“It’s there just under the surface, waiting to come out.” ~~ James Naremore
Editor’s Note: We’re fortunate to have a guest post from James Naremore, who wrote American Still Life and is participating in a WOW Blog Tour. How do you find your voice? It’s somewhere between your brain, your heart, and your fingers. In the article below, Naremore gives you advice on finding, using, and strengthening your voice.
Where’s Your Voice?
By James Naremore
There are a lot of terms associated with art that are problematic, and writing is no different. A word or term gets tossed out with the assumption that everyone understands what the word or term means when there is actually no agreed upon definition. This can lead to a big game of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” where no one steps up to ask what is actually being talked about for fear of sounding stupid, and we happily have a conversation where everyone is talking about something different (don’t get me started about the term “flow” in the craft of writing. Meaningless). One such term is “Voice.” What are we actually talking about when we talk about a literary voice? Obviously each character in a work will have her/his/they’re/its own voice: it’s the way the character communicates, the attitude and structure of the communication.
But, beyond characters, there are two other voice layers. The next one up the ladder is the narrator’s voice, which is similar to, but above, the character voices. The last layer of voice in writing is the author’s voice, and this is the most foundational and the most difficult to grasp. It is the deep-level set of choices made by Virginia Woolf or John Steinbeck or Toni Morrison or Gabriel Garcia-Marquez that makes all their work sound like them. All authors have their own voice, and there are schools of writing education that say that finding the author’s voice (in conjunction with the narrator of the given project) is the single most important thing to get “right.” But that voice can be pretty elusive.
As a beginning writer, the best way to find your voice is just to write. You develop it over the course of doing projects. At first your voice can swing pretty wildly, but eventually it settles down into being its own thing. This is true for a single piece of longer fiction, like a novel, where the voice can feel a bit clunky or over-done at first, but after about fifty pages, it has settled into a groove (this is why going back and rewriting your first fifty pages is so important. Well, one of many reasons why.) But it can also be a good idea to prime the voice by doing a few writing exercises that can help you discover your voice if you don’t know it yet or recover it if you’ve been away from your work for a while and you don’t want to just wait for it to show up.
I’ll offer up two of my favorites, neither of which I can claim to have created. The first one I learned from my partner years ago after she had gotten it from the poet Kaveh Akbar during a workshop with Kaveh, it’s called “Bibliomancy” and it is my number-one go-to for any voice problem I’m having with my own work.
I mentioned above that voice is a set of choices, many times unconscious. Personal leanings toward syntax or word choice or sentence structure, but also mood and “color” and “shape” (If we had more time, we could lay out several sentences and talk about the mood, color, and shape of each and how they impact the reader, but this will have to suffice). Everyone has a voice, and voice is most easily represented by what you like. Words or phrases that you gravitate to for some reason: meaning, sound, feel, whatever. Bibliomancy works by having you actively interact with words and phrases you have some deep affinity for. Here’s how…
Grab a book off your shelf or go to the library (better idea!) or a bookstore. Go to the poetry section. I know you may not be trying to write poetry, but poetry is a necessity here. Poetry is so distilled and so focused on the deeper meaning and beauty of language that it is MUCH easier to use for this. Take your book (poetry, if you can find it) and open it to a random page. Scan the text. You are NOT reading it per se, you are just scanning the text. Soon, hopefully, your eyes and mind will catch a word or a phrase that gimmers for you. Something you “like” for some reason. Have a piece of paper handy and write that word of phrase down. Keep scanning and jotting down random words and phrases. You might go through several books to get a full page but try to get a decent number of words and phrases written down. Now, pick a few of these words on your page and write super short paragraphs or sentences using them. Use as many as you can.
These words are keys to your voice. Keep the page near your workspace for a while, consult them as you are diving into your project. Just finding them helps you connect subconsciously with your voice, writing sentences with them help activate your voice even more.
The second method I like is similar to Bibliomancy, but it involves fragments as prompts. I got this from one of my MFA classes. Writing prompts are fantastic ways to warm up for a project and keep you connected to all aspects of your craft. In this one you will need to gather several magazines or periodicals like newspapers. Have several small slips of paper you’ve cut handy along with a jar or a bowl. This is fun to do as a group. Spend an hour or forty-five minutes scanning pages in the magazines, again, not reading, but looking for sentences or fragments that grab you for any reason. Maybe they are weird or funny out of their context. Maybe there’s a word you like. Jot these phrases down on the slips of paper and toss them in the bowl. At the end of time, each writer draws a slip out of the bowl and beings in a story using that sentence in the first paragraph. Take another hour or so to write. Sometimes you come up with nothing, but every once in a while, you get a great start or piece to a larger project. And you’ve connected to your voice through the subconscious connection of reacting to random out of context phrases you are drawn to.
Voice isn’t something you can force. It is something you can play with sometimes, but in general it’s there just under the surface, waiting to come out. The best way of finding it or activating it is turning off your problem solving, plot-oriented mind, and get in touch with the out-of-context glimmers.
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Editor’s Note: Our thanks to Bruce Overby for sharing his experience. All 3 parts are below. How does his experience compare to yours? We’d love to know. If you can’t comment below, send us a note through the contact box at the bottom of the home page.
February’s writing prompts will be up on Wednesday, February 5.
Five Things Debut Book Launch Taught Me,
Part 1
Publishing with a small, independent press has its ups and downs
This is Parts 1 & 2 of a 3-part article. It covers social media and budgeting. Subsequent articles will cover self-advocacy, continuing with your writing efforts, and cherishing those special moments in the publishing process.
When my debut novel, The Cyclone Release, won Third Prize in Madville Publishing’s Blue Moon Novel Competition, I was elated for many reasons. First and foremost, the prize came with a publishing contract, which meant the novel on which I had labored for over a decade would finally find readers, and I would now breathe the rarefied air of the published author. More than that, winning Third Prize as opposed to First, which went to the truly fine novel Provenanceby Sue Mell, meant I would have over a year to build the author platform that would be crucial to the success of the book. And working with a small publishing house would afford me creative influence that my agented friends didn’t get from the big New York publishers they had signed with.
That was two years ago, and The Cyclone Release is now out in the world, so I thought I’d reflect on the experience so far and share some thoughts. Below are five things I’ve learned launching a book with a small publisher.
1. Don’t lose yourself in the social media vortex
Above, I mention the author platform. This is something I had blogged about three years ago after seeing a terrific presentation on the topic from the inimitable thriller writer Danielle Girard, who continues to maintain and nurture one of the most robust author platforms I’ve seen. Most people reading Medium know what an author platform is, but just to be clear, I use the term to refer to the online and media presence and associated brand an author must cultivate and maintain in order to build readership. That three-year-old blog post identifies the elements of an author platform as:
- An author website
- A blog
- Social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, at minimum
- An email list and newsletter
I used the time I had before the launch of The Cyclone Release to create a robust author website using Squarespace, to build an e-mail list I use to send out monthly newsletters, to migrate my longstanding Blogspot presence over here to Medium, and to enhance my social media presence. Unfortunately for me, that last element has grown exponentially. I’m not only on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, I also have a relatively hearty YouTube channel, and I regularly post on LinkedIn. This last one may feel out of place, but my novel is a workplace drama, so I thought it appropriate, and it has in fact gotten a reasonable response there.
What I’ve realized is that using these platforms to create and manage a brand is quite different from using them to keep up with your cousins in Poughkeepsie. For instance, I’ve segregated my Facebook and Twitter accounts to insulate my author brand, so that’s actually five accounts, not two. And I’m now being drawn to TikTok (exploring at the moment, Booktok videos, perhaps, in the future), and as a published author, I have author pages to manage on Amazon,Goodreads, and Poets & Writers. I try to be efficient by scheduling and managing Facebook and Instagram posts using the Meta Business Suite, and Twitter and LinkedIn posts using Buffer, but that only buys you so much. In the end, you have to be a real, original human being in order to truly engage potential new readers, and that imperative, along with the unavoidable dopamine-driven addictiveness of social media, can quickly become all-consuming.
Agented authors with the big New York houses don’t have to worry about this because either their publishers or the retainers they pay their agents typically cover management of social media. And let’s face it, if you’re selling thousands of books already, you don’t really need social media. But for me, it’s gotten so bad that I’m going to make a New Year’s resolution to break the cycle. I’ve concluded that I’m spending too much time on this to very little benefit, and to the detriment of my writing, so something’s got to give.
2. Decide what you’re willing to spend
Small publishers don’t typically have budget for much publicity or marketing of your work, beyond what they do for the whole of their list. They also often come up short when it comes to some real sales drivers like audiobook and ebook production. The good ones will, however, have good industry connections for services like this, which can greatly simplify the process. What all this means is, you’ll need to decide how much cash you’re willing and able to dole out to drive sales of your book. In my case, I found a few thousand sitting in a largely dormant investment account that my wife and I agreed could be used for the book. This required some priority calls.
These are the things I decided to go ahead and pay for:
- Editing: In a bit of fortunate serendipity, when I learned of my success in the Blue Moon Novel Competition, I happened to be taking a writing workshop at the Stanford Writer’s Studio, where I started seriously studying fiction writing 20 years ago. The instructor of that class, the talented and wonderful writer Angela Pneuman is not only a long-time mentor of mine (I had taken one of my earliest writing workshops with her back in 2003), she is also a professional editor. Once I knew The Cyclone Release would be going out into the world, my publisher and I agreed that a professional editing pass would do much to ready the book for sale—which it did. This was some of the best money I’ve spent on the book.
- Audiobook production: My publisher had a connection to a hugely talented and experienced narrator at a comparatively reasonable rate, and I’m really pleased with the results. This is the biggest of the big-ticket items I’m covering, and while I’m not sure how the sales are going at this point, I think the audiobook, available on Audible, Google Play, and most other platforms, will drive some good sales.
- Consignment at local bookstores: I felt this was important because The Cyclone Release is a realistic story with a very strong local flavor. (The subtitle is “A Novel of Silicon Valley.”) Also, my book released in mid-November, just in time for the holiday shopping season, so I’m hoping having it available in local stores will prove a shrewd move.
- Additional books to sell on consignment: See above. In addition, having these boxes of books on the floor of my home office turns out to be a strong motivator for me to contact more local stores, and perhaps set up an online store of my own.
The things I decided not to invest in were:
- Publicist support: My editor referred me to a great publicist, who I “interviewed” for over an hour on the phone, deciding in the end that the price tag ($16,000) was too rich for my blood. That hour on the phone, though, was something of a boon, as she shared a lot of excellent tips and advice free of charge. The key thing I learned from her, though, was that professional publicists spend virtually all of their time on national and international media. This one made it clear she would spend zero time on bookstore events and arrangements. I’ve only been able to arrange one significant bookstore event for myself, my Launch Event at Books Inc. Palo Alto, in Silicon Valley, but I expected I would really enjoy that experience, and I did. So these events are a personal priority for me; they’re just unlikely to generate the volume of book sales you’ll get from media or online sales, which is why publicists prioritize the way they do.
- Paid reviews: I was leery about paying people to review my book, so I polled some of my author acquaintances who have published multiple books to see what they thought. The word I got back was “don’t do it,” which was consistent with my instincts, so I haven’t done it. I’ve heard 50 reviews on Amazon is sort of a benchmark that can catapult the visibility of a book, and so far, my loyal readers have fallen far short of that, though I have gotten some great reviews from people I really respect.
The bottom line is, if your book is accepted by a small publisher, you’ll need to spend some of your own money to help the book succeed, and you’ll need to give some thought to how you prioritize that spending.
Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 of this article, which cover self-advocacy, continuing with your writing efforts, and cherishing those special moments in the publishing process.
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Bruce Overby is a Silicon Valley native, retired tech industry professional, long ago social media researcher, and writer. His debut novel, The Cyclone Release, was released in November 2022 by Madville Publishing.
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Five Things Debut Book Launch Taught Me
Publishing with a small, independent press has its ups and downs
This is Part 2 of a 3-part article. Part 1 covers social media and budgeting. This part covers self-advocacy and continuing with your writing efforts. The final part will encourage you to cherish those special moments in the publishing process.
3. Don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself
In my experience, authors of literary fiction whose work is published by traditional publishers, even small ones, tend to be reticent to sing their own praises. There is certainly a culture that says this is beneath us, and that the work should speak for itself. But even if the work can speak volumes, it just can’t do it very loudly. (It’s a book, after all.) Writers—and particularly those whose work is published by small publishers—need to understand and continually remind themselves that it’s a business in the end. As the literary agent Chris Parris-Lamb said once at a publishing panel before an audience of aspiring authors:
“Our industry does not exist so writers can publish books. Our industry exists so readers will have something to read.”
Tough, but true.
There were three instances where I faced the fear and advocated for myself, and all of them, I believe, improved my chances for book sales:
- Book design and cover: Out of college, I worked in publishing and built a background in visual design and typography. I therefore had very definite ideas about what fonts I wanted used in my book and on the cover, and what the final cover should look like. After some breathless email exchanges, my publisher first agreed to use the fonts I asked for, and then wisely suggested that we have a video call with the in-house cover designer and hammer out the final cover. It was a spirited discussion where I had to hold my own, but I also have to admit that I learned a lot about what makes a strong cover design. In the end, and after some smart late-in-the-game changes by the cover designer, I think we were all quite satisfied with the final result. (I know I was.)
- Blurbs and promotion: No novelist wants his or her work going out into the world without some glowing words of praise from prominent authors on the cover. I’m fortunate to have studied with and befriended a number of novelists who have become successful, and who were all too happy to read my novel and provide me with blurbs for my cover—with one exception. Since writing school, I have stayed in contact with my thesis advisor from those days who happens to be a wildly successful author—a Pulitzer Prize winner, in fact. After a great deal of useless rumination, I worked up the courage to ask her for a cover blurb. She declined, as she has become so prominent at this point that she no longer provides cover blurbs to anyone—which I actually think is pretty wise of her. She did, however, praise my book on social media, and while the post didn’t generate the wave of attention I’d hoped for, I was still hugely grateful, and I remain so.
- Audiobook production: As mentioned above, the publisher had access to excellent resources for audiobook narration and production. What’s more, I was given full veto authority over the voice talent we would use. After an audition over video conference, I was quite pleased with the narrator, and looked forward to reviewing the draft audio. And review it I did, closely and carefully, generating eight pages of fixes that I sent to the narrator and publisher. The publisher seemed a little surprised at the depth and thoroughness of my review, but to his credit, the narrator wasn’t. Within a day and a half, he had made all the fixes, greatly improving the final product.
My hope for anyone reading this, and anyone who wishes for it, is that they land a contract with a large publisher who will spare no expense in promoting their work. But if you, like me, land with a small independent, you’ll have to be your own best friend and advocate.
4. Push through the noise and write
All this work trying to get sales traction, first for my soon-to-be-released book and now for my newly released book, has been a frustrating distraction, keeping me from the passionate endeavor that got me here in the first place: fiction writing. Maintaining the platform, prioritizing and closely watching the dollars I’m spending, and advocating for myself are all incredibly time-consuming, leaving little time to put pen to paper on the next novel. If you’re a working person, as I was during all the years I was working on The Cyclone Release, this would have been a non-starter for me. There would likely be no platform, or at least not one as elaborate as the one I’ve constructed; there might be money, but no time to prioritize its spending; and there would be no time to be my own champion.
I retired just as I landed my book contract and entered into all this brand-building, and I have no illusions about how fortunate that makes me. The flip side, of course, is that I’m 63 and just publishing my first novel, so time is short for whatever comes next, meaning the pressures are coming from both sides: to promote what I have now while moving ahead with something new.
My response to this is nothing new or innovative, and it’s certainly not a solution. It’s just the thing all writers must do pretty much all the time: get writing. Make the time and dive in. Think about it when you’re not writing, and write it when you are. This article is, in fact, part of that.
At the beginning of 2021, when I had finished my novel and entered it into some contests, when I had received my 200thshort fiction rejection, when I was loath to start an undoubtedly endless and frustrating agent search, I decided, I am going to get some readers. Somehow, this year, 2021, I am going to get some readers of something I’ve written. I of course had some submissions out there and the aforementioned contest entries with my novel, but I was looking for something more immediate, so I opened a Medium account and started writing articles. None of them have been viral or anything, but they did get me what I wanted: readers. I didn’t even make the cut of 100 followers, falling just short when Medium cut off the Partner Program access for writers who hadn’t reached that threshold, but none of that mattered. I had a few dozen readers, and that had been my goal.
But then, magically, things happened, and 2021 became the best year I’ve had as a writer. First, I won Third Prize in the Blue Moon Novel Competition and a publishing contract. Then, later in the year, I learned that my story “Fruit Stands” had been accepted by the Evening Street Review. The story would be published in summer 2022, and my novel would come out November 15th. Just like that 2021 and 2022 became banner years for me.
So now, I’m pushing through again. I’ve managed almost 5,000 words in my next novel, a sequel to The Cyclone Release, and I’m charging ahead with some more pieces like this one. More than that, I’m reviewing the books I readand posting the reviews, keeping up with fellow debut authors, and turning out newsletters. Because for my money, all writing counts, and writers should give themselves credit whether they’re writing a brief review or working on their next novel.
As Jodi Picoult has said, “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” Writers have to write, and I feel fortunate to have that ingrained in my being, and to have the time and freedom to do it.
Stay tuned for Part 3 of this 3-part article, which will encourage you to cherish those special moments in the publishing process.
@@@Bruce Overby is a Silicon Valley native, retired tech industry professional, long ago social media researcher, and writer. His debut novel, The Cyclone Release, was released in November 2022 by Madville Publishing.
Five Things Debut Book Launch Taught Me
Publishing with a small, independent press has its ups and downs
This is Part 3 of a 3-part article. Part 1 covers social media and budgeting, and Part 2 covers self-advocacy and continuing with your writing efforts. This final part encourages you to cherish those special moments in the publishing process and provides a brief summary of all five of the things my debut book launch taught me.
5. Treasure the little things
Most of you heard about this, but I must retell the story for the few who haven’t: A debut author, Chelsea Banning, blew up in the media recently not—at first, anyway—because of her startling new book, but for a very different reason: After having only two people show up at her book launch (despite having had 37 RSVPs), she innocently groused on Twitter, planning to eventually delete the tweet, and it was the response to this tweeted groan that went viral and ultimately spread to the national media. Literary luminaries Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and a host of others responded to the tweet by sharing their own horror stories of sparsely attended readings—or in the case of Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, a joint reading in Manhattan attended by exactly zero people. On Twitter, of course, something like that is sure to prompt a bit of parody, some of it based on envy towards a writer whose following just exploded for the most random of reasons. I of course share in that envy, but I’ve become adept at pushing those feelings aside, realizing over time that they do nothing for my writing or my success as a writer.
So, why am I bringing this up? Because the Launch Event for The Cyclone Release was the exact opposite of Chelsea Banning’s. I had an audience of 40, which the staff at Books Inc. Palo Alto, which hosted the event, informed me was their largest audience of the year. My tribe came out in force to support me, something that allows me to quickly dismiss any envious grousing I might direct at Chelsea Banning and remind myself to treasure the good fortune I’ve had in getting this book out to readers.
In Summary
Working with a small publisher has been, on balance, wonderful. A particularly vociferous and candid writing instructor I had once gave a seminar on working with university and independent presses that he started by saying, quite loudly, “The big New York publishers don’t give a shit about you!” I’m sure he was engaging in a bit of hyperbole to make a point, but I do have prominent writers in my circle who have bemoaned the limited creative input their big New York houses have allowed them and the grueling book tours they’re required to go on. (Sound like nirvana to you? Yeah, me too—though I can see it getting old after the 7th or 8th one.) In my case, while I did have to make personal investments in both time and money, I did have significant creative input and good support from a publisher who is in it for the love of the words, verses, sentences, and stories, not the well-being of nameless, faceless shareholders. And in the end, I have to face it: This is really the only way my book was going to get into print, so that’s pretty much the end of the conversation right there.
So, if you find yourself working with a small publisher, be good and ready to:
- Find some balance with the social media vortex.
- Determine how much of your own money you’re willing and able to spend.
- Advocate for yourself.
- Push through and make time for your writing.
- Treasure the little wonders that happen along the way.
If you found this article useful, be sure to check out Parts 1 and 2, which cover social media and budgeting, self-advocacy, and continuing with your writing efforts.
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Bruce Overby is a Silicon Valley native, retired tech industry professional, long ago social media researcher, and writer. His debut novel, The Cyclone Release, was released in November 2022 by Madville Publishing.
If you have comments, questions, or reactions, please share them. We love to hear from readers. If you see the box below, write your comments there, or send me a note through the contact box on the home page and I’ll forward it to the author.
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“I’ll only say what I love in the writing unless you ask for something else.” ~~B. Lynn Goodwin
January Writing Prompts
- Try a personal essay or a poem as you write about one or more of these questions.
- OR write from the POV of a character you’re working with instead of yourself?
- OR mix genres.
- What is the biggest conflict you faced in 2024?
- What is the biggest struggle you anticipate in 2025?
- What is the family secret you’ve never told anyone?
- What is a secret from your childhood you’ve never told anyone?
- Looking back over the last year, what did you accomplish?
- What do you hope to accomplish in 2025?
- What are you afraid to accomplish in 2025?
OR
- I survived…
- I’m trying to survive…
- What if…
Read it over. Does it make the point(s) you want it to?
Does it include a character? A scene? A setting? A point of view? And a message? Or is strictly exposition?
If you could do one thing differently, what would you change? Why don’t you do that now?
Want to share what you wrote? Put it in the box below. Someone has to be first. Why not get the recognition? I’ll only say what I love in the writing unless you ask for something else.
Want some perspective on your writing? Click here to see what we offer.
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“I go to writing as therapy.” ~~Laura Sweeney
Psychological Sturdiness
By Laura Sweeney
I wish I had known this term as an undergrad integrated arts student at St. Olaf College. Back then, I didn’t appreciate or recognize art’s healing potential. Though years after I dropped out to pursue a romance with a man twice my age, I would drive three hours north from Ames just to walk on The Hill. To take a poetry workshop with Christian Wiman or Rebecca Lindenberg. To walk through the music building. To rest in the chapel. Reside in the dorm. Or Archer House, the river inn. Or eat at The Tavern or Rubenstein’s burger joint. Walk along the Cannon River as I envisioned my sojourn to the deep south for my MFA despite being banished by a church which did not believe art or the writing life is salvific but rather as the preacher said an escape.
And escape I did. Packed my belongings and my dog Freya and headed south to Lake Charles where I spent a semester walking along the Bord du Lac until I was banished for sharing a poem about writing towards wholeness, which the professor misinterpreted as prejudiced. Locked the door and demanded nobody leave workshop until she delivered her manifesto. How she tore that piece apart as my spirit shriveled. I reported the incident to the Chair who reviewed the piece then advised I go to the diversity committee. But instead, I transferred. Worked as a tax pro back home for a season, licked my wounds, and reapplied for Southern Illinois Carbondale. Still in search of the holy grail like an Iowa Arts Council speaker suggested. Not a thing out there to be had. But perhaps instead the pursuit of a lifestyle of well-being.
And that is what I defended at SIU after three years struggling to find balance. Psychological sturdiness I called it. My Lesson Learned. How to center myself despite the chaos and corruption of a mismanaged university. Like forest bathing in Lake Murphysboro State Park. My mantra? I go to writing as therapy. If I go to therapy for writing, something is wrong. At SIU many writers were in therapy.
But I soldiered on. Graduated into the Great Pandemic. Alone with Freya in a soldier’s cottage. Where we walked many yard laps. Where I wrote many Covid poems, mostly unpublished. Where I did not lose my mind in that isolation of shutdown as I plugged into myself.
Instead, I pressed onwards towards my PhD, in all things creative writing. Packed my Camry and my dog Freya again and moved three hours north up Hwy 51 to south Bloomington’s Laesch Acres, a subdivision down the street from Miller Park Zoo and Parkview Inn, on Route 66. To continue pursuing the holy grail. That fall I wrote zero creative writing pieces, joked with a classmate that I would rather eat tin foil than take required seminars, recalled my poetry mentor Allison Joseph’s warning the PhD would be at least two years of pain. Sat by the fountain outside Stevenson Hall lamenting all pedagogy no practice. But spring came and the cherry blossoms. And an anger as method course. Finally, catharsis. Finally piece/peace of mind. Finally progress. Finally, another Covid piece published. In Indonesia.
How exhausting it has been pursuing the holy grail of writing towards wellness, releasing my past, putting poems from my first book collection about my defunct writing partnership out into the world. Arriving at a place more ready to begin again. Learning the hard way that creative writing is a sturdy ladder out of a deep pit. And I am still walking. And I am still writing. And I am still.
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Laura Sweeney facilitates Writers for Life in Iowa and Illinois. She represented the Iowa Arts Council at the First International Teaching Artist’s Conference in Oslo, Norway. Her poems and prose appear in seventy plus journals and twenty-three anthologies in the States, Canada, Britain, Indonesia, and China. Her recent awards include a scholarship to the Sewanee Writer’s Conference. She is a PhD candidate, English Studies/Creative Writing, at Illinois State University.