Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 227

Pitch Your Work at the Writer's Digest Conference

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Next week, the annual Writer's Digest
Conference will convene again in the heart of New York City. It includes an extensive
pitch slam offering an opportunity to pitch your work to agents (more than 50 are
attending)—speed dating style.



I'll also be there to present the following:



Your
Publishing Options: Should you pursue self-publishing, try to get the attention
of a large publisher, or set your sights on a small press? I objectively present the
options and how to decide based on your career goals.



Panel:
E-Publishing and Multimedia Options: E-reading is here, and it's not going away.
So what does it all mean for you personally? Here's your chance to ask your questions
and find out.



Panel:
DIY Publishing: This session breaks down in great detail the many paths you can
take and how to be successful at each. What are the benefits? What are the limitations?
What are the dangers?

If you haven't yet registered, you can still do so, either in advance or on-site. Use
my speaker code, WDspeaker, to get $70 off.

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The Evolution of How I Use Twitter

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I've written several lengthy posts on
how writers can use Facebook to platform build.



I've said very little about Twitter use.



That's because it's so difficult to give advice on how to use Twitter that would apply
to everybody.



So much depends on:



What type of audience you'd like to reach and how (or whether) they use Twitter

Whether you intend on being a source of information or using it for conversations


Where you're at in your career and how many followers you have

My philosophy about Twitter tends to align with the opinions expressed in this article, "Twitter
Is NOT a Social Network." In it, a Twitter exec says:

Twitter is for news. Twitter is for content. Twitter
is for information.

And that's how I use it.




I'm sure you've noticed my weekly
Twitter round-ups by now. It's not about Twitter, but about great content I find
through Twitter.



Since I started the weekly round-ups, I've gone from a few hundred followers to 40,000
followers. How did I get so many followers?



I'm extremely focused in what I tweet out.

Nearly every tweet links to information that's valuable—or offers a link to a new
blog post.

I only tweet a few times a day unless I'm live-tweeting an event.

The weekly Twitter round-ups bring more attention to my presence.

Twitter started including me on "top people to follow" lists related to books/literature
(probably due to the 4 previous tactics).



That strategy hasn't changed since I joined Twitter in May 2008.



But I've had to change my approach in following people and information on Twitter.
Here are the stages I experienced:



When I first started using Twitter, I followed everyone who followed me.



At some point, that became too time-consuming. So I only followed people who directly
engaged with me on Twitter, or who RT'd me, or who otherwise mentioned me.

Finally, I stopped following even those people who were, it hurts to say, immensely
kind. (Remember: I still get to have conversations with those people on Twitter even
if I don't follow them.)

By stage 3, I was following about 3,000 people, and it became meaningless to follow
anyone else. Why? Because there was far too much information in my stream and I had
to stop looking at it.



So I resorted to Twitter
lists, RSS feeds, and Yahoo Pipes to
scrape information (tweets) from the people who I really needed to follow—to keep
up with the industry and to report on best tweets.



Unfortunately, this has meant that my live Twitter conversation is fairly limited,
even though I keep an eye on Twitter throughout the day. It puts the burden on other
people to initiate conversations with me. I've always felt guilty about this.



So Now I'm at Stage 4


I actively unfollow dozens of people every week, in a slow march toward a manageable
number of people to follow. Why bother now, you might ask?



This is critical: There are now tools (third-party applications) that use who
you follow on Twitter to generate valuable content mash-ups.



Two popular examples include:



Paper.li


Flipboard


If I want to make the most of these tools, then I have to follow only those people
who use Twitter in about the same way I do: To spread valuable information.



Perhaps more important: Because these tools can create content that the larger
public can tap into and follow, then it becomes imperative that I'm selective
with the people I follow. Otherwise the content that's generated becomes a meaningless
hash.



No one wants to ostracize their followers, but for the good of the many, it seems
necessary to focus the following list. (Certainly Twitter lists are supposed to perform
this function in part, but I'll leave that discussion for another day.)



I welcome your thoughts, especially from those who have been using Twitter since 2008.

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Make It Memorable: What Does That Mean?

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One my favorite pasttimes these days is pondering the kind of writing advice that
can actually hurt writers—usually by becoming a cliche, without offering a
deep understanding of a complex issue.




Here's an excellent cliche explained and presented by Lee Martin, in
the most recent Glimmer Train bulletin:

"Make it memorable," the editor of a respected literary
journal told me when he came to visit Arkansas and to critique student manuscripts.
That was the thing that made a story jump out of the slush pile and onto the pages
of a lit journal. Something memorable that just wouldn't get out of a reader's head.



My problem was I thought the memorable was only located in the plot. I'd yet to learn
to appreciate the more subtle shadings of characters as they created and then moved
through the intricacies of their lives. I needed to be paying less attention to what
happened and more attention to the characters involved.

Go read the entire piece, "Make
It Memorable."

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Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 1/7/11)

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I watch Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Sunday for the week's best Tweets.
If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the Comments. Want to know about the best stuff
I read each week? Click
here to subscribe to my shared items.






















Best of the Best

The Top 10 Fiction Writing Articles of
2010


@BubbleCow



"I've sold over 185,000 books since April 15." Amanda
Hocking on e-publishing.


@sarahw



Lessons Learned From Tim Ferriss' Book Launch


@thecreativepenn

Getting Published, Agents/Editors

Here's
a post I did on word counts after consulting with a number of US trade book editors

@colleenlindsay



When Publishing Dreams Become a Nightmare - the
author's perspective on my blog

@RachelleGardner



Freelance Writer Rates: Who Pays the Most Online?


@AdviceToWriters

Craft & Technique

The Contradictory
Nature of Great Fiction


@40kBooks



5 situations where it's better to tell than show in your
fiction


@io9



Five Words You Can Cut


@AdviceToWriters



A Writer's Plot Board: Getting organized


@4kidlit



Great series on self-editing, this week contextual editing [by
@ChuckWendig]

@BubbleCow

Publishing News & Trends

10
Biggest Predictions for the Future of Book Publishing


@thecreativepenn



Fantastic essay on the nature of the web. Read this
now: "The Web Is a Customer Service Medium"


@andrewsavikas



What lies ahead in publishing: @timoreilly on the
influence of ebooks and why notions of "publisher" should change.


@toc

Marketing and Promotion

A Market Of One via @mitchjoel
(remember re ebook protestations!)


@thecreativepenn



Drop the Pen, Grab a Hammer: Building the Writer's
Platform


@ChuckWendig




Book marketing mistakes: great series from @bookbuzzr:
No 1 – No Tag Line for Book or Author

@dirtywhitecandy



Creating An Author Brand: Why It's Not Really About the
Book


@elizabethscraig



YouTube trends manager offers tips & new tools for
book trailer makers


@GalleyCat

Self-Publishing & E-Publishing

Do
authors make good publishers? Agent Richard Curtis said no, J.A. Konrath answered
back [see comments on post for link to Konrath's response]

@publisherswkly



TechDirt asks: Have We Reached A Tipping Point Where
Self-Publishing Is Better Than Getting A Book Deal?


@PublishersWkly



Author Devon Glenn shares lessons learned while reaching
her @kickstarter goal this week


@GalleyCat

Websites & Blogging

Very
interesting thoughts on the value of blogging vs Twitter


@DanBlank



How to Create an Engaging and Effective Bio Page for
Your Blog or Website


@elizabethscraig

Social Media

8
Sentences to Immediately Cut From Your Twitter Bio


@elizabethscraig



The Counter-intuitive Nature of Social Media Influence. Sometimes
Up is Down & Down is Up

@elizabethscraig



Case Study: How Twitter propelled @sarahsalway's republished
book up the Kindle charts


@publishingtalk

Online
Tools & Resources

Best
of the Best: Character, Plot, Dialogue and Structure


@4kidlit



Resources for Authors Traveling To Book Clubs & Schools


@elizabethscraig

The Writing Life

J.K.
Rowling on Failure And Imagination


@jonathanfields



Why slow, long-form thought & writing is thriving in
a world of Tweets


@pomeranian99

@nickbilton

Looking for more?




Want to know about the best stuff I read each week?


Click here to subscribe
to my shared items.




Follow me on Twitter (@JaneFriedman)







List of Tweeps most
often included in weekly Best Tweets for Writers (always under development)



Writer's Digest editors on Twitter: @writersdigest @brianklems @robertleebrewer @jessicastrawser @chucksambuchino @psexton1 @kellymesserly




Become a fan at the Writer's Digest Facebook
page (10K+ fans)

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Writing Memoir: Art vs. Confessional

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Continuing with the theme of memoir this week, Susan Cushman (pictured above) is
today's guest on NO RULES. Like
Darrelyn Saloom, Susan was deeply impacted by the reading of Robert Goolrick at
the Oxford Creative Nonfiction Conference.



Susan will be a new monthly guest blogger, so please offer her a warm welcome. You
can also find Susan over at A Good
Blog Is Hard to Find and Pen
and Palette.




--



A couple of years ago, during a manuscript critique workshop I was attending in Oxford,
Mississippi, workshop leader Scott
Morris (Waiting for April, The Total View of Taftly) said something
I will never forget:

A memoir must be artful and not just real. Yes,
you've lived it—the abuse, the loss, the suffering—now you have to get up and above
it, distance yourself, and spin a good yarn. You've got to create art from
what you lived.

It's not that he was being insensitive to the painful stories that were
so courageously shared by the new writers at the workshop—he genuinely cared about
what we had lived through. But he wasn't there in the role of therapist. He was there
to help us become better writers. "We write to reclaim a part of our life," he
said, "but it has to be about the art."




There are plenty of opportunities to talk about the trauma in your life, if that's
what you want to do. If you're into public confession, you can get paid to air your
dirty laundry on talk shows. If it's healing you're after, there are the traditional
and private venues like the psychologist's office and the church confessional. If
you believe you just have to write about what happened to you, go ahead.




But don't try to get it published, unless you do the hard work of spinning that
painful experience into the golden threads of an artful memoir.




My favorite memoirists have all done this well: Mary Karr has mined a rough childhood
for three brilliantly written volumes: The Liar's Club, Cherry and Lit.
Augusten Burroughs has carried his horrific story through nearly a half dozen books.
Haven Kimmel's A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch were
anything but sappy confessionals. And Kim Michelle Richardson's heartbreaking story
of abuse at the hands of priests and nuns at the Catholic orphanage where she grew
up— The Unbreakable Child —reads
more like a novel than a revenge piece. (Although her attorney has certainly called
Rome into account.)



In November I was down in Oxford (Mississippi) again—this time as co-director of the
2010 Creative Nonfiction Conference—when I was treated to yet another unveiling of
a memoir masterpiece.




I hadn't even read his work yet when I introduced Robert
Goolrick as one of the panelists for our afternoon session. He was going to be
signing and reading from his memoir, The
End of the World As We Know It , later that evening at Off Square Books.




I had no idea what I was in for. I sat near the front so that I could take pictures
for my blog, but I almost had to leave before it was over, for fear of disturbing
the others who had come to hear him. You see, I was bawling during most of his reading.
People were passing me tissues. A new acquaintance put her arm around me supportively.




Goolrick was raped by his father "just once" when he was a small boy and his father
was drunk. His memoir describes, in the most powerful, dark, poetic prose I've ever
read on the subject, the ongoing affects on the soul of the person who is violated
in this way:

If you don't receive love from the ones who are
meant to love you, you will never stop looking for it, like an amputee who never stops
missing his leg, like the ex-smoker who wants a cigarette after lunch fifteen years
later.




It sounds trite. It's true. You will look for it in objects that you buy without want.
You will look for it in faces you do not desire. You will look for it in expensive
hotel rooms, in the careful attentiveness of the men and women who change the sheets
every day, who bring you pots of tea and thinly sliced lemon and treat you with false
deference. …




You will look for it in shop girls and the kind of sad and splendid men who sell you
clothing. You will look for it and you will never find it. You will not find a trace.

If you haven't guessed by now, I was sexually abused. First, by my grandfather
when I was a young girl. And later by others in my young adult life. And yes, I've
spent many hours talking with therapists and priests and other victims of abuse, and
no, I'm not okay. If Goolrick is right, I may never be okay.




And yet I found it darkly comforting, listening to him read these words that explain
why he decided to tell his story:

I tell it because there is an ache in my
heart for the imagined beauty of a life I haven't had, from which I have been locked
out, and it never goes away.

Writing his memoir didn't heal Goolrick's pain, but he certainly did
"get up and above it" and what he wrote is art of the highest caliber.




My writing critique group will probably be the only people ever to read all eighteen
chapters of the memoir I spent two years writing. Just as it was beginning to vaguely
resemble art, I realized I wasn't willing to go public with it, and so I abandoned
it for fiction. Maybe there, in the writing of a novel, I can find "the imagined beauty
of a life I haven't had."

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Limited Offer: Get Started Writing in 2011

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I'm often asked by absolutely new writers: How do I get started?



In honor of the new year, Writer's Digest is offering a
comprehensive package of tools, for a limited time, that helps answer that question.



This package includes:



An independent study writing workshop, based on a best-selling online course offered
from Writer's Digest



First
Draft in 30 Days




From
First Draft to Finished Novel




Writer's
Digest Weekly Planner




Your
Very First Page webinar (presented by yours truly)



Keys
to Great Writing




Writing
Basics magazine (a special Writer's Digest issue)





If you bought all of these items a la carte, the price would be nearly $500. Right
now, you can get it for $140 (70% off).

 

Only 100 are available, and when they're gone, they're gone! Click
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3 Important Privacy Issues in Memoir

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Today's guest post is from author and professor Tracy
Seeley. Her memoir, My Ruby Slippers, will soon be available from University
of Nebraska Press. Visit her blog, or pre-order
the book from Amazon.






When we write memoir, we pull back the curtain on our private lives and invite readers
in. We willingly give up our privacy, or a chunk of it. But because we're human, our
stories also include other people: parents and siblings, teachers and neighbors, lovers
and friends—and they haven't exactly signed on to the deal.



What about their privacy?




This question can shut a memoirist right up. What if Aunt Betsy never speaks to me
again? Or what if the next door neighbor decides to sue? Exposing others in the course
of telling our story can feel pretty risky. So let's tease apart the issues and address
the fears.




1. What Will [So-and-So] Think? Will They Ever Speak to Me
Again?


Writing memoir is not for the faint-hearted. We do think about how others will react,
or worry we'll damage our relationships. But writing out of fear is the worst way
to go about creating a memoir. Our first obligation is to the art and truth of our
story. And that means not censoring ourselves.




Of course, writing always means choosing: which details to include, which to leave
out, which elements of a story to foreground, which to minimize, how to shape a chapter,
what events mean.




But the writer chooses.




The fear censor doesn't get to choose, and neither do the other characters in our
story, who may take up residence in our heads and try to commandeer the pencil.




When I wrote my memoir, I learned to listen for two inner voices. One was the quiet,
sure voice of artistic instinct. Yes, it would say, this part of the story has to
be told, and should be told in this way.




The riskier the moment felt, the louder a second voice would pop up and say "No!"
Every time, I had to take a deep breath, and despite the fear, follow the voice of
the artist.




2. Ethical Obligations: Clean Motives and Transparency


However, this doesn't mean we should be callous in exposing others to the light. It's
essential to have clean motives in representing others. Memoir shouldn't be an occasion
for humiliating, shaming or punishing someone. It's not an instrument of revenge,
but of shaping meaning from our lives.




In my book, a character does something that hurts me terribly at the time—and yet
the story wasn't really in what he did, but what I came to understand about myself
afterward.

So in writing about this episode, I had to make
sure my motives were clean. No revenge, no shaming.

To make sure I wasn't exposing him for the wrong reasons, I decided
early on not to use his real name, a choice I disclose to readers.



Once a manuscript is finished, many memoirists allow the other actors in their stories
to read it, and then discuss anything they may find troubling. This doesn't mean you're
obligated to change things. But there may be room—now that the work is finished—for
some negotiation.




I let my sisters read my manuscript, and despite my having disclosed family stories,
was surprised by their unqualified support. If they'd objected to something, I would
have been open to negotiating a change if it wouldn't have hampered the book. I also
like to think that a conversation about why I thought something essential might have
persuaded a reluctant sister to agree.




I also sent the manuscript to a childhood friend who's featured very positively in
one chapter. I wasn't asking for approval, but simply wanted her to know what was
coming—public exposure. Simply letting our subjects in to the process goes a long
way toward soothing any surprises down the road.




3. The Legal Angle: Real and Unreal Fears


If you're in doubt about the legality of your depiction of another person, there's
no substitute for trained legal advice. Still, with a basic understanding of the issues,
it's possible to guard against trouble.




First, you should know that memoirists don't often get sued. But when it happens,
the claims are either for defamation or invasion of privacy. Here's what you should
know about both.



Defamation. If someone says you've defamed them, they're claiming what you've
written is untrue, and done so with malice. So besides having clean motives, your
best protection is to write the truth. Check your facts and have evidence to back
up your claims. Uncle Bert may be angry about your unflattering depiction of him,
but if he really did hide his hooch in the hay loft, you're on solid ground.




You also can't be sued for your opinion. So if you depict Uncle Bert as an insensitive
lout, he may withhold your birthday present, but he can't sue.



Defamation claims can also arise when the writer and his or her subject remember things
differently. Each claims his or her version is true, and that the other person is
lying. This is what happened in the case of Augusten Burroughs, who was sued by the
family featured in Running With Scissors.




We all know memory is fickle, so it's easy enough to acknowledge the fact and head
off this kind of defamation problem. Perhaps in your preface, introduction or acknowledgments,
write that you've been faithful to your memory, but your subjects may remember things
differently. As part of the settlement in his case, this is what Burroughs wrote in
subsequent editions of his book, as well as saying that he intended no harm.




Invasion of Privacy. This legal claim might seem the scarier prospect. We are,
after all, revealing things about others they may not have revealed on their own.
Yet from a legal standpoint, this doesn't automatically mean you've invaded their
privacy. A successful claim depends on proving that you have revealed facts "not related
to public concern."




So what does this mean? Quite simply, a defense depends on arguing a legitimate "public
concern." This can take a number of forms. In some cases, the fact that a publisher
chose to publish the book has been enough to show a legitimate public interest.




Several strategies can help us avoid privacy lawsuits in the first place. Some memoirists
get written permission from subjects before they start. Some disguise the identity
of the person they're depicting, giving them different physical characteristics, perhaps
a different profession or different city of residence—whatever will prevent them from
being recognized in their own community.




Final Thoughts


As I wait for my book to come out this spring, I feel a bit of fear rise up. My parents,
central to my story, are no longer alive, so I rest easy on that score. But people
who knew and cared about them are still around, and I worry how they will react. But
I also know that I've written the best book I can, with artistic aims foremost. I've
been faithful to my own experience, acknowledging that others may remember things
differently. I know that my motives have been clean, and as a sign of respect, I've
shared the manuscript with those who have the most at stake.




As you work on your own memoir, write with fidelity to your own experience while knowing
that memory is fallible. Write with respect for your subjects, even if they come across
as louts. And tell your story true, artfully and with courage.




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My Ruby Slippers will be available in March 2011 from the University of Nebraska
Press.



Go
find out more, or visit Tracy's site.

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Can You Write Like Jane Austen?

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If you're a Jane Austen fan, you don't want to miss this.



My friends & colleagues over at Adams Media are running a Bad
Austen writing competition.



In the tradition of the Bulwer-Lytton Contest and the Bad Hemingway and Bad Faulkner
contests, here's your chance pen a scene of a "classic" novel Jane
Austen never wrote.



How is it done?



Write a scene no longer than 800 words.

You are free to determine plot, characters, and setting.

Obviously the style must parody Austen.

Other rules apply, which you can
read about here.



The top reader-voted scene will receive special recognition in Bad Austen,
the book. So … go forth and write
like Jane Austen!




Related fun: Jane Austen quotes


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A Feast of Days (Part 4): The Last Chapter

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Today's guest post is by emerging writer Darrelyn Saloom, who recently attended
the Oxford Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference,
and is offering up a 4-part narrative on the experience. Darrelyn is a regular guest
here at No Rules. Follow her on Twitter or read
her previous posts. (Pictured above: William Faulkner statue on the square, in
Oxford, Miss.)



On the third day of the Oxford Creative Nonfiction
Writers Conference and Workshops, after my pitch fest debacle (read Part
3 for that disaster), co-writer Deirdre Gogarty and I headed back to the Overby
Center on the Ole Miss campus for a panel discussion on "Defending the Genre" of creative
nonfiction with Lee Gutkind, Dinty
W. Moore, Mike Rosenwald, and Robert Goolrick.



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(Pictured above: Dinty W. Moore, Neil White, who assembled the perfect authors
for the conference, and Robert Goolrick)  




The esteemed panelists discussed criticisms they've endured as nonfiction writers
who use literary devices such as dialogue, description, and personal point of view
to enhance their tales and bring them to life. Unfortunately, a few infamous liars
have topped best-seller lists and have blighted the field for others who excel in
the art of accurate storytelling—hence the need to defend the genre.




After a lively discussion the audience bundled up and hustled downtown to Off
Square Books for a reception and book signing with panelists and other authors
attending the conference. Wineglasses filled and emptied and the bookstore buzzed
with chatter as attendees shared stories and bought books to have them inscribed. Deirdre and
I then heaved our book-filled bags towards a small stage to sit in metal folding chairs
as Robert Goolrick took to the podium.




The best-selling author had been slated to discuss "Crossing Genres." He wore round-framed
eyeglasses and a well-fitted, charcoal-gray sports coat over a sky blue shirt, the
perfect color for his short, graying hair which was carefully combed and side-parted.
Only a small patch, a defiant lock, stuck straight up at the end of his part like
a young boy waving from inside the man. 




Goolrick articulated the way a creative nonfiction writer can use the same lyrical
language as a novelist by first reading from his dark, beautifully written novel, A
Reliable Wife . He then picked up his memoir, The
End of the World As We Know It , and read the last chapter, "A Persistence
of Song." Even though I had read his unforgettable story three years earlier, emotion
throttled me the moment he began:

In a life, in any life, bad things happen. Many
good things happen, of course, we know what they are—joy, tenderness, success, beauty—but
some bad things happen as well. Sometimes, very bad things happen. Children sicken
and die. People we love don't love us, can never love us …

He continued to read and answered a question I'd been pondering throughout
the conference: What compels me to write creative nonfiction? Perhaps it's because
I'm infused by memories and need to write them down. In an effort to understand feelings
and actions, I must look deeply but not very far. The stories are right here, in my
body, my soul, my psyche, and in the mementos around me. As Goolrick said:

It is in the photographs of our mothers and our
fathers. It is in a piece of costume jewelry, left in a drawer, in the sounds of other
people making love in the next hotel room, or on the edge of a razor blade in the
glowing darkness. Even in the razor in the darkness. 

I sat paralyzed by the power of his words and felt connected to every
person in the room who also sat in stunned silence. I allowed Goolrick's pain to soak
into the dirt and grime of my own life in hopes to ease a portion of his angst and
let go my own tears as he described in detail the prescription drugs he must take
to get through a day and to still sleep badly at night. To know Goolrick's story,
you'll have to read his memoir. But I'll share with you two of his reasons for writing
it:

I tell it because there is an ache in my heart for
the imagined beauty of a life I haven't had, from which I have been locked out, and
it never goes away.




I tell it because I try to believe, because I do believe with all my heart, that there
is a persistence of song.

The impeccable author finished his reading and asked a roomful of writers,
journalists, and talkers if anyone had any questions. But no one could speak. Our
throats were constricted, so we stood and mingled in a daze. Then Goolrick signed
his books and told me that he had publicly read from his novel but this was the first
time he had openly read from his memoir. It had taken him three years. 




I believe Robert Goolrick chose the perfect setting to do so—a town haunted by ghosts
of William Faulkner and his family. And I'm honored to have been among his audience
of admirers, of poets, authors, and journalists—defenders of creative nonfiction.
I can't imagine a better place to first read a painful last chapter than inside a
warm bookstore, on a cold night in November, on the square in Oxford, Mississippi.  




(Pictured below: Robert Goolrick with 1997 WIBF Champion, Deirdre Gogarty, on the
veranda of Memory House)




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To Inspire You in the New Year

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One year ago, I spent the holidays in Ireland, more than half of it alone on the island
of Inis Meain. (Go
see photos.) It wasn't a digital sabbatical—I had an Internet connection at my
cottage—but it was a giant swath of solitude.



I've been reading a book titled Solitude,
and have found a gem on nearly every page. Here's an early one in the introduction,
which gives you a sense of the book's key idea:

… what goes on in the human being when he is by
himself is as important as what happens in his interactions with other people.



 … Two opposing drives operate throughout life: the drive for companionship,
love, and everything else which brings us close to our fellow men; and the drive toward
being independent, separate, and autonomous. …



The creative person is constantly seeking to discover himself, to remodel his own
identity, and to find meaning in the universe through what he creates. He finds this
a valuable integrating process which, like meditation or prayer, has little to do
with other people, but which has its own separate validity. His most significant moments
are those in which he attains some new insight, or makes some new discovery; and these
moments are chiefly, if not invariably, those in which he is alone.

In a similar vein, I also stumbled on a poem by Marge Piercy, "For
the Young Who Want To." Here's a stanza to inspire you in the new year:

The real writer is one

who really writes. Talent

is an invention like phlogiston

after the fact of fire.

Work is its own cure. You have to

like it better than being loved.

--



I'm taking a brief digital sabbatical over New Year's Eve & Day, but tune in Monday,
January 3, for the final part of Darrelyn
Saloom's series, "A Feast of Days."






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