Yes, yes, we have all been busy wracking our brains, trying to figure out what to request this year for the holidays. Who can even write, read, or think at a time like this, when there are so many things to want and buy!
Obviously, we have already requested the household items that will make our lives so much easier and more efficient.
And, of course we have put the items on our list that will make our culinary experiences more varied and luxurious.
We have added a few much-needed home-decorating items.
We have requested the items that will provide comfort and relaxation in our difficult and turbulent times.
And lastly, I know we have all requested those heartfelt cards from our loved ones, those words that mean so very much.
But, friends, in all seriousness, what about our writer selves?
This is the self so often neglected in our day-to-day doings. And if you’re anything like me, this self is veritably dormant during the holiday season and any time my child has off from school. (Somehow I always tell myself I will get more writing done during the holidays. Huh? Who is this funny person telling jokes to herself all day long?)
Anyway, it’s true: That writer self tends to get neglected right around now.
To be perfectly honest, that writer self often gets neglected all year long, in all sorts of ways. We tell ourselves we’re not qualified to submit our work to lit mags yet, so we don’t submit. We tell ourselves that editor who sent us the nice and encouraging rejection letter didn’t really mean it, so we don’t follow up and send new work next time we have it. We tell ourselves that if we send work to a magazine that has already rejected our work, the editors will hate us, even though we actually think our work would be a great fit for that magazine, and we also know that editors do often accept work from a writer who has been previously rejected many times.
There’s more we do, isn’t there? We really really want to work on a piece of writing. But we feel bad claiming that time for ourselves in the face of family obligations. The writing work isn’t bringing in money, after all. How can we possibly justify that time to ourselves?
So many ways. So many small things. I feel bad taking the time away to get work done. I’m not ready for that conference. I don’t really NEED that writing class. I don’t want to submit to that journal again—I’d hate to be a nuisance. I’ve wasted so much time already…Should I really even try?
Maybe your mental ticker tape looks like this or maybe it looks different. Regardless, most of us have some form of it. The act of writing (working, revising, brainstorming, sending work out for publication) is hard. The process of getting ourselves to our writing spaces (carving out time, pushing aside other responsibilities, insisting on the importance of our work) is also hard. Sometimes, on some days, it’s even harder than the work itself.
So, here’s my question for all of you: In addition to the clothes-folding robots, unicorn taco holders, and obviously not-to-be-lived-without hamburger pillows: What gift will you give to your writer self this holiday season?
Is it time?
Is it compassion?
Is it a pledge to submit your writing to 100 places by spring?
Is it something concrete, a class you’ve been hesitant to sign up for, a teacher you’ve been shy to contact about private mentoring, a conference you’ve been afraid to attend?
Is it the permission to scrap everything you’ve ever done and begin something totally new?
Is it forgiveness for past squandered time?
Is it thirty extra minutes every morning? An hour more in the evenings?
Maybe you don’t want to open up about it here. But I hope you will at least think it over. Your writer self deserves so very much.
I'm going to put a plug in for Submitit and Erik Klass, who was interviewed by Becky earlier this year. As a sort of early Christmas present to myself, in late November I sent him a short story, which he had some excellent feedback on and I largely incorporated. He then ran the story through his algorithm and came up with a list of 10 journals where the algorithm showed there was a likely match with the type of story I had written (criteria include length, setting, whether it's dark, difficult, experimental, stylized, lyrical, etc). I found it tremendously motivating and was able to make all those submissions within two days! It's a very different feeling when you believe there's a good potential fit for a story vs. hours spent sifting through journals and kind of throwing a dart at a dart board. Here's the link if anyone is interested - I did the "Journals List Only." https://www.submititnow.com/ I'll find out in a few months whether the story has been accepted anywhere, then possibly move a list of less selective/more accessible journals. Thank you Erik!
Thank you, David! My gift to myself, apparently, is taking the time to read these comments. I really appreciate this. I look forward to hearing about an acceptance with this piece, hopefully soon.
What an inspiring post! I want to send work to journals that sent me rejections inviting me to send them more work. I have at least 5 of those letters. Thanks for the encouragement.
I am gifting myself confidence and will take myself seriously as a writer. I have, up to now, refused to consider myself a writer because I don't have traditional credentials. Whatever.
I'm giving myself consistent confidence which means, to me continuing to build writer friend connections. It will take confidence in my writing to train myself to do the hard work of both revision and completion, if that makes sense.
Ah this! I’d like to give myself time! But time goes into my dancing. I’m 50 now. I’m dancing with good, serious teenagers. All hungry for different reasons, and the same reason. Dance is a greedy master. You work out to be fit for class. You take class so you can do what the choreographer asks in rehearsal. You rehearse for performance. The distillation of time -- Then for me: Dancing around the day job, writing around the dancing. Because that’s the most urgent. So yeah ... I ask the gods for time, time. Not to waste a second. Entropy’s a bitch.
As soon as I'm done ordering unicorn taco holders for all my besties, I'm going straight to my desk with a cup of coffee to write. Just staying in touch with my writing during the holiday whirlwind is a little gift to myself. Just kidding about the taco holders! Happy holidays all and thanks Becky for your humor and inspiration!
My gift to myself is reminding myself to write for myself. I'm working on what was supposed to be a highly publishable (so I hoped) short piece of flash fiction, and in the middle of this highly publishable short piece of flash fiction (that every journal would be scrambling to publish—perhaps there'd even be a bidding war!), a story (within the story) presented itself and needed to be told, a story that is turning out to be much longer than the outer story, and is essentially unrelated to the outer story. No one reads this stuff anymore, I do realize, but I'm having too much fun with it. (Who knows? Maybe someday we'll see a return to the playful experimentation of postmodernism. Maybe we'll call it repostmodernism. Or prepostpostmodernism. Or something like that.) Anyway, that's my gift. (If anyone's looking for another gift, find and read Harry Mathews's “Country Cooking from Central France,” which does something similar. (There is nothing new under the sun. Postmodernism!)) Happy Holidays Becky and all.
I needed this. Thank you! After a discouraging week of rejections, my journal overfloweths with doubt & dejection. I will try again! Goal: Submit to 100 journals by April 1st, the kickoff for poetry month.
Pretty simple for the man who has (almost) everything: To keep learning, to keep surprising myself, to keep listening to fine poets read and discuss their work.
I give myself permission to have a right fit when editors send me a pro forma essay to inform me of yet another rejection and to buy myself a wobbly second-hand chair so I can at least look like a writer.
I'd like to give the gift of a Golden Shovel class to other poets.
Having written dozens, I've become aware of how fast editors snap up these short novelties, publish, promote, and nominate 'em.
A Google search will provide merely a barebones description of HOW to write a Golden Shovel but exclude the meaty parts, e.g., how to use Golden Shovels as transition pieces in a full-length collection. Also which words should you avoid when choosing a line?
Preparing the course outline & examples & fun prompts interest me -- however, I hesitate when it comes to promoting a ZOOM class or corralling an audience. I wonder if there would be a dozen poets interested in the Golden Shovel form. And if there would be a presenter to facilitate.
Just a random thought to share.
"Giving back" + sharing knowledge with poets are some of my New Year's Resolutions.
Fabulous shopping ideas! I plan to give myself permission to write about those colorful relatives who offer character inspiration and are mostly already dead....without worry. Maybe.
I'm giving myself the gift of what my friend calls "good input." I want to feed my brain the kind of nonfiction I want to write. But I also want to give my writing brain a rest and read schlocky novels without guilt when I'm tired.
I am giving myself the luxury of sinking in to the books I actually already own and want to read this year, instead of books I think I should be reading. I’m giving myself the gift of reading slowly and deliberately, not chasing to increase my number of books read to top the previous year’s goal. Because reading slowly and deliberately the books I have already acquired and really want to read is deeply nourishing to my creative self. And I’m giving myself the gift of not planning in advance what I will attempt to create with my writing time this year, letting myself instead be led by the intuition that develops from that deeply nourished self.
I'm going to put a plug in for Submitit and Erik Klass, who was interviewed by Becky earlier this year. As a sort of early Christmas present to myself, in late November I sent him a short story, which he had some excellent feedback on and I largely incorporated. He then ran the story through his algorithm and came up with a list of 10 journals where the algorithm showed there was a likely match with the type of story I had written (criteria include length, setting, whether it's dark, difficult, experimental, stylized, lyrical, etc). I found it tremendously motivating and was able to make all those submissions within two days! It's a very different feeling when you believe there's a good potential fit for a story vs. hours spent sifting through journals and kind of throwing a dart at a dart board. Here's the link if anyone is interested - I did the "Journals List Only." https://www.submititnow.com/ I'll find out in a few months whether the story has been accepted anywhere, then possibly move a list of less selective/more accessible journals. Thank you Erik!
Thank you, David! My gift to myself, apparently, is taking the time to read these comments. I really appreciate this. I look forward to hearing about an acceptance with this piece, hopefully soon.
What an inspiring post! I want to send work to journals that sent me rejections inviting me to send them more work. I have at least 5 of those letters. Thanks for the encouragement.
I double dare you to do it.
I am gifting myself confidence and will take myself seriously as a writer. I have, up to now, refused to consider myself a writer because I don't have traditional credentials. Whatever.
“We are what we pretend to be.”
>Kurt Vonnegut<
I'm giving myself consistent confidence which means, to me continuing to build writer friend connections. It will take confidence in my writing to train myself to do the hard work of both revision and completion, if that makes sense.
Finishing is one of the hardest parts. You got it.
Ah this! I’d like to give myself time! But time goes into my dancing. I’m 50 now. I’m dancing with good, serious teenagers. All hungry for different reasons, and the same reason. Dance is a greedy master. You work out to be fit for class. You take class so you can do what the choreographer asks in rehearsal. You rehearse for performance. The distillation of time -- Then for me: Dancing around the day job, writing around the dancing. Because that’s the most urgent. So yeah ... I ask the gods for time, time. Not to waste a second. Entropy’s a bitch.
As soon as I'm done ordering unicorn taco holders for all my besties, I'm going straight to my desk with a cup of coffee to write. Just staying in touch with my writing during the holiday whirlwind is a little gift to myself. Just kidding about the taco holders! Happy holidays all and thanks Becky for your humor and inspiration!
My gift to myself is reminding myself to write for myself. I'm working on what was supposed to be a highly publishable (so I hoped) short piece of flash fiction, and in the middle of this highly publishable short piece of flash fiction (that every journal would be scrambling to publish—perhaps there'd even be a bidding war!), a story (within the story) presented itself and needed to be told, a story that is turning out to be much longer than the outer story, and is essentially unrelated to the outer story. No one reads this stuff anymore, I do realize, but I'm having too much fun with it. (Who knows? Maybe someday we'll see a return to the playful experimentation of postmodernism. Maybe we'll call it repostmodernism. Or prepostpostmodernism. Or something like that.) Anyway, that's my gift. (If anyone's looking for another gift, find and read Harry Mathews's “Country Cooking from Central France,” which does something similar. (There is nothing new under the sun. Postmodernism!)) Happy Holidays Becky and all.
I needed this. Thank you! After a discouraging week of rejections, my journal overfloweths with doubt & dejection. I will try again! Goal: Submit to 100 journals by April 1st, the kickoff for poetry month.
Pretty simple for the man who has (almost) everything: To keep learning, to keep surprising myself, to keep listening to fine poets read and discuss their work.
I give myself permission to have a right fit when editors send me a pro forma essay to inform me of yet another rejection and to buy myself a wobbly second-hand chair so I can at least look like a writer.
Becky, your email brought the precious gift of laughter. Thank you!
I'd like to give the gift of a Golden Shovel class to other poets.
Having written dozens, I've become aware of how fast editors snap up these short novelties, publish, promote, and nominate 'em.
A Google search will provide merely a barebones description of HOW to write a Golden Shovel but exclude the meaty parts, e.g., how to use Golden Shovels as transition pieces in a full-length collection. Also which words should you avoid when choosing a line?
Preparing the course outline & examples & fun prompts interest me -- however, I hesitate when it comes to promoting a ZOOM class or corralling an audience. I wonder if there would be a dozen poets interested in the Golden Shovel form. And if there would be a presenter to facilitate.
Just a random thought to share.
"Giving back" + sharing knowledge with poets are some of my New Year's Resolutions.
My gift to myself is to read 100 poetry books in 2023. Got them all lined up and ready to go.
Fabulous shopping ideas! I plan to give myself permission to write about those colorful relatives who offer character inspiration and are mostly already dead....without worry. Maybe.
I'm giving myself the gift of what my friend calls "good input." I want to feed my brain the kind of nonfiction I want to write. But I also want to give my writing brain a rest and read schlocky novels without guilt when I'm tired.
I am giving myself the luxury of sinking in to the books I actually already own and want to read this year, instead of books I think I should be reading. I’m giving myself the gift of reading slowly and deliberately, not chasing to increase my number of books read to top the previous year’s goal. Because reading slowly and deliberately the books I have already acquired and really want to read is deeply nourishing to my creative self. And I’m giving myself the gift of not planning in advance what I will attempt to create with my writing time this year, letting myself instead be led by the intuition that develops from that deeply nourished self.