more pretentious and far more dead authors in whose image I have constructed my bardic fantasies, Carrie represents a modern view of a successful writer who seems to love what she does for a living.

 

I’m aware of the human tendency to frame what we enjoy according to how we want to see ourselves.  It is this impulse that convinces avid porn watchers that they are really erotic sociologists; that teaches peeping toms to fancy themselves flâneurs; and prompts liars to perceive that they are merely gifted enough to see the world as it should be.  In other words, I understand that I might be imbuing Candace Bushnell's brainchild with cerebral qualities that don’t rightfully belong to it; but, accurate or not, it was a formative element in my understanding of the writing life.

 

Doggone it, I learned from Carrie. I watched her deal with creative rejection. Who can forget seeing her torn apart by Enid (her Anna Wintouresque editor at Vogue)? Sure, she has her other editor (Jon Rifkin) to get her drunk on one-too-many diurnal martinis and take her on a tour of the Vogue closet, complete with a peek at his no-no, but she still has to confront that crushing feeling and adapt. I also watched her cope with writer’s block, a scenario that culminated in the wordsmith’s magic trick of manufacturing inspiration out of nothingness.

 

Most powerfully, however, there was the meta aspect. Hearing Carrie’s voice throughout the show, narrating the bizarre situations in which the gals often find themselves, I realized that what I was listening to, my Virgil and Beatrice through the hells, purgatories and paradises of "Sex in the City," was none other than Carrie’s writing.  This is when it hit me that what I thought was merely a superficial, albeit well written, TV show was also a sinfully entertaining examination of what it is to be a writer. 

 

 


 

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Posted by Caroline Hagood 

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November 11, 2009

Dreams to Reality

Vanessa Jubis is a freelance writer and MFA student working through the dreadful process of her final Thesis.   The one thing she knows for sure is that writing a Memoir is harder than she ever imagined.  Support and feedback is vital to the survival of this process.  

 

Some believe that dreams are telling.  Some follow their non-waking state and try to discover ways to assist their trials and/or tribulations in their waking life.   When we go to bed each night we take with us all of our thoughts and manifest them in ways that may reveal some insight and/or an answer to our troubles, or in this case, our writing.  I'll use myself as an example.  I had an interesting dream the other day.  Someone had broken into my house.  The interesting part was that I knew about it.  In the dream, I 'acted' surprised and extremely upset at the manner in which my house was broken into.  The act of being robbed wasn't what stirred my attention as much as the 'feeling' I had toward this act.  I felt frustrated, lost, exposed, vulnerable, hopeless and angry.  So was my dream a peek into my reality about my writing struggles?  Perhaps.

 

Writer's often 'feel' all the things I've described in my dream.  It is a daily struggle to allow the words, process and experience to flow out instead of them being coerced out of your head.  When you feel like you are literally trying to break into your own mind, you may end up becoming paralyzed with your own efforts.  The process must be trusted and every writer will and must go through this 'break in' with themselves at some point.  The idea here is to watch for those slightly open doors, those moments of instant thought that could spring on like a grasshopper on a leaf.  There are ways to try to record the nuances of everyday 'moments'.  Here are some "Writer's Slum" tips I've compiled that have helped me along the way:

 

1.  Keep 3 or 4 index cards sporadically placed in odd places in the house, apartment or studio along with a pen or pencil in order to jot down a random thought or story idea.

 

2. Apply "Writer's Slum" Tip #1 to your car as well.

 

3.  If you own an iPhone (I don't) or a Google phone (I do) or any other phone with downloadable apps, search for a "Voice Recorder" app and use is when you don't have access to pen and paper.  I've done this several times and it's worked for me.  

 

4.  As soon as you wake up, try to record whatever it is that you remember about your dreams from the night before.  If not, don't worry, they'll come to you at random moments but just be prepared to record them.  No pressure! 

 

5.   Allow yourself to take breaks in the form of writing something on your blog (if you have one), write a letter to a friend (even if you never send it), write down a grocery list, etc.  The idea here is to get you out of your stifled mind and closer a free flowing mind.

 

Try it out!  Perhaps you'll find new ways to adjust your technique and maybe you can share them here as well.  Whatever the case, simply keep writing... 

 

 

-- Vanessa Jubis
thewritersslum.blogspot.com
mamabetweenthelines.blogspot.com

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November 10, 2009

Managing the Stresses of Being an Editor or Journalist

Stan Popovich is the author of "A Layman's Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods" - an easy to read book that presents a general overview of techniques that are effective in managing persistent fears and anxieties. For additional information go to: http://www.managingfear.com/ 


Some editors and journalists can have a difficult time managing the stresses and anxieties of the job. As a result, here is a list of techniques an editor or journalist can use to reduce their stresses and anxieties.

 

The first step an editor or journalist can do is to learn to take it one day at a time. Instead of worrying about how you will get through the rest of the week, try to focus on today. Each day can provide us with different opportunities to learn new things and that includes learning how to deal with your problems. 

 

Remember that no one can predict the future with one hundred percent certainty. Even if the thing that you feared does happen there are circumstances and factors that you can’t predict which can be used to your advantage. For instance, let’s say at your place of work that you miss the deadline for a story you have been working on for the last few months. Everything you feared is coming true. Suddenly, your boss comes to your office and tells you that the deadline is extended and that he forgot to tell you the day before. This unknown factor changes everything. Remember: we may be ninety-nine percent correct in predicting the future, but all it takes is for that one percent to make a world of difference.

 

Another technique that is very helpful is to have a small notebook of positive statements that makes you feel good. Whenever you come across an affirmation that makes you feel good, write it down in a small notebook that you can carry around with you in your pocket.  Whenever you feel depressed or frustrated at your job, open up your small notebook and read those statements.  This will help to manage your negative thinking.

 

As a journalist, be smart in how you deal with your  problems. Do not try to tackle everything all at once. When facing a current or upcoming task that overwhelms you with a lot of anxiety, break the task into a series of smaller steps. Completing these smaller tasks one at a time will make the stress more manageable and increases your chances of success.

 

Challenge your negative thinking with positive statements and realistic thinking. When encountering thoughts that make your fearful or depressed, challenge those thoughts by asking yourself questions that will maintain objectivity and common sense. For example, you are afraid that if you do not get that assignment then you will be stuck at your job forever. This depresses you, however your thinking in this situation is unrealistic. The fact of the matter is that other stories will come along and just because you didn’t get this one, does not mean that you won’t get anymore in the future.

 

Take advantage of the help that is available around you. If possible, talk to a professional who can help you manage your depression and anxieties. They will be able to provide you with additional advice and insights on how to deal with your current problem.  By talking to a professional, a person will be helping themselves in the long run because they will become better able to deal with their problems in the future.  Remember that it never hurts to ask for help.

 

There are times being an editor or journalist can be stressful, how the key is learning how to deal with your anxieties.

 

 

 


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November 10, 2009

A Writer's Space: Making Room to Write

Every writer needs their own personal space to get motivated and start writing. But, when living with someone, it can become increasingly difficult to find that space. Most writers have their own methods when it comes to doing things; whether it be their writing or everyday chores and activities. I have come to learn that creative people in general have a different way of organizing and prioritizing than the average person. Sometimes, this doesn’t sit too well with a non-writer (or non-creative person) sharing the same household.

When I used to live with my parents many moons ago, my mother would constantly complain about my clutter. I would have papers, books, notepads, and coffee cups scattered everywhere. I would love to order books online, and my boxes from Amazon.com would be laying everywhere. The clutter helped me write, and was almost soothing in a way, because it was mine. Amidst the clutter, I saw my writing space, but my mother saw a trash can. It was aggravating for me to place a piece of paper or important notes somewhere, only to have it removed and/or thrown away before I could get back to it. I knew how important having my own writing space was, but with so many people sharing the house, and so much furniture in every room, it was difficult to find a specific space and stick with it.

I had the same problem living with my significant other. Before we moved to a bigger place, my writing station would be on the kitchen table. He would seem to get so aggravated when walking into the apartment and seeing my books and papers everywhere. Just when I had finally gotten things the way I wanted, I would exit the dining area (my writing space) for a minute, before coming back and seeing all my papers and books had been moved to the guest room, away from his view. Like with my mother, as long as the clutter wasn’t visible to him, it was okay. But with not much room to make a space of my own, I didn’t have any options. Alas, I was more frustrated and got bored quickly with my writing.

Now, at a newer and bigger place, I have my own office, and my own desk, and I can clutter it as much as I want. It’s a great feeling and allows me to get creative and think like a writer, rather than restrict myself. This space is all mine, and I can do with it as I please, and keep it as messy (or clean, depending on whether or not we’re having company) as I want. I didn’t think how much a writing space could help creativity until I had one. Now, I know it’s essential for all writers to have a space of their own, otherwise, they won’t be able to write to the best of their ability.

It’s hard for a writer not to have their own space, and probably even harder for a non-writer to live in what they consider ‘our clutter.’ I realize that not every writer has an empty room to use as a writing office; I dealt with that for years. If they do, great, but if not, even a small space will be enough. To all writers out there who need their own space and don’t have extra room for an office: try to find an area that you can block off with a screen, curtain, or partition, so that everyone at home will know you are working when you are in there.

Choose a writing space that is as far from the noise of family life as possible because they’ll do nothing but distract. But make the space your own, and feel comfortable in it. Keep it as messy or clean as you want, as noisy or dark as you want. All you really need is that desk and writing chair, and the time and patience to keep writing.

Find a space to call your own, and write on!

-Sahag Gureghian, The Accidental Blogger

www.bloggersville.wordpress.com

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November 5, 2009

The Future of Media

Where Are We Now?

It’s no secret that recent changes in media have radically recast our world. Our lives have become data for us to slice, dice and share with other slicers and dicers. Of course, this invites certain snafus, but it also opens up whole new galaxies of innovative possibility. People are no longer willing to take their cues from Big Brothers. With the rise of social media, citizen journalism and user-generated content, everyone can be a part of the conversation—and usually about a thousand conversations at once. As we can see from the current measure of the human attention span--the ubiquitous 140 characters or less--with new formats come changes in how we absorb information. I realized that I had caught the multitasking bug when I found myself listening to a podcast while reading an article. Some claim that this sort of thinking in two directions at once is more productive, while others argue that it hinders retention. For me, it depends on the day. There are times when I can barely focus and times that I swear I could wash my hair, devour my daily news and write an article all at once. Please note, I am usually wrong about this one, a fact that becomes all too obvious when I emerge with dirty hair, no new knowledge and a page full of excrement.

What is Our Media Future?

Although everyone’s trying, nobody can predict the future of media--not even Eric Schmidt, the superhero I like to call MediaMan--but I will add one more opinion to the fray. Although everything seems to be migrating online, this doesn’t mean that the mobs chanting “print is dead” are entirely correct. People are still reading books and magazines in paper form. I’m guessing that print will take on a role akin to radio in the time of the televisual—functioning as a supplemental tool in the the annals of knowledge. I think the biggest change, however, will be in outlook. More and more, identities and ideas will be viewed as democratic and dynamic rather than static. This will lead to a climate in which the media is for the people and by the people, with all the innovation and mess that comes with that shining ideal. This trend can be seen in the new Twitter lists. People are no longer awaiting official tastemakers; they are forming their own tastes and then unleashing them on the world. It will be interesting to see the transformations these imagined communities of social media undergo. When I look into my cultural crystal ball, I see a future in which countless pieces of moveable text have replaced facts in our understanding of knowledge. Ultimately, if you’ll pardon a technologically antiquated metaphor (I’m over 25 now, practically over the hill), a given community will be defined less by its music and more by its cultural mixtape. Excuse me, I have some mixing to do.

Caroline Hagood is a poet and writer living in New York City.

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November 4, 2009

I Know I'm Addicted (to Print)

Marlene Kennedy was laid off as business editor in a newsroom downsizing in July. She blogs at http://onein13000.blogspot.com

I went cold turkey for about two days.

Then a telemarketer (working in a very busy boiler room) called and I re-upped.

You see, I had set aside the bills when they came, so the local papers had every right to cut me off from daily delivery.

One newspaper kept coming, though, weeks after my subscription had lapsed; the other was less forgiving about my nonpayment. But then one day neither of them was at their usual early-morning spots on the driveway and the front porch.

So I thought: Do I really need them?

It was sacrilege, I know, coming as it did from a longtime newspaper reporter and editor. But when you've been laid off in the Great Recession and you're among thousands of journalists in the same predicament, every expense needs scrutiny.

I had subscribed to one of the newspapers for years, even before I started working there. I had needed to keep an eye on what its business reporters were covering when I worked at a competitor.

I began getting the other paper earlier this decade. At the time, a then-assistant managing editor liked to harass me when that paper had stories my section didn't. I figured if I saw at home what I'd been beat on, I could be proactive about a second-day treatment when I got to work. (But, as I half-jokingly told the then-AME, if the crosstown rival's circulation numbers ever beat us by one, he was to blame because of the subscription I felt compelled to take.)

But now it was time to discontinue that paper, I decided. What made that determination easier was the bill I received: It showed convenient 3-, 6- and 12-month payment plans that brought home just how much my subscription was costing.

The other bill was for 11 bucks -- so little in the scheme of things, it suggested, that anything but renewal was silly.

But $11 covered only four weeks, and by the time the telemarketer got done with me, I was in for more than 60 (past-due owed plus 13 weeks).

To be honest, I wasn't sure how I'd cope without home delivery. Growing up, newspapers were always in my house and I'd read them. Would I now miss that familiar thunk! against the front door when one paper arrived, or the hide-and-seek dance that came with trying to find where on the driveway (or lawn) the other paper had landed?

But while I was mentally gearing up for this brave new world, I happened upon an essay by Mark Glasser, executive editor of MediaShift, a Public Broadcasting Service blog that keeps an eye on the new media and how they're changing society.

In it, he talks of "the allure, the pleasures of print," even for someone who has sworn off ink-on-paper in favor of the iPhone and Kindle: readability, convenience, attractiveness. Print, he concluded, "still has its charms."

It's true. One comment posted to Glasser's essay, by a University of Missouri School of Journalism prof, talks about research into newspapers' "comfort factor," which he says continues to engage subscribers: "the feel and smell of the paper -- even the ink on their hands."

It's an addiction I know I'd have trouble beating.

 

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November 3, 2009

Writer's Slum

Vanessa Jubis is a freelance writer and copy editor. Follow her at thewritersslum.blogspot.com

It seems to be a rampant dis-ease. You know it, that pesky feeling of being stuck, stagnant, stumped, going no where, in your writing that is. I like to refer to it as my “writer’s slum." Someone recently asked me, “So, how’s that Thesis comin’ along?” my response– (a deep long sigh) “I’m slumming it.” Yes, that’s the truth I’ve been slumming for some time. No matter what I tried to do, nothing seemed to get me to doing what I needed to do.  Just write! It’s depressing to be struck with this debilitating force. I had to think of a way to get myself out of this slum. So, I devised a small task to get me to think out loud. I verbally recorded myself off an application I downloaded to my Google phone. While in the car I started to vent (into my phone) about my slumming. I was impressed because it made me feel better. I kept doing it. So much so that I decided to blog about this so called writer’s slum. I ended up creating a blog to go with the all too familiar feeling that all writer’s experience at some moment or another. I was able to gain momentum with respect to looking forward to writing about my writing issues or “slumming.” So, when you feel that you have nothing to write about, think again because in spite of your writer’s slum, your writing hurdles are there to keep the tenacity levels high. Slumming or not, keep writing!

 

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November 3, 2009

30 Days of NaNoWriMo

Kate Langenberg is a freelance writer and editor. Stop by her website at www.katelangenberg.com or follow her on Twitter @kalangenberg.

50,000 of anything is a lot. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of people. It's a lot of cats.

In my case, it's a lot of words. And it's the number of words I'm supposed to write by November 30. As in 27 days from now. That November 30.

Why? Because I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. The object is to write your heart out for a solid month without stopping to edit what you've written. It's challenging for a couple of reasons. One, writing practically nonstop for an entire month is a grueling task. Have you ever done it before? Me neither. Two, writing for an entire month without revising what you've written requires endless amounts of self-control, especially if you're a perfectionist who is used to editing as you write. I'm kind of a control freak, so this whole thing is an exercise in letting go...while still going. And going.

To some people, NaNoWriMo might sound like the worst kind of self-inflicted torture. Writing is hard, even for those of us who call ourselves writers. This challenge comes at a good time for me, though. I've been looking for a way to motivate myself to write, and believe it or not, NaNoWriMo is providing that impetus. I started writing on Sunday, I wrote more on Monday, and I'm going to write more today.

I don't mean to make it sound easy. The truth is, it was tough getting started on Sunday. I stared at a blank Word document for a good 30 minutes before I typed anything. When I started writing, what came out went a lot like this:

Why are my upstairs neighbors so loud? Are the acoustics in this place really that bad? Can they hear me as much as I hear them? Oh God, I'm supposed to be writing fiction, not rants about my neighbors. I actually like my neighbors. But I'd probably like them more if they were quieter.

That's right—it took half an hour for me to come up with that.

I wrote a few more sentences that didn't have anything to do with my neighbors. I described the view outside my kitchen window. Then I deleted all of it (I know, I'm bad; I edited) and wrote one sentence about a woman being woken up from a sound sleep due to a commotion downstairs in her house. I read it ten times, closed my laptop, and called it a day.

Then on Monday, something beautiful happened. I read that same sentence to myself and started typing—what, I don't know. Words just came to me and before I knew it, I had a few paragraphs of copy and something resembling the awkward beginnings of a story. I took a deep breath and told myself to keep going. I didn't stop until I had 800 more words on the page. At that point, I got out of my chair and stretched like I had just run a marathon.

Reaching a total count of 50,000 words is going to take a lot of time and effort. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that writing will get easier with every day that passes. For me, NaNoWriMo is about challenging myself to write without stopping. It's about pushing past the excuses, real or imagined. If I get just one thing out of this experience—whether it's all 50,000 words, a few short stories, or a novel—what I really want is to reconnect with my writing and make it a daily habit. I've got 27 more days to make it happen.


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November 1, 2009

Staging a Coup Against Writer's Block

 

Although I often suffer from its opposite, verbal diarrhea—that most unfortunate state in which mediocre words indiscriminately pour forth--no writer is a stranger to the dreaded squeak of the brain valve shutting off that is writer’s block.

My lexical obstruction often stems from the anxiety that what I create won’t be groundbreaking. On bleak days, I suffer from premonitions of shame—the nagging foreknowledge that what I’m fervently typing away at won’t be something that will cause me to beam.  Yet I find that in writing, as in life, that stranglehold of perfectionism will only assure that I create less, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

In my bouts of blockage, the act of going on is what is commonly referred to as a leap of faith; but on a deeper level, it’s what Kierkegaard (the originator of the concept) actually called it, a leap to faith. You don’t leap with knowledge that everything will be okay; rather, the great hope on the other side of the leap is faith itself.

The concept is so stunning not because it is without doubt, but because it exists in the face of it. You will never stop having writer’s block, but you do have to take that writing leap, even when you have no faith that you’ll reach the other side of tour de force. In the end, the coup you stage is not against the block, but against your own voice that whispers, “you don’t have it in you.”

Abstract concepts aside, the single most effective laxative that I’ve found to combat textual constipation is stubbornness. You just have to storm past it, treating it as though it isn’t even there. How do you do this? By never allowing yourself to stop writing, even if you fear that it’s a load of hooey that will culminate in kindling; even if all you’re writing over and over is, “I’m a hack,” you must keep on writing. Sure, your output might look a little like Jack Torrance’s in The Shining from time to time, but you’re a writer; you’re allowed to be a little screwy.

Caroline Hagood is a poet and writer living in New York City. Blog:http://carolinehagood.typepad.com/ Twitter: @caroline_hagood


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