Tag Archives: friday

Make Friday Write

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I know I blogged a bit earlier this week, but I also promised I would be here every Friday to meet your writing discussion needs!

World's Goodest TeecherIn between working on lesson plans and such for next week (had a complication thrown in where I need to use a different textbook for one of my classes, so now I have two sections of one class with one book and one section with another book . . . ) I manged to submit some poems. Did you? Friday is a good day to get yourself organized for sending your work out even if maybe you do some more over the weekend.

My writing and reading time (because they very much go together for me) have been limited this week, but I did type up the poem below from my notebook. I wrote the original draft in my notebook last Saturday.

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Thanks for reviewing the poem!-

I’ve asked my students this week two main questions for their writing prompts: what do you think this course is about? and, What stresses you out? You can borrow either of those if you need a free write. Since you aren’t in my class, use the idea of what this course is about to think: what is creative writing? Who am I as a creative writer? We also talked about being specific. What can you do to a sentence such as, “He said it.” To make it more interesting?

There were also two videos I used, although many of you may have watched these before. I want to share them anyway. The first is Elizabeth Gilbert’s 20 minute TedTalk about Creativity and Genius. The second was another 5 minute TedTalk that deal with Your Final Facebook Status Update.

Holding one office hour today and then I have two 50 minute classes to teach at the end of the day before a much needed visit for a mani-pedi. See, someday I’ll be a total girl. I highly recommend that a part of your reading/writing/creative life involve some form of pampering.

Feel free to post your thoughts, works in progress etc in comments. I will take down any pieces your post next Friday as well as my poem above which is open for discussion as well.

Have a great weekend! And, since I finished watching the fantastic 2004 Battlestar Gallactica series – Good Hunting :)

Friday Wrap-Up

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It has been kind of a strange week for me because we are on Spring Break which meant last Friday I did a ton of prep so that I could have several days of less work to do. I spent M-W catching up on other house neglected type things while also trying to get in some writing and submitting time. I think I pulled it off, but I’m starting to feel a bit dragged down by the submitting process.

I think it is because I’m running out of places I want to submit to. There are so many places out there, but doing the research to see if I want to submit to those places is a job in itself! I’m debating going through my list to pull some places I don’t even want to bother with anymore. . . but then, I’m torn. . . What if I take someone off my list before I even look at their site and they turn out to be awesome? What if I don’t copy over everyone that someone on Facebook mentions? I mean, how do people find out about Referential right?

Decisions!

S: photos, poems Laurel Review, fiction Third Coast, non-fiction Prime Number
A:
R: story assume Rough Copy, poems Georgia Review, essay Rose & Thorn
Did any of you send work out this week? Find new things to work on? Has Boston “inspired” me? We shall see!

Friday Wrap-Up

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I know I didn’t wrap up last week (I was out of town) so this wrap-up is really for two weeks although I had didn’t really do much on the publication front this week at all.

  • Submissions: 6
  • Accepted: 3
  • Rejected: 2

Not included in these numbers but of note is that a poem of mine was published recently in Young American Poets (let’s say this is PG-13 at the very least)

My poems lately, have felt a bit stale so, with what I posted yesterday on poem share, I’m trying to branch out into some different poems to get my juices going again so to speak.

Anyone out there send any work out? Get any rejections or acceptances this week or recently?

Hope to be back on track to submitting next week but I just really didn’t have anything to send out this week except my FG chapbook and I couldn’t find anywhere I wanted to send it this time. I have it under consideration in two contests and just seems most of the other contests I am interested in aren’t reading until the fall or winter!

Hope everyone had a good week and that they will also be having a good week. I plan to do a whole lot of nothing except finish up the three books I’m reading right now :)

Friday Wrap-Up

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Well here we are at Friday again. I would be celebrating but hints of insomnia peeked in at me last night. But I got up, took some Unisom and, well, still had trouble sleeping. I, however, know this time it was stress related. I got up, spun through some email and then was finally able to get back to sleep.  When the brain wants to chug along, sometimes you just have to give in and listen to it.

Here are my numbers for this week:

S: 5 sets of poems (some with 3, some with 5)

A: 0

R: 5

I will say on my rejections, though, that I believe I had ink on two. I say believe, because one was only a small Thank you in ink but the other was typewritten but seemed to indicate that I had set myself apart from the crowd. I won’t quote t directly but I wish there was an easier way to tell if the notes you are receiving from lit mags are personal and/or encouraging.

All of my rejections at Shape are personal, just FYI for my contributors.

And it was, honestly, Shape that was keeping me up last night. I almost gave it up after my first year but I wanted to support writers again so I went back to it.  The video making part, however, the part that makes my lit mag unique is what can become overwhelming. If I am just putting pictures to audio or clipping together video someone sent me then it isn’t too bad (although I spent 3 hours of the former yesterday afternoon) but when I have a large amount of footage or people wanting copies of the work (which, btw, I just can’t do anymore because of expense and time) it gets to be a bit overwhelming and I start making mistakes.

I am, once again, trying to remind myself to slow down.

But, even saying that as I am going to meet someone this afternoon to record video, which is why I am trying to finish the last two to-do’s on my house cleaning list before going out.

What would a Friday be without a sense of some closure though? I will call about 5pm closure unless I make it to the poetry reading tonight at Green Rice Art Gallery in Charlotte. 7pm. :)

Have a great weekend everyone. Hoping to see “Where the Wild Things Are” and to sleep. Glorious sleep.

Friday Wrap-Up

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It is almost 11AM and I am trying to get out of a fog. I had a great night at Jackson’s Java with the usual Open Mike crowd, and quite a few newbies! But, I woke up at 3 am and had intermittent sleep after that even after 2 Benadryl. Goodness! Have it in the works to get some help from a nutritionist to see if I am somehow messing my sleep up with food or if it is the sinus infection medications.

So, as I slowly rise out of the fog I at least can report in my numbers.

S: 3

A: 4 – sorta. Had 2 different interviews requested/accepted in journals. More when they are published. Both online and then 2 book reviews that were turned in that should be published. Nothing on my personal poetry end.

R: 3 but one with ink. So I’ll submit to that lit mag again in their next reading period.

Tomorrow there is a poetry day event at Catawba College in Salisbury, NC if you are in the area. I don’t know if I will be going yet but looks like a pretty good round up of people.

Registered jessiecarty.com and shapeofabox.com yesterday but now trying to weed through all the hosting set up and such. Wish me luck because it has been a long time since I did any kind of web programming! Like undergrad stuff I did like 13 years ago.

This has been a week filled with wonderful news about my book and chapbook, great conversations with poetry friends but then my befuddled sinus head has really thrown me off of my game, messing up my sleep and exercise schedules.

And, doesn’t look like I’ll get much rest this weekend. Maybe I should just take Monday off . . .

Have a great weekend everyone!