Writers Ask: Should I be on social media?
When we are embarking on writing, we need to have a safe harbor in which to rest. I am a huge fan of cultivating a sense of safety into our writing practice. Whether that’s disconnecting from the news, taking refuge in your friends and family, keeping a day job to protect your financial safety, or yes, staying off social media—all of it is incredibly important to protecting your practice and yourself as a writer.
Writers Ask: Is my work “literary” enough?
The problem with the hand-wringing over what is considered literary and what is not has everything to do with the power dynamics and who’s talking to who and almost nothing to do with what the work actually is. Agents and editors who are trying to convince the powers in place to buy your manuscript so everyone can get a big pay out are going to use terms that remind the powers that be of money. Commercial, page-turning, bestseller material, book club pick… in other words, upmarket. When it’s awards season, these agents and editors (and now publishers) will take that same book and suddenly begin selling it as brilliant, wickedly talented, sparkling, a great American novel, a story of our times… in other words, literary.
Writers Ask: How do I know when it’s time to move on?
At the time of your question, I had spent over four years with that book manuscript we spoke of. Four years and four major revisions and a year of querying and a year of full requests from agents and a year of requests for revisions from those agents, one of which came through an exciting and debilitating phone call, all of which resulted in painful passes. When you asked your question, I had gone a year without looking at that manuscript, without thinking about it, not because I just didn’t want to but because it was depressing and I needed to be in a state of not depressing for just a little bit.