The writer’s journey is never a straight line, but a path that meanders through broken glass while you’re walking barefoot. Sometimes you get a shard in your foot, and no matter what, you always bleed. But if you’re lucky, you avoid most of the bigger pieces of glass.
That’s how I feel about writing. It’s frustrating and can be painful, but when everything’s working and you’re firing on all cylinders, it is simply wonderful. This is what keeps us writers coming back for more. And hopefully the reader is there with us.
I’ve been writing stories since I was in third grade. Most of those early stories aren’t very good. We all have to start somewhere, right? In high school I focused on journalism, writing for the newspaper and yearbook staffs. I won various awards for my work, but what I wanted to do most was write creative fiction. Even all those years ago, I felt writing was my calling, my salvation.
Over the next twenty-five years I ignored that calling, writing sporadically and usually not finishing anything. I was great at starting stories, but typically ran out of gas shortly afterward. I’ve got stacks of half-written work that never got completed.
Eventually, I began to finish what I had started. I began to listen to the nagging feeling in my head. The stories weren’t great, but they were finished and they were better than before. My work was improving. I wrote various things—movie reviews, a comic book story, short screenplays.
Then four years ago, I got even more serious about taking my writing to the next level. I began writing blog posts on a semi-regular basis. It also came time to see if I had the chops to become a published writer. I took more writing classes and began submitting my work to publications and anthology calls. The rejections followed, along with some successes.
So that’s where I am today. Join me on my literary travels as I zig and zag through the perilous world of dreaming up stories, writing them, and trying to get them published. It will be treacherous, I’m sure.
What I’m Reading:
I’ve been going through short story collections lately, studying the work of some talented writers. My “to be read” stack of books gets larger and larger every month. The latest collection to strike my fancy has been “Whispers in the Ear of a Dreaming Ape,” by Joshua Chaplinsky. Good stuff. Chaplinsky likes to play around with story forms and his characters are always interesting. Check it out here.
What I’m Writing:
I just finished rewriting a “found footage” horror story that was rejected for an anthology recently. I’m going to let it sit for a while, look at it again, then start submitting. I hope it finds a nice home at a respectable horror publisher. We’ll see.
What I’m Listening To:
Yes, I’m a Gen-Xer, so sue me. I’m stuck in the 80s, so what? I’ve been listening to a lot of Simple Minds, Pretenders, Roxy Music, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, among many others. I can never stop listening to “Waterfront” by Simple Minds.
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Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next month.