I found the following lines in Louise Gluck’s poem “Echoes” from her book Averno: “From our kitchen garden / you could see the mountains, / snow covered, even in summer. / I remember peace of a kind […]
Tag: writers
What Love Letters Teach Me about Writing
The other day I watched P.S. I Love You for the first time even though it’s a popular romantic movie. Even though it’s not a movie specifically about the writing process, it teaches three things […]
Are Your Writing Drafts Just as Valuable as the Final Draft?
I walked through my local art museum a couple weeks ago and saw a Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, and Camille Pissarro collection. I was struck by seeing drafts of the same etchings side by side. I expected to only see the final versions. The information box said that the artists, “gave their working process much greater visibility” by showcasing the revisions of the same etching.
I wondered how can this valuing of revisions apply to writing?
As a poet, I love reading the revisions and edits that well-known poets make in their poems. They sometimes share their writing process on Twitter. No matter the differences between these poets’ and my successes in poetry, I relate to them when I see how writing is a process for them.
When we only see writers’ final writing products, the readers (who are also writers) for the most part, don’t get to see the writer’s journey. Sometimes I forget that even the most successful writers also revise their writing.
My 11 Writer Dreams Beside Being on Bestsellers List
As improbable as some may seem, here are my writer dreams besides being on bestseller lists. Be the half of a well-known literary couple like Ransom Riggs and Tahereh Mafi, Kaveh Akbar and Paige Lewis, […]
Dear Writer with Frustration, Inspiration, & Passion
Dear writer,
I’m with you. Like you I’m waiting for my breakthrough.
Out of frustration and out of inspiration I write here.
First, because even when literary journals or magazines have rejected my works, I refuse to believe that my writing isn’t worth publishing. Second, because Etty Hillesum, a not-so-well-known writer died too young and with her died her dream of becoming an established author. (Eight of her diaries were published in one book, but that doesn’t mean that’s all the writing she had to offer the world.)
I can’t let others write my story. Not anymore. To be honest, I don’t even know that my story is being told.
It has become too dangerous to wait until literary journals or magazines give my work approval. I can assure you that my story like your story is the story someone else is looking for right at this moment.
Lately, I’ve been writing with a combination of more urgency, more purpose, and more transparency.
