Rejuvenation III

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Lida Bushloper

p1000927I wrote about getting an emotional lift from gaining a new follower. I also wrote about the consolation of sharing the experience of “rejection” with other writers. A third thing I sometimes do to get out of my pit of despair is to remind myself of past successes. This is easy when poems, stories or essays are included in journals or anthologies, which can be lined up on a shelf. But I have a ton of newspaper, magazine and newsletter work, which can be hard to preserve and access. I tried loose leaf binders, but they soon got so full and bulky, they were hard to handle, store, add to and review. That system just wasn’t working. Somehow, I hit upon the idea of putting them all into book form.

I hired my friend, Stephanie, to work with me. A brilliant organizer, she also does editing and graphics. She scanned all the loose material into her computer. Since she has publishing software, she was able to clean up stray marks, enhance text and otherwise improve the original copies. In this case, you can see how, by procsimple4outlining my contribution in red, she was able to make my “helpful hint” stand out from a whole page of them.

After the images were as good as she could make them, she uploaded them into Shutterfly, making sure each entry had its proper citation. I logged on, chose the colors and fonts, created the spine labels and title pages, and added any explanatory text.

We ended up with four volumes (so far): Book Reviews, Columns, Confessions and a volume I called Incunabula and Ephemera. This one is a collection of interviews, essays and other material that doesn’t fit anywhere else. It actually includes the very first time I appeared in print, in my Junior High newspaper. (Thanks, Mom, for saving it all those years!) The volumes are accessible, portable, sturdy and sit neatly on the shelf with all my other print work in anthologies and journals. Now I can look back and see that, yes, I have done good work in the past, and if I did it then, I can do it again. Very reassuring. The set also acts as a backup, as the paper copies continue to deteriorate.

I’m not recommending this method for everyone. It was expensive and time-consuming. Nor am I touting Shutterfly. I’m sure there are other services out there that can do similar projects. Although if I understand Shutterfly, the projects stay there forever, so, you know, in case the house ever burns down . . . (I’m not kidding. A poet friend of mine lost irreplaceable manuscripts and writing memorabilia in a warehouse fire.)

One thing to note: When I first began publishing in newspapers, I had the great good sense to photocopy the articles onto acid free paper, along with the accompanying heading at the top of the page. That made it a lot easier and more efficient for Stephanie to deal with. I also kept careful records of every publication, so I have confidence that the bound collections are reasonably complete. Sure, there are a few missing pieces, but nothing’s perfect.

 

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Rejuvenation II

Posted on February 21, 2017 by Lida Bushloper

rejectedIn my previous post I talked about an emotional lift I got from gaining a new follower for this blog. That was in response to being “stuck” due to the sense that I was not reaching a single reader. But I can also get “stuck” when I keep getting editorial rejections. In this case, one consolation is to know that we’re all in good company, that rejections are all part of the life of any artist. If you’re not involved in a group of other writers, you can share the sting, and gain some comfort, online. One of my favorite sites for doing this is Rejectomancy. The owner, Aeryn Rudel, not only shares his experiences with “rejection” but often has advice about how to use it to one’s advantage. One of my favorite posts from this site is Michael Bracken’s description of a rare form of rejection, “The Unacceptance Letter.”. Bracken calls these rejections “disheartening” and yet his professional response to them still shines through.

 

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Rejuvenation I

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Lida Bushloper

thx8w1iypuI’ve been in a slump. After cranking out 10K words on a non-fiction book, after publishing several newsletter articles, one flash fiction story and one poem, but not much else during the past year, despite lots of submissions, I was worn down. I decided to take a few weeks off. I re-started my writing practice, trying for a new attitude, one that focuses on the creation, not the outcomes. I was happy with that. Then came a major boost. An acceptance? No. A fan letter? No. An invitation to speak? Again, no. It was a new follower on this blog, a fellow I’ve known for years, whose writing I respect.

Why was this such an emotional lift? Maria Semple, in her novel, Today Will Be Different, has a passage that describes what the artist faces. Her main character, an artist herself, says, “What the world is, more than anything? It’s indifferent.” She goes on to say that as an artist, “You sign your name anyway. That’s the risk. That’s the leap. That’s the madness: thinking anyone’s going to care.”

Gaining a new follower, an actual person, not a bot, puts a dent in the world’s indifference. Choosing to follow a blog, or otherwise read someone’s work, requires action, not passivity, and I am grateful to everyone who has done so. Someone out there is reading.

As writers, the truth is, we reach only one reader at a time, whether it’s via a book, a story, an article or a blog post, online or in print. A new follower reminds me to write for that one reader, the only one I really have.

 

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The Rewards of Accepting a Challenge

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Lida Bushloper

flowers-coverAs a frequent user of our local library, I enjoy taking part in many of the programs offered. So I was delighted to see a new one crop up. The Adult Reading Challenge encourages people to read in a genre or field they wouldn’t normally choose. The first month, September, was dedicated to Science Fiction or Fantasy. I never, ever read SF. It was a genuine challenge from my point of view, and I was eager to get started. But, what to read? Should I just pick something from the New Book shelf? Or try one of the traditional giants, like Heinlein or Herbert? Or what about our home-grown star, Octavia Butler, whose papers now reside at The Huntington Library? Then, at a bookstore, I noticed the classic Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes and saw that it had won both a Nebula and a Hugo, both awards given for Science Fiction. It was also the basis for the movie Charly, I checked the library catalog and they had a copy.

Put aside the fact that I sobbed for an hour after I read the last lines. This book is now in my top ten list of best novels ever written. And I never would have picked it up without the Adult Reading Challenge. Sure, there are prizes and incentives. But the value for me was being semi-forced to read a book that I never would have gotten around to otherwise and that has enriched my life. So, thanks to whomever came up with this idea. It worked for me.

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Where Do Writers’ Ideas Come From?

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Lida Bushloper

braggIn a recent issue of Southern Living magazine, Rick Bragg published a column about a Southern character from his childhood that everyone simply knew as “The Goat Man.” This itinerant fellow traveled about the South with a herd of goats. Bragg had encountered him in Alabama in 1965. Coincidentally, I also had an encounter with The Goat Man a couple years later, perhaps in 1967 or 1968, in Georgia. The difference is that Bragg turned this incident into a salable essay, while I merely filed it away in my memory. And that’s part of what makes Bragg the excellent and prolific writer that he is. He heeds, curates and uses moments from his experiences consistently in his professional life. He sees their value as creative jumping off places for his work, and employs them when the opportunity arises. Which, in this case, I did not.

In my defense, I was only tagging along with a local radio reporter when he went to interview The Goat Man on a live, remote radio broadcast, from the grass verge of a country road. So it wasn’t really my experience. And whereas Bragg used his essay to reflect and comment on small towns, time and change, if I were to write up the incident, it would be about that reporter, his ambitions, and the tiny radio station where he hoped to get his start. Whether it would end up being a viable story (it would have to be fiction), who knows. But it’s a reminder to me that stories are everywhere, if we only see their possibilities, as Bragg did and does.

Bragg’s and my dissimilar responses to the encounter with The Goat Man also illustrates another point. Many experiences are common to everyone, and to every writer. Sure, there are the universal ones, birth, death, love, sex, grief, hunger and loneliness. But other less vital events also happen to lots of people. Book clubs, dinner parties, birthdays, paper cuts, a sleepless night. What makes us unique as writers is that we each interpret every happening in a diverse way. We shape our perceptions into art using eclectic voices, forms, tones, and with distinct outcomes. A single experience in different artistic hands can end up as a comic essay, a heart wrenching sonnet, a how-to article or the basis for a family saga. I’m no Rick Bragg, but I don’t need to be. The delight about being a writer is that there is room for all of us.

If you haven’t read Rick Bragg, I highly recommend his superb memoir, All Over but the Shouting.

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Shame

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Lida Bushloper

th[8]In the last few months, I’ve learned: how to remove metadata from files; how to work with Track Changes in Word; downloaded and learned my way around Windows 10; dipped my toes into Excel; and finally (!) unzipped some photo files sent over a year ago by a friend. These may seem like small beer to some folks. To me, at the time, they seemed like major hurdles. (Turns out they weren’t.)

As I faced the necessity of doing each of these tasks in turn, I had a moment of panic. My thoughts ranged from “I’m not smart enough to learn this'”  to “I shouldn’t have to do this” to “I’m so far behind other people, it’s embarrassing.” Those thoughts didn’t last long, and for all of the new skills, I had resources, from a quick Google search to my handy Microsoft Office 2013 for Dummies, to You Tube videos, to tons of online forums.

But I had to cope, before proceeding, with the initial shame–the shame of not knowing, the same of feeling ignorant. Years ago, I used to let that shame get in the way of acquiring valuable knowledge. It’s hard to admit you’re the only one in the crowd, the class, the audience who doesn’t know what everybody else seems to know. But I realized admitting you don’t know is the only way to get that knowledge, to get in the loop, and most crucially, to build the foundation for even further learning. And that’s the terrible bind I see some people in. They have gotten so far behind esp. in technical skills, that, while they could catch up, it becomes more and more difficult and emotionally threatening for them to contemplate. And their biggest hindrance is often shame. You have to admit that you don’t know or understand something, in order to learn, and some people just can’t bring themselves to do that. They’ll fight to the death to save face. I never, ever want to be in that place. So, I push past the shame, the fear, the resistence and the resentment. I may be a little slow and clunky about it, but often, the task turns out to be oh, so simple, and then I have a moment of feeling a bit foolish. Silly me, why ever was I so reluctant? Nothing to it. And once I’ve pushed through to the end, the result is always the same–exuberance, joy, added confidence, and most of all, as I said, the skills to move on to the next learning challenge. To me, there’s nothing in the world so joyous as learning something new, esp. a new skill. And that’s a darn good thing, since that’s what life will forever be about.

 

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A New Mantra

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Lida Bushloper

deep southIn his excellent book, Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads, Paul Theroux talks about “places so obscure . . . they were described in the rural way as ‘you gotta be going there to get there.'” This struck me as a perfect mantra for writing, especially a novel. In order to get a novel, you gotta be writing a novel. Have some idea of the destination and be taking steps to get there. If you’re not already going there, you’ll never get there. Of course, it could apply to other things in life, as well. If you want to be fit, you gotta be taking steps to get fit. If you want a clean house, you gotta be cleaning house. While these other applications don’t quite mean the same thing as the original instruction, I still think they’re a useful reminder that to get anywhere, to accomplish anything, you have to be actually taking action, specific action, directed at that goal.

So, I ask myself, “If I want to be a writer, am I writing?”

 

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It’s Not Always That Hard

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Lida Bushloper

thIFFW6ZP3A few weeks ago, I described a 30 year journey of one story from creation to publication in The 30 Year Story. Not long after that, Sarah M. Chen wrote a related guest post about perseverance and resubmitting one’s work on the Do Some Damage blog. Lest we leave you with a dismal view of the writing life, I hurry to say, it’s not always that hard. Last year, I placed two stories on the second try for each of them. I had written the first one for a contest in January. It failed to win, but, being familiar with the markets, esp. the online markets, I sent it off again in Feb., and it appeared in the April issue of Mysterical-e. You can read it here.

The second one was written for a June contest. When it went nowhere, I saw a notice for a new market, cut the story to fit, and it was published in Oct. in BJ Bourg’s new flash fiction zine, Flash Bang Mysteries. You can read that one here.

No surprise, the takeaways are the same. Write and polish a good story, be aware of a wide range of markets, and keep trying. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes, it’s easy (well, easier), but it’s all part of the life we have chosen as writers.

 

 

 

 

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Why This Story?

Posted on January 23, 2016 by Lida Bushloper

In my last post, I told of the 30 year journey to publication of a short story. In that post, I posed the question: why did I hang on to and keep trying to place this story, when I had discarded so many others over the years as not having legs. It’s easier to answer the second part of the query first. When I periodically go through old work, I’m sometimes appalled at the crap I’ve written. It now seems boring, turgid, didactic, lifeless. I have new sympathy and respect for my long time writing teacher who had to slog through it all, yet always found something positive to say, even if it was just to praise one small phrase.  But, each time I make a pass through the old files, some stories still appeal to me, however badly they may have been written in the first place. And that was true of “All Creatures Great and Small.” But why? What was different?

The first thing that strikes me is that I liked the characters. I also liked their struggles and their situation. But I still hadn’t quite nailed down why I thought the story was viable. Then, a few days ago, I read another story to my husband. I write a lot of crime fiction and this story was especially grim and scary. He liked the story, but then he said, “It sounds like you had fun writing it.” Bingo. I think he hit on something important. That no matter how dark a story may be, if the writer has had fun in the writing, that quality will come across to the reader. This doesn’t mean, of course, that every time we write, it’s gonna be a laugh-a-thon. There are many different kinds of fun. I think it just means, your heart is in it. There are many quotes about following your heart that could apply here, e.g. Pascal’s “We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.” I’m sure you can supply your own favorite quote.

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The 30-Year Story

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Lida Bushloper

The 30-Year Story

th[2]A looong time ago, I wrote a 4500-word light romance. Back then, there were a number of print magazines that published that sort of thing. I worked on it till it was polished, then sent it off. It didn’t sell. I sent it to another market. Same result. Over the next few years, every time I spotted a new market, I sent it off. It never sold, but I kept it in inventory. As time went by, print markets for popular fiction began to shrink. So did the story length they wanted. Each time, I revised the story downward. It went from 4500 words to 3500, to 3000, then to 2500 and finally to 2000. The last time out, it had shrunk to 1500 words.

Meanwhile, I was having some success with other things: confessions, short articles and essays, a newspaper column for a year and a half, and dozens of academic papers written in the course of earning two master’s degrees. The years continued to pile up, accompanied by another development, the rise of the Internet, followed by a proliferation of online magazines. Now there are hundreds, if not thousands of markets for every possible form of fiction.

In an online forum, I saw a call for submissions for an online newsletter, Seeds, edited by Michael Bracken. The story fit the market, but he only wanted 1000 words. Really? From 4500 words down to 1000? Yes. In this case, the market rules. Cutting the story still further was hard, but not all that hard. I sent it off.

Michael responded that he had gotten such a response from his call for submissions that he was now overstocked. Would he mind if he held on to the story till the next year. (He only prints fiction in the January issues of the newsletter.) Sure, what the heck. Truth to tell, I thought this was an editor’s version of “I’ll call you.”

But, no, Michael was a straight shooter, and last October, he sent an email asking if the story was still available. What I really thought was, “Oh, yeah, after 30 years, ya think?” But I try to be professional in these communications, so I affirmed that it was.

Michael has published the story, called “All Creatures Great and Small” and you can read it here. (You’ll have to scroll down.)

keep goingtry againThere’s no need for me to spell out the first takeaway from this account. All writers, or at least the ones that get published already know it. But it reinforced some other principles I believe in. First, connections matter. I would never have seen the call for submissions if I weren’t a part of the online writing community. Second, any story can always be made better. In the case of this story, cutting, cutting and more cutting saved it from oblivion.

But there is another thing to ponder. Why did I hang on to that story? I had discarded many others over the years that I knew were dead ends. I’ll talk about that in a future post.

If you are a writer, especially of genre fiction, and you aren’t familiar with Michael Bracken, I urge you to follow his blog and/or read this interview with him. He is smart, hard-working, generous to fellow writers.

 

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