Chew on Writing Goals

As we get closer to 2011, I taste and spice and chew earnestly on my writing goals. Signing with a new agent within a couple of months is one goal, as well as working on my new novel with the urgency it deserves. I'll continue to market screenplays, poetry and short stories when opportunities arise, teach workshops when invited, consult and edit for other writers. I will enjoy time with my writing friends, especially my sisters of the quill. Resolutions from the Inkpot

velvet imaginings

Overheard Lately between the SOTQ:

"Alas for my sisters' vast talents that lay obscured beneath the smothering velvet of their own imaginings."

"I'm having one of those days where I wonder why I'm even bothering. Frustrated. Feeling like a big loser. Just all around wondering if it's too much effort."

"Not that all the loserness has gone away, but I can see the good things, too. We must cling to the things that make us happy."

Request Full

I love it when an agent asks for a full manuscript! My Inkpot spilleth over.

Clean

When you clean up your house, you clean up your mind. It may look like writing avoidance, but it allows the imagination to play while the hands are busy with the mundane. And it all looks better afterward. So says the unspilled Inkpot.

Craft versus Voice

A writer friend, Frank Dorchak, poses the question of craft versus heart of writing fiction.

http://fpdorchak.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/what-is-writing-really/#comment-74

I say both are important and many others have said it better:
Craft:
“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” – Lin Yutang
Heart:
“When a thought takes one’s breath away, a grammar lesson seems an impertinence.” – Thomas W. Higginson

Inkpot says: We don't write just to show off craft or just to share our voices and hearts with others. We write like addicts when it seems we should give up. Why? Because the writing itself is cathartic and cheaper than a psychiatrist and drugs – unless they are generic.

2010 HOLT Medallion Contest

Soliloquy was selected as an Award of Merit recipient in the HOLT Medallion contest in the Best First Book category!

Pulling Weeds

Our Dear Sister of the Quill, Folio, pulled weeds yesterday. She teased that it may be somehow bad that she calms when doing it. I'd say that is a very good sign for a writer. For what is more like pulling weeds than editing. Among the good words are those that just don't fit, that are disadvantageous, that choke the other words until they die on the page. So weed away, sister. You are letting the good plants (and words) shine through with all their colors. Inkpot admires many tools you have for pulling those pesky weeds!