Writing power outages

Poets and writers encounter down times in their writing for a variety of reasons, ranging from power outages to phone interruptions to feeling uninspired. Every time you get a new computer or upgrade software, you probably experience down times, too, as it takes time to save time working in and through electronic equipment that may be new to you.

Regardless of the reasons for the power outages in your writing life, those downtimes can bring uptimes for placing your fiction, nonfiction, children’s stories, devotionals, Bible studies, church curriculum, and poetry with journals, e-zines, book publishers, or your church’s denominational publishing headquarters. To do this:

Study book catalogs and back issues of periodicals and magazines you subscribed to, got at church, or bought from a newsstand.

Notice the topics, tone, style, and length of the manuscripts published in your genre.

In a word processing file, list every publisher who publishes work similar to yours. Add info about their editorial requirements and contact information. Or make a 3x5 file card filed alphabetically for each publishing company you like.

If your power loss does not include an electrical outage or lost hard drive, research literary journals, book publishers, church publishing headquarters, and e-zines on the Internet.

How?

Study publishing companies as you browse through titles in online bookstores such as Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, and the shopping pages offered by the publishers themselves.

Check out literary journals and e-zines readily found on the Internet.

You’ll find new publishing possibilities through social networks too.

When inspiration returns you to writing again, you’ll be ready to plug in your powerful words to the publishing markets you found during downtimes that cause upturns in your publishing credits or book sales.

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© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved.

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Writer’s Block In A Box

If you’re staring at your keyboard and would rather wipe than type, this might be a sign of writer’s block. Will it last forever? No. Is there anything you can do about it? Sure.

It’s like being boxed between cars in a parallel parking space. Tight, but you still have choices. So what do you do? You can wait until the owner of the other car comes along to free you. Or you can inch your vehicle by increments until you wiggle free.

Trying to think of something new to do sounds like an experiment in frustration when your thoughts already seem blah and fuzzy or singularly uninspired, but don't fret. Just remember: Wiggle.

Do something different. If you can’t go anywhere, stand on a chair or stretch out on the floor, but get a fresh perspective. Look up and notice the texture of the ceiling. Look down and describe your feet. Look around and notice the sound, smell, sight, taste, or feel of objects you’re around every day. Sip soup slowly and identify the flavors or compare. Listen to the hum of the heater then fill in words to fit that beat.

Getting away from your normal surroundings can help you to get out of the box sooner, which is why even a mini-vacation depends on vacating your home. So use writer’s block as your impetus for visiting that museum in town you keep forgetting. Or go to a movie with sub-titles. Check out a library book of poems totally unlike anything you usually read or write. Check out DVDs, too. For instance, look for a video of that country you hope to visit or, better yet, one you would never dare to set a foot inside. Pick up a travel magazine, and look at photographs of other places.

Get the picture? Writer’s block is a box that every poet or writer steps into occasionally, but you don’t have to stay there. Even if you’re really boxed in, you have choices. Jump out. Take a nap. Find a different view.


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