Tonight's Poet Corner: Introspection
Hey, guys. This is technically a late post, but I wanted to finish something before writing this, in order to get some sort of closure.
First thing I want to say is that I have a new job. I will be working in AmeriCorps as a leader in a literacy program called GIRLSmart. This program will work with girls from kindergarten to second grade on their reading skills. While I'm extremely excited for the job, it's going to drastically change my schedule, and while I will still be pounding out my blog posts, there may be delays especially if my Saturdays are booked as well (and we all know how often Storytellers come in late). But still, super excited. It's a full-time job with benefits and stipends and educational awards, which I desperately need to pay off my loans. And it really provides a challenge for me to go in depth into community outreach and literacy movements.
Some other big news I have - and this is the reason the introspection was delayed - is that within eight days, I finished my very first novel, The Sequined Door. I'm sure this is not a record, but I was able to pound out about 78,000 words in twenty-two chapters. I am very happy with the book and even though it's raw, I'm very happy with it and I think that it is a piece that defies all expectations and has a little fun with conventions and standards. Also, it's really, really gay. That's pretty important.
I already mentioned the novel a bit in my last introspection, but this is very special to me. There was a time when I was young(er) that I didn't think I could ever properly write fiction. I thought I was horrible at it. And don't get me wrong, I suddenly don't think I'm a literary genius, but I have drastically, drastically improved. I've moved on from poems to plays to short stories to a novella to a novel. I've taken huge steps to get to this point, and I've come a long way from when I was a high schooler who always felt embarrassed to be presenting her fiction when everyone else's seemed so superior to hers.
But you know what? Good writing comes down to honesty. Honesty about oneself, honesty about others, all that sappy goodness. And it wasn't until I embraced my sexuality that I was able to properly write fiction. That was in the fall semester of senior year in college, around the time I accepted that I was gay but couldn't go public until about four months later. It was around the same time that I also started my novella, The Liffey is Half-Asleep, which has received four rejection letters so far from LGBT publishing houses. Perseverance prevails, kids.
So now that The Sequined Door is finished, I am going to ship it around to peers and let it rest for a bit while I settle into my new job and figure out my schedule. I will continue to do OneWords (even if perhaps I may occasionally miss them should I not have internet access), Poet Corners, Whims of the Time Traveler, and Storytellers. That will not change. I will also be writing even in small doses, despite the fact that I should be creatively exhausted after finishing this novel.
But hey, guess what, I'm not. Victory for Roddie!
All right, it's technically 2:30 AM on Saturday even though this post says I updated at 11:59 PM on Friday (yeah, I know, I kind of cheat). A shower and sleep both await. Because I gotta feed the animals and walk the dog tomorrow. Writing forces you to sit down a lot, and my legs are begging for a good stroll. Thanks for reading all this. You're awesome.
Writer's Quotation of the Night:
Writing well means never having to say, "I guess you had to be there."
- Jef Mallett
Have a great night and a great weekend, everyone.
First thing I want to say is that I have a new job. I will be working in AmeriCorps as a leader in a literacy program called GIRLSmart. This program will work with girls from kindergarten to second grade on their reading skills. While I'm extremely excited for the job, it's going to drastically change my schedule, and while I will still be pounding out my blog posts, there may be delays especially if my Saturdays are booked as well (and we all know how often Storytellers come in late). But still, super excited. It's a full-time job with benefits and stipends and educational awards, which I desperately need to pay off my loans. And it really provides a challenge for me to go in depth into community outreach and literacy movements.
Some other big news I have - and this is the reason the introspection was delayed - is that within eight days, I finished my very first novel, The Sequined Door. I'm sure this is not a record, but I was able to pound out about 78,000 words in twenty-two chapters. I am very happy with the book and even though it's raw, I'm very happy with it and I think that it is a piece that defies all expectations and has a little fun with conventions and standards. Also, it's really, really gay. That's pretty important.
I already mentioned the novel a bit in my last introspection, but this is very special to me. There was a time when I was young(er) that I didn't think I could ever properly write fiction. I thought I was horrible at it. And don't get me wrong, I suddenly don't think I'm a literary genius, but I have drastically, drastically improved. I've moved on from poems to plays to short stories to a novella to a novel. I've taken huge steps to get to this point, and I've come a long way from when I was a high schooler who always felt embarrassed to be presenting her fiction when everyone else's seemed so superior to hers.
But you know what? Good writing comes down to honesty. Honesty about oneself, honesty about others, all that sappy goodness. And it wasn't until I embraced my sexuality that I was able to properly write fiction. That was in the fall semester of senior year in college, around the time I accepted that I was gay but couldn't go public until about four months later. It was around the same time that I also started my novella, The Liffey is Half-Asleep, which has received four rejection letters so far from LGBT publishing houses. Perseverance prevails, kids.
So now that The Sequined Door is finished, I am going to ship it around to peers and let it rest for a bit while I settle into my new job and figure out my schedule. I will continue to do OneWords (even if perhaps I may occasionally miss them should I not have internet access), Poet Corners, Whims of the Time Traveler, and Storytellers. That will not change. I will also be writing even in small doses, despite the fact that I should be creatively exhausted after finishing this novel.
But hey, guess what, I'm not. Victory for Roddie!
All right, it's technically 2:30 AM on Saturday even though this post says I updated at 11:59 PM on Friday (yeah, I know, I kind of cheat). A shower and sleep both await. Because I gotta feed the animals and walk the dog tomorrow. Writing forces you to sit down a lot, and my legs are begging for a good stroll. Thanks for reading all this. You're awesome.
Writer's Quotation of the Night:
Writing well means never having to say, "I guess you had to be there."
- Jef Mallett
Have a great night and a great weekend, everyone.
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