2.28.2007

Guilt and Taxes

Papercoach : Teach Yourself to Write Fiction

I've been on vacation for a week and just returned, and the first thing I feel on arrival? Guilt. It's not productive but there it is - guilt for not writing. Guilt for not writing the moment I returned and doing my taxes instead.

Taxes are one of those ugly things you must do, on a schedule but hate. I must do it. It's inescapable, like death -- the other side to the famous diad. So why the guilt?

It doesn't make any sense.

So my response is to barrel into my taxes like a madman, attempting to get them done as fast as humanly possible, so I can return to my writing. This is very stressful, and I don't think it's all that healthy, but I can't seem to stop myself.

Later, when I finally finish the [insert anything, but I'm talking taxes] I find myself staring at my writing, panting and feeling damn pressurized to finally WRITE.

Yikes. No stress.

All this garden style neurosis fails to help my writing. I know. Stress is bad for writing. I know.

But there you have it. Like taxes, my stress seems inescapable. Hell, if I didn't have these neurosis around my writing I would have finished learning and been writing for much longer, now wouldn't I?

So, great analysis Freud, but what do I do about it?

Someone I respect once told me that my biggest challenge (now is that a failing in disguise? or is it the other way around?), is something called time-slicing. Time slicing is when -- instead of focusing, gangbusters on one task -- you do a little bit of this, a little bit of that, some of that over there, some more of this here, each day. That way you make small, but measurable progress on many things at once with no stress (or reduced stress). Why no stress? Because everything is moving forward -- so goes the theory -- nothing ever reaches a crisis, and all is finished in its good time. I think my friend is right.

And I HATE working that way.

I despise it. I want to leap in and do, do, do, do, do. Totally immersed. Totally in the moment. Engaged and swallowed by writing (or anything, really). I feel this is the quintessential artist's mindset.

Which means, when I'm not swallowed in the writing -- when I'm doing something I have to do but don't wish to do (like taxes), I'm extremely anxious. I'm stressed about not 'doing' writing. Why? Because the vague term 'doing' is defined, for me, as total immersion. 'Doing' is not defined as 'made a little forward progress today.' And all this self-imposed pressure makes for poor writing and less productivity.

Sucky.

Here's my biggest challenge: become calm and sufficiently stress free that at anytime, at any moment, for any duration I can whip out a notepad and just write. Write in the cracks, the spaces, and -- sure -- the big long multi-hour sessions when I've got them. But most importantly, learn to immerse in seconds and for brief periods as well as slowly for long periods.

If I don't learn this, I fear I'm doomed to do nothing but my taxes, forever.

2.12.2007

How to Keep From Jumping Out a Window
Part 2 of 2 (reissue)

Paper Coach : Teach Yourself to Write Fiction

Lou's Note: Since contributor M. M. DeVoe' short story was recently released (see post Paper Coach Contributor Published Again 2/6/07), it seems a good time to repost her earliest advice & thoughts for those subscribers who may have missed them the first time around.

by M. M. De Voe

3) A secret way in
The best way to really understand your market is to get a (probably unpaid) job as a reader. Just volunteer. Most magazines would be thrilled with 5 hours per week if you are dedicated and good. They all have slush piles taller than their nieces, and they really truly want to get through them - they just don't want to read it themselves. And while NYC is teeming with a zillion magazines, even most small towns have little literary magazines or local fanzines that could use your help. You can always quit after about six months, and the education is invaluable. And the best part is that you then know the entire editorial staff, and guess what? When you know editors, they tend to open your brown manilla envelopes.

4) How to keep from jumping
Nothing is working. You are just as brilliant as ever. You send out regularly, a story a week. You keep track of your submissions, and you send to the appropriate magazine. You even get great rejections with things scrawled across the bottom of the form-letter like, "enjoyed this, keep writing!" or "sorry about this, please submit again!"

Take these seriously. Editors who write you a note are serious about their notes. They don't have to write notes; they are trying to keep you away from the narrow ledge. Many times rejections are for stupid things like 1) we just printed three stories about old age, 2) we have a long story by [insert Famous Author] which we have to fit in this month, 3) the other submission was a prize winner and the author probably will publish a novel this month; if we print his story and not yours we'll probably sell more magazines.

There it is: sell more magazines. That's ALL that editors care about. They love to read good stories, they love to publish them too, but the bottom line is that they are trying to sell more magazines. So get the hell away from the window ledge and start writing again. It's a crap-shoot: if you write well, you are in direct competition with everyone else in the world who also writes well and has cool ideas and can follow writer's guidelines. All you can do to make yourself stand out is either 1) meet people in the industry or 2) distinguish yourself by your writing. Choose your course, and send out twice as many stories every week. It's tedious, but if you never send out, you'll never get published.

And if you're sending out a novel, make sure it's perfect. Think how easily you judge books that you read yourself, and realize that agents and publishers have even larger shelves of "I have to get around to reading these books". So forgive them their empty rejection letters and get an office on a ground floor.

- M. M. De Voe

M.M. Devoe's fiction has appeared in the Oklahoma review, THEMA, The First Line, the Columbia Daily Spectator, and been anthologized in both Stirring Up A Stormand Lithuania: In Her Own Words. Recently, she has won awards, mention, or been shortlisted for the H. E. Francis Short Story Competition 2002, the Fish Publishing's 2003 Short Story Prize, the 2004 Bellwether Prize, the 2004 Dana Awards, and the 2005 Pushcart Prize. Check her out at: www.mmdevoe.com

2.09.2007

How to Keep From Jumping Out a Window Part 1 of 2 (reissue)

Paper Coach : Teach Yourself to Write Fiction

Lou's Note: Since contributor M. M. DeVoe' short story was recently released (see post Paper Coach Contributor Published Again 2/6/07), it seems a good time to repost her earliest advice & thoughts for those subscribers who may have missed them the first time around.


by M. M. De Voe

You have been writing your fingers raw for a year, you love your stories--everyone who reads your stories loves your stories! So what's going on? Why isn't the world rolling out that thick green Barnes and Noble carpeting before your feet? Let's find out.

1) Do your friends have little comments to add after reading your brilliant work? Are you listening to those comments?
If more than one person says "um, I loved this, but there was just one piece I didn't get..." take a look at that "little piece" and see if you can sharpen it up. It may help you to form or join a writers' circle. This way, you get a ton of criticism, so much of it that you start learning which is valid and which is spurious. This is an invaluable talent. IF you get no valuable comments after three submissions to the group, leave the group. Find/form a new one. You need great readers. Let me repeat: you NEED great readers.

One of the hardest things about being a writer is that magazines reject you without telling you why. With practice, you can weed out the "I don't like stories about elves" comments from the "this story made no sense" comments -- not to mention the comments for which you should take friends out for a beer. I'm talking about, "This character was brilliant as a focal point, but when she vanished, the story became boring." or "I got so lost in your descriptions that I couldn't follow the plot." Anytime your friends can't follow the plot, it's time to rework the story.

2) Do you know enough about your market?
First (and this is totally obvious, but everyone gets lazy) read the writer's guidelines. They are usually in the magazine or on the website of your target. If you don't read them EVERY SINGLE TIME, you'll never see the bold type that says "do not staple" or "send three copies" -- and failing to follow these bold instructions will immediately get you rejected. They won't even read the first sentence. Editorial staffs change, times change, guidelines change. Go and read those guidelines for every single submission.

Your stuff also has to be contemporary. If you are a sci-fi writer, you should be reading a ton of NEW sci-fi--see what sells. Yes, of course, you want to be unique and have your own voice and all that, but if you are reading this article, you're not selling your stuff, and this may very well be why: perhaps your writing just isn't "of the moment." If you are writing like Asimov, cut it out and start writing like someone who is still alive (preferably yourself). If you want to write for television, you better be reading Sorkin's scripts, and not watching late-night reruns on TV Land.

In Part 2 of "How To Keep From Jumping Out A Window":
3) A secret way in, and
4) How to keep from jumping

M.M. Devoe's fiction has appeared in the Oklahoma review, THEMA, The First Line, the Columbia Daily Spectator, and been anthologized in both Stirring Up A Stormand Lithuania: In Her Own Words. Recently, she has won awards, mention, or been shortlisted for the H. E. Francis Short Story Competition 2002, the Fish Publishing's 2003 Short Story Prize, the 2004 Bellwether Prize, the 2004 Dana Awards, and the 2005 Pushcart Prize. Check her out at: www.mmdevoe.com

2.07.2007

Not Quite Weekly Writing Prompt #7

Paper Coach : Teach Yourself to Write Fiction

Write a story around these four words: teetotaler, coyote, tuning fork, and proskynesis. Post the results and, as always: good luck, write on, and never look back!

2.06.2007

Paper Coach Contributor Published Again

Paper Coach : Teach Yourself to Write Fiction

M. M. De Voe - author and Paper Coach contributor - has had another work published!

You can read it at www.ficklemuses.com