First I have some good news to share. I've had an essay about my favorite novel Howards End accepted for publication in one of The First Line's four issues for 2013. I'll let you know which one as the time draws nearer and the editors decide where it will best fit-- winter, summer, spring or fall. I've worked with The First Line Magazine quite a lot,and I started thinking about why that publication inspires me so much. At this point in my life I think it really helps me to have such clear guidelines for my writing. You want to write an essay? Well, focus on the first line of a book or poem and write! And then for their fiction they also give you a starting-off point. Here's the first line... now write us a story that keeps up the quality of that line.
It's a sort of twist on the old Hemingway adage: "Write the truest line you know one after the other.... And heck, we'll give you the first one." It's the push I need at this point. If you feel you could benefit from similar guidelines then check out their website and... submit!
One of my close friends is an editor in New York and she put it this way: in her experience writers either have a hard time starting or a hard time finishing. I guess I'm in the former category. For some reason I found that comforting.
"So all I need to do is start..."
Speaking of new beginnings: I've returned to my family's homeland (as my mother terms it.) My animal family and I have moved to Brooklyn, that mecca for writers, where my mother's family lived for three generations before dispersing to warmer climes-- California, Florida, Virginia. For the first time in my life I have my very own, admittedly very small office with doors that close (or at least slide shut). I'm excited to hunker down and revisit several longer pieces I've written for children. I've been writing a lot of short stories for adults, but I don't feel ready or perhaps confident enough to tackle a longer piece for adults quite yet, although I'd like to start as soon as the children's novel and chapter book revisions are completed.I feel like my longer, grownup work muscles need a little more toning. And while children's books aren't easier to write-- no, not at all-- they've proved easier for me so far. Or maybe there's something about writing a 30,000 word novel versus an 80,000 word novel that my imagination finds less terrifying. It's illogical since the children's book market is harder to break into, but there it is.
Here's hoping the news of my essay's acceptance will give me that 3 a.m. encouragement I'll need to keep plugging ahead and challenging myself through 2012!
It's a sort of twist on the old Hemingway adage: "Write the truest line you know one after the other.... And heck, we'll give you the first one." It's the push I need at this point. If you feel you could benefit from similar guidelines then check out their website and... submit!
One of my close friends is an editor in New York and she put it this way: in her experience writers either have a hard time starting or a hard time finishing. I guess I'm in the former category. For some reason I found that comforting.
"So all I need to do is start..."
Speaking of new beginnings: I've returned to my family's homeland (as my mother terms it.) My animal family and I have moved to Brooklyn, that mecca for writers, where my mother's family lived for three generations before dispersing to warmer climes-- California, Florida, Virginia. For the first time in my life I have my very own, admittedly very small office with doors that close (or at least slide shut). I'm excited to hunker down and revisit several longer pieces I've written for children. I've been writing a lot of short stories for adults, but I don't feel ready or perhaps confident enough to tackle a longer piece for adults quite yet, although I'd like to start as soon as the children's novel and chapter book revisions are completed.I feel like my longer, grownup work muscles need a little more toning. And while children's books aren't easier to write-- no, not at all-- they've proved easier for me so far. Or maybe there's something about writing a 30,000 word novel versus an 80,000 word novel that my imagination finds less terrifying. It's illogical since the children's book market is harder to break into, but there it is.
Here's hoping the news of my essay's acceptance will give me that 3 a.m. encouragement I'll need to keep plugging ahead and challenging myself through 2012!
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