art

by

How to Publish Poetry

Photo by Mathias Reding on Pexels.com

There is a large poetry market for individual poems and whole manuscripts.

Literary journals publish many poems and some publishers publish poetry books. Poetry remains a niche market for bookstores.  A good bookstore carries poetry books (and you should buy some.)  They carry classic poets, academic anthologies, and well-known poets. Most poets don’t reach this level.  If you have a relationship with your local bookstore owner (and you should get to know him/her,) this individual is likely to carry a few copies of your new book.  I left three copies of my latest book with a local bookstore, and it sold all three copies, but it took about a year.

The best way for a new poet to publish is in a poetry journal or magazine.  Split This Rock offers an online list of literary journals https://www.splitthisrock.org/resources/literary-arts-journals.

You need to do some homework to figure out with which journals your poetry will resonate and want whatever poetry you have to offer.

You may not want to start with well-established journals like The Kenyon Review or The American Poetry Journal, but there are many to choose from.  Starry Starry Kite https://www.lindacastronovo.com/theonlinejournal, a new online journal, is open to submissions of poetry.

Publication in literary journals is also important to book publishers.  I’ve heard that some publishers look for a 25 percent ratio of published poems to 75 percent nonpublished when looking at a book manuscript.  This percentage will vary publisher to publisher, but the publisher wants to know the poems in the manuscript were considered publishable by the literary journals.

In nearly all cases, these book publishers will only publish a new poet if they have a track record with the literary journals.

Each journal has its own submission procedures, but as a rule, they don’t want more than five or six poems per submission.  Rejections are more common than not, so be prepared for this.  You should get an idea of what the journal is publishing by looking online at poetry from that journal going to your local library and looking at old issues, or just buying a sample issue.  A good sponsor for a good journal is a university, so check the journal’s affiliations. If you like the poetry the journal offers, it’s a good sign that the journal might like your poetry. Read the journal’s submission guidelines carefully.

I published in about 25 literary journals, including Nebo, The California Quarterly, Taproot Literary Quarterly and Crosswinds Literary Journal, before I published my first book of poetry. 

I chose to submit to small, independent publishers who were known to publish new poets.

I have a new manuscript, Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth, out for consideration with a few small independent publishers.  This is my first collaborative manuscript with the Norwegian artist, Irene Christensen.  She did a series of paintings about women at the heart of the environmental movement for which I wrote poem responses.  This is specialized publishing as the publisher needs to be experienced with four-color visuals as well as poetry. I don’t know if this will get published, but we never know for sure as poets.

Follow me here on Thursdays where I will blog about writing, the writing process, editing, revising and publishing.

by

The Writer’s Notebook

Every writer should keep a notebook or journal. A stray piece of paper wouldn’t do. I have always had a notebook, but I have been using my iPhone as a notebook these last few years. I find that I lose my notebook, but always have my phone. You can also use apps, such as My Journal. I was thinking about the long relationship that I’ve had with notebooks, and their centrality to everything I do, the way that they foster my creativity across years and decades.

I’m sure that’s true of most other writers. And yet, whenever I see guides to keeping a journal online, I rarely recognise my own practice in there. I’ve seen so many idealised journals, designed for public display, written in overly neat handwriting using multi-coloured pens, filled with motivational quotes and orderly bullet points. This kind of journal feels wrong to me, reeking of an overly disciplined school: the people-pleasing, self-conscious, high-pressure spaces of my school books. The tyranny of good presentation and legibility.

Photo by Ayush Meshram on Pexels.com

In my view, a notebook should be unorganized. It should be random thoughts that you want to pick up later. I’ve written many poems from random thoughts I’ve had a movies, while reading, while listening to music, or just going to the supermarket.

Your notebook should be written for nobody’s eyes but your own. It’s a completely private space, where you are the only one writing and reading. You should never show anything directly from its pages, and certainly don’t let anyone have a flick through. This gives you the freedom to write anything in it That might be my darkest thoughts or my fragile feelings; but mostly it’s just terrible writing. Be incoherent, self-pitying, tacky, boring or stupid in this space. It’s nobody else’s business.

I’ll be taking a break from blogging for the month of August. Follow me here again on Thursdays after Labor Day.

by

Create An Outline for Your Manuscript

An outline for your manuscript to is a great way to start a large book project.

Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com

Create an Outline

First you want to structure your raw idea into an organized manuscript format. This is where the outline becomes invaluable. Hopefully you have done some research before this stage and have a definite idea of how your manuscript would fit the lists of certain publishers and the overall book market.

Think about a logical sequence and flow. When I do a poetry manuscript, I think about a theme and how my recent poems fit into this theme. I might even have subsections. When I wrote Touch My Head Softly, which was about my partner and Alzheimer’s Disease, it naturally fell into three sections, before, during and after the death. When it came to publishing, my publisher immediately recognized the organization and acknowledged how it would fit into Finishing Line’s line of books for the season.

After you have shaped your outline, you can structure your material into an organized manuscript format. This is where your outline is invaluable. Think about the logical flow and sequence and divide your poems or ideas into coherent chapters and/or subsections.

If there is a chronology that makes sense, then present your content in that way. Determine what information and material belongs in the beginning, middle or end. In the end you will have a well-organized manuscript that you can present to a publisher.

This is what I did for my most recent manuscript, Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth. I will be blogging on Thursdays. Follow the progress of my manuscript here.

by

Exercise Stimulates Creativity

According to a new study by Scientific Reports* “the pattern of findings argues for shared variance between bodily movements and creativity or fluency and originality.”

Therefore many writers, including me, exercise as part of their creative process. The physical state of our bodies, and our willingness to routinely move them through space to the extent we are able, can either serve or subvert the quest to create.

Photo by Heart Rules on Pexels.com

There are studies about how aerobic exercise both increases the size of the prefrontal cortex and facilitates interaction between it and the amygdala. This is important to creators because the prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that helps tamp down the amygdala’s fear and anxiety signals.

Dr. Jennifer Heisz, author of Move the Body, Heal the Mind, shares deeply compelling insights and research about the connection between movement and anxiety, depression, working memory, mental flexibility and creativity

I swim everyday first thing in the morning, then I write. I have been following this pattern for years and find it works for me. Artists, writers and any other driven creators use movement as a powerful tool in the quest to help transform the persistent uncertainty, fear, and anxiety that accompanies the quest to create,

Anyone involved in a creative endeavor might consider movement, as a potent elixir to help transform the uncomfortable sensation of anxiety from a source of pain and creative stagnation into something not only manageable but usable.

A growing body of research on the therapeutic effect of exercise on anxiety, mood, and fear illustrates the often sustained anxiety that rides organically along with the uncertainty of creation. As artists, we need to cultivate the energetic capacity needed to give our brains what they require to function long enough, and at a high enough level, to have even a shot at closing the gap between idea and performed piece or manuscript. We need to not only train in the craft, but also do what we can to equip ourselves to flourish along the way.the creative process, especially in the context of a larger work, is a survival event.

What form of exercise do you use to feed your creativity?

I will blog on Thursdays on creativity, the writing process, readings and publishing. Follow me her on Thursdays.

*“Everyday bodily movement is associated with creativity independently from active positive affect” by Rominger, et al. Scientific Reports.

by

Creativity and Overcoming the Blank Page

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Have you ever thought “I have a book inside me, waiting to be written”? As an aspiring author myself, I know that yearning all too well. I spent a lot of time staring hopelessly at blank pages, willing the words to flow but finding only frustration. My dream of writing a book felt out of reach. You may be creative, but if you’re staring at a blank page, it doesn’t matter.

People who are creative are happier, healthier, and less lonely. A published poem can lead to a reading, a painting to an exhibit, a song to a concert. I recently wrote an ekphrastic poem recently to my friend’s painting and she sold it, with the poem. All of these things put us, and our art, out into the world to see and be seen and to interact.

A creative ability is a skill to use our imagination to solve a problem. We may feel stuck with a problem, but if we read up on how other people have solved this, or ask a friend how they solved this, we are using creativity to problem-solve.

You don’t have to be an artist to exercise your creative ability. You can use this skill to fulfill dreams, problem solve, and improve communication skills.

Follow me here. ‘ll be blogging on Thursdays. Good luck with your creative endeavors.

by

Why Are We So Insecure About Our Writing?

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
    Floated midway on the waves;
    Where was heard the mingled measure
    From the fountain and the caves.
   
                    --Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

Coleridge wrote these lines in 1797. Just listen to the rhythm and music in the lines. Coleridge did not publish “Kubla Khan” until 1816, at Lord Byron’s insistence. Coleridge worried about the irregular meter and that sections of the poem were not coherent. Yet, it is considered one of the best poems published in the English Language.

In a sense, that’s fair enough. The poem does not hold to traditional poetic unity in the way other Coleridge work does: his long narrative poems “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Christabel,” for example, and “Frost at Midnight,” his hymn to fatherhood. The poem began in a drug-induced dream.

Photo by Tyler Lastovich on Pexels.com

So how many of us writers doubt the worth of our writing? Bertrand Russell, a famous writer in his own rite, had three tips for insecure writers:

Learn to recognize your writing insecurities and admit to their existence. You can’t address a problem if you pretend it’s not there. Look at your particular insecurities and recognize them. That way you’ll be prepared when insecurity strikes.

The second is to recognize that you’re not alone in your insecurities. All writers feel insecure about their writing one time or another. If you’re insecure about grammar, work on grammar. Remember no one writes a text right the first time.

The third tip is to let go of any concept of perfectionism that you have. If you finish a text and feel you can do better, it just means that you’re developing some judgmental ability. Being insecure with your writing is part of a writer’s life.

I recently finished a manuscript called Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth, with the Norwegian artist, Irene Christensen. Every time I submit a manuscript to a publisher, even though I’ve published three books, my insecurities come to play. The worst that can happen is that it will be rejected and I will submit it elsewhere.

Follow me here on Thursdays as I write about the writing process and the journey of my manuscript.

by

A Career As a Poet

Photo by Mike B on Pexels.com

There’s no money and little interest in poetry. One of the reasons for lack of interest in poetry is the way it was taught in school. You were taught to find a meaning, which is work, like cracking open a walnut and digging out the meat. Sometimes poets add to their own problems by making their poems difficult to understand. A poet has to learn to connect with the audience.

So why do we become poets?

We become poets because we love poetry. When I read a good poem, it totally nourishes me. When I write a good poem, there’s no better feeling. Louise Nevelson, the sculptor, said “I’d rather work twenty-four hours a day in my studio and come in here and fall down on the bed than do anything.”

Seamus Heaney, the Nobel-Prize winning poet said “The aim of the poet and the poetry is finally to be of service to ply the effort of at the individual work into the larger work of the community as a whole.” Here he says the poet makes a contribution to society as a whole. Though it’s amazing to write a poem that pleases the author, to write something that touches the reader is about as good as it gets.

Letting the poem become part of your experience is invaluable. If you read a poem about a robin that touches you, it re-freshens the world. The next time you take a walk and see a robin, you will notice it.

Poets read other poets. This teaches us to write the kind of poems we like to read.

Writing poems can be exhilarating. Joy Harjo the Poet Laureate, says “I don’t know when the first poem was, where it came from, or exactly how. I just know how much I needed it…I was in the dark and decided to investigate the dark to find the light.” Writing poetry is just that, finding the light in the dark.

I collaborated on an eco-poetry manuscript with the Norwegian Artist, Irene Christensen called Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth. It’s currently out with publishers being considered for publication.

I’ll be blogging on Thursdays. Follow me here. Let me know about your own writing experiences and I’ll blog about the journey of my eco-poetry manuscript.

by

Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Writing Process

Photo by Roshan Ravi on Pexels.com

As a teacher, I relied on Bloom’s Taxonomy as a model.

As a career educator, I often used Bloom’s Taxonomy. I taught little ones on the elementary school level, and then college students. I always encouraged my students to approach study using this six-step process.

The model was named for Benjamin Bloom, who first came up with it. Here are its six levels:

  1. Knowledge
  2. Comprehension
  3. Application
  4. Analysus
  5. Synthesis
  6. Evaluation

So how do you use Bloom’s Taxonomy to enhance your writing process? I think Bloom’s Taxonomy can be applied to writing. You may come across an idea for your writing and research the topic and comprehend it. Then you can apply it in your writing. In the analysis phase you break down complex ideas about what you’re writing. In the synthesis part you combine the ideas you have generated in the process and make it original, or your own.

In evaluation, you make judgments about the value of what you have created and decide if it is something you want to pursue. As writers, we have all written things we don’t think work, but even if you don’t come out with something good after this process, it’s bound to lead to something worth using later. It’s an exercise in how to get through the writing process, even if it’s not working. Nothing is ever wasted in the creative process.

I started writing an eco-poetry manuscript on my own as I feel passionately about climate justice. Then I met the Norwegian artist, Irene Christensen, and saw some of her paintings about women at the heart of the environmental movement, and decided to collaborate with her. We came up with a 60-page manuscript of ekphrastic poems and paintings called Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Planet. It is currently out being considered by several publishers.

I will be blogging on Thursdays. Follow me here for blogs about the writing/publishing process and the progress of my new manuscript.

by

What Is the Voice of a Writer?

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

What is the voice of a writer?

A writer’s voice is their distinct worldview, transcribed into words and shared with the audience.

What we term a writer’s voice is the unique fingerprint that separates one writer from the next. It’s the output when writers dredges through the hidden depths of their psyche, confronting fears, dreams, and interests.

How does a writer find his/her voice? Your voice is actually a reflection of your entire personality, including your speech patterns. And you can have more than one voice. I recently collaborated on a manuscript of eco-poetry with the Norwegian Artist, Irene Christensen called Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth. In this case, my voice became joined with the visuals of this artist who created a series of paintings about women at the heart of the environmental movement. So in this case, my voice became an extension of the visuals involved.

Your personality comes out in what you write. Even if you use many voices , they’re still created by tone, attitude and style.

Tone in your writing is similar to tone of voice while talking. It’s not what you say—the facts—but how you say or write it.

Attitude is about beliefs, emotion and values. It has to do with how you regard the world and life or how you feel about something. It reveals itself in the way you talk, your body language, and your actions. And your attitude is part of what shapes your writing voice. It’s a lot like a professional singer’s voice.

Style is revealed with vocabulary, sentence structure, grammar, and the technicalities of writing. It also involves who you are and your personal taste or preferences.

What is your writer’s voice? I’ll be blogging on Thursdays. Follow me here.

by

“The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Create It.”

–Abraham Lincoln

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

So said the man who got rid of slavery in the United States. It is an inspirational quote.

How do we as writers stay inspired? Writers have difficulty carving out time and summoning inspiration. 

One way that keeps me going is the occasional writing workshop. There are so many opportunities online and in your writing community. I don’t take multi-week workshops unless I’m really trying to focus on something new and learn about it. I just take the occasional one-shot workshop to get some fresh ideas about my writing. Just google under a topic you might find interesting and see what’s available. Sometimes they are free, or very low cost.

Another way of finding inspiration is in a writing group. Listen to what others are reading and hear what they have to say about what you’re working on. Most communities have pockets of writers who meet up. Join a community group and see if you can get invited into a small group of your own. My writing groups have sustained me through the years.

Collaboration is another way I find inspiration. I particularly like collaborating with artists. I like reading a artist’s exhibits. This gives you inspiration and brings people in to see the art or art lovers in to hear some of your writing. It’s a win/win situation. You can also write ekphrastic poetry, or responses to art pieces. I recently did this with the Norwegian artist, Irene Christensen. She did a series of full-color paintings on women at the heart of the environmental movement. I found the paintings so inspiring, I wrote a whole series of ekphrastic poems in response and we wound up developing a 60-page manuscript called, Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth.

Follow me here on Thursdays. I’ll be blogging about writing, the writing process, steps to publishing, and the progress of our manuscript, Dread and Splendor: Paintings and Poems for a New Earth.