Writing Speaks to Us

Non-fiction speaks to the head,
Fiction to the heart,
And poetry to the soul.

Inspiration

Sometimes, inspiration comes to you from unknown places. Sometimes, random thoughts come together and create a new idea. Sometimes, it's something someone else has said or that you've seen or heard. Sometimes, it comes from a dream. And, other times, you wake up, realizing you have something to say, something to share, and knowing exactly what that something is and how to accomplish it.

This Writing Fad

One thing being overweight most of your life teaches you is that if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Fad diets are just that, fads. They come and go with each generation and don’t really change all that much. They’re not healthy and they don’t produce lasting results. You might be able to lose weight with SlimFast®, but as soon as you start eating like a regular person, instead of getting the bulk of your nutrition from a prefabricated drink, you’re going to regain as much as you lost, if not more. And the FDA… don’t trust them either. Just because they say a weight loss drug is safe, doesn’t mean it is. No medication just released has seen long-term use in the general population. Better to sit back and wait and observe than to risk even more serious health issues than already created by carrying extra pounds on your frame.

Even if you religiously keep to the 1500 calorie diet currently recommended, you still won’t slim down if the bulk of your nutrition comes from potato chips (one 2 ¾ oz. bag of Lay’s original Kettle Cooked chips contains 450 calories) and candy bars (one king-sized Reese’s has 400 calories). In the end, the only things that really work for long-term weight loss are: 1) address any underlying issues for weight gain/failure to lose weight, 2) exercise, and 3) eat a balanced diet. You know, the things that are hard, difficult, and take work.

If anyone suggests anything else, it’s probably too good to be true, and therefore will not work.

The same is true of writing. There aren’t any quick fixes. No easy solutions to navigating the publishing maze. If anyone suggests otherwise, they’re trying to sell you a fad diet that’s going to cost you more in the long run.

Writing professionally, takes discipline. It’s hard. It’s work. There will be times that you fall off the bandwagon and indulge your whims. When that happens, the only thing to do is stand back up, dust yourself off, and hit the gym – or place your butt in chair, as the case may be.

Being a professional takes balance as well. It’s highly unlikely that you will be able to make a living doing only one type of writing, at least not in the beginning. Making a living writing nothing but fiction is straight out.

Yes, yes. I know. Fiction is the fun stuff. It’s why you got to be a writer in the first place, but the reason you can’t make a living at it has nothing to do with you as a writer. It has everything to do with the realities of the market right now.

When it comes to short fiction, very few markets pay a professional wage. Most pay in the neighborhood of $.01 per word. Some less. Many less. At these rates, to make even $100 from a story, it needs to be 10,000 words long. Now, go research the number of short fiction markets that accept that length. Very few. Most want 3,000 words or less. So, in order to make a part-time wage, you need to sell approximately 3 stories a week, every week. There just aren’t that many market available right now. I don’t know if there ever were. Then, for fun and games, take into account the number of people attempting to be writers these days. They’re all submitting work, too, and many of them are just as good as you are and some are better. Most are worse, but even so, when even the smallest publication has three to five acceptable stories for every slot they have available, the odds are greatly diminished of the stories you’ve written getting chosen by the editor three times a week

What about novels, then, and receiving an advance? First, many advances aren’t that much. Certainly not enough to live on for a year. Second, novels are a long-term investment. From the time you finish it, at the absolute least, it will be a minimum of a year before you receive any monies from it, advance or otherwise. And that assumes you sell it in the first place.

How can you ever hope to make a living as a writer in this day and age? How do others do it? Diversify and find a niche. By diversification I mean don’t concentrate on any one medium. Write non-fiction as well as fiction. Write puzzles, greeting cards, magazine articles, and hire out your services to those who lack your skill. By find a niche I mean find a topic or subject matter that you do well. Are you a health nut? Corner the health-writing market. Do you like martial arts? Then research that? Are you a parent? Hey, that’s fertile ground. Exploit what you know all over the place and never, ever be ashamed of doing so. And don’t ever let anyone tell you this writing thing is easy.

But then, nothing worth doing is.

Loneliness

I think we’ve forgotten how to be alone. No. That’s not true, because I’m often alone. Alone in my car. Alone in my office. Alone in my room. What we’ve forgotten how to be is lonely. Too often when we’re in danger of becoming lonely, we reach out electronically to other people who had been in danger of loneliness. Through our cell phones, e-mail, and the internet – forums, newsfeeds, blogs – we can always find another soul to connect to. This isn’t always a bad thing. Think of the people whose lives have been enriched, or saved, this way. Think of the times someone has needed a shoulder, and found it, because of how much smaller technology is making our world.

But this newfound interconnectedness comes at a price. What we’ve lost the ability to do is respond to ourselves, to be alone inside our heads. Thing is, that is where individual strength comes from, where we learn who we are. If, when we need to think something through, form an opinion, or overcome some hurdle in our lives, there is always someone out there to help us, how are we ever to foster a dialogue with the one person in our lives who means the most to us?

How are we ever going to learn to communicate with ourselves?

Writers' Retreat - Part I

In early September, I will be attending a writers’ residency – seven days and nights without cell phone, internet, television, day job, housework, yard work, errands, pets, or any of the thousand and one distractions that take time and can be used as excuses to not write. I am so looking forward to it. For that one week, I’ve given myself permission to be selfish. To only think of my needs and wants, and to do nothing but write. Glorious.

It occurred to me this past weekend that I should be chronicling the experience from beginning to end and posting about it here. Sometimes, I’m slow. Really, really slow. So, forgive me as we go back in time to February and March 2009, when I was exploring my options and submitting an application.

Where to Apply

One of the first things I had to decide was where to apply. I’ve been collecting information on grants, fellowships, residencies, and workshops and staring at the different websites with longing for a couple of years now. The idea of going some place where writing was all I had to focus on more than appealed to me. This year, I’d decided to look at some of the places quite seriously and apply for either this year or the next if I could find one that fit. There are a number of very real external factors – most people, me included, do not have the luxury of just dropping all of our responsibilities and disappearing for weeks at a time. If we did – if I did – writing time would not be an issue.

I already knew I did not want a workshop. Workshops specialize in critiquing and helping writers improve. I’m not saying my writing is perfect – far from it. There are lots of areas I need to work on, so maybe I will apply for Clarion or Viable Paradise one day, but this time around, I was seeking dedicated work space and time. Some place I could go and be alone with the voices in my head and the words on the page.

Real Life Considerations

That said, there are some very real considerations that have nothing to do with writing or my desires that had to be taken into account when choosing where and when to apply. I have commitments that limit the amount of time I can step outside of my normal existence for this experience. I currently have a part-time day job. Since I don’t earn vacation time, I wasn’t certain how much time I would be permitted to take off, especially since I’d been there for less than a year. My boss assured me that I could take off for two weeks and she would not fire me. I didn’t ask about any longer than that because, quite frankly, I still have bills to pay and more than that would have been too much a strain on my household budget. Plus, there are my freelancing deadlines to consider. And the thesis, which my advisor tells me I’m no longer permitted to call ‘The Never-ending Thesis,’ just so you know.

Many of my readers might have to take into account household and familial responsibilities, too. I do have the benefit of sharing a home with my mother. While we each have our chores about the house, for the most part, if one person disappears for the time, the other can pick up the slack. If I were married or had a child, this would be a different story. If I was living alone, there would be a different set of concerns that would have to be addressed. Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about any of these things, but even so, I could not consider places like the Art Farm, where they prefer residents to stay for 8 to 12 weeks at a time. This was not an option for me, not this time around.

Eligibility

Beyond the length of the stay, the eligibility requirements of some of the places I found meant I could not apply. For example, some require that the writer be from certain places or their work to relate to the area where the residency is located. Others want the work to have a certain theme or focus. Because I’m still a student, I was ineligible for a number of others.

Then there were the ones that I’m just not qualified for. They are the type of opportunities where writers who are much more established in their careers than I am would apply. I had to play the odds. If I wanted this, I had to focus on places where I had a realistic chance of getting accepted.

Even so, there was a long list of options available to me. At least technically. Other variables meant I could not pursue some places, no matter how much they made me go weak in the knees.

Financing

One of the first places I discovered that I thought I could realistically attend was the Mary Anderson Center in Indiana, but they charge $45 per day. Given that this covers most meals, it’s more than reasonable, but when you’re looking at a week or more, it also adds up rather quickly. Seven days is over $315. Not only would I be losing a week’s pay from the day job, I’d have to pay out over $300. Again, reasonable and fair, but not an option for me right now. Maybe next year – maybe – but definitely not this year.

I wish financing weren’t such a weighty factor in my decision-making of where to apply, but I can’t escape the fact that it was and probably will be whenever I have the opportunity to try for a residency or fellowship. I imagine the same is true for most of my readers, too.

Location

The location of the residency was a factor for two reasons: travel time and travel expense. Yep. There’s that financial thing rearing its ugly head again. There’s no escaping it. I am not independently wealthy. But, again, if I were, the writing time thing wouldn’t be as big of an issue.

While I might have loved to apply to Soapstone – and one day I will apply either there or to Hedgebrook – having to travel to the Pacific Northwest, but that would add three to four days of overland travel – which would mean more time away from the day job that pays the bill – or airline tickets – which can be expensive if one can’t find deals that match travel dates. Also, with airline travel, I have to either coordinate pick-up and departure times with someone else or a rental car. Some places don’t offer any airport shuttles as part of the retreat or fellowship. Either way, the travel expenses and the deficit from the day job paycheck add up quickly. These things must be considered.

I needed to limit my selection to locations within a day’s drive. Preferably closer. This, finally, seriously shortened the list of possible places I could apply.

Many places have application deadlines. I found one place that seemed ideal, at least as far as the above concerns went, and it had the added benefit of having an early deadline. I decided to apply there and see what happened before exploring the other possibilities in more depth.

More about where I applied in Part II.