There was a time not too long ago that I thought I might make an attempt to get myself published. I have a number of little pieces that I thought I might take to a professor of creative writing at my university, and perhaps see where they might go. But first, I took them to one of my dearest friends, who majors in literature and has had a number of classes with this illustrious gentleman. She looked through my writing, pronounced it interesting, and asked if she might copy it over to another document on my laptop and make some alterations.
What happened next was a series of lacerations that I tolerated with half-hearted mouth twitches, trying not to insult my friend (who really is an excellent writer) while privately resolving that I would never do this again. It was awful. If poems were people, mine would have had mangled and bloodied limbs, shorn hair, and missing vitals. I made excuses and left as soon as I could. When I got home, I resurveyed the damage.
My own words, stuffed into odd little rows, constrained by a length that I did not design, suffocating on the page. I couldn't read what she had written without feeling an overwhelming sense that my brain-children had been crucified. I threw it away and kept the old stuff, and haven't spoken on the matter of publishing since.
But I find now that I want to try this again, and do it my own way. This is adding to the long list of things I want to do someday. Most days I know that I can't realistically do them all, but there are days when I have an almost Frankensteinian determination to do ALL OF THEM, ALL BY MYSELF, and JUMPING JEHOSHEPHAT IF IT AIN'T GONNA BE THE COOLEST THING THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN.
To this end, I have begun a new story. I don't anticipate that the writing of it will go quickly, since that is NOT in my irreparable nature, but I do want to actually finish it. In addition, I have been writing bits of poetry here and there in hopes of collecting it someday in a single volume. In the meantime, I appreciate ALL of your comments, both critical and complimentary, and I wish you all the best.
Lest you think I use this term in reference to Frankenstein's monster, "Frankensteinian" in this case refers to the unmitigated obsession that Frankenstein showed when creating his monster. Incidentally, my slightly stilted writing style in this piece comes from reading so much of that type of literature lately.
Comments
While editing and suggestions
While editing and suggestions are always helpful, I believe that keeping your own voice and particular style is immensely more important. I have now taken creative writing and advanced poetry--I found that my fellow students in each class who were English or literature majors had a much more difficult time diverging from the beaten path of form and concrete understandability. Be creative, do your thing, and certainly don't take all suggestions to heart. Different is refreshing, and don't let anyone change your voice. :) you should certainly try for publication again.
"You were not meant to fit into a shallow box built by someone else." -J. Raymond
Update: While I never did
Update: While I never did finish that story, I did write another short one that I ultimately took to this professor. He loved it, and I submitted it to our school's literary publication. I haven't heard back yet. But I sent it!!
"I always wonder why birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth. Then I ask myself the same question." - Harun Yahya
That's awesome!
That's awesome!
I don’t thrive off of chaos: chaos thrives off of me.
I say, go for it! Don't let
I say, go for it! Don't let someone else's personal preference censor your creativity outflow. You're you. Writing is part of you. :)
We will give all the help we can! I look forward to seeing more of your posts.
I don’t thrive off of chaos: chaos thrives off of me.