What Are We Doing?

Late last week, Lisa Romeo posted a fantastic post that began with these lines: “When it seems as if I’m busy, busy but getting nowhere, I write a DOING List. Not a TO DO list, but a look-what-I’m-doing/accomplishing/what-I-have-in-the-works list. Sort of like a motivation-approbation-affirmation rolled into one.”

Lisa then shared her latest “doing list,” and it was (not surprisingly, if you follow Lisa and her work) quite impressive. I loved the thinking that inspired it, so over the weekend, I decided to try drawing up a doing list of my own. Here goes:

…finishing a book review for a favorite site…submitting an essay to another couple of journals (and thinking of more possibilities to try once the September submissions floodgates open)…preparing the September issue of The Practicing Writer, which will include an interview with author John Griswold…preparing another author interview for the Practicing Writing blog…reading a review copy that arrived last week…preparing more items for both my blogs…reminding myself of the September 15 deadline to submit a poem for a themed journal issue and challenging myself to just write the thing already…

My list actually doesn’t make me feel as much approbation or affirmation as I think the project is intended to. Instead, it points out to me the paucity of “creative” work I am doing. At the same time, I have to remind myself that I do hold a full-time, 9-5 job. (If I had another 40 hours each week to focus on writing, I do believe that I’d get a lot more writing done!) And while the writing-related work that I am doing at the moment may not necessarily be advancing my own “corpus” all that much, I do take a great deal of satisfaction in advancing the work of others and engaging with the literary community through my newsletter and blogs.

The list does, however, motivate me: to do more. Right after I finished it, I stopped reminding myself of that September 15 deadline and just sat down to continue writing the damned thing. However the piece eventually turns out, I am just glad to be engaged in it.

What about you? What does your own “doing” list reveal? What’s on it, and what does the act of writing it out tell you?

JCC Jewish Literary Festival and Writing Contest

The Washington DCJCC will present the Hyman and Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival October 18-29, 2009. In conjunction with the festival, the JCC is running a writing contest:

“Coming-of-age stories are a genre unto themselves. Whether it’s young love in Philip Roth’s novella Goodbye, Columbus, teenage friendship in The Chosen, or the precocious musings of The Diary of Anne Frank, the stories are enduring.

Jewish tradition tells us that we come of age at 12 or 13, but what was your true turning point? Tell us the story of that first transformative moment.

A selection committee will choose ten entries to honor during the Festival and online. Submissions will be considered in two categories: 1) under 18 years and 2) 18 years and over. Send submissions of 250 words or less to litfest[at]washingtondcjcc[dot]org by September 30, 2009. The winning entries will be published on the Washington DCJCC website.”

You’ll find the announcement here.

(I learned about the festival and the contest via the Foundation for Jewish Culture‘s E-Newsletter, a worthwhile resource!)

Two Writing Opportunities for Taglit-Birthright Israel Alumni

If you’re a writer who is also a Taglit-Birthright Israel alum, you are in luck! There are two current opportunities you should know about.

First: the Fall 2009 Alumni Essay Contest. It’s actually open to poems, too. The contest theme is “Celebrating Ten Years: What Taglit-Birthright Israel Has Meant to Me.” Two first prizes of round trip flights to Israel will be awarded, with multiple second and third prizes of $300 and $150 Amazon.com gift certificates, respectively. Deadline: September 18, 2009.

Next: Birthright Israel NEXT and Nextbook Inc. invite submissions for a literary anthology written by Taglit-Birthright Israel trip alumni. “The book, to be published in 2011 by The Toby Press, will focus on the experiences you had on the trip, and afterword. It will include many types of content, from essays and poems to graphic art and photographs. What all the pieces will have in common is that they’ll be created by Birthright Israel alumni like you, and they’ll focus on how the trip has changed you.” I do wish the call for submissions included information on the compensation to be offered selected writers, but so far, I don’t see any. Submissions will be accepted soon (a link is coming), and should be sent before December 15, 2009.

The Practicing Writer’s Quandary: Discussing Your Work in Progress

Thanks to my day job, which validates time spent scanning The Chronicle of Higher Education‘s Web site, I’ve become a fan of the posts at the group “Brainstorm” blog. And I’m a particular fan of Gina Barreca, a professor of English and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut. In addition to simply being very engaging and well-written, Barreca’s posts often touch on aspects of writing and/or teaching writing.

Here are the opening paragraphs of a recent post titled “Should You Discuss Your Work in Progress?”:

I recently learned a lesson about a serious need to shut up. I’m 52 years old and my whole life people who have my best interests at heart have told me not to have a big mouth when it comes to announcing my ambitions, wishes, projects, or loves.

I wish I had listened sooner, better, or at all. I wish, particularly, that I had NOT said anything to anybody about the fact that I am editing a collection titled Make Mine a Double: A Celebration of Women and Drink.

Especially if you keep reading that post, you, like me, might start to think about the wisdom of making your own projects known.

For me, the issue materialized not long after I read Barreca’s post. On my next visit to Brian Klems’s Questions and Quandaries blog, I found a post addressing the legality of writing sequels to famous books. Which caught my attention because about three years ago I began musing about a sequel of my own, to a very famous book, indeed.

That project hasn’t gone anywhere (admittedly, my efforts have been far too feeble). But here’s the point: As soon as I considered blogging about the Questions and Quandaries post, which I thought presented a worthwhile topic for Practicing Writing, I couldn’t help thinking about the one from Barreca.

And I wondered just how much to share about my own possible sequel while blogging about the Klems post. Even if I might receive some excellent advice that could jumpstart the project, I just don’t think I can – or should – go public with it.

I’m not talking about sharing the idea with just two or three trusted writer friends. Or even sharing a manuscript excerpt – should one ever be ready! – in a workshop or writing group, although that certainly does require a leap of faith. But I’ll admit that I haven’t always been comfortable mentioning my sequel idea to potential agents (even agents with sterling reputations) who wanted to know what they might eventually expect beyond my story collection. So you can imagine how I might agonize about sharing it more widely.

Like on a blog.

So, fellow practicing writers, what do you think? Does any of this resonate? And at what point in a project do you feel “ready” to tell a wide circle of others what you are working on?