Category: Prompts and Inspiration

30 Litmags in 30 Days: Create Your Own Submission Bonanza!

Jaclyn72 Comments

I did it! I completed my self-imposed challenge, Submission Bonanza!  During the month of July, I submitted poetry, creative nonfiction, short stories, and flash fiction to 30 litmags.  I’m not going to lie, it took work and it took time.  After so many years not submitting any work and not focusing on my writing, this was definitely a challenge for me.  But I can certainly say it was well worth it.  I would highly recommend that anyone looking to grow as a writer think about setting their own Submission Bonanza!   I’ve grown and learned so many things over the past month and I am excited to share them all with you.

You can see my halfway post, Notches on the Bedpost, to see some of the benefits I’ve gained and ways I’ve been developing by doing this exercise.  There are so many ways in which I have grown.  I’ve become a better reader. I’ve started editing more seriously.  I’ve learned so much more about contemporary writers and writing.  I feel like I am getting familiar with literary magazines in way I wasn’t before.  Most importantly, I’ve been motivated to write more than I ever have before.

Also (spoiler alert!) I have received a few replies already and it’s not just rejections I am racking up.

Because I felt like this exercise was so successful in my growth and motivation as a writer, I am planning on doing it again for the month of September and I would love for anyone who is interested to join me.

All this month, I will be posting a practical guide on how to create your own Submission Bonanza! Once you lay the groundwork (finding magazines, choosing your pieces, writing your cover letter) this month, you will be ready by September 1st to start submitting to the many, many litmags which will be opening their mailboxes for submissions.

After I did the prep work of looking for magazines, editing my work, and writing a template of my cover letter and bio, it took me about an hour to submit to each magazine.  Decide for yourself a reasonable goal for your Submission Bonanza!  I am fortunate to have an hour a day to submit to magazines and also still have time for my writing.  What kind of time can you make for it?  Can you do an hour a week?  Three hours a week?  An hour a day? Three hours a day?  You want to challenge yourself, sure.  But you also want to make a Submission Bonanza!  that you can stick to.

I am really excited about doing this again and getting into gear for another flurry of submissions.  If you’re excited too, let me know!  I would love to share lessons learned, tricks and things to consider, and just general motivation and support with anyone who’s game!

 

Call for Submissions: Places to Stand

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Saw Palm, the University of South Florida’s literary magazine, is calling for submissions for its series Places to Stand.

I found this call for submissions while working on my Submission Bonanza!, an attempt to submit work to thirty literary magazines in the month of July.

Since a huge part of my interest in writing and words is place-based, I am in love with this project and I wanted to share it with you all and encourage you to submit too!

Even if you don’t have writing about Florida, it’s a really lovely prompt.

 

What Is It?

Places to Stand is a literary map of Florida, using words instead of photos.  Each pushpin marks a point where a contributor has written a short nonfiction piece about what it’s like to stand at that particular place at a particular moment in time.  Some of the Places to Stand pieces are memories.  Some are written on the spot.  Some are written as poetry.  Click on the pushpins and take a literary tour through Florida time and space!

 

Places to Stand in Florida   (appears on sawpalm.org)
Please tell us what it’s like to stand at a specific place in Florida at a specific time of day in 500 words or less. While we enjoy the unusual, locations should be public and accessible (so not your bathroom!) Please include GPS coordinates.

Unlike other categories, current or recent USF students and faculty are welcome to submit pieces for the Places to Stand series.

Poems submitted as part of the Places to Stand series are welcome but should be justified left and otherwise not have complex formatting and spacing. This is due to technical limitations in Google Earth.

 

You can submit here!

 

 

 

Writing Challenge: When the Goddesses Come Out

Jaclyn12 Comments

 

 

Nymphs, goddesses, apsaras, maenads!  It’s May.  There’s a fresh exhilaration in the air.  Mother’s Day is coming up.  I have been incredibly inspired by all those bloggers who did the A-Z blogging challenge in April.  These things all fit together nicely in a little challenge that I am setting for myself.  This month, I am endeavoring to write about 26 strong, creative women from mythology.  So, the goal is to write 26 short stories, one based on a female mythological figure for each letter of the alphabet.  Feel free to join me, or to set your own goal for this month.  New growth and new beginnings are in the air!

 

A special Creative-Commons “Thanks!” to itjournalist from flickr for the photo!

A Letter to My Muse

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My dearest Fulgura,

As the red of the pohutukawa flowers gives way to the red of changing leaves, it becomes achingly clear how long it’s been.

Do you remember when we went to the Bahamas?  We sat by the water together and told story after story.   It was New Year and my birthday and you gave me present after present of sea glass and sand dollars and mermaid’s purses.  I carry them in my pocket still and think of you as my fingers toy with them.  That was over a year ago now.

So much has happened since then.  I’ve spent nearly a year under the long white cloud and I’ve been distracted.  The craft breweries and aerial circuses have drawn my attention away from you.  I think of you often, as I hike under tree ferns or explore kelpy tide pools, I wish you were there to share it with me.

I can sometimes feel you near me.  I wonder on misty nights if you are peeking through my windows.  You feel so close.  I can picture your wet, mist-laden hair sticking to your face, perfectly framing your Antarctic-nipped cheeks.  Do you see me drinking pinot gris and wonder why I don’t invite you in to share some?  I wonder why.  I imagine you cuddled up next to me, a wine glass in your hand and your lips become looser and looser, knowing you can tell me anything.  And I hang on to your every word, holding you close and letting you know how important you are to me.

It’s completely my fault, of course.  I’ve taken you for granted, assumed that you would just come when I called. I know we’ve always been close and I just expected it would always be that way.  But deep down I know, you are getting frustrated with me.  I know that this relationship needs to go both ways.  Something needs to change.  It’s time for me to take responsibility for this.

In light of that realization, I have some news for you.  I am moving to Alaska to be with you.  I can picture it already, the two of us cuddled up under northern lights, huddled together in amazement at the impossible cold.  With nothing to do but admire the snow and share our stories, we get closer and closer.  I capture your words, as they fly into the frozen air and crystallize like snowflakes, each one the delicate fossilization of an idea, a memory, made solid so that we can share it with each other.   Venturing out to glaciers on summer days that never end.  I can promise you this: in the coming years you will be my focus.  I will give you the time and energy and attention you deserve, if you just grant me your company in return.

I want to show you how much you mean to me, and I intend to start today.  I’ll wait for you tonight, under our usual starry night.  If you feel the inclination, you can slip in beside me.  If you feel so inclined, we can catch up.  Or we can sit together in silence and relearn what it feels like to be close to each other.  And if you don’t feel like it tonight, I’ll be waiting tomorrow night also, and the night after that and the night after that.

 

 

 

In response to revisiting Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk on Genius.

 

Also, creative commons love to Brian @HKG for the photo!

Inspiration: Creativity as Play

Jaclyn20 Comments

Amidst a series of “How many … does it take to screw in a light bulb?’ jokes John Cleese brings up particularly poignant points about creativity.  He gives an actual recipe for its formation and hope to those of us suffering from creative block.

He asserts that “Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.”  People are not born creative.  It is not a high IQ or a muse on your shoulder.  Instead, it is finding a mode of working that allows for the creative which sits inside each artist to come out.

He cites studies and research which define creativity as “an ability to play.”  Creatives are childlike and have the ability to explore and frolic with ideas for no specific purpose other than play itself.

As I try to be more disciplined and determined in my writing practice, I find that this is something that I am missing lately.  If I’m not producing, I feel that I am not writing.  There isn’t room for play when deadlines and due dates are looming.  And yet, this is exactly what is needed for creativity: time and space.

“Creativity is not possible in the closed mode,” Cleese asserts.  But he also shows that working in both ‘open’ modes and ‘closed’ modes are necessary.  When we are working with a problem, we must examine it in the open mode.  However, once we find a solution, we must work in the closed mode to be effective at bringing it about.

For me, I have been getting better at the closed mode.  I have been developing my discipline and ability to sit down and write as if it is work, as if it is necessary.  But I have forgotten how to play with my writing.  I have forgotten to give myself the time and space to sit and play with my ideas, to let them be silly and run free.

The most useful part of Cleese’s speech comes in his practical advice for creating the ‘open’ mode necessary for creativity.

“You need five things:

1. Space (Away from the ‘real world’ so you can play!)

2. Time (Time blocked off especially for play!)

3. Time (The more time you spend playing, the more creative your solutions are!)

4. Confidence (Play means not being frightened of failure!)

5. A 22-inch waist.. Sorry, humour.”

He asserts that your creative play needs to be distinct from your everyday life in both the time and the space that you give it so that you can be free from the pressures (and ‘closed’ mode) that we usually operate under.  “Otherwise, it’s not play.”

“The most creative professionals always play with the problem for much longer before they try to resolve it.”

“While you’re being creative, nothing is wrong and any drivel might lead to the breakthrough.”

Of course, as he says in the beginning, “Telling people how to be creative is easy. Being creative is difficult.”

http://youtu.be/VShmtsLhkQg

Oh, and also…

How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one, but the light bulb has really got to want to change.

Inspiration: Look Up More: The Shared Experience of Absurdity

Jaclyn8 Comments

I’ll just come out and say it, I love the absurd.  There’s something magical and beautiful about frivolity that’s not tied down to reason and rationality.  Absurdity has this detachment from the material world which makes me remember that I am not only a physical body that needs to eat and shit, but also a mind that needs to be stimulated and awed.  There’s some sort of wizardry that the ludicrous possesses which can turn even the most mundane of situations and surroundings into a wonderland.

Take for instance Christo and Jean-Claude’s outdoor art, The Umbrellas.  It instantly turns a brown, barren California landscape into a fairyland. And that’s exactly what’s amazing about absurdity.  It’s play for adults.  It’s a time when we are pulled out of daily routine and everyday life and invited to immerse ourselves in imagination and wonder.  It invites us to see the world around us not as a hard, material setting but as a playground ripe with beauty and ready for exploration.

The magic and wonder of the ridiculous is never so powerful as when it is shared.  In the TED Talk below, Charlie Todd, founder of ImprovEverywhere, discusses the power of sharing absurd experiences.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the video:

“I love this moment in the video, because before it became a share experience, it was maybe a little bit scary, or something that was at least confusing to her.  And then once it became a shared experience, it was something funny and something she could laugh at.”

“There is no point and there doesn’t have to be a point.  We don’t need a reason, as long as it’s fun.”

[ted id=1269]

This video really inspired me because it made me think about how something just a little bit absurd lends itself to an entire story.  The people who witnessed the no-pants subway ride (and all the previous ones that followed!) will forever have that story to tell — and to share.  It will be something to connect over and an experience that they can give to others through the telling of that story for the rest of their lives.

All storytelling should have an element of this.  Stories should leave you wanting to retell them, to share them.  Good stories are instant bridges between people.  They bring us together and link us in common experience.

And for me, I always want a little bit of the absurd.  I want a little bit of play, a little wink at my reader.  I want that moment when my reader and I are both frolicking in the playground of wonder and imagination and beauty that is the world we live in.

Because it’s really fun to play by yourself, but it’s even more fun to play with others.*

*Sexual innuendo absolutely intended.  I’m sorry.  I couldn’t resist.

Creative Commons love to Jon Delorey for the photo and, of course, to TED for the video!

Inspiration:Cat exploded? Make good art.

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Here is a really lovely commencement speech that Neil Gaiman recently gave.  It is quite thought-provoking, a little funny, and amazingly inspirational.  It got me writing for the first time in a month.  I hope it does the same for you!

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/42372767 w=400&h=300]

These are a few of my favorite one-liners.  They are all the more poignant in context.

If you don’t know it’s impossible, it’s easier to do.

I learned to write by writing.  

I tended to do anything that felt like an adventure, and stop when it felt like work, which meant life did not feel like work.

A life in the arts is like putting messages in bottles on a desert island and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it and put something in a bottle that will find its way back to you. 

The things I did because I was excited and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down.

Sometimes life is hard… when things get tough, this is what you should do: Make. Good. Art… Cat Exploded? Make good art.

The moment that you feel that just possibly you’re walking down the street naked… showing too much of yourself, that’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.

Make interesting mistakes. Make amazing mistakes. Make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.  Make good art.

Prompt: The Encyclopedia Game

Jaclyn13 Comments

In my writing, I love to toy with the idea of truth and tinker with facts.  Objectivity?  Historical accuracy?  These are things that I, honestly, throw out the window when I write.  They are much less capital-T True to me than the feelings behind things.

I do, however, use wikipedia often when I write.  It’s great fodder.  Often the articles show connections between things that I may not have thought of or give details about things that I didn’t know.  Honestly, I am one of those people who goes to wikipedia not only for my facts, but also for my inspiration.

I have heard many times about the dubiousness of wikipedia’s factual accuracy.  I have even seen articles on wikipedia say things that I am sure were incorrect.  So, I know that people twiddle with the articles.  Wikipedia vandalism is not something that’s a new idea for me.  But I had always thought of it as something playful and silly.  Never before as something subversive.

Some of my (very amazing) friends from university are in the process of making a film about the characters behind wikipedia vandalism.  Their research so far is incredibly interesting.  It touches on themes of objectivity, the control of information, and subversion.  They have started a kickstarter campaign to fund the project, and I, for one, am very excited about seeing it come to fruition.

In support of this project, I would like to start a wikipedia-based prompt.  If you go to the main page of wikipedia, on the left-hand side, there is a ‘Random Article’ button.  Flip through 10-15 random articles and see how many of them you can fit into one piece of writing.  Once you start randomly flipping through random articles, you really get a sense of how much information wikipedia holds.  From tiny towns in Europe to obscure sports participants, I am sure that you will mostly come across things you ordinarily wouldn’t write about.  It should be quite interesting.

Good luck and let me know what you come up with!

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKxjvroP0jQ&w=560&h=315]

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS27SDEWEbw&w=560&h=315]

Prompt: Myths in New Places

Jaclyn31 Comments

“Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth–penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words… Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told.” ” – Joseph Campbell

It never fails when I need something to write about to read folklore or mythology.  It’s like instant inspiration for me.  So many of the stories are so rich and yet so bare.  They feel like playgrounds to me.  They beg to be told from different perspectives.  They seem to yearn to have details filled in.  They taunt me with the questions, ‘But what happened after that?’

But this prompt is not about retelling.  This is an exercise in setting.  I will admit that I often do not give the setting of a story enough thought.  Setting changes everything.

Pick a random myth or folktale from the (amazing!) collection at the University of Pittsburgh’s website here.  Some fun things I’ve tried: tales starting with the same letter as my name, a character’s name —   you get the point.  Then spin a globe and pick a random place to set your story.  Or, better yet, use the antipodes map to set your story on the exact opposite side of the globe.  Set the story in modern day to change the setting even more.

I would be super interested in seeing what other people come up with, so if you do this, please share!

 

Creative Commons love to Tina Bell Vance, from flickr for the photo.  Please check out her work.  It is amazing!

Inspiration: A Vessel for Genius

Jaclyn37 Comments

As I begin to think about writing as a larger part of my life, I realize that I need to think about it differently.  In the past, I’ve written only when it is bursting out of me.  Only when there is that feeling in my chest that if I don’t put pen to paper I might explode.  Only when I am inspired.

But this seems to happen only on days when the honeysuckle moves just an inch to the right and the sun is at a 40 degree angle to the horizon except on even numbered days when the scent of decay is coming from the northeast.  Or, hardly ever.

In the last month, I’ve been making an (mostly, but not completely successful) attempt to write every day.  I’ve found that if I sit down and force myself to write, if I am actively searching for words and my muse, it shows up.  I don’t need to wait around until I feel like the scene from Alien is going to happen and creativity and words are going to splatter all over the keyboard.  I just need to write.

And yes, we’ve all been there.  There are some days when just showing up to write is incredibly painful. On days like that, this talk by Elizabeth Gilbert is incredibly helpful.  Your role in the creative process is to show up – to put in the work.  If you show up and put in the work and your genius doesn’t show up, that’s your genius’s fault.  You can show up and try again tomorrow.  But if you don’t show up at all…

Well, I will let her tell you.

And yes, it’s another TED Talk, but really, they don’t get old.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA&w=560&h=315]