Coffee House to Go - January 17th, 2011 - Writer Resolutions

You're listening to the EscapeCast Network.

Hello, it's that time again for another episode of Coffee House To Go.

I'm L.B. Sidlocek, and I'd like to welcome you to this edition of Coffee House To Go,

the podcast for the small press community.

I thought in this episode we would feature writers' resolutions.

This is the time of year when everybody makes New Year's resolutions,

usually to lose weight or maybe eat better or a variety of other ones.

But I thought it would be interesting to look at resolutions for writers

and what you might want to do.

For that, there are going to be some websites we will feature in the show,

and I'm going to go ahead and get started with a website link

for the top ten resolutions for writers.

Now, this is from about.com, so this may not be the top ten resolution for writers,

in your opinion, or you may have seen a different article somewhere else,

but these look like some pretty good ideas for writing.

The very first one is to consider.

Consistently make time to write.

Well, if you're going to be a writer, you do have to have time to write,

unless you can just flip off a novel or a short story in 10, 15 minutes,

but usually it takes a little more time than that.

Same with a poem, too.

Poems don't usually take as much time to write, maybe to begin with,

but if you go back and edit or make drafts or however your writing process is,

this particular item talks about if you're committed to writing a certain amount each day or week

or writing at specific times, you're more likely to get your work done.

Some people can be scheduled like that.

Sometimes people just squeeze in what they can, just whatever works,

but you do have to have time to write.

I'm going to go on to another one, which is complete and unfinished work.

Now, who hasn't started something they haven't finished?

I know I have.

I have a poem on occasion I just can't finish.

I'll start it, and I'm just like, I don't know where to go with this.

Sometimes I may come back and try to finish it later,

or sometimes I may just let it go.

It just depends on how important the project is to me.

I've started different stories and different things like that to get something finished,

but a lot of times it's a good idea to go back and look at something like that

because you may have a fresh perspective on it.

I was reading an article the other day about a lady that wrote The Memory Keeper's Daughter.

I haven't read that book, but I've seen part of the movie that was on television,

and she talked about she had the idea for the longest,

and then she did a writer's group where she spoke to the people of interest in the book.

I won't give away the storyline in case you haven't read it or want to read it,

and that sparked her interest in actually writing the book,

so that's really a good idea.

Now, here's one of my favorites.

Read more.

If you're a writer, you really ought to be a reader.

It helps you to write better, if nothing else,

and most writers I know do like to read.

Here's another one.

To submit your work.

If you write and write and write and have a bunch of work and don't actually submit it,

well, that's up to you.

It depends on who you're writing for.

You may be writing for your pet.

You may be writing for your boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse or whatever,

and you can be choosy about who you apply to or submit to,

but it is a good idea to send your work out there.

Sometimes the editors, if they have time, will write little messages.

They may suggest somewhere else that you can send,

but be sure to read the guidelines.

I know for my e-zine, I get items that we don't actually publish all the time,

and so I'm like, eh, if you read the guidelines, you know not to send it here.

That can be disappointing in and of itself.

Like, hey, why don't I hear from that market?

But you've got to make sure you actually send it to the appropriate market.

And also, another one here I like on here is try a new genre or art form,

and that is a really good idea, too.

Because it can help you to do better with your craft,

maybe give you another kind of idea.

Who knows?

I know I've been looking at a modern painting magazine,

and so that in and of itself, looking at a magazine like that,

it's not normally what I look at, although I do like art.

I don't normally look at art magazines.

And so the pictures in there, the articles in there,

it really gives me some ideas sometimes when I get the chance to look at it.

So moving on, the next website or article I'm going to feature is also from about.com.

Now, this is just kind of a fun site.

What writers say about New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

It's a lot of different quotes on here from a lot of people you may have heard of or may not have heard of.

But I'll pick out a couple here to look at or read.

Excuse me.

One resolution I have made and try always to keep is this,

to rise above the little things.

And that's from John Burr.

Here's one from T.S. Eliot from Little Gidding.

For last year's words belong to last year's language,

and next year's words await another voice,

and to make an end is to make a beginning.

We have one here from Ellen Goodman.

We spend January 1 walking through our lives room by room,

drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.

Maybe this year, to balance the list,

we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives,

not looking for flaws, but for potential.

And from Charles Lamb.

No one ever regarded the first of January with indifference.

It is that from which all date their time and count upon what is left.

It is a nativity of our common Adam.

And we have one from William Thomas.

It wouldn't be New Year's if I didn't have regrets.

And Mark Twain.

New Year's Day.

Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.

Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

So, he was very witty.

And the last one.

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.

That's from Oscar Wilde.

So that is a little bit of fun there.

If you like to see what other writers say about New Year's Eve,

I always think it's fun to look at poetry, sometimes stories,

or books that are set around a specific holiday.

We have some more fun writing resolutions.

And this comes from a blog called Make Mine Mystery.

And this is from Mark Danielson.

He wrote a Writer's New Year's Resolutions.

He posted this on here.

These are kind of fun ones for writers,

but they do actually make sense for writers.

They're all pretty good things to do anyway.

The very first one is never run out of paper.

Well, if you do stuff online, you don't have to worry about paper,

but sometimes it's hard to not use paper.

Never miss a blog post.

So if you're a blog poster, don't miss it.

Never miss a deadline.

Never send a critical document priority mail.

And then it says,

never forget how lucky we are to express our ideas.

So there's a lot of different fun ones on there as well.

And we have,

for our remaining website feature of the show,

this is from Comics Alliance.

These are New Year's resolutions for your favorite superheroes.

Now this was put on here by the writers.

I guess the person that wrote this is Chris Simms.

Must have contacted the writers of these comic book characters

or superhero characters to see what they would say.

So we have one for Superman from Chris Robertson,

the writer of Superman.

Superman's resolution.

I resolved to be a little more selective about what trophies

I put in the Fortress of Solitude.

Do I really need to have the world's biggest ball of twine?

And then we have one for Wonder Woman from Phil Hester,

who's the writer of Wonder Woman.

I resolved to find my invisible jet in 2011.

We have one for The Tick.

Actually, this one's really long, so I'll just read a little bit of this.

This is from the writer of The Tick, Benito Serino.

So he's saying,

I found this note under Tick's pillow taped to a Ziploc bag full of teeth.

Not sure where those came from.

Anyway, for ease of legibility,

I added this heavily for spelling and punctuation,

but it's otherwise untouched.

Make of it what you will.

Arthur.

This is FAO.

Happy the New Year's Baby.

CC Father Time, Tempest Pledsoe, Queen of the Future.

Dear Mr. The New Year's Baby,

I have been very good this year.

Some have said I was better this year than I have been since 1994.

No one has said this.

This is Arthur's note in there.

I maintain that I've never been less than the peak of excellence,

but I have chosen magnanimously to accept the compliment.

As a result, I'm hoping you will grant all my resolutions this year.

These are the things I would like to see resolved in the year 20 hundreds and 11 ones.

Number one, are there some Bigfoots?

Arthur says no, but he also said I couldn't

show up unannounced and uninvited for dinner at Hoda Cope's house.

But I think we both know who won that bet.

And then it goes on to list a few more.

So that is a really fun thing that I came across.

For your writing New Year's resolutions.

And I'd like to remind you, if you haven't read it yet or subscribed,

be sure to check out the latest edition of Escape Magazine.

You can order the premium print edition.

You can also get a PDF version as well.

There's always a link in the show notes for you to check that out and order your copy.

The latest issue of the Poetry Market E-zine is out now for January.

It just went out a few days ago.

It's available via email subscription.

If you're a poet, whether amateur or professional,

be sure to also check out the poet survival guides.

There's the poet survival guide one, how to write and make money with your poetry,

and the poet survival guide two, In the Trenches.

Both books are for poets of all experience,

and purchasing them helps to support the monthly E-zine,

the Poetry Market E-zine, and keep it free.

If you do subscribe to the newsletter,

there is a special offer in there to get both books at a reduced price.

Now they're e-books.

The first one, the poet survival guide one,

how to write and make money with your poetry,

is available in a hard copy edition from lulu.com.

You can find that at the webzine,

www.thepoetrymarket.com,

if you would like to order the book edition.

I myself have a new chapbook out.

It's called Twisting.

It is available as an e-book or as a chapbook.

If you'd like to go to my website, which will be in the show notes,

you can find out more information for that there.

And I want everyone to remember,

if you do have news items you'd like featured on this show,

or comments,

please use the contact emails on the blog at www.coffeehousetogo.com,

or you can send me an email at thepoetrymarket at yahoo.com.

If you have Poetry MP3s, audio tracks you'd like featured on the show,

just let us know.

We'd be happy to feature you as a poet,

or even if you have a short story that's not too long,

or some excerpts from a short story or novel,

we'd be glad to feature that as well.

Also, the Poetry Market e-zine, we do publish poetry reviews.

Now, these need to be reviews of a poetry magazine,

or journal, or website, webzine,

or of a poetry chapbook or book.

Now, if you're the reviewer,

don't send a review that you've done of your own book,

because we're not going to publish that.

But if you've reviewed something else,

we do look at publishing those.

If you want to receive payment,

they need to be unpublished and not submitted elsewhere.

But if you go to the website for the Poetry Market e-zine,

there are the guidelines there that you can follow.

This has been L.B. Sedlacek.

I'd like to thank you very much for listening.

Have a good night.

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