Currently Browsing: Jessica Bockman
28 Dec 2012
Writing Out of Time
That sounds like some play on the title of a historical drama or time shift murder mystery, doesn’t it? But, no. If you’ve read many of my posts, you already know my theme: where does the bleepin’ time bleepin’ put itself! My goals since January have evolved, shaped by the time contraints of my current lifestyle – my family needs, the classes I teach, the barriers life puts up... read more
19 Dec 2012
Openings
In the wonderful, time-free, fluid, interconnected and disconnected way of the internet, this will not be the last piece you read from me. However, it is the last piece I will write for Write Anything, so I am taking this as the time to say: Until next time. It’s an odd sort of goodbye. Unfinal. Indefinite. Open to multiple interpretations. Allow me to explain mine. I shall start with something... read more
19 Nov 2012
Face-to-face or online: an overview of formats for writing feedback
I’ve written before about how important workshopping my stories has been to my growth as a writer. Others here have also touched on this. A quick look at terminology: I use workshop for the process of having a story formally submitted to and reviewed by peers, with the intent of receiving constructive-critical feedback. Other WA writers have referred to beta-readers. To the best of my knowledge,... read more
5 Nov 2012
Steeped in the Moment
I thought it would be terrible to have people publicly comment on my fiction. To have someone say my work wasn’t good would be, I imagined, undercutting my ego at a time I needed it most. To have someone say my story was about one thing when I’d written about another would leave me feeling I should never write again. It turned out I loved it. Honing Skills First let me define workshopping, in... read more
10 Oct 2012
Rejection as Positive Reinforcement
Somewhere between 3 and 20 we’re absorbed into this conceit that correction is rejection and rejection is BAD. Not that I’m saying rejection is good, but few things are as simple as good/bad. Remember how it felt when school papers were passed back? Of course you do. The red ink. The terse comments. Awk (awkward phrasing); sp (misspelled! For shame!); where’s your (you name it –... read more
2 Oct 2012
The Path to Publication
is littered with loose-leaf papers: white revisions, pink rejections, and manilla envelopes all strewn about. is a mountain road. Steep, filled with optical illusions, its straight appearance hiding sharp turns and plenty of places to pull off, change directions. is a private garden, a lush place designed to awe and inspire, or maybe walk among close friends enjoying personal passions. The path to... read more
24 Sep 2012
What Trust and Endings Have to Do with Finishing
At a small writers’ conference last spring, I entered a talk on endings. How do endings happen? Is there a way a story should end? Should it be nice and neat, leaving the reader clear about what’s going to happen next, or should it be open ended with the reader invested beyond the point the words on the page stop? I came away unsatisfied. There were no real ideas presented except that which I already... read more
5 Sep 2012
Changing Senses
A new season rotates toward us. Can there be a better time to pay attention to new things? As writers, we lean toward the visual – if you listed the things my first sentence made you think of I bet most would be visual: leaves turning colors or falling off trees; the depth of sunlight as it slides off a building. Yet so much of what happens in this change of season is not in what we see. In fact,... read more
