9:26 a.m. — Atlanta
listening to Jimmy Buffett singing Boat Drinks
Hello, all. Ugh. I slept in. In theory that’s lovely. In fact, I will spend the day feeling I have never quite caught up on things. Also, getting halfway through something before realising it’s not right… I just spent thirty minutes organising the first of my NaNoWriMo talks before my brain told me it’s still October. The good news there is I have that started, so next week will be quicker.
For those of you new, in the last year, I spend November focusing on prose, which is not to say the poetry disappears. The prompts on Tuesdays are written for prose but for the purposes of writing and posting a poem this month, will be poem friendly. Thursdays will be me talking about narrative writing with an occasional link regarding same. Okay, today:
1] First: Submissions for Gnarled Oak are about to close, so this is a last call for the Fall 2014 issue. If you aren’t quite ready, don’t despair. The journal is also taking submissions for Winter 2015 [as in January, not next year, December]. The editor, James Brush [whom many of you will know as Coyote Mercury], says, Gnarled Oak publishes high-quality poetry, short prose, artwork, and videos. We are interested in publishing work that leaps from the screen and keeps us up at night thinking. The kind of work that makes us want to rush out and share it with the people we love most. We like work that asks more questions than it answers. We want to read work that will inspire others to create. Go on over to read the full submissions guidelines.
2] This is the one to bookmark somewhere you won’t lose it. Purdue University offers a free Online Writing Lab, the OWL (clever, huh?). The site is overwhelming in all that it offers, but it is tightly organised and I found I couldn’t get lost, much. I am going to point you at the main area of interest for us, generally, Creative Writing. The link brings us to a window with the topics that are discussed. Click on any of the four topics listed and you will be taken to its page. In a small pane to the left you will see what is included, as well as the other topics. Elsewhere on the site you will find grammar usage, mechanics, the MLA and APA guides, exercises, other types of writing… just go.
3] I love this last, which is really pure entertainment rather than a learning something new post, although, as I say rather frequently, it never hurts the brain to have things it knows pointed out to it, again. The article, 21 Harsh But Eye-Opening Writing Tips From Great Authors, by Cody Delistraty, is a wonderful collection of quotes which must have been great fun to find and curate. Some of them are eye-openers regarding their authors. I particularly like Jack London’s: You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. Dorothy Parker’s got an out loud laugh. [If I have posted this before, my apologies — I try to keep everything organised but there is so much!]
I will see you tomorrow for the prompts roundup; Tuesday for the first NaNoWriMo prompt; and next Thursday for a post on fiction tips, as learned by me when teaching the analysis of literature, as well as creative writing.
Happy writing, everyone.
