Back to Writing … at Last!

After the long wedding-induced haitus, I am SO GLAD to be back to writing at last. A lot has happened in my “writing life” even though very little of it was actually writing. But hey, the writing world didn’t stop spinning because I neglected my desk. Imagine that!

1. My favorite piece of news is that Katya Gordon’s sailing memoir, Big Waves, Small Boat, Two Kids just came out. I had the pleasure of working as an editor on this book, and it’s one of my favorite pieces that I’ve ever worked on. It’s one of those stories that I find myself thinking about, and drawing inspiration from, often. For example: when I was stressed about not having enough room in the 600-sq-foot house I now share with my husband, I thought about how Katya spent a year living in a much smaller boat with her husband and two kids, no less. And when I was in Florida for my honeymoon, I found myself wondering about the lives of the cruisers we saw docked out there. If you like memoir, or nature adventures, or stories about individuals and families figuring out just where they belong in this world, definitely consider checking out this book.
2. The cover for Hungering and Thirsting for Justice came in. How magical it is to have stuff “just happen” on your book without you after a couple years of squeezing work on said book in at every opportunity? I like this “it’s with the publisher” business.
3. I got an email from the editor of the anthology Unruly Catholic Women Writers, in which I have a piece, telling us that she has “good news” about the book … but, I haven’t heard what that is yet. Looking forward to it!

My attempt at doing NaPoWriMo was a bit of a failure. I kept it up diligently and doggedly, writing mostly very bad poems, until about three days before the wedding. Then after the wedding, rather than pick up where I left off … I totally forgot that I was supposed to be writing poetry at all. Well, there’s always next year!

My husband devotes his Fridays to working on his own business, and I’m thinking that I would like to try something similar — to dedicate that same time to my writing. Not tomorrow, though, because I have a big pile of freelance work to catch up on. I’ll be working from a desk (downgraded from an office) in the living room because the basement office isn’t finished yet. Ivan still works on his computer down there, but I cannot abide the cold concrete and dimness. One must have some standards!

It’s good to be back!

Poetry, Short Stories, and Realizations

A good friend just reminded me that today marks the beginning of Story-a-Day May–a challenge to write a story every day for a month. This comes on the heels, of course, of Poetry Month and Script Frenzy, a challenge to write 30 poems in a month and to write a script in a month, respectively.  And then, of course, there is my personal favorite, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the challenge to write a novel in a month, in November. This has me thinking that one could easily spend a whole year devoted purely to writing challenges, with all the “off-months” consumed with revising the frenzied outputs of April, May, and November.  In fact, I like this idea so much that I’m tempted to make this my “writing project” for 2012 (which is, incidentally, also the year that I’ll get married, which should give me plenty of material.)

As of now, I came in short of the April 30-poem challenge at 23 poems (respectable or measly, depending on your perspective). 24 if you count the one that LiveJournal deleted of its own volition.

Until November, I’m continuing to explore short forms. I realized recently why poetry and short stories are so difficult for me — it’s because my writing Kryptonite is endings. With these forms, the end is always looming within sight, even from the very first word. Perhaps my preference for novels doesn’t come just from the fact that I read more in that format, but because it allows me to procrastinate writing an ending, sometimes for years and/or for over a hundred thousand words. BUT shorter forms also mean that I get to revise sooner, which, for me, is the fun part.

I won’t be doing Story-a-Day May, but I WILL commit to finishing my short-story-in-progress this month.  Strange that that can feel like a bigger challenge than the 50,000 words demanded by NaNo!

Put Those Poems to Good Use

I just entered three of my poems from National Poetry Writing Month into WEbook‘s poetry contest. WEbook calls themselves the “American Idol” of creative writing. Essentially, it’s a vast web community of writers and readers who write, upload, read, and critique the user-generated content on the site. From time to time, WEbook publishes the projects that receive the best reviews.

I signed up for my WEbook account months ago, but I’ve only started poking around there recently.  Submissions for the poetry project opened on June 15 and will close on August 1, when the voting will begin. That means I submitted my poems relatively early — yet, they still were plopped at the end of a LONG line (23 pages) of already-submitted poetry. My hunch is that the earlier you submit, the better, because there are going to be LOTS of poems to peruse, and probably many voters who won’t keep reading till the end. But there’s still plenty of time for you to throw your own poetry into the ring!

Even if the poetry contest isn’t your thing, WEbook seems like a useful place to get diverse feedback on your work, which could be especially helpful for writers without writers groups. It also seems like a place that could swallow you up and take hours of your precious writing or working time . . . which is why I’ve resisted the urge to go there often. But it may be just what the doctor ordered for anyone with a boring sit-at-the-computer-jobs that allow for daily, web-surfing.

NaPoWriMo: Did She Make It?

Yes, I did manage to write my three remaining poems last night, much to my own surprise. I had to read them again this morning to see what they said because I was so tired when I wrote them. This is the good thing about a writing practice: at a certain point, you can do it in your sleep! However, I do give those poor three poems a “get out of the worst poem contest free” card. So, here’s the most cringe-worthy poem of the month:

Good Friday

Crucifixes and Roman drums

Sister angry with her fiance

Hospitals

Ice Cream

Make me smile

Working too late

Kitty on my lap

Hoping you’re still alive

The problem with this poem, of course, is that it’s really just a list. But I was at my parents’ place for Easter, where the poems got progressively worse for each night I was there. Writing poetry is not easy when you’ve got your bed set up in the middle of the living room and people are watching Jay Leno and Futurama and anything else that may be on at all hours of the night.

An hour and a half, and 3 Poems to Go

There’s an hour and a half left of April, I’m dead tired, and I have to squeeze out 3 more poems.

The good news is, I just compiled the 27 I did manage to write, and they aren’t as bad as I thought they were. I originally intended to post one of each “type” of poem I did here. I’ve already posted a fortune cookie poem, an imitation, and a magnetic poem.

I attempted to post this year’s pantoum, but the spacing wouldn’t cooperate and I was too tired to fight with it. And you need proper spacing to get the full pantoum effect.

So here’s last night’s random journal poem, instead:

Don’t laugh, she says,
It’s happened before.
It’s my sister’s birthday
Words litter my table
the rain pours outside
and her temperature rises.
Ponies spin in circles.

In my dreams, I’m always moving –
stooping under low ceilings,
the scent of mildew clinging to me.
I turn my eyes away from German windmills
and try not to think of home.

Coming up tomorrow: the month’s worst poems, and the news of whether I hit 30 or not.

NaPoWriMo: Observations

There are only two days (counting today) of NaPoWriMo left, and I have just a handful of poems to finish. A few of the things I noticed during the month:

• When it comes to poetry, I do far better with structure than with free-verse. With free-verse, there are just too many possibilities, and I can’t seem to reign them in to something cohesive. Despite that, most of my NaPoWriMo poems were free-verse musings that I wrote obligatorily before bed. In theory, it seems like I might be good at free verse poetry because I’m a prose writer, and people have told me that my prose is “poetic.” However, I think the difference is that, with prose, I do have the structure of the story I’m meaning to tell. Perhaps I should attempt more story-like poetry.
• Some structured poems that work well for me are Pantoums, songs, and poems using “pre-provided” words, such as Fortune Cookie poems and magnetic poems. Finding that I’m better at structured poems should have spurred me to explore writing more different types, but I don’t actually like the sound of some of the more common poetry structures, such as haikus or limericks. The forms also intimidate me, which I should have used this month to get over!
• Doing a month-long writing project makes the month feel LONG. I’ve noticed this during NaNoWriMo, too. You’d think the effect would be the opposite, since any time there’s a lot to accomplish in a short amount of time, time seems to go too quickly. But instead, I look at some of the issues/subjects I was dealing with at the beginning of April, and those issues seem so far removed that it’s hard to believe it’s been less than a month. Likewise, during NaNoWriMo, it’s hard to believe at the end that, only 30 days ago, you were writing your first words of a then-complete or nearly complete novel.

I also discovered last night that Tarot serves as a good writing prompt because of its imagery, which is the most important element in poetry. Making poetry out of readings probably enriches the reading experience as well — a win-win.

National Poetry Writing Month: Magnetic Poetry

Not feeling very intrinsically inspired to write poetry last night, I finally whipped out the magnetic poetry for some help:

National Poetry Writing Month Magnetic Poetry, April 26, 2009

Poems always look more fun as magnets, but in case that image is too blurry, this is the poem:

This storm is

hard music

to face:

A metal rain hurricane.

Water kisses fire;

naked smoke sizzles,

only teasing

the velvet wildflower

beneath your microscope.

I was up way too late doing this last night; I always forget how LONG it takes to make magnetic poetry, especially since I have a fairly large set. In addition to the official MagPo artist, romance, rock&roll, and erotic sets, I also have a set that came with my magnetic poetry journal and various sets not manufactured by MagPo, including a “faith” set, lots of Valentine’s Day sets, and, my personal favorite, some biology-themed set from my former room-mate. I love having words like “genome” and “DNA” in my repertoire even though it’s hard to find uses for them (you can thank that set for the “microscope” used above). Suffice it to say, these sets can make for some rather . . . interesting magnetic poetry combinations.

If you’re feeling inspired, you can now play with magnetic poetry online. If you make a poem, leave it in the comments!

Imitation: The Sincerest Form of Flattery

So, another one of my tips for poetry month was to imitate another poet. I did an exercise like this in college once and loved it, except it was with prose. Essentially, I took a paragraph and replaced verb for verb, preposition for preposition, noun for noun, comma for comma. The result was a paragraph in my own words that flowed strangely like Annie Dillard’s. In theory, the same sort of thing should work for poetry. But man, did I wrangle with it tonight. Here’s the section of poem I chose to imitate (don’t worry, it’s in the public domain):

What though the radiance which was once so bright (11)
Be now for ever taken from my sight, (10)
Though nothing can bring back the hour (9)
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; (12)
We will grieve not, rather find (7)
Strength in what remains behind; (7)
In the primal sympathy (7)
Which having been must ever be; (8)
In the soothing thoughts that spring (7)
Out of human suffering; (7)
In the faith that looks through death, (7)
In years that bring the philosophic mind. (10)
(Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, 175-186, by William Wordsworth)

I chose this poem because I used it in a story back in my sordid days as a fan-fiction writer. I also love the cadence. You may wonder what all those numbers are about. Well, at first I thought I could do the same sort of swap-out I’d done with prose several years ago, but that proved to be more of a challenge than I was willing to bear this late at night. So instead of replacing word-type for word-type, I decided to match syllables and rhyming scheme instead. Here’s what I finally wrung out:

Even as a memory though still so clear (11)
Lay now still throbbing and without you here, (10)
For everything converged upon that day (9)
Of shimmering in the snow, of green through the gray; (12)
I did not speak, still I knew (7)
Whispered love was coursing through; (7)
In our final journey then (7)
We broke on through to see the end; (8)
In the melting drifts that crept (7)
Near to both our hearts and slept; (7)
In the tears that washed dirt clean, (7)
Were ties that bound me together with you. (10)

It’s not fantastic, but it’s better than my earlier attempts. Feel free to call me on miscalculated syllables. Math is not my strong point–especially right before bed.

What’s Happening in my Writing World

Here’s what’s been happening in my Writing World in the past five days:

1. I fell off the NaPoWriMo poem-a-day wagon and am running behind it trying to get back on.
2. Despite this, I’m regretting not taking the plunge and trying Script Frenzy. Perhaps next year.
3. I blogged about Condoms, Catholicism, and Consent over at the Young Adult Catholics blog.
4. I have not forgotten that I said I’d post some of my Poetry Month poems here, but they’re reluctant.
5. I decided after the due date for proposals was past that I wanted to write a Bitten by Twilight proposal after all.

Last minute markets: Scripts and Poetry

In honor of ScriptFrenzy and NaPoWriMo, here are a couple last-minute markets for scripts and poems.

Scriptapalooza

fee: $45, prize see below, Deadline is April 15th, 2009

Must be 18 or older to enter. Any genre will be considered.

Multiple submissions are accepted, but one application form and entry fee must be attached to each entry.

Each submission must include the following:
- The completed entry form
- The appropriate entry fee
- The completed feature screenplay

Scripts must be in English, between 80 and 140 pages long. Pages must be numbered on standard format paper bound with two or three brads.

Winners receive a cash prize and possible agency representation.send: Complete MS

looking for: Screenplay

Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize

fee: $20, word count: 48-70 pages, prize $1000, Deadline is April 30th, 2009

Submit a manuscript of 48-70 pages of original poetry in any style in English. The manuscript must not have been published previously in book form, although individual poems appearing in print or on the web are permitted. Entries may consist of individual poems, or a book-length poem—or any combination of long or short poems.

Submitted manuscript must contain 2 title pages: Name and contact information should appear on first title page only. Name should not appear anywhere else in the manuscript.

Manuscript should be typed, single-spaced, paginated, and, if sending by regular mail, bound with a spring clip.

Include a table of contents page and an acknowledgements page for magazine or anthology publications.

Enclose an SASE for announcement of the winner. (If submitting electronically a receipt will be emailed to you immediately after a successful upload of your manuscript.)

Manuscript cannot be returned.

Postmark deadline: April 30, 2009.

If submitting by regular mail include a check or money order for $20 entry fee, payable to MARSH HAWK PRESS.send: Complete MS

looking for: Poetry

AND I tried to embed the nifty WordHustler “Submit to This Market” widgets and couldn’t for the life of me get them to work. This is not the first time trying to embed html in WordPress has gone awry, so if anyone has tips, I’d love to hear them! (And yes, I DID switch to HTML version to embed the code).