What are you willing to sacrifice for writing?

This has been on my mind quite a bit lately. The past year or so, especially the last month, has been, shall we say, interesting. The goal of having a writing career, and the thought that everything is pointing towards that, for that cause, has kept me sane more than anything else. Well, that and some freakin awesome friends.

I'm old enough to have some regrets, now. I wish I had been smarter about doing a double-major or even a minor to help support my writing habits. I know a girl who's doing English with a deaf studies minor so she can work as a translator while she writes books. Why wasn't I smart enough to do something like that? Most of all I wish I had worked out graduate school immediately after graduating. This year of not being in school has been in and of itself a very educational experience in and of itself, but it's been difficult. I've learned a lot about life and myself and what I actually want.

Which is why I am registered to take the GRE on Saturday. I'm still probably looking at one more year of not school, and this is where the sacrifice for writing thing comes in. Another year trying to survive financially, trying to keep building a writing career on my own, is terrifying. I used to be such an adventurer, and so fearless. I don't know what changed, but I definitely don't feel fearless anymore. Even the thought of graduate school--moving away to a totally strange place and living with all brand new people--is also terrifying.

But there are certain things we just have to do, despite our terror. I'm finally getting at least a little used to that idea, which ironically makes the terror a little less acute. And the thought that makes it all worth it, is that I'm doing it to move towards a writing career. Neil Gaiman's mountain analogy has given me the mental metaphors and imagery to put things back into perspective.

It has definitely been a roller-coaster, and I definitely don't see smooth sailing for a while, but right now that's okay, and things feel good. Is it strange that having the GRE to study for has made me feel quite a bit better about things? I'm not so sure I'm good at real life just yet, but school I can manage. I know how to be a student. And I love it and miss it.

You guys have been supportive and encouraging through my unstable life for a long time now, and it makes all the difference. We still have a while to go, but not so long, I hope. I feel like I'm pushing at the gates of about twenty different roads, the publishing road, graduate school, all sorts of different jobs, and we'll see which ones let me through, which ones fuse shut, which ones I just have to keep pushing. Something will happen, and soon, and I will try to look at it as an adventure.

And I'll be writing every step.

Sarah Allen

The Once a Day Submission Rule

There are basically only two things a writer needs to do. Two parts to their career. The creative, writing part, and then the submission, selling, business part.

We hear about the writing schedule or word count daily goal thing all the time. I think that rule is wonderful, and one of the most important for writers. We need to always be writing.

I want to extend that to the other part of a writers career though, and say we always need to be submitting.

So, along with the 1000 words per day or whatever your writing goal may be, I have one more to add to it: submit at least once per day. This seems difficult or extreme until you really look at it. It can seriously be anything. A short story or poem to a magazine, a writing competition, a freelance article query, an agent query, a writing project bid on Elance, anything. You only have to do a small amount of research to see how many options there are out there.

For example, today I submitted a short picture book manuscript I've been working on for a while, and yesterday I submitted entries to the Utah Arts Council's Original Writing contest. Tomorrow I might query Dog Fancy, a magazine I've always been fond of, or finish writing and submit my entry to this pretty cool fantasy fiction competition. There are so many options. And if once a day is too much, then do once a week. Just have a specific goal, like with the actual writing. The point is, if you keep submitting, something good will eventually come.

Check out the contest section of Poets and Writers or FreelanceWriting.com. See if your state's arts department has anything upcoming or find the submission guidelines for your favorite magazines. It's actually been really fun.

What other places can you think to submit writing?

Now I just need a way to support this rather expensive habit...

Sarah Allen

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

It is three o'clock in the morning. I just turned the last pages of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Maybe its too late to try to do a coherent review, but here are some initial thoughts.

Michael Chabon is a very, very trained and talented writer, who obviously did a butt-load of research and knows a hecka lot more than I do. The Pulitzer Prize badge on the cover of the book is not surprising. The sentences are beautifully precise, and the detail and description is absolutely stunning. In other words, the prose is a pleasure to read.

The story is like-wise very interesting. Very intricate and complicated plot, with intricate and complicated characters. The book is divided into sections and spans at least a twelve year period and even spends a good chunk of time in Antarctica. I didn't even know Antarctica was in any way involved in World War II, but apparently it was. Told you Chabon is one smart dude.

It leaves me wondering, though, whether all critically acclaimed/Pulitzer Prize winning books always have to deal with World War II, family secrets and homosexuality. Is it just me or does it seem like most of them do? I'm not saying those are bad things. Actually they're quite intriguing, interesting things to write about. And I'm not saying that the book is formulaic. It does seem a bit like it was perfectly made from some Pulitzer Prize recipe, but not because Chabon was trying to follow certain steps, you can tell that it's just the story he wanted to tell, and he did it brilliantly. Still, though, while I appreciated the epicness of its scope and grandness of its themes and beautiful prose, I did sort of miss my Austenian drawing room.

So yes. I absolutely enjoyed reading it, and thought the story and characters were totally engaging. It made me want to simultaneously know as much as Michael Chabon does while intentionally wanting to go in a simpler direction. A beautiful, epic book, highly recommended.

Anyone else read this or anything else by Michael Chabon?

Sarah Allen

The Genre I Could Never Write

I couldn't say for certain that there is one genre I would never write. Contemporary is my main focus, but there are things about every genre that interest me. And there are things about each of them that I really don't like.

The fear of inaccuracy would be hard for me in terms of historical fiction. Same with sci-fi, actually. I don't like the reused plots and stock characters that often come with modern thrillers, or the cliche sentimentality that is so easy to fall into in fantasy. I like contemporary/mainstream because I like natural and real-life, but that also means coming up with an interesting plot can be quite difficult.

Right now I am in the outlining/brainstorming stages of a young adult novel. My last MC was a forty-year old man and I intentionally want to go the other end of the spectrum. George had a story and something to say that wouldn't leave me alone, and my new MC is the same way. She must have it out.

The issue I'm having is this: even though I want there to be other major plot points besides a romance story, romance is still basically the main thread in most YA. I, for the life of me, cannot make myself care about a teenage love story. Maybe that's cruel, but I can't. Mostly I just can't make myself interested in the typical good-looking, jock, slightly cocky love interest typical in most YA novels. 

My point in all this, though, is that if there are characters and stories we want to tell, we can make it work. The typical teenage boy love interest doesn't work for me. But if I give him 7 or 8 extra years, black skin and a limp, then it works. Is that weird? I don't know, but its how it is. There is always a way to tell the story we want to tell.

Have any of you encountered something like this before, trying to work around genre tropes? Why are you drawn to your particular genre? Is there one genre you would never, never write?

Sarah Allen

Neil Gaiman's incredible commencement speech for artists

This has been making the rounds the past little while, and maybe you've seen it. I didn't want to take the chance, though, that one person who stopped by today had missed it.

Don't miss this.



Anyone. ANYONE trying to make a living and a career in any kind of creative, artistic field should consider this speech a necessity. It put things so wonderfully into perspective for me.

I think probably my favorite part is Gaiman's analogy of his goal of being a successful author, all the things he had in his mind that he wanted to do, as a mountain. Any opportunity he came across, any decision he made, was made based on whether it would take him closer to that mountain or not. I absolutely love that analogy and way of thinking about things. It's going to be my decision making motto from now on.

So now that you've watched his speech, what are your thoughts?

Sarah Allen