Visiting Writer Abbie Gascho Landis's Reading & Dealing with Rejections

Hello Star Tugs and new readers,

welcome back. Happy Memorial Day. I hope you're all having a good day.

So this blog post, fun fact, was going to be released about a month ago, unfortunately I ran out of time and couldn't finish it. I did want to talk about my writing workshop, so here we are.

Abbie Gascho Landis & Writing Outside

I attended the workshop "Writing Outside" at my college for 1 credit. I really enjoyed this workshop, it was a lot of fun writing about nature. I don't really consider myself a nature person, but I really enjoyed it. 

Abbie Gascho Landis was the PERFECT teacher for this class. She's a veterinarian, writer, mother and mussel nerd. On top of this, she's really cool person and wrote a book on Mussels. Apparently there's a convention for Mussels specialists, and I'm happy that it exists. I think we often get caught up in things of interest to us that we forget that everyone is different. 

As a train enthusiast I sometimes feel ashamed of that, like it's too weird or odd. And THEN, there's a Mussels Convention!! As Mr. Sunday Movies and Nick Mason of the Weekly Planet Podcast say, everyone's a nerd for something. And that's totally okay. 

Mrs. Landis did a reading of a few of her pieces towards the last days of the class. Hearing her discuss raising chickens for meat was very eye opening. I don't like the idea of chickens growing so fat that they can't really move. But, at least (in Mrs. Landis' case) they lived a happy life.

If you're interested in Mrs. Landis, you can find her website here: www.abbiegascholandis.com

Dealing with Rejections

Yesterday I received a rejection email for "Keeping up with the New Builds." I'm not going to say which magazine it was (that would be unprofessional and make me look like a salty boi!!) I'm not mad, by the way. Does it hurt? Yeah, it's frustrated seeing your work be rejected.

However, it's not something to get mad about. The Editor explained his magazine was already working on two articles that were similar to mine in house, and that they don't accept mass submissions (where you submit an article to more than one place). Which is fair, he explained they had a problem where they published an article that was already published. I'm sure that was a nasty situation. 

I wanted to talk to you all about dealing with rejections. Rejections are, as I'm sure more experienced writers will tell you, a part of the writing game. 

So, why do rejections happen? For lots of reasons. An editor might not feel a piece fits their general publication (that happened to me with "Keeping up with the New Builds" come to think of it), or maybe they don't feel a piece is ready (this has happened to me when I tried submitting a funnies article to my school magazine). 

Rejection is just something we must face. I've heard that you have to get a piece (such as a novel) rejected 20+ times before it will be published. I reached out to the #WritingCommunity on Twitter to ask how people deal with rejections. I'll leave the link to the thread here if you want to read it: https://twitter.com/ConductorPat/status/1132757647126683650 One quote I really like was from Gabi Bird "Never give up! Every great writer has faced rejection and has come so far. :)" I like this a lot, and it's true. You can't give up.

So to my fellow young and old writers alike, if you get a rejection, don't let it affect you. It doesn't mean you're not a good writer or that the piece is trash. (It might be, but don't assume that, and I don't mean that in a bad way. All pieces can use more editing, but just because a piece is 'trash' doesn't mean it's not a treasure). Keep writing, and keep submitting. And don't give up. Writers like Stephen King got rejected, and still do. My friend CC told me that Stephen King used to keep rejection letters on a meat hook, and he filled the whole thing! So remember, even the greats get rejected.

A thing of advice I suggest which another #WritingCommunity member said was to keep a collection of rejections, so that you can remind yourself that it's normal. And remember, when you get that acceptance letter or email, because of the rejections that led you to there, it will be a whole lot sweeter.

Thanks for reading everyone. If you want to keep up with me, subscribe to my blog! Want to ask questions? Follow me on Twitter, @ConductorPat. Also, for new writers, use the # #WritingCommunity on Twitter to meet new people, and interact with fellow writers. Thanks again for reading. Keep writing and I'll see you on the Tramway!

(Now if you'll excuse me I have scholarship essays to write and I'm going to see Brightburn in a few hours. So excited!)

Meeting Poet Tianna Clark

          Hello bloggscribers! Fellow Bloggers? I'll figure out something later.😉 Anyways, welcome to my first real blog post. I'll try and keep this short and to the point.

          Today on campus the English Department had a writing workshop with Tianna Clark. She's the author of Equilibrium and I Can't Talk About The Trees Without The Blood. She's won many rewards such as the Pushcart Prize, the 2017 Furious Flower's Gwendolyn Brooks Centennial Poetry Prize (Best award name, EVER), to name a few. If you're curious, and want to know more, check out her website here: www.tianaclark.com 

          Also, below is one of her poems (trigger warnings for sexual assault, read at your own discretion)
www.frontierpoetry.com/2018/02/26/open-winner-tim-tiana-clark/

          So...honest confession, I didn't actually read any of her poetry before hand. (Real smooth, I know). I still really enjoyed the workshop, however. Tianna discussed how poetry is a part of political activism, stating the truth in your work, make people consider serious topics, such as in the poem "A Poem for Pulse" by Jameson Fitzpatrick covering the Orlando Shooting. I will link "A Poem for Pulse" here: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147304/a-poem-for-pulse

          I felt a little anxious sharing because one of our writing prompts covered a serious issue for me. I have trouble reflecting and being open about stuff that I struggle with. I won't go into that here, (I know, ironic right?) but this workshop helped me feel more comfortable talking about serious topics. 
I've learned that the role of the Artist is to be political, say something, make people think. I also learned about a new poem form called Ghazal, where you have an internal rhyme scheme, then have a repeating phrase at the end, with two line stanzas. 

          Some of these terms may be confusing, if they are, please let me know, and I'll try to explain it as best as I can. I'll share in another post a poem I wrote during the workshop that's a Ghazal called "You Snowflake." I need to do a little tweaking to it before I release it. If at all, I might try and get it published first. I know that publishers are picky about having the exclusive first right to publish something, and fair enough. 

          All right, that's all from me. If you haven't heard of Tianna Clark, you should definitely look her up. She was very nice, and I really enjoyed the workshop. One of my Professors said she's going onto big things and predicted she'll become Poet Laureate. Hope you enjoyed the blog post. See you on the Tramway!