Assessing Your Writing Life

 

We're nearing the end of August. I have a few questions regarding your writing life today. Answer them and then make a list of what you want to change in September.

A.  Did you have any writing goals set for August?

B.  Did you meet any, most, or all of those goals?

C.  If you had no goals for August, why not?

D.  Did you use your writer's eye as you moved through this month?

E.  Did you find yourself inspired to write during this month?

F.  Are you satisfied with the amount you wrote this month?

G.  Did you have any late summer experiences that you hope to write about?

H.  Did you completely ignore writing in August? 

I.  Are you satisfied with your writing life right now? 

J.  Have you set any writing goals for September? 

K.  If you haven't set any writing goals for September, why not?

L.  Do the lazy days of summer give you an excuse for writing less?

Lots of questions to ponder. I am of the mind that we should assess our writing life on a regular basis. It helps us grow as writers, takes us out of complacency, and gives us a bit of inspiration. It's human nature to want to do better. 

I am also aware that the pandemic world we've lived in the past year and a half made a big difference in all aspects of our lives, including our writing lives. I've seen it in my online writing group. What they are producing is still nowhere near normal. Look at it as a reason, not an excuse. If you choose excuse, you give yourself permission to not write and feel no guilt. If you choose to consider it a reason for not writing, you should be able to overcome it and get back in the groove. There's a vast difference between an excuse and a reason. 

There are still a few days left in August. What are you going to do with them in your writing life? 

Some Thoughts for Writers

The last two days, I've talked about a submissions call for Chkicken Soup for the Soul and an explanation of their Story Guidelines. One of the points made was that this popular anthology receives thousands of stories for each new book title. Deflating! Or it could be.

When you know the competition is fierce, what do you do? Do you wilt? Or do you try even harder? As writers, we need to face the fact that we are only one in a sea of people who write stories, essays, articles, poetry and more. Part of your brain asks you why you think you can make it to publication. Then another part butts in with You can do this. Which one are you going to believe?

If you want to see your work published, you'll need to take a big dose of one of my keywords--perseverance. You can't submit once ot twice and call it quits because your work was rejected. You can't call it quits if your work was rejected multiple times. Not if you're serious about writing. Not if you're willing to work at growing in your writing. Not if you're passionate about the craft.

I've seen too many people give up too soon. Success does not come easily. It doesn't fall into your lap, all tied up with a pretty ribbon. You must work toward finding success and work hard. 

The next question is Are you willing to work long and hard to achieve your goal of publication? If you aren't, then you might as well give up and move on to another hobby or job. We have two kinds of writers, those who are trying to make a living, or at least supplement their income, and those who are hobbyist writers. Which one are you? Can you afford the time it takes to hone your skill? Is your passion for writing strong enough? 

It appears that it is a lot easier to allow yourself to become discouraged than to soldier on. Even so, I urge you to continue writing and continue learning more about this craft you love. I've often asked you to look back at some of your very earliest efforts at writing and compare the quality to what you are writing today. Hopefully, you'll see some real progress. The more we write, the better we write. The more we read, the more we grow as writers. If your work has not changed one bit, then maybe this writing world is not for you. Unless you don't let yourself be discouraged and persevere in learning to be a better writer.

Some harsh words here today, but if we want to be a published writer, we need to face reality. We need to assess our work and our desire to continue. 

One more thought for today:  The more you submit, the greater your chances of being published will be. Keep the Ferris Wheel of submissions moving. 

Paying To Enter Writing Contests

How much of this will you spend...

....for a chance at this?

I've been looking at writing contest submission guidelines off and on the past few months. They appear to fall into two groups--those you enter for free and the ones that require a fee to submit. Generally, the contests that ask for money to enter offer bigger prizes. 

It's a no-brainer when you enter a contest that has no fee. You have spent nothing, so you lose nothing. You've taken a chance that your submission will place. But what about those contests that only accept submissions accompanied by whatever they want to charge? I've seen entry fees of $3 up to $750. Yes, I did see that big one just the other day. With that fee, you received feedback. Seems like pretty expensive feedback to me. 

Are you willing to submit to a contest when you have to pay to enter? What about magazines and ezines that charge a reading fee? Will you submit your work to them? Is it worth doing? This post is about contest entry fees but reading fees might be a sub-topic.

I'm a relatively frugal person. Raised by Depression-era parents, I learned to be careful with money. That said, I have paid to enter contests but not very many. I do pay to enter my state authors organization annual contest. The fee is minimal and it is one way I can support the group. I paid $15 to enter a creative nonfiction contest earlier this year. Didn't win, didn't get feedback. Bye-bye $15. 

If you enter contests and do so multiple times in one year, how do you justify the expense? It could depend on whether you won in any of the contests. If you get some return, then you're going to feel it's worth spending the dollars. If you enter a variety of contests repeatedly and win nothing, you're in the hole. 

Each writer has to decide whether to take the chance. It might depend on how much extra cash you have at your disposal. Or on how good you feel about your entry. If you feel you have written something really special, it might be well worth spending those few dollars to enter. 

I would suggest you keep track of what you spend entering contests (or paying reading fees) on an annual basis. At the end of the year, tally your expenses and the outcome. You might 'allow' yourself X dollars for entering contests, just like some people who frequent casinos set a certain dollar amount to gamble.

Personally, I will pay an entry fee for a limited number of contests but I absolutely refuse to pay a reading fee so that I can submit my work to an editor. A reading fee is one of my writing world pet peeves. 

There are plenty of no-fee-to-enter contests. I've seen a couple different newsletters that divide the notice of contests into free-to-enter and the ones that cost. Again, the prize amounts may differ widely. Many contests accrue the prize money through the fees charged to enter. That, I understand. 

Contest entry fees are reasonable but you'll find many that require $20, $30, $35 and more. It wouldn't take more than a few contests to find yourself out a lot of money. Determining which ones are worthwhile to enter is rather tricky, I think. 

How do you feel about paying an entry fee for contest submissions? How about having to send a reading fee to submit your work to an editor? I'd like to get some opinions on this. 

Seventeen Questions For Writers

The first time I ran across this quote, I was at one of my online writers' group conferences in Sterling, VA. It was early morning, before the sessions for the day had started. I was in the cabin catching up on email when the quote popped up. Definitely an 'Aha!' moment for me. It's good advice for our writing world and the rest of our lives, too. 

However, there are times when looking back might be of some benefit. We have only one more day left in this year of 2016. It seems to me to be a good year for you and me to look back on our writing life. Do you remember those writing goals you set early last January? How did that turn out? 

A few questions you might ask yourself regarding your writing this year:

• What percentage of my writing goals did I achieve?
• Which goals were complete flops? Why?
• How many submissions did I make?
• How many acceptances did I receive?
• How many unfinished projects do I have? 
• Did I put the right amount of time into writing?
• Did I make the best effort at all times?
• Did I look for motivation or sit and wait for it to hit me over the head?
• Did I read enough about writing?
• Did I read the writing of others on a regular basis?
• Am I as passionate about writing now as I was at the beginning of the year? 
• Was Writer's Block a factor for me
• Was I willing to follow the advice given to me?
• Did I help other writers in any way?
• Was I passionate about writing?
• When rejected, did I look at my work objectively to learn what needed to be improved?
• Do I want to continue writing in 2017?

I hope you answered honestly. Nobody but you will see your answers. The one question that I sincerely wanted all of you to answer yes to is the very last one. If you answered positively to the majority of the questions, you'll surely want to pursue your writing in 2017.

If you had a lot of discouraging answers, perhaps it's time to do some evaluating. If you're willing to work on those problem areas, you will grow as a writer. If not, it's time to reassess your writing world. I don't encourage anyone to just dump the whole process. You obviously wanted to write or you'd never have started. If it meant something to you in the beginning, it's salvageable. But it's up to you. 

It's almost a new year. When you turn the calendar to January on Sunday, it's a new beginning. When I open to page one of a book to read, I'm always filled with the anticipation that the pages beyond will be pleasing to read. I feel the same way about my writing when each new year dawns. I feel motivated to begin strong and I hope you will, too. 

Now that we've checked back into 2016, it's time to look forward. I wish you your best writing year ever in 2017.

Questions Writers Get Asked

Friends and family often do not understand why you persist on your writing journey when you haven't become a raging success in the writing world.

They ask questions like Sold your book yet? How many articles have you had published this year? Don't you get tired of rejections? What makes you keep on writing? Let's look at each one.

1.  Sold your book yet? Non-writers haven't a clue as to what is involved in 'selling' a book. They would be amazed at the amount of time, effort and love that has gone into that novel you wrote. They don't know the statistics on the small percentage of novels written that actually end up published. They don't know the heartbreak each time you have a door slammed in your face.

2.  How many articles have you had published this year? I know you'd like to tell them it's none of their darned business and stalk away. Bite your tongue and then answer that you don't always keep track of the numbers, or if you know and are alright with telling, do so. It's going to be a very different number if you are a professional freelance writer as opposed to a hobbyist writer.

3.  Don't you get tired of rejections? You can most likely answere truthfully that you do get tired of rejections but that every acceptance wipes away the downside of a rejection. You can spout statistics to them about the number of acceptances and rejections according to numbers submitted but they will most likely just nod their head in agreement and then ask the same question a few weeks later.

4.  What makes you keep on writing? Here is where you can orate to your heart's content. You can tell family and friends about the passion you have for the written word, about the need to get your feelilngs written somewhere, about the desire to bring something to others. But guess what? They still won't understand. You have to walk the journey to understand it.

So, when those questions that grate get tossed at you, do your best to answer and know that the person asking will never completely understand your position. As long as you still have the desire to be a writer, keep on with your journey. You're doing this for yourself not for all those friends and family.

If you suddenly turn out to be the next bestseller author, those same people will most likely say I knew this would happen. I had faith in you all these years. You can just smile and say thank you and continue on that long journey that brought you success. I wish this for all of you.

More or Less? Is There A Magic Formula for Just Right?

I've been working on a poem ever since we got home from Germany and Prague. No, that's not entirely right. I've been working on it from the time we made a stop in a small village in the Czech Republic with our tour group. The place has haunted me ever since seeing it and hearing the history from our tour director. Words and phrases that fit the situation have swirled through my mind all the days since.

Last week, I finally got a first draft written and after letting it sit a couple days, I did a small bit of editing and sent it to my online critique group. The response from all who critted it was mostly positive and even very encouraging but a few who critiqued wanted to know more about what happened in that village. Questions abounded. Tell us more some said.

I've been thinking about it and I have a huge question mark regarding adding a lot more to the poem just to tell more of the story. First of all, I liked the fact that people were moved enough to want to know more. But is more going to take away from the poem? Is more going to dim a little of what's already there? Will adding to the poem really enrich it or will it make it sound mediocre and more like a nonfiction article than a poem?

These are all questions I've been contemplating. I may add a little more to the poem but not a lot. I want there to still be the bit of mystery that I felt when I visited the small community. I received bits and pieces not a whole story with all the answers and that is what I want the poem to portray, as well. There are few situations in life where we receive all the answers.

When you write a poem or a piece of prose, do you ever feel that you've overdone it? Or do you think you should swell the piece with more tidbits of information? What's the magic formula? How do we know when to add more or when to cut, cut, cut and end up with less than the amount of infomation in our original draft?

It's a little bit like the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears.  The porridge was too hot, too cold, and then--just right. The chairs were too hard, too soft, and then--just right. The beds were the same until Goldilocks found the one that was just right. I'm looking for that just right stage with the new poem.