A query letter for your memoir has been sent out to 18 agents without a bite. That's nothing. Chicken Soup for the Soul received 140 rejections stating “Anthologies don’t sell”. You know you won't give up. However, you've turned your manuscript over to a...
My writing teacher keeps emphasizing substituting feeling language for thinking language in the personal essay I've been working on throughout her class. "Too cerebral," she says. I know she's right. I shared my piece with a good friend who agreed, and suggested...
When I first got back the personal essay I submitted during my 5-week writing-for-magazines class, I cringed at the amount of red ink covering the pages. "I'll never get this right," I cried inwardly. But then I remembered a comment my teacher at Gotham Writers...
I admit it. I'm an approval hound. I mentioned this in my recent post about my Visions Group, how I love to get my homework done so they'll acknowledge me for my accomplishments. Same held true during my relationship with my writing coach, Melissa Petro, which ran...
A colleague of mine in NSA wrote a book with this title back in the late 90's. I'm reminded of it every time I receive a rejection. What is it I'm supposed to love about this, I wonder. I had the opportunity to raise the question last week when I got rejected by a...
The first draft of my memoir is complete! Thanks to my accountability partner, my visions group and a third support team (it does take a village), I sent off 275 pages to a local print house so that I can distribute hard copies to a handful of first readers. I'm...
I didn't know when I met Dave at the multiplex on Monday that I'd get a blog post out of it. As I normally do, I charged my ticket so that I'd have a receipt in order to claim the deduction. I saw his raised eyebrow and explained that when I'm in a learning...
I had my final memoir draft call today with my writing coach. I'd sent her the last 5 chapters to review before she gets married next week. It went well, even when she asked me to cut one of my favorite episodes. Faulkner is the one who initially stated, "In...
When I returned back to New York City after my Semester at Sea in May, 2014, I recognized that I wanted to tell a bigger story, more than simply a travelogue. I took my first writing course the following month at Kripalu, led by the inspirational writer/performer...
I know everyone says this, but I can't believe how quickly these two weeks have gone! I arrived 13 days ago, and I leave tomorrow afternoon. I'm completely satisfied with the experience and am also eager to go back home. I wrote 12 pages today, and if I complete 8...
With only one full day left to go after today on my writing retreat, I wanted to keep my output up. I hit the keyboard at 8am and finished printing out the first 10 pages of Chapter 8 by 2pm. I knew that I'd be driving to Stowe later in the afternoon to meet good...
With no plans at all on my calendar today, I wanted to break up my writing hours with an outing at lunchtime. I'd read positive reviews of the Norwich Square Cafe on TripAdvisor, so put it into googlemaps and had to pick from three alternate routes. Since they were...
Wow, double digits for my time here in VT, which means I have only a few more days left in my two week rental. I've gotten great traction on my page count and am feeling satisfied regarding my output. I love the writing life as well as being completely independent...
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. In the spirit of that quote, I took a good part of today off. There was an Al-Anon convention in Brattleboro that I thought I'd check out. It was well attended, and I stayed for two of the breakout sessions. Then, as I...
Maybe I'm going a little stir crazy, but my eyes definitely deceived me when I took a walk tonight after dinner. Writing is so sedentary, and not having errands to do or subways to catch, I'm on my derriere for great lengths of time here in Vermont. I wanted to add...
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