Category Archives: Writing

Editing Advice

Beneath the Skin: Levels of Editing Poems, a guest post by Marilyn McCabe is one of the better sets of advice I’d run across on how to improve a draft. Applies to prose too. She elaborates three levels: text on … Continue reading

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The Win is Not Always to the Strongest

I recently had one poem accepted out of a batch of three. It wasn’t the strongest poem and I felt a little odd. On reading the published journal, I found it fit in just fine. The editors acknowledge in their … Continue reading

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Early Voting

Getting submissions back a few days or a week after I submit them bugs me. I must be doing something wrong, something that makes it too easy to decline. I’ve gone back and carefully checked the guidelines and rarely find … Continue reading

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Advice on Getting Published

I’ve had fifty poems published over the years. Over the last year I’ve averaged one or more poems published out of every four submissions. This is typical for mid-level poets willing to share their acceptance rate. However, one writer said … Continue reading

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Tiered Rejections

For most of the 4th quarter of 2020, I received no acceptances. Discouraging. My number of active submissions fell below my goal of 10. However, 3 of the rejection e-mails used language like, “Didn’t find space” or “Didn’t fit in … Continue reading

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2020 by the Numbers

2020 was a fairly productive year. The numbers are: New poems worth typing in: 90 Submissions (average 3 poems): 65 Acceptances: 18 Unique poems accepted (one was accepted 3 places): 16 Published: 14 These are reasonable numbers. or the next … Continue reading

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Margaret Atwood on Creativity

“Everybody has creativity. It’s a human thing.” Margaret Atwood Read enough and you’ll run into interesting articles in unexpected places. There is a page and a half long interview with Margaret Atwood in the AARP weekly newsletter. Worth the time … Continue reading

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Sign of the Times

I read too much news, trying to get some sense of the way the world is going. People get stupid when they grasp for certainties. Michael Ventura Reading Failed Haiku, a monthly on-line publication, is probably a better way to … Continue reading

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Improvisation

I’ve been playing guitar off and on since the 70s. I’ve learned enough to play electric blues and blues/rock at the amateur intermediate level, but I’ve had no success improvising beyond mixing various rhythm guitar riffs. Recently I’ve realized I … Continue reading

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Lifesaving Poems

As Anthony Wilson tells in The most popular lifesaving poems, he pivoted his blog several years ago to the afore mentioned topic. Mary Oliver’s The Journey tops the list. They all are worth reading. Naomi Shihab Nye’s The Art of … Continue reading

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