Fairy tales, folklore, mythology, all things that I’ve been continually fascinated with since I could read. This ain’t new, or surprising, as I’m certain these types of tales are the general first foray into storytelling for most (possibly everyone). Lately though, there seems to be an influx of focus on the genre, perhaps more so than usual. I’ve been following both Once Upon A Time and Grimm in an effort to pinpoint which creation does the fairytale mash-up plot better. (I’m still Humpty Dumptying on the fence about that one, both have so much promise as well as irksome aspects.) I have a complete collection of Brothers Grimm tales sitting on my night table, giving me a constant stare down (I’ll get to it eventually, I need to catch up on some CanLit first).
All this to say… I’ve got happily-ever-after on the brain.
Write1Sub1 Week 3: Sooooooo How’d You Do?
The Write Part: Dilly-dallied a tad, but I started work on another LensWright piece. This one is, as this post is themed, fairy tale related. I won’t specify which one, but I will say that it’s not about the Princess’s side of things. I’ve started and restarted it a few times over the past few days, still unsure how I want the final tone to be. I’m hoping to get it up for your viewing pleasure by Wednesday, or have two pieces up on LensWright by Friday. These are the goals. Let’s make it happen.
The Sub Part: Submitted another bit of Twitterfiction to Nanoism, a real swell Twitterzine that I’ve actually had the pleasure of being featured in once before. Trying my luck a second time. In similar news, I did get a lovely form rejection from Monkeybicycle, which I submitted to before the new year. The con being that I didn’t get a piece in there, which would have made my year (so far). The pro being that it gave me an interesting idea for a series of posts for this blog.
Final Thoughts: A somewhat more productive week, but still not up to par. As long as I don’t fall back into what happened last week, I think moving forward is a definite option.
Shivering timbers aside, last week it seems I began setting up to start sinking my own battleships. This week isn’t looking so clear on the horizon either, but hey, it’s only Wednesday and I’m generally optimistic (when not stealing away to drink down half-empty glasses of what-have-you).
W1S1 Week 2: Sooooooo How’d You Do?
The Write Part: Let me be the first to admit… I cheated. I didn’t “write” anything new. I did post on LensWright, buuuuut I didn’t produce fresh content. I had something lazing around languidly in the archives since August and upon a reread thought it would do well with the image. I certainly tweaked it here and there, but it’s not “new” writing. It’s new writing for you, sure, but not for me. Iceberg! Straight ahead!
The Sub Part: Nothing. Nada. Cero. Rien. This is not a proud moment for me. Especially with all the potentially promising drafts I have smacking their lips for a nice, fresh, thirst-quenching edit. It was sad, so sad, when the great ship went down!
Final Thoughts: This? This great ship of potential? It might have taken a wrong turn, blundering through the frigid waters of the Northern Atlantic, faced with sinking feelings and in need of some life preservation. Luckily, I’m good with direction and don’t give up that easily. Week 3 might already be almost at half mast, but I’ve got my sleeves rolled and all hands on deck. Bring it!
Image courtesy of Hryck
I am a firm believer in the art of not making New Year’s resolutions. Yes, I call it an “art” because it takes a certain amount of skill, of craftsmanship, to not leap aboard the caboose of the FreshStartCleanSlate bandwagon. After all, everyone else is doing it. That train is so long it typically takes an entire year to pass before the next one shows up. And if you’re not so weak-willed that you jump when everyone tells you to, then maybe you get irritated with all the questions: What are your New Year’s resolutions? They ask. Why don’t you have any New Year’s resolutions? They wonder. Isn’t there something you want to accomplish? To reconsider? To look forward to? And when you won’t concede, the snark sometimes comes out. Oh, you’re one of those. So sometimes it’s easier to make them up, just to please the people and continue the conversation. Except if you do it often enough, come January 1st, you find an actual written list in your pocket and a shiny, beefed-up gym membership on your credit card bill. Like I said: an art.
The simple reason I set up my cookware around the ‘No thanks’ campfire when it comes to New Year’s resolution making has to do with expectation. Expecting to keep the goals you set, the promises you make to yourself, for an entire year is a set up for failure. (Fine, it works for some people. I, however, have not actually met any of those, but would love to be introduced.) When expecting nothing, there’s a lot more wiggle room for good things to happen without being disappointed when they don’t.
Except I do think goal setting to be an important practice, so how does one reconcile the two? The best way I can think of is to use what’s so attractive about making New Year’s resolutions (the new, the fresh start, the back-to-the-beginning, the count-up-from-1), chop the year up into quarters (a natural process anyway, thanks to the Earth’s rotation), and acquire four access points to retreat/regroup/start over. But you’re still setting yourself up to fail! Sure, but a potential four months of failing before clean-slating certainly sounds less depressing than twelve, right?
So let’s begin the Winter Quarter with a progress report on my budding journey as a Write1Sub1 participant. The idea, in a very tiny nutshell, is to write and submit a different piece of fiction (or poetry, or script, or essay, or etc) every week for (ruh roh) a year (or a month, I decided week; subject to change). The story written does not always equal the story submitted. Inevitably, the end game will see 52 stories written and 52 stories submitted. Easy peasy? Um, no, but challenge has been accepted anyway.
W1S1 Week 1: Sooooooo How’d You Do?
The Write Part: Well, I was expecting to do a little better than I did. 680 words on a piece (working) title’d: Barista Blues. Learning from this week’s mistakes, I think I’m going to start using the LensWright project as inspiration for Week 2.
The Sub Part: Submitted a 140-character piece to Twitterzine trapeze magazine called Individualism. It was actually something I’ve been toiling with for a few months now. Mostly reformatting, rewriting, reconfiguring. Writing micro fiction is akin to wrestling a jigsaw puzzle. It’s sweaty and involves lots of pieces flying around trying to fit somewhere for big-picture purposes.
Final Thoughts: Despite the womp-womp feeling that came with writing this week’s new piece, I’m still looking forward to Week 2.