Volume III, Issue 37 October 13, 2014
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You may have noticed that I've been talking about my upcoming poetry collection,Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, a fair bit lately. Here's what I haven't told you. I am not ready. But, just like the person playing "it" in Hide-and-Seek, here I come: it's now available for pre-ordering.(And at a big discount, to boot. Check it out here.)
Because the real truth is that, no matter how much time I spend polishing these poems, I will never be ready. I'm a lot like that
contemporary artist I've heard of whose work hangs in a gallery in a large art museum in a major city at which the person at the front desk has been given strict orders: to telephone up to the gallery immediately if this artist walks through the door.
Why? So that the curator can remove that artist's paintings and hide them.
Why? Because he knows the artist is carrying hidden paints and brushes so that he can "revise" his paintings. He's still not ready to be done with them, years after
they've proven their worth in the world.
It's funny when you're talking about someone else's insecurities and perfectionistic ways, right? But when you're the one facing the fact that, once you give the final okay on the galley and cover, your creative
project is going out into the world as is, ready or not, it doesn't feel funny at all. You've forever lost the opportunity to make it better. (OK, to make it perfect, or as close to it as humanly possible.) It will be, to quote Carole King, "too late, baby." In fact, birthing a book feels a lot like birthing a baby, and labor is not the fun part. (Although I do see, if not fun or humor, quite a lot of
irony in the fact that, while ten thousand cicadas can't be wrong, I sure can be! And so can everyone else in my world, including my trusty publisher.) You are welcome to put in your two cents on my long-suffering publisher's recent version of my cover. Should I call his design a wrap? Should I plead for changes? (Though I make absolutely no promises to send on your thoughts, I am still interested in hearing them. No one has ever accused me of "underthinking" things like
this.) I do know that the poor man has already had to put up with my suggestion that the turquoise on orange letters are too neon, too reminiscent of the old Howard Johnson's logo, that there are not enough notes, or too many; that the notes are too small, or too large, that potential book buyers won't understand, as he so eloquently put it, "just like the words in our poems, [the notes] start out in one direction/meaning and sometimes drift elsewhere...I would think that, out of 10K 'voices' there would be a few that are random, rebellious, backwards."
Oh, yes, it is very fair to say that at least a few of my "voices" are "random, rebellious," and/or "backwards!" And despite all this, I know he will still make me a beautiful
book. Main Street Rag Publishing Company's books are always well done. Lucky me.
I'm hoping that a case of his favorite beer when this is all over will help him forgive, if not forget, what a mess I am to work with at this point of the process!
If you're still hanging with me, you may be wondering, Why am I telling you
this?
Well, the most important reason is because I want you to know,
dear , that if you don't feel ready to put your writing out in the world for anyone to read (and you know that whether or not it's written yet is not the whole story), you are not alone.
And that if at least a part of you is more than a bit terrified at the idea of people reading -- and judging your writing -- you are not alone in that either.
I also want you to know that feeling like you're not ready doesn't have to stop you, whether you are publishing one story, essay, or poem, or a whole book. Or even if you're just contemplating
sharing something you wrote with someone else.
Another important reason I'm sharing how one can plow forward even while feeling oh-so-unready is because I don't want you to be deprived of how good it feels to have someone connect with something you wrote.
For example, I hope you will scroll on down to read the gritty, gripping poem my friend and fellow writer, Ann Campanella, one of the people who gave me feedback on my manuscript, wrote after reading it.
I love her poem, love that it was inspired by my poems. She told me that reading my book made her want to write, and keep writing. Can you imagine
how happy this made me? (I would be just as happy if reading my book had this effect on you, by the way.)
I realize that we can't count on the response we get from those we share our writing with. But we can count on the response we get if we don't share, which is, of course, no response at all. I've decided it's worth the risk to put my work out there, even if I do
have to wade through all this angst. I hope you'll decide sharing your work with others is worth it, too.
And I do have one final reason for rambling on to you about all this ready or not, here I come stuff:
I'm hoping you will help me cheer my publisher up by clicking on this link and ordering at least one copy of Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, which will sell for $15 but is now, and for a brief time only, available for the hugely discounted price of
$8.50 from the MSR Online Bookstore . I am really hoping that you will! Really. Because getting a robust show that people will buy this book (in fact, already have) will help him to forgive
me much faster than beer alone. You won't get your book any earlier (within two weeks of publication) by ordering ahead, but if you order right away, you will make it more likely that the book will arrive in December rather than January.
In spite of how unready I feel, I know the book is ready enough, if not perfect. (One sign is that I read Ann's
poem after I had decided the word of the week was "ready." I trust these kinds of synchronicities.) And I really think you will be glad you bought it. In fact, I'll even make you a money-back guarantee. You have my word that if you buy Ten thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong and don't like it, if you mail it to me within a month of receiving it in good enough condition to resell, I will send you a check for your discounted purchase price of $8.50. Here's that link again, ready or not.
Love and light, and happy writing,Maureen Upcoming WordPlay
COASTAL WRITING RETREAT
Connect with Your Creativity at the Sunset Inn (Writing --
and more -- as Renewal and Inspiration)
Full details here. Register now if you want to come: just one spot left!
WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, November 7 - Sunday, November 9, 2014. TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888.575.1001 or 910.575.1000 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first).
-------------------------------------------------------------- COASTAL WRITING RETREAT: PROJECT BOOK GET YOUR BOOK OUT OF YOU AND INTO THE WORLD (Writing; Publishing Your Book-length Writing Project)
A hands-on workshop for any writer
who would like to write and/or publish a book and 1) doesn't know how
2) doesn't get around to it
3) feels
a) intimidated
b) confused
c) overwhelmed
d) uninspired
e) all of the above Full details here. WHERE: The Sunset Inn, 9 North Shore Dr., Sunset Beach, NC 28468
WHEN: Friday, November 14 - Sunday, November 16,
2014. TO REGISTER: Contact the Sunset Inn at 888.575.1001 or 910.575.1000 (if you would like to handpick your room, view your choices here first, then call).
More WordPlay opportunities here. WordPlay Success Story In late 2012, I made the commitment to do whatever it took to finish [my memoir] by the end of 2013....
I knew I needed to take the next step. I needed an objective editor. I wanted it to be someone I knew and trusted, but it had to be a person who didn't know my
history and the details of my past. I also wanted someone who I respected and who would have a heart for the material I was working with. After considering several different people, I chose Maureen. I couldn't have made a better choice.
Meet Ann Campanella Formerly a magazine and newspaper editor, Ann Campanella writes creative nonfiction and poetry. Excerpts from her recently published
memoir, Motherhood: Lost and Found, have been recognized by the Isak Dinesen International Creative Nonfiction Competition, the North Carolina Writers' Network and the Charlotte Writers' Club. She was honored to receive the Poet Laureate Award twice from the North Carolina Poetry Society, and she is the
author of What Flies Away, a full-length poetry collection. Ann's writing has appeared in local and national publications from literary journals to the bestselling A Cup of
Comfort series, and her poetry has been featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac. Her latest book is Motherhood: Lost and
Found, a memoir about losing her mother to Alzheimer's while she was trying to become a mother myself, set against the backdrop of her love of horses. Ann has a degree in English Literature from Davidson College and lives on a small horse farm in North Carolina with her family and animals. Learn more about Ann at http://www.anncampanella.com/
Ann's memoir, Motherhood: Lost and Found by Ann
Campanella is available on Amazon.com. Find it here. Ann's book of poetry, What Flies Away, is available here.
Featured Writing
by
Ann Campanella
After reading my friend Maureen's poetry collection I'm ready to pop the cap off my own fizzy bottle, shake
it up some more before my own words come spurting out.
I need to
be shaken at times, otherwise
all the sludge and tiredness of my days settles
to the bottom weighing me down. But when I shake
and spurt, something in me awakens! My hair
lights up and a fire races through me. I am alive
with wanting, reaching for the gold ring, the horse hair,
the fastest gallop I can manage -- the way I rode
the mechanical bull in Fort Worth -- a youthful twenty-one --
able to hang on and
withstand the highest speeds
while weathered cowboys in their brown leather chaps
were thrown off right and left. I clung --
my upper body whipping in every direction,
legs wrapped tight, lower back loose enough
to absorb whatever was thrown my way.
I raised my cowboy hat to the crowd that gathered,
imagined myself in the real rodeo -- the dust
rising up as the bucking bronco under me
heaved and twisted with desire,
writhing to be free.
~ Ann Campanella
http://www.anncampanella.com/
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt
This is WordPlay -- so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's "ready." What are you ready for? This is such an important question for you as a writer that I'm giving you two ways to work with it. Take your pick, or better yet, try them both.
PROMPT 1: Set a timer for ten minutes and, just as Ann Campanella did in her poem above, begin with the words "I'm ready..." and let it rip. You may find that you are writing about one particular "thing" you're ready for, and/or one particular memory, or many.
Trust your heart and roll with it.
PROMPT 2: Use the power of a
list. Again, set a timer for ten minutes. Make a list of everything that you can think of, in any area of your life, that you are "ready" for. You may want to create lists for different areas of your life: writing projects, household projects, travel dreams, creative works, classes to take, etc. You
may want to write the ONE thing you are really ready for and spend your ten minutes listing action steps and ideas to bring this one thing into being. Or you may want to, as Nike says, just do it, if it's something that can be done right now.
If you did make a list of a number of different things you're ready for, pick one to start (or do)
starting now. As Goethe says, "Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace, and power in it."
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MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and two collections of poetry, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water. She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another."
Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best learn -- and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours! |
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