Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

Three quick things:

Image description: laptop, open notebook, mug, flowers.

1. Some of the happiest, most engaged hours I spent this past week were the hours I devoted to revising four poems. These are all pieces that I’d drafted in meetings of my text-study-and-writing group, which means that they’re all connected in some way with Jewish text/tradition.

Only one of these poems had I previously even transferred from the barely-legible scrawls in my journal to my computer. So I began by rewriting the three others into Word documents. Then I worked on all four pieces. Wow. It had been a long time since I’d focused on revision like that. Only one is, I think, near-ready to go out and, maybe, to be added to my manuscript. (Yes, it’s the one that made it to the computer earlier.)

2. Another highlight: a lunch with an “academic” friend of mine. This was a lunch with an agenda: to discuss the possibility of my taking up a visiting instructor position in a program that she chairs at a local college. The discussion went great, and we’re going to aim for me to develop the course—a literature course with a dose of creative writing included—so that I can teach it during fall semester, 2019. I am looking forward to tell you all more about this as time progresses.

3. And a quick reminder that it’s almost time for the next (August) issue of The Practicing Writer to hit subscribers’ e-mailboxes. I spent a chunk of time working on it over the weekend, and I’ll wrap it up in time to send it out next week. Meantime, most of the opportunities listed in the July issue remain open, so don’t forget them! And if you’re not yet subscribing to the newsletter, you can learn more about it here.

What’s new in your writing practice?