Let’s write a poem.
Let’s open up and spill our guts.
Let’s write a poem.
Let’s grab the words, create a tome.
Let’s reveal all of what is what.
Let’s stitch together all the cuts.
Let’s write a poem.
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This is a RONDELET. The poem form has 7 lines. The refrain on lines 1, 3, and 7 is 4 syllables; the rest of the lines are 8 syllables. Rhyme scheme is ABAaBBA (where ‘a’ rhymes with the refrain).
I’ve been working on a book of high school poetry units this summer. I’ve been adapting lessons I’ve used for years. I had to write a lot of poems as examples for all the poetry forms (since I don’t have permissions to publish other people’s work). I wrote this Ottava Rima, but decided its tone was too negative to include in the book. I wrote a second Ottava Rima using all the same rhymes that is poetry positive, but I thought you might enjoy this one. 🙂
Ottava Rima form requires:
Teacher Woe
Some get to choose if they should write a poem
While others do not get to have a say
They write when teacher says and so they moan
“I do not want to write a poem today.”
They talk in class, but do not work at home.
The assignment’s ignored so they can play
When poems are handed in, then some will cry,
“I didn’t write. Why-oh-why didn’t I?”
Patience is a virtue is proven in this one!
After a couple years of yearning whenever a new copy of a favourite literature magazine arrived, thinking “I wish I could be published in this,” I finally told myself that to make it happen, I would actually have to submit something. I had a story that I thought would be a good fit, and sent it off March 2021. At that time, their site said they respond within 3 months.
At 6 months when I hadn’t heard, I thought it was probably a good sign, that it might have been put into a ‘maybe’ file. At 9 months, I sent a note and asked about the piece.
In January 2022 I got a decline on the story. I was sad, because I still thought it was a really good fit for them, but that’s just the way things work. I pondered sending it elsewhere, or releasing it as one of my Minute Reads. But I didn’t get around to it.
Last week I got an email asking if the story was still available. 13 months after submitting.
So yay! Sometimes things work out unexpectedly. You never know who at a publication will say, “But what about that story, wouldn’t it work here?”
Submit pieces you know would be good fits, and the editors may (eventually) agree with you! 🙂
After the contracts are signed, I will let you know where to get your copy!
Here’s a peek at my writing zone.
The desk was built by my grandfather about 70 years ago. I inherited it when my mom died last summer. I was so happy to find an ergonomic (tilting!) keyboard tray with a swing-away mouse pad that fit between its drawers, so I can fit my ergnomic keyboard and mouse, and it tucks right up underneath when I’m done working.
The bookshelf shows a bit of my collection of writing resources, some practical, some fun!
Close ups of my (custom) mug and my needle-felted desk poodle, made from some of OJ’s wool, and finally a shot out the window of a pretty sunset over the hills earlier in the month.
My desk has to be in its own room, because I am too messy to work in a public zone. (Yes, I tidied before taking the photo!)
Do I work at this desk all the time? No. I will also work out on my porch swing in the summer, in the bath (using a full-size waterproof keyboard) or on my living room couch. However, if I’m doing a lot of writing or particularly formatting, the ergonomic set-up is important for avoiding pain. I never write in coffee shops, because I live in small place, so people are always interupting to visit. 🙂
If you’re a writer, what does your desk look like?
Here is a ‘black out’ poem, aka ‘erasure’ poem. This is a type of found poetry. The text from this one comes from Janet Whitehead’s book Beyond All Imaginings.
Another demo pantoum poem written with my Creative Writing students today. This one demonstrates the power of this form, as small shifts can alter or intensify meaning. The kids weren’t in the mood to write at the beginning, but by the second stanza they were laughing and engaged as we looked for rhymes that worked.
I don’t want to write a poem today
I’m too tired to use my brain
The thought fills me with dismay
Poems make me insane
I’m too tired to use my brain
My mind is feeling foggy
Poems make me insane
My eyes are getting soggy
My mind is feeling foggy
Can I just return to bed?
My eyes are getting soggy
My heart is filled with dread
I’ll just return to bed
I’m much too tired to think
My heart is filled with dread
My life is on the brink
I’m much too tired to think
If my feelings are uncaged
My life is on the brink
The words won’t fill the page
When my feelings are uncaged
all the thoughts bring me dismay
Words will over-fill the page
I can’t write a poem today
such a long time
in the making.
planned so long ago.
waiting.
injury
healing
tiny steps
tiny steps
tiny steps
make the journey
so
long
but here we are at
the
end.
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August 2018 Nikolette Jones and I bantered out the plans for 3 Nikki Knox stories that I would write by August 2019. Unfortunately, August 28 I suffered a brain injury that meant time off work, therapy, and a long road of recovery. I have been dabbling for 2 years with the 4th book, and it is FINALLY finished! It is two years late, but it’s here at last! Nikolette is busy with the art and there will be a new, lovely Nikki Knox 4 book compilation out in the next few months! Yay! It’s so good to have a brain that’s working again.
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November swiftly approaches, and for writers around the world that means the question hovers, “Should I participate in National Novel Writing Month?”
In case you’ve not heard of this event, it’s promoted on NaNoWriMo.org as a way to encourage folks to accomplish their dream to write a novel. The challenge is to complete 50,000 words in the month.
That’s 11, 669 words a week.
That’s 1667 words a day.
For 30 days.
Those who complete a 50,000 word manuscript ‘win’ and are eligible for assorted prizes from writing related businesses. (Those who participate but don’t ‘win’ are also entitled to some prizes)
It’s good to be able to plot your progress on the graph and see your project grow.
It’s empowering to be productive.
But…
It’s also a slog. My non-writing friends don’t like my social media feed during NaNo because it’s all about word-count, recalcitrant characters, exhaustion, and frustration.
Because it’s all about word-count, I’ve noticed my writing quality suffers. I have four NaNo ‘winning’ books in my computer that my editors and I have not been able to make publishable yet. There is something fundamentally off about them. I blame the pressure of NaNo. They’re not ‘winners’ to me, because they’re still sitting there in the computer years later.
When I was writing my first novel, within 3 weeks I realized I had settled into a pace, so I made that pace my quota. 1200 words per day Monday to Friday. 6000 words a week. On the weekend, I could catch up, or get ahead as I liked, but I didn’t have to write if I didn’t want to. I had days off if I’d earned them by keeping to my quota. This system worked brilliantly, and the 155,000 word novel was finished in 6 months. (It was 23 weeks, specifically, that averages 6740 words a week).
It was good. I pitched it successfully to a publisher six months after I finished it. It’s an example of ‘slow and steady wins the race.’
I have 13 books in the world, and none of them were NaNo projects. My NaNo projects remain problematic.
So be careful.
If you’re going to embrace NaNo, here are some suggestions:
I have learned that NaNo is not good for my writing practice. I happily participate in the April and June Camp NaNo events when one can set personal goals, and the projects I’ve done then have been completed and published.
These days I don’t feel guilty for letting November go by as I wave at my frantic colleagues. I’ll plug away on my projects without stressing over word-count, and know I’m producing something better than I could do at NaNo pace. I wouldn’t have learned this if I hadn’t tried so many times, though, and seen the unfortunate pattern. It’s worth doing to discover whether it’s a pace that works for you.
Do or do not, it’s up to you!
How about you? Have you done NaNo? What was your experience?
For some, the pandemic has offered a blessing of time to write that they’ve longed for, and they have taken advantage, holing up at home and writing that novel that’s always been at the back of their minds.
For some, the stress of managing new complications and layers of deadly danger in their workplace or among their family members has shut down all notions of creative expression. They’re in survival mode, and all the stories that were in process have sputtered to a stop.
I’m in both camps. I’ve managed to keep writing poetry, but larger projects eluded me. Added to the pandemic stress, my 90 year old mom broke her hip in April, went through rehab and was released back home, but then she passed away in June. I am executor of her estate, and the magnitude of work required to clean up a life-time of possessions from her house was dramatic.
So here I am, looking at the last four months of 2020. I had a goal to submit 20 times in 2020, and so far, I’ve sent out 9 submissions. The first 8 submissions were in Jan/Feb, to give you an idea of how completely the pandemic froze my world!
The pause.
I just submitted the 9th thing a few days ago. It’s a promise to myself that it’s time to dig out from the pressure. I am pondering ways I can salvage my goal. I aim to spend some time with my unpublished projects and look for potential homes for them. Is it time to try a mass submission drive? Shall I find 11 completed pieces in my computer and send each somewhere? Contests? Journals? Magazines?
Yes.
There are 15 weeks left in 2020. It’s time to find my lists of ‘where to publish’ (Writers Market, here I come!). If I take a week to find projects in the computer, I can submit one thing a week and maybe even beat my goal!
How about you? Have you been struggling to meet your writing goals amid all the stresses of 2020? Will you be making any changes in the final months of the year to achieve your goals?
Do you have any recommendations of good places to submit?
When most people think of publishing they think of two options:
1. traditional publication by either a large publishing house or a small press. In this method a publisher purchases publication rights, edits, designs a cover, and markets the book. Large houses offer advances. Small presses rarely do.
2. self-publishing . The author pays for editing, covers, and marketing themselves. Usually they contract individuals for each of these tasks. (There are self-publishing companies like Lulu or Bookbaby that you can pay to do everything in a package deal, but I’ve yet to meet any successful professional who has used them more than once. They tend to be expensive for what they offer. They’re fine if you are only going to write one family history book to sell to your relatives. Otherwise, there are better options).
What is hybrid publishing?
Hybrid authors are BOTH traditionally published AND self-published.
Why would you do it?
Traditional publishers offer a sense of legitimacy, and in theory, a marketing machine. However, with millions of books submitted to publishers each year, only a handful are going to meet the specific niches a publishing house feels are viable investments. Your traditional publisher may not be interested in all the books you’ve written. Rather than sitting on those works, you can release them yourself. Because you don’t have the tight margins those publishing houses have, you don’t have to sell as many books to make it worthwhile.
Self-publishers earn significantly more per book (30-70% retail) that those who are traditionally published (10-15%). Those who master marketing can do very well.
Authors own their name and their brand. They don’t have to be stuck in only one model to sell their books.
Examples of hybrid publishing:
Contract jurisdiction:
Your publisher may be contracted to release your book in the US. You retain rights for the rest of the world. You will have to get a different cover and a new ISBN, but then you can release your book everywhere outside your traditional publisher’s jurisdiction. Robert Sawyer and C. C. Humphreys are authors I know who do this.
Genre:
You may be well known for one genre and traditionally publish in that genre, but if you’d like to branch out and try something different, your publisher may not be interested. Eileen Cook is a traditionally published YA author, but she writes non-fiction writing guides which she self-publishes. Craig di Louie is a traditionally published horror writer who self-publishes his World War II historical fiction.
Backlist:
Publication contracts are dated. A publisher has publication rights for a certain amount of time. When the contract runs out, the rights revert to the author. The author can then self-publish these pieces from their backlist (i.e. previously published works). For example, Diana Gabaldon writes short pieces for anthologies or magazines. When the rights revert, she self-publishes them as ebooks.
Format:
You may choose in your contract not to give all rights to the publisher. For example, Jonas Saul’s Sarah Roberts print books (paper back or hard cover) are traditionally published; however, Jonas retained the ebook rights and self-publishes the ebooks.
Flexibility is the key to success. Today’s writers are learning that it is unwise to put all their eggs in one basket. Hybrid publishing gives them the opportunity to have a variety of income streams.
All the authors I know who are hybrid publishing tell me they’re delighted to have more control over their income.
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Shawn L. Bird 