Stagnation

Looking at my last couple of posts, I feel like all I’ve been talking about lately is being overwhelmed and overbooked. This is, on the surface, a post that’s not entirely different. Right now I’ve come to a point in my life that is woefully stagnant. I haven’t written any new poetry in over a month, and haven’t submitted anything new in about the same amount of time. Normally that would be because I’m focused more over on the fiction-writing side of things, but progress hasn’t budged on that end either. With only ten pounds left to lose I’ve seemingly plateaued, things at work are bubbling together as the kids prepare to go back to school and their mother back to job-hunting and my financial goals are coming together, albeit slowly.

But I’m not stressed out about it. I was about a week back- I wanted all these goals met now, I wanted my editing finished now, I wanted five different manuscripts out on submission now…. And then I met up with a friend of mine who has also been a bit stressed out about timing. In his case, it’s a lot about a specific relationship that he really wants to happen. The only advice I could really give him that would be healthy for everyone was to be patient, and to pray. I realized that I had been missing that myself lately. I’d been seeing my stagnation as an obstacle to my goals, to my creativity; to my life. Instead of taking the opportunity to breathe, I was holding my breath until I was purple in the face. I wanted things done on my time, not on God’s time, and in that I had twisted myself up in pretzel-like contortions. Instead of being able to work harder, go further, I have become my own biggest obstacle.

So I start today with a new resolution. When I feel too tired to write, or to network, I will pray. I will take the hint when my body needs rest. I will be patient so that when I do write, when I do edit, I do so with a clear mind and open heart (instead of out of sheer frustration and desire to get things over with). I will welcome stagnation as a normal part of the creative process, and of life in general. It’s not going to be easy, seeing how much I hate being productive, but it’s a lesson I’ll have to learn.

How do you deal with stagnant periods, readers?

What Would You Prefer?

I’ve slowed down a bit in the poetry department, that much is true- but I want to make sure that I’m not neglecting this part of my writing career in anyway. I might have been submitting more of my short stories lately than verses, (and I just wrote my first new poem since mid-September in my third class today), but poetry is still the closest writing form to my heart.

So I’m turning to you, my community, friends, and fans. Give me something to give you- would you prefer to see a video reading of something published? A graphic of one of my published poems? A new, unpublished poem just for this blog? Would you like a new poem about faith, or one about my life? I have a couple ideas of what I would like to do- but I find that sometimes, the best inspiration comes from humbling oneself and letting others take the reins. So give it a try- comment on this post or on my Facebook and let me know what you would like to see. (I would even entertain the notion of writing an entirely new poem based off a given prompt!) Don’t forget to have fun with it! Depending on what kind of requests I get, I will do my best to do all of the ones that I can manage.

Falling Off the Wagon

As much as I would sometimes like to think I’m the most productive writer I know, sometimes… I get caught up in life and I end up not… writing. Or submitting. Or editing. Or anything having to do with writing, whatsoever. Today, while trying to update my submission tracker on Duotrope, I realized that I hadn’t actively submitted hardly anything since at least mid-June. For someone who had, at one point, been submitting at least five poems a week to different journals, this is turning into quite a dry spell. It’s a bit frustrating, to say the least.  I guess when I finally committed myself to this whole writing thing I had imagined myself as being a bit more of a publishing machine- consistently cranking out new material and submitting (and having my submissions accepted) at a consistent rate. It’s safe to say that, going into this, I most definitely underestimated the time and effort required to really pull off being a professional poet (at the same time as being a professional fiction writer, and student, and nanny, and Sacristan, and newspaper editor….). It’s been a hard lesson to learn this summer, but an invaluable one.  I am coming to learn my limits, as well as my strengths and weaknesses regarding writing and submitting pieces for publication. I’m beginning to figure out how much time, and how much breathing space, I really do require in order to perform at my peak.

So today, I’m hoping to get back on the writing wagon. With a week off from work before returning from school, I’m pledging to renew my efforts in submitting pieces for publication, work out a more doable, and more consistent schedule for posting on this blog, and schedule at least one poetry reading event a month for me to attend (whether its to read or just to sit and listen to others read). I’ve gotten off to a good start this morning- went through my latest Duotrope e-mails and narrowed my efforts today to six markets. After I go to mass, I’ll narrow it down to the markets I will actually submit to and go from there.

Thank you for sticking it through with me, even through this stagnant summer! Here’s to a productive final semester of college!