But I found, just as likely you, too, that I couldn’t focus on anything other than the viral elephant in our global living room. This coronavirus, COVID-19, won’t let any of us ignore it. Constant news alerts about death, the reality of livelihood loss, and the often conflicting information on what to do next to stay safe makes it hard to live, much less write.

Early in my self-quarantine/social distancing, I noticed a push for productivity on social media and business networking sites. All penned by gurus, businessmen, companies, and yes, creatives. Articles posted about forging new paths and reinventing one’s company, brand, art, and self. There were also tweets about blessed solitude – finally! – and using the time away as a retreat, as an artist residency. It all boiled down to No slacking, people! There’s work to be done.

However, there’s been a social media wave against this ‘motivational’ pressure. On Facebook, Alaa Hijazi, a Beiruti trauma psychologist, reminded that “[w]e are going through a collective trauma” and  “[w]hat we need is more self-compassion, more gentle acceptance of all the difficult emotions coming up for us now, more focus on gentle ways to soothe ourselves and our pain and the pain of loved ones around us, not a whipping […]”. 

I have to admit a bit shamefaced that I was thinking about productivity too, albeit with a little slack allowed in. I decided I’d tackle a chapter of Denopath, my languishing sci-fi/fantasy novel. And maybe, also, write a few Writing Small articles ahead (to make Bess and Gabriela love me more).  

But…what I discovered was silence. Sensory deprivation-deep silence. During which the only writing I could/can produce was tweets, FB posts, AND daily poems for pinacasa, my poetry blog.

Habit Makes Good Enough

Habits anchor us, especially in crises. I am so thankful for my poem-a-day writing habit. It has given a structure to my writing practice as well as a bit of overall order in this uncertain period. What I began in April 2015 has also been the breadcrumbs leading me back to this article.

The unrealistic drive to perfection and the accompanying anxiety keep us from trying new things. A close-up brush with death made me willing to step outside my comfort. I took up writing a poem a day for NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month). I actually started 10 days late but that tardiness took the pressure off of writing those poems. I’d already ‘failed’ the challenge so I was free to be inventive, adventurous. A few years of daily poetry writing in months-long spurts have prepared me for this year’s full out effort. What a year to embark on my poetry expedition.

Writing every day doesn’t inoculate you from fear but it does remind you in your most anxious moments that you can write.

The Art of Distraction

But let’s face it, habit only gets you so far. Especially now, when we consider most of our usual habits have been derailed by our elephantine companion, COVID-19.

Don’t beat yourself up if your hard won routines seem in shambles. In stressful times, it’s difficult to acquire new habits or learn new skills. Thankfully, we humans adapt but it takes time. It’s ok if you take what you think is a little bit longer. It’s ok to go with the distraction rather than fight against it. It’s ok to do nothing productive. In farming, it’s called fallowing and necessary for the fields to become productive again. 

Below are a few ways to lie fallow productively. And it’s no mistake poetry is the star, it’s the perfect form for our pandemic-challenged attention spans.  

1) Watch

Poet Tara Skurtu (@taraskurtu) started #InternationalPoetryCircle on Twitter to share video poems by poets and poetry lovers. International Poetry Circle now has its own Twitter handle, @INtPoetryCircle, and YouTube account.

Sundress Publications hosts its Poets in Pajamas Reading Series to connect readers and contemporary writers – poetry and prose. 

2) Read

Two hashtags – #atlanticpoetrychallenge and #shelterinpoems (Twitter) – from The Atlantic and Academy of American Poets respectively offer a good place to start reading.  

Libraries too are great places to find digital material for free. They offer everything from movies, magazines, audiobooks, and craft instructional videos as well as music for the whole family.

3) Move

And don’t forget to move your body. However, it doesn’t have to be an exercise video, jumping jacks in the living room, or playing a game of H-O-R-S-E. A short walk in the neighborhood or improvising along with an improv troupe virtually can do the trick. Think of it as meditation and mindfulness training.

4) Journal

Simply paying attention to the way a stressful situation affects your mind and body can keep anxiety levels in check, says Danny Penman, author of Mindfulness: Finding Peace In A Frantic World. Journaling is one way to keep track of how you’re feeling. Author Suleika Jaouad’s Isolation Journals provide “an opportunity to pause, take a few moments to exhale and reflect, and to expand our creativity as a community during this extremely challenging time.“ Not ready to sign up for another community, list, or group? You can find an archive of the prompts here. 

The Rest of Your (Writing) Life

Ultimately, don’t sweat it if you’re not producing good stuff or any stuff at all. Think of today as you read this as the first day of the rest of your writing life. Then tomorrow think of that today as the first. And so on. 

There is no single first because each day is new. Each day gives us all opportunities for a first. 

Be kind to others. Be kind to yourself and your writing.  

Whatever whenever you start, start small.

Brenda Joyce Patterson is a poet, writer, librarian, and lover of short writing forms. Her poetry and flash fiction have been published in Vayavya, Gravel Magazine, and Melancholy Hyperbole. Along with works by Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Alice Walker, her travel essay “The Kindness of Strangers” appeared in Go Girl: The Black Woman’s Guide to Travel and Adventure.

The post Writing Small in Viral Times appeared first on DIY MFA.

How does all of this indiscriminate reading help my writing?  I make notes, squirreling away anything capturing my attention. Juicy description or turn of phrase. Unusual scene pacing.

I scribble in notebooks and on my phone. I take snapshots of pages, uploading all to Google Drive as soon as possible. Then I turn it all back into my own writing, experimenting with forms, rhythm, and atmosphere.

But what is good writing? How do you spot it?

Train Your [Good Writing] Palate

You can’t collect good writing if you don’t know what it is and what makes it good. I’ll point out contemporary examples of good writing and show how to mine them for literary gold nuggets. They’ll serve as good writing pathfinders and palate trainers. Let’s begin with a lyrical short novel.

That Night by Alice McDermot has long but detail-packed sentences that catapult you squarely into the action. Excerpt. McDermot’s first paragraph is only two sentences but they’re pure poetry. Look how she begins:

“That night when he came to claim her, he stood on the short lawn before her house, his knees bent, his fists driven into his thighs, and bellowed her name with such passion that even the friends who surrounded him, who had come to support him, to drag her from the house, to murder her family if they had to, let the chains they carried go limp in their hands.”

This first sentence is a telescope, making everything immediate and visceral. She evokes Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Laurents’ West Side Story in her 1960s Long Island setting. McDermot’s That Night more than earns its own place among them.

Chris Drangle’s Optimistic People, a short story published in One Story magazine (Issue #224), is a perfect jewel. Drangle sets up a predictable scenario of a teen first date only to turn the story on its ear. Excerpt.

“[Soleil] was alone on the road, save for one pair of headlights drawing closer in the rearview. She put her hazards on, hoping to coast as long as possible, but the vehicle behind her, a black SUV, raced up to her bumper and stayed there. High beams filled her mirrors. She braked and pulled halfway onto the shoulder, and still it loomed close. Teenage girl, no gas, highway at night—she felt her vulnerability like a chill in the air. ”

Drangle introduces metafiction into the narrative here; his Soleil is self-aware, attentive to her surroundings. She (and Drangle) highlight her precarious and cliched situation: Teenage girl, no gas, highway at night. We so know where the story is going, right?

Wrong. As the story progresses, Drangle pulls off literary sleight-of-hand.  By the end, we find ourselves in a much different place than expected.

Text and Intertextuality

I often talk about the physical effect good writing has on me. It’s as if my body is a ringing bell. Emily Dickinson wrote about poetry taking the top of her head off; poetry reducing her body temperature so much so “no fire ever can warm” her.

While you’re reading, pay attention to what writing makes you ring like a bell. When you find it, write it down. Later, practice seeding small bits of those words and fragments into your poems and fiction to help your creativity flower. (The aim is to spark our imagination and practice adding depth to our writing, not pass another’s work off as our own.) Try to replicate its feeling or rhythm in different subjects or forms.

But take care not to innocently wander into the land of plagiarism. Writing guru Jane Friedman covers how and when you can safely use others’ work in publishable pieces.

Still, mining literature isn’t just about publication; it’s about learning the craft of writing. I mined Gwendolyn Brooks’ work to write my poem, Variations on Gwendolyn Brooks (excerpt):

and oh there shall be such islanding from grief
so many things descending without warning

come and see we are things of dry hours and not
we are small communions with the master shore

she and we in our little jars and cabinets of will

You can easily follow my poem’s genesis in this list of Brooks’ phrases (and their respective poem homes):

• “We are things of dry hours”, kitchenette building.
• “Come: there shall be such islanding from grief”, A Sunset of the City.
• “And small communion with the master shore”, A Sunset of the City.
• “In little jars and cabinets of my will”, my dreams. my works, must wait till after hell.

Probably unpublishable. The poem runs, I think, too close to the line between fair use and plagiarism.  However, I learned much about word use and pacing from delving into Brooks’ work.

Does even a slight chance of plagiarism scare you? It should…but you can avoid it. I patterned my poem, This is [Not] for You, after Nikki Giovanni’s book, Those Who Ride the Night Winds. The volume’s This Is Not for John Lennon  (and this is not a poem) roused me to write:

Poste Restante…is the secret code…
The P.O….the conduit…
and change…the key…Change…
of direction…change…In life…
There are close calls…and close cuts
…in body…in mind…In spirit…

This is for me…who has traveled
…journeyed far from home…who
carries home…my home…within

In Those Who Ride the Night Winds, Nikki Giovanni uses unusual rhythm, structure, and form for the poems. Their immediacy forges intimacy between the poet and us. Giovanni’s John Lennon poem conjures a late-night DJ’s crooning patter. Listen to the poem’s confessional and intimately frank tone in this fragment:

“The whole may be greater than the sum of its parts . . . we’ll never know now . . . one part is missing. No this is not about John Lennon . . . It’s about us . . . And the night winds . . . Anybody want a ticket to ride?”

Writing can be hard, and yes, I read to escape hard stuff. You should, too. The good part is that writing well and reading well are inseparable.

Bottom line: read what you want but read widely. Pay attention and make sure you have a notebook handy.

Brenda Joyce Patterson is a poet, writer, librarian, and lover of short writing forms. Her poetry and flash fiction have been published in Vayavya, Gravel Magazine, and Melancholy Hyperbole. Along with works by Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Alice Walker, her travel essay “The Kindness of Strangers” appeared in Go Girl: The Black Woman’s Guide to Travel and Adventure.

The post Writing By Reading appeared first on DIY MFA.

I’m beyond excited to announce that we are adding not one, not two, but three new columns to our regular DIY MFA schedule. One of my favorite parts of DIY MFA is building our community by bringing you more word nerd wisdom via the website. And let me tell you—you are going to LOVE our new columnists.

As you know, “read with purpose” is one of the three core concepts at DIY MFA, but for a long time we haven’t had any columns on the site dedicated to just to reading. We’ve always featured great in-depth posts on the craft of writing and practical advice on the marketing and platform side of things. More recently, we’ve also added several columnists to our roster, each focusing on a specific genre. But that reading piece has always been missing… until now.

While you’ll notice that our three new columnists have very different talents and expertise, they do have one very important trait in common: they are passionate about books and reading. When Bess and I put out a call for a reading columnist, we absolutely fell in love with the concept behind each of these three columns, and each was so unique and distinct from the others that we decided we had to have all three on the team.

Here’s what each of these awesome women about the columns they’ll be writing:

Terri Frank: Your Personal Librarian

As a professional librarian, I’ve been connecting readers and books for over 20 years. My column will give you tips and tricks to get more reading done, expand your knowledge of genres and authors and, of course, to read with purpose. So grab your favorite warm beverage and join me as we delve into the world of books and reading. Think of me as the DIYMFA community’s personal librarian.

Check out Terri’s first article, “Five Ways to Use the Library to Nurture Your Reading Life” 

Note from Gabriela: Librarians are the unsung superheroes of literature and it’s about time we added a librarian’s voice to the website. Terri’s column will give you a window into how librarians think, and also how to build more reading into your writing life.

Brenda Joyce Patterson: Writing Small

In my Writing Small column, I’ll share poems and short stories, literature’s mild-mannered superheroes, to help you hone your writing skills. Together, with a detour or two, we’ll learn to weave their subtle lessons in voice, characterization, and place into creating our own poems, short stories, and novels. We’ll also explore techniques to reading widely — spontaneously and planned — that will work towards your writing goals.

Check out Brenda’s first article, “Opening Doors Through Poetry and Short Fiction”

Note from Gabriela: I’ve often said that writing small is the literary holy grail, and there’s no better way to study the craft than by examining poetry and short fiction. I am so thrilled to welcome Brenda to the team. As a librarian, writer and avid reader, I know she’ll have plenty to share about on reading—and learning from—short form literature.

Abigail K. Perry: Let’s Talk Books

When all else fails, remember Stephen King’s motto! “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all else: read a lot, and write a lot.” The more we read, the more invisible mentors we gather to our noggins, the stronger writers we become. And yet, for us writers, reading isn’t enough. We need discussion!

In my column, Let’s Talk Books, I dissect writing at the paragraph level to help you get the most out of your reading. How? By pulling sections from the four pillars of DIY MFA’s recommended reads: Competitive Books, Informative Books, Contemporary Books, and Classics. I start the reading discussion by explaining what I noticed in the paragraph, why it’s important, and how these writing techniques and tips make a stronger writer. But the real beauty of this column comes in the bonus section, where you can practice what I’ve discussed with a writing exercise!

Check out Abigail’s first article, “How to Make Your Character Descriptions Perform Double-Duty”

Note from Gabriela: One of my favorite things to do is read short passages of great literature and nerd out over the craft. I am so excited for a column that will focus on just that, and pull examples from the different type of recommended reads. At the end of each post, Abigail will give you a writing exercise, so you can implement what you learned.

Please join us in welcoming Terri, Brenda and Abigail to the team!

The post Announcing New Reading Columns at DIY MFA! appeared first on DIY MFA.