womp womp

*in bullets

Surprised I only just found this thread.

I write mostly poetry, and have just started working towards submitting. I'm waiting on my first rejection slip from The Rialto... I've written a novel, it's still waiting for me to do something with it. Because my focus for the last few years has been poetry, I'll probably just self-publish the novel, for now... obviously avoiding the vanity press.

Mickey, I didn't know you were writing poetry, and submitting? We need to talk.

You didn't know this? I'm finishing my junior year of undergrad and applying to MFAs in the fall. I'm probably not at all ready to submit--definitely not, based on the rejections I'm getting--but I'm doing it anyway.

Also I wrote a poem this weekend called "John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Names His Penis Excalibur." Not a very good poem, but maybe my best title ever.

Your inner Mickey is showing.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but that's a great title, bub.

No man, that's great. There's no such thing as 'ready', you just keep plugging away. I've been workshopping my stuff for several years, but only just felt confident to send stuff out. Did I mention I'm awaiting my first rejection letter?

This month, I've been doing this thing called National Poetry Writing Month, where you write a poem every day for the month of April. I'm really tired now, as I've just posted poem 20. (They're on my blog, if you're interested, just until the end of April.) First drafts only, as that's all I can do in a damn day, let alone 30. I've got some idea where I want to go with them though.

Props to people for working at it. Good luck! This is very difficult. Success is the dream, for being able to have your muse make $$ for you, instead of enslaving it to others (work should require creative thought, otherwise fucking quit) so that you can live, must be the greatest thing.

When I can write at my pace, with my inspiration, for only my own needs, I am happy. I am like springtime firecrackers at midday. Something that shouldn't exist, right?

This is rare. I've gotta work.

I stopped being concerned about anything other than keeping my shit together, as in being organized, a long time ago. I'll never be published while I'm around, and so I try to keep the scraps of paper together, find the text files, keep SMS texts and chats, and where else the shit just comes up, keep it. Just keep it together. I've lost so damn much.

I am interested in the thread, but because of this I don't imagine I'll have much more to add.

.

i've written about 8,000 words for this story that's probably going to end up being a novel now, but most of it needs to be rewritten. i've found that i need to just write and then later go through several times rewriting everything until i'm somewhat satisfied.

I've read that published authors recommend the same thing. When you rewrite before you've finished, it feels like you're working on your story but you're really not. It's better to flesh out the whole story first and then go back.
Good luck on your novel.

Gave my first reading last night as a part of some weirdo Poets for the Gulf Oil spill thing. Anyway, I read a poem by Larry Levis and then one of my own called "Poem that Has Nothing To Do With the Gulf Oil Spill" that was about a pregnancy scare my girlfriend and I had. It went really well--I think I had some of the loudest applause and I was only visibly shaking for a few minutes afterwards.

nice congrats

I did an MA in creative writing at Brunel University, London.



Ugh, the list of contemporary poets is far too long and I'm tired. But I started writing because of Seamus Heaney and Dylan Thomas.



Just one so far. Magma.



Just one so far. The Rialto.

Excellent man... glad to hear it.

Looks like I'm going to have my first reading at Magma's 48's launch event in November. I'm pretty much shitting myself about it, but can't wait at the same time.

Anyone here been to an MFA program?

Has anyone else written a novel? Did anyone else ever look over it and think 'meh, crock of shit'?

I'm hoping that's all part of the process.

Simple Torture has.

Yeah, I've read a bit actually... looks pretty good.

Anyway, slight update: a section that was really fucking me off has been written today.

Should have a draft finished in a couple of weeks.

I'm in a fiction class right know with a pretty well-known author and all I can say is that it just teaches me, week after week, how little I know about writing short fiction. Good stories are so irrevocably good that I'm not sure how one even begins to write at, or towards, that level.