Overwhelmed

As the school year creeps to an end, I think more and more of my future career(?) goals. I feel like I am dreadfully behind in the grand scheme of things. The program I want to get into accepts less than 10% of it's applicants, most that are accepted had an undergrad GPA of 3.7 ( I had a 3.5) and got a 600 on the GRE (whatever that means). I went to the GRE website and found out they are changing the testing and scoring, so now I really don't know what score to aim for.

I also will need three letters of recommendation, preferably from college professors familiar with my writing skills. I am also freaking out about this because I have always been under the impression that I was not particularly memorable, and sadly have little faith that anyone would remember how I wrote if they even remembered me. Woe is me I suppose. My idea is maybe attend a couple of writer's conferences and be impressive and memorable. (?)

And the writing. I am trudging along on my story/novel; which I am still in love with, confused with, and frustrated by. At times it impresses me that I wrote it, but then I think maybe I have bad taste and am vain.

I guess for now I will just keep studying, keep writing, and keep the dream alive. Come summer I will sign up for the GRE and see how I do.

I wrote a poem.

I also found another free online lit mag that I like. Diagram: http://www.thediagram.com/ It too has quite a bit of poetry which is intriguing. It has stories which read like poems and poems like stories. I, at times, enjoyed reading the submission guidelines more than the stories themselves. I will look for another few possible places to submit tonight. The next few to look at on my list are: Lumina, Nervous Breakdown, 580 Split, Caketrain and Lifted Brow.


Word of the day: rubicund (adj) Inclining to redness; ruddy; red. www.dictionary.com
Like my dad's beard (before it was gray) was rubicund. (?) I often am awful at using newly learned words correctly in sentences. I have an even worse time deciding if other people (namely students) use newly learned words correctly. Ugh, I can't wait until I no longer live everyday in high school English classes.

I was going to add the quote of the day from www.dictionary.com but it was lame. A good song, but not worth it in my opinion.

I have not done very well on my goal this week. I wrote only 77 words today in my poem. Maybe I'm not done yet. However the rest of the week wasn't that great either. I will keep up my goal, I can still only go up.

Back to Writing

Teaching high school has burnt me out, making it impossible for my imagination to flow. At the end of the day, it's all I am able to do to make dinner and veg. BUT, this weekend my husband Rob and I went camping and it was completly cathartic. I came home with not only the need to write but the desire. I am starting slow, with a goal of 100 words per day. It's an easy goal, which means I should have no trouble meeting it and success leads to success(i hope).

I also had an idea to use a set of playing cards to write random prompts on them and then if I can't decide what to write, I could pull from the deck. I tried them out tonight, I got: "Make up a superhero"
So here it is:


Superhero: Edit-TOR
Powers: the uncanny ability to ALWAYS know when a writer needs someone to read their work and offer an honest critique and good advice
Appearance: Sophisticated black framed glasses, gray pants, button down shirt with sleeves rolled up and a loose tie. Face: chiseled, no facial hair, supple brown eyes, long lashes, soft lips. Body: lean and muscular like a Ken doll.
Can be found: libraries, book stores, book readings, signings, book clubs, writer’s workshops, a cabin by a pond
Side kick: Grammar-A-TOR (knows all grammar rules and how to correctly break them)
Mentor: Diction-know-OR (knowledgeable in ALL words, their meanings, synonyms and antonyms.




On one level I think it's super lame, but I wish he existed. I could really use him, and what writer couldn't?

I also have been looking up places to try and place my writing. While looking, I found an online lit mag, it is free to read and has great stuff in it. It's called La Petite Zine, site:
http://www.lapetitezine.org/index.htm Maybe someday they'll publish my stuff. It seems like a lot of poetry, but super engaging poetry. It almost makes me wish I could write poetry. Maybe my college professor made me feel like I was bad, to make me better. Maybe I'm not that bad of a poet. Maybe I should try? That question is for another day. Anyway, a lot of the writer's published on the site had previous publications in lit magazines and their own books. I guess everyone has to have their stuff published somewhere first. Right?

Word of the day: Bailiwick (noun) - a person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work. www.dictionary.com

New Story!!!

So I started a new story yesterday, obviously since that's the title of this post. I am excited about. I am about 9 pages in and while at work today I couldn't stop thinking about what would happen next, and had no idea. When I got home, I started writing and bam stuff happened. My character(s) are running the show; they only need me because I have fingers to type with. Gonna keep this short because I would like to spend some time writing before I go to bed in 40 mins. Bye.

Rejected Again . . .

I haven't posted here in awhile because I haven't had anything to say. I could have posted and explained how I re-started that essay I was writing - again. It is getting to a point where I like it a bit more, but still not where it needs to be. I am down to about a month left to write/edit it. If I don't speed up, it won't even be fully written. It has changed direction a little, but generally stayed on the same target.

I got a rejection email the other day; saw it on my Blackberry. I wasn't surprised. I was disappointed. It's as short as the other one, well a little longer I guess. It's just as nice, but why be nice if you don't' want to publish it. Obviously it's a pre-fabbed letter with a spot to put the title. It reads:

Dear Tina,

Thank you for submitting:

Elepahnt Bubble Gum Tears

With hundreds of literary magazines to choose from, we're truly honored that you selected Quick Fiction! We're sorry to say, however, that we were not able to place your work in this issue. We wish you the best in placing it elsewhere.

Regards,
(name)

So it goes, another rejection. Two for two, not including the (at least) five "Your Story" competitions for Writer's Digest that have never made the top five, let alone win. Oh well.

I came up with a new idea for a memoir. Still in the introductory stages, so no details yet. I doubt many people read this anyway so the theft of my ideas is unlikely, but I will continue to be cautious.

The school year has begun, so I will most likely be writing/posting even less. Sigh.

Story MIA, possible POW . . .

BUT I'm not sure what war my story is a prisoner of. It is missing though, and since all of my stories are in the same binder, and saved on my computer, I am monumentally concerned. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have noticed one missing story. However, I was looking for this one, which a few months back I remember editing, because I wanted to look at possibly re-editing it and submitting it. The focus of the characters seemed like a good match. I still have a few less likely places to check. Hopefully it turns up in some form. It is probably saved on my old lap top, which would be a miracle if I could get it turned on and doing anything, but all the editing would be lost. Arg!

I have re-edited my "Your Story" story successfully. I will read over it again tonight and submit it. Keep your fingers crossed, mine will be.

While I did work on my essay a bit yesterday, nothing came of it.

Off to go play hide and go seek with that story now, I am the seeker. :/

Lazy . . . or unmotivated?

Answer: pissed that my computer randomly does not type the letter I press. That's probably not the real reason I have been slacking on my writing. However, in my defense, stepping away is sometimes good.

I FINALLY got my first issue of Writer's Digest last week! I only ordered it back in February. I read (almost) straight through it. It had a lot of interesting articles about memior, which made me rethink a short short I wrote for the "Your Story" competition the magazine does. I had based it entirely in fact, but it is supposed to be fiction. In a way it was fiction because I wan't telling it from my point of view, but anyway I decided to change up some details so it wouldn't read like fact to people who knew the story so much. Anyway, I have edited it twice, will reprint it and see how it reads. I have to submit it by the 10th, so not much longer to work on it.

I have taken a bit of time off the Real Simple essay, my goal is to get back to that today as well. I also am trying to pick out an already edited story of mine to rework and submit to another literary magazine (if I have one that I think is worth it). So, three things for today --> that's not too bad.

p.s. the arrow (-->) is my favorite punctuation mark!