25 April, 2011

My Work-in-Progress Blog

I'm trying an experiment. And I need your help. See, from the time I learned how to read, I wanted to be a writer. I've loved playing around with the English language my whole life, so much so that I decided (after a few missteps) to study it. When I was five, I wrote a short story. Not a great short story, but Mom sure liked it. I think she still has it, in fact. I know I still have the compulsive habit of converting my every thought, fear, and fantasy into prose of varying quality. Finally, after 25 years of this, it has occurred to me: why do I have a laptop full of short stories, novels, and outlines that no one has ever read?


Am I a great novelist? Probably not. But the more I write, and the more I read what I write, the more I think that there might be other people who might want to read this stuff. Just typing that makes me feel weird. It's been my long-standing habit to think of writing fiction as something I do privately, for and with myself. At the risk of being crass, think about the things you do that fall into that category, and ask yourself if you've ever considered the idea that others might want in on that action. If the answer is yes, do let me know; I'll be blocking you from picture messaging me directly.

The point is, if I want anyone other than Mom to read what I write, I have a few options. I can pester my friends to read it, I can pester my husband to read it, or I can try to get it (gasp) published. So far, I've had a teensy bit of success with that, which is amazing. But I'd like to try to take it further. I'm working from the advice of a professor of mine: to get published, you have to either write the Great American Novel or have a built-in following. Let's be real here. The Great American Novel is not likely to be within my reach. I'm going to shoot for option B.

I want to use this blog to talk about what I'm writing, what I'm reading, and what in general is going on in my world. I'd love feedback on any and all of that. That's where you come in. If you like what I write, tell someone. If you don't, tell someone. Follow me, comment on me, share me on your social network of choice (whether online or not) and tell your friends to do the same. I feel like such a shill even asking, but the truth is, no one ever got published by trying to hide the fact that they were writing. I'm writing. You tell your friends, and I'll tell every publishing company and lit agency I can find contact info for, and maybe one day there'll be a book at the bookstore by "that girl whose blog you read."

4 comments:

  1. The voyeur in me wants to know and to read everything that is going on inside your brain, at length. Do spill.

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  2. Right, because I need to be MORE narcissistic. You're my hero. :)

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  3. For a long time now, I've insisted that most people who study literature either want to write but are too afraid to begin, or they do write and show no one. Good readers make good writers. You're a good a reader, so I'm excited to see what you've been withholding. This isn't narcissistic. It's important.

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  4. Thanks Joshua. That gives me hope. I definitely fall into the "write but show no one" category, but I'm going to change that.

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