Category: business

Gutsy

I did something kind of brave last week.

I was trying to encourage a friend of mine to apply for a job/internship. She was scared because she knew how she would feel if turned down. So I just talked with her for a bit about how all of writing is scary and the fact that she had done cold interviews and gotten stories done was proof of how brave he was and to be brave about this, too.

Don’t know if she’s done the application yet or not. But I took the advice to heart as well.

I submitted my fiction story “Sow The Wind” to the Best American Short Stories volume for next year. It published in January 2022 with Swamp Ape Review. https://www.swampapereview.com/sow-the-wind

“Sow The Wind” is I think the best short fiction story I’ve ever written. The last scene came to me very vividly, and then I had to work backwards and figure out how to get to that last scene. Then I had to make sure I had the scenes in the right order. Swamp Ape Review is the first place I sent it, and they accepted it very quickly. So that tells me it had the effect I wanted it to and all.

All a story needs to have to apply to Best American Short Stories is to be 1) published in the last calendar year 2) in English 3) by an author living in the United States. It’s a big deal to be included. And I think the story stands up well as a story and I wanted to try this venue. So I nominated myself over email since it was an online publication.

All they can do is say no. 🙂 And I have just as good a chance that the answer might be yes. So I took the risk.

What’s a risk you want to take with your writing career? Take it. All they can do is say no.

Work Vs. Play

So here’s an eternal question for you–how to balance the day job and the creative life.

I am finding that I am too tired from the day job to write creatively during the week.

I try to reserve my weekends for family. Especially my Sundays. I try to rest during the weekend and recharge.

But if I don’t write creatively on a regular basis, my mood goes south.

I don’t quite know what to do.

I’ve been avoiding my nonfiction project for about two weeks now: I spent yesterday with Bob going Christmas shopping and usually try to reserve my Sundays for rest and church.

But I know I don’t need to go very long without working on a creative project because a week’s delay turns into two weeks, then three, then a month, then before I know it, the New Year will be here, and I will be grumpy that I didn’t accomplish much creatively.

But I also know I need to make time for what is important to me. My family is important. My day job is important to me. Rest and recharging are essential as well. But somewhere I need to find the wherewithal to write.

I need to think on this and restructure my week somehow.

Again, an eternal question. I need to remember why I found work and why my writing is important to me as well. I will solve it. I just need to think harder about it instead of just letting time slip through my fingers.