Creating a Literary Community for Yourself

Part of the process of getting published is finding literary magazines you love!— and want to read whether or not they have accepted your work recently. I like to call this a literary magazine community—a community that showcases the type of writing you love, and the kind of writer you want to be.

But how to begin?

Get obsessive! Read up on editors, and the authors they’ve published. Have a heart-to-heart about the magazine’s mission. Don’t be daunted by the various demands for submitting work (no simsub is always a tough one). Really decide if this literary magazine is right for you and your work… and most importantly, walk away if it isn’t.

The truth is, your work is publishable—in the right place and at the right time. It may seem time consuming “getting to know” some of the hundreds of literary magazines out there—but it is worth it. Perhaps you can send out a fifty simultaneous submissions to a fifty different magazines—but if you are writing in Terza Rima and 49 of the magazines do not publish work written in form, then you are already wasting your time (and the editors, too!).
No one likes receiving a rejection letter, and though it is inevitable, it also doesn’t have to be excruciating.

Become aligned with the views and ideals of the magazines you’re submitting to, and you’ll become aligned with the greater community of writers. We all want to be published…all of the time. But in lieu of that, isn’t it better to support the cause of literature, and the literature you like best?

I love being a part of 5x5 because I believe in the short form. I like efficient, powerful imagery. I like it when a writer says just enough. I also like writing centered around women’s issues and am a huge fan of Earth’s Daughters. Even if I am not published in every and/or any of their issues, I want to see this kind of writing in the world.

So what do you want? How do you describe your work? Be honest…most of us don’t write in a style that is going to appeal to every person out there. What writers inspire you? What literary magazines have published them? Build a community a literary magazines that reflect your truth and talents as a writer.

Memory and Effigy

I recently read a draft of a poem that had the line "Why recently, I am so drawn to dilapidation."  

If you read my last post, you will know that I most whole-heartedly agree with that statement!  Again and again, I am being drawn to images, places, and people that are past their prime.  Whether you want to call it dilapidation, beautiful ruin, or even something melodramatic like the gorgeous flaw, the fact remains that what is imperfect is far more interesting than something seamless and perfect.  Perfection has its place, perhaps with Plato or in heaven.  But here on earth, what garners my attention in writing are flawed characters, broken dreams, and the imperfect world of objects.

Who wants to read about St. Blandula's struggle-free life, where she was always immersed in the divine and never tempted?  Not me.

There is an impulse within all of us to look back at the past through rose colored glasses.  We call this nostalgia or the "good old days."  History shows us again and again, that people like to recall a semi-mythical past in which their culture was at its greatest.  The ancient Greeks (specifically Hesiod) called this their Golden Age, an age where men "lived with the gods without sorrow."  There is a reason that the good stories from Greek mythology come later, at a more flawed stage of mankind.  Where would our fairy tale princesses be without the long climb up to the castle throne?

So it is with each of us.  When we begin to write, we may want to edit out the very parts of our stories that make them the most compelling.  We might want to avoid the unpleasant or embarrassing aspects.  Or even believe that our memory is absolute fact.  That hazy world of the "good old days" beckons us, whispers in our ear to return, and ultimately to enter into an idealized, struggle free piece of writing.  We become the lotus eaters that Homer warned us about.  In other words, boring.

We, as writers, need to ask ourselves what we truly wish to show in our writing.

Miriam-Webster defines an effigy first as, "an image or representation, especially of a person" but then more interestingly as "a crude figure representing a hated person."  We immediately know what we are interested in hearing more about.  Give me enemies for $1000 please.

The word effigy comes from Middle French and Latin, meaning to form or to shape.  It has a connection to the word dough.  As a former baker, I know intimately, what it means to shape loaves for the rising and baking process.  So it is with writing.

As you begin drafting or revising your pieces, I encourage you to write straight at the heart of imperfection.  Dig deeper into the flaws of your characters and narratives.  Is is through these cracks and brokenness that our strongest stories find their way into the world.

What Beginners Should Know

I remember my first fiction writing teacher telling me, "I think this story is great for a first time fiction writer."  I put it in quotes even though I don't remember what she said verbatim.  Dr. Rita Carey.  Thanks for that.  It was exactly what I needed to hear at the time.

Even at the time, I knew it needed a lot of improvement, but I didn't know how to make it better.  The foreshadowing was too obvious, and the dialogue was unrealistic.  As Ira Glass mentions, I could see that it wasn't great, but I didn't know what to do to make it better.  Dr. Carey knew what to tell me to give me hope.  Her words could be summed up as: "Good start."

There's so much room for improvement, and if you keep trying, you'll get there.  I had been reading great writing for years.  Books that had been written, revised, edited, published and then purchased by different readers for decades.  How could I possibly expect my first attempt at writing fiction to compare?

That's why Dr. Carey was the teacher.  Some of the other students in the class weren't as constructive with their criticism.  I remember one fellow classmate writing on my story, "Overall your writing is quite pedestrian."  I think he was bitter because I had given him some not-so-constructive criticism as well.  Let's face it, I wasn't qualified to be a teacher either.  But discouraging words can also be a sense of encouragement if you look at it right.  I cut his comments out of the paper and pasted them into my writing notebook as a reminder.

We all start somewhere.  And as we continue practicing, what we produce comes closer and closer to what we know is great.

Beautiful Things

I have finally purchased a digital camera.

It isn't that I'm anti-technology--I'm truly quite fond of it--but my film camera was still working pretty well(though I have about 7 undeveloped rolls lurking in a draw somewhere), and I knew that waiting would bring the price down.

Anyway, I'm one of those people. Those people who take pictures of everything. Those people who make you stop in the middle of something so I can take a picture of it/you partaking in it. Those people who ruin the ambiance of the moment by trying to capture the moment, and then the moments gone. Those people who will even try and make you re-enact the scenario if I missed it.

Forgive me.

I am not really even "into photography." What I am "into" is "beautiful things."

For me, a beautiful thing is something small that sums up a feeling. An image that can serve as a symbol for the spirit of an event. All of these events make up my life--these are symbols that represent the spirit of my life.

Beautiful things are different for every person, and sometimes they don't make sense later. In five years, will I appreciate the photo of two strangers wearing hot sauce holsters at Oysterfest? Maybe. Did I love it when I saw it? Yes! And taking a photo of this small event is for me a ritual that honors beautiful things.

Mishon