Nearly There & Submitted

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The Room update ; it is ninety percent completed. Still to do: (1) workspace desk organized (currently it still has piles and containers of like objects [paper clips, pushpins, pencils, pens, stones & significant pieces of flotsam, tools], organizer trays to sort and reorganize, etc); (2) the closet full of memories (literally! old journals, old pottery I made, silk scarf blanks, posters, and more); (3) hang the new curtains.

Here is the new rug. The things on the edges will be moved once it relaxes a bit. It had been tightly rolled up for who knows how long. So the chair and shredder and other things are holding down the edges. I know it doesn't look calming in the photo, but it is (to me) and it makes me happy.

Yesterday, I sent out a dystopian short story to a place I believe it fits. I hope they publish it. It is the same story I was going to submit to a contest a few days ago; but I'd overlooked that the midnight deadline was EST, which meant that I missed the deadline by an hour rather than submitting it with two hours left. So yesterday I did a lot of research and then a friend suggested a publication and, yes, I think this story fits there nicely. Will post another update when I find out. Either way, I'm happy to have that story out in the world.

NaNoWriMo Day 1 (a)

Wrapping it up here at the midnight write-in. I currently have 1750 words written. The first 1558 words came in the first hour and I've been slowly eeking out a few words between conversations and a trip to the bathroom and the snacks table.

I reached the end of a section or a scene. I'm not sure what it is but it feels like there is a period at the end of what I've written so far.

Which means that I am going to write a little bit more. I don't want to end on a "completed" note. I want to stop my writing session tonight (this morning) with something happening and forward motion. It makes it easier to pick up the writing at the next writing session and keep going.

I am satisfied with what I've done at the outset of NaNoWriMo 2016. Off to a good start.

Yay. Me.

Oh. I received a little boost of energy and inspiration on Sunday. A piece of my memoir was accepted for publication in Hippocampus. I feel proud and very excited for this opportunity. Receiving such a sweet and welcoming acceptance email for this piece was just the shot in the writer arm I needed to launch me forward into NaNo.

No, I'm not ready to share what I'm doing in NaNoWriMo this year. In NaNo I am calling it "No. 9" which is for it being my ninth run at a NaNoWin. I do have another working title, but the content and that title are still secret.

This one is not a mystery novel.

Reading Aloud as a Writer

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I have gone to many workshops about writing. The process. The product. Structure. Poetry Fiction Non-Fiction Essay Memoir. Oh, I think I even went to one on travel writing a long time ago. And freelance writing, copywriting. Creative non-fiction. Playwrighting. Publishing. Writing conferences and retreats.

Most rooms in my house contain, among the bookcases of fiction and memoir and scripts and art books and mystery, interpreting and translation and language, many books on writing. Writing about all of the topics I've already mentioned. And more - such as "The Portable MFA" and several on critique/writing/creativity groups, being a writer, tips and hints and how-to and how-not-to.

One thing I've read and heard many times in many voices and in various word order choices is that writers should Read Your Work Aloud,. To yourself. You can read it to others, but the most important thing is to read it aloud to yourself, for yourself.

At this point, non-writers might think - why? I get that. I really do. Because, while in theory it's a practice I see merit it doing, it is not something I do that often. Yet every time, in critique group or with a writing partner or with someone I know, when I read what I wrote, I almost always find something which I want-need to change. Almost every time.

Still, I balk.

It takes too much time (the deadline is now; I have to get to sleep; I have to get ready for work; I have a list of things to do and don't have time; the cat is waiting for food; I haven't showered yet).

It's too late (at night; I'm too tired; I'll wake up S; I have to get it finished and submitted now, I have to get up early in the morning, etc).

I've read this a million and two times and I won't catch anything, anyway.

It's fine (not perfect I'm sure, but fine).

My friends and writing partners and critique group and writing conference readers have all read it and it's fine. (Ignoring the changes which have been made since each of those times.)

There are probably more reasons. Oh, and the "I don't want to" excuse. What?

I have been working on a piece of writing. It is an excerpt from a book in process and pieces have been workshopped and edited (repeatedly) and restructured, revised, chopped, rewritten. At the Writing By Writers Methow Valley in May I was given some suggested places where this piece might fit. So, as a good writer, I looked them up and selected one (for now). I read their guidelines, which also included having to cut about 1,000 words. And then there were the other story tightening and cleaning up suggestions.

I've been working on this particular version of this part of the story for over a month. I've read it at a writing group. I've had more people read it. I've read it to myself (in my head).

Finally the piece was where I wanted it to be.

Ready to submit.

But I had not read this "final" version aloud to anyone, including myself.

I forced myself to read it out loud. This submission opportunity felt important, it's a step into another level of commitment to my writing and I decided I owed it to this story and this part of the story to give it my all. I told myself I couldn't go to bed until I'd done it and I couldn't submit it until I'd read it aloud to myself. And I'd told another writer that I was going to submit the piece and read it aloud to myself before doing that. External accountability she called it (and we're doing this mutually in other ways, too).

So I did. I went home after my very late work and I read it aloud to myself.

And I found five things I needed to fix, in addition to one more that S found in her read of the piece. Three of the five things I found felt significant: grammatical errors or awkward phrases which were remnants of editing (overlooked cutting out one word from a previous version; accidentally cut out a pronoun in editing). I even found one phrase which was not a dangling piece of overlooked revision, but an awkward phrase which has probably been in the piece since its inception.

Maybe this time I "get it." I really thought this piece was solid and ready to go. I know that of the five things I found, I probably would only have found one on my final read in my head. If that.

Reading aloud. It works.

I did submit the book excerpt. And I feel confident that this draft is solid.
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Writing Update

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Quick and to the point.

Because in 13 hours I will be interpreting a play. And I should already be in bed. But, soon.

Because theater is happening and regular work is happening.

And still, I'm writing.

Last week I made a couple of tightening edits to a short story. Then had to do some major reformatting to the same story because of transferring it to a different system. I complete both tasks and submitted the story to a publication. Patting myself on the back for getting that piece done and submitted.

On Friday 5/27 I finished more edits to the piece I took to the Methow Valley Writing by Writers conference. I had to make some cuts so that it fits the submission guidelines for another publication. Then I got feedback from my critique group, which I read through again, applied as fit my vision for the piece; tightened it up and made some clarifications. And I sent the edited manuscript to my critique partners.

Writing is still happening. And submissions are happening.

All is good.

Now, really, to bed. I have a show tomorrow ... um, later today. ("Grand Concourse" at Artists Repertory Theatre; I'm interpreting the matinee at 2:00.)
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Writing. Walking. Warmth.

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Done! My submission for the Methow Valley workshop is in.

I took a break from writing and went to the bakery in Nye Beach - an iced mocha and a mini whole wheat sourdough loaf. This was followed by a walk on the beach, barefoot, with unseasonably warm air and waded in the any-season temperature water (freezing).

Now I'm back at the condo to create something for dinner, drink some wine, and get back to writing.




Back to rewriting. I've done my editing and the piece is in. Now it's time to tackle some rewrites. Not just edits, but rewrites and re-vision.

Submission Time

I've been working on a piece for submission for a few weeks. I've had three people read it: my partner, a friend/writer friend, and that friend's friend who is a writer and editor. I've gotten a lot of feedback (now and in previous attempts at this story). I've cut 1,200 words, added small bits, moved things around, rewritten, fought with a title, killed some darlings and dumped some junk.

The time is now.

The deadline is tomorrow. No, wait, the deadline is today! About 20 hours from now (a little less).

I'm ready to submit.

But, wait! They want a cover "letter" (in Submittable, so 'letter' isn't quite that but it is).

Oh no.

Okay, I can do this. The hard part is done, I have two and a half pairs of thumbs up on the final draft (the friend of the friend hasn't seen the final-final version; but it was his feedback which led me to the final touches which made S say, "don't touch it!").

It's just a little cover letter. Yeah. Um. Right.

Twenty Minutes of Cover Letter Progress

Submissions Calendar Update

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For those of you who subscribed to The Writing Vein Submissions calendar, there has been an update. Due to a synchronization issue, the old calendar has been deleted and a new one put up in its place. If you want to resubscribe to the calendar, or just check out what is there, you can click on the Submissions tab at the top of this page.

The submissions on the calendar are not in any way inclusive of everything there is, nor does inclusion indicate indorsement or affiliation. These are submission opportunities which come my way from groups/pages/email lists I subscribe to, information from other writers/editors/publishers, and so on. I am currently adding some new listings I've run across, as well.

In one online writing group, there was the following list of places to submit writing for December and January. Click below to go on through Entropy for

Where to Submit: December + January

Relationship with Rejections

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I received a rejection for a hard to place piece of writing today - and the rejection makes me happy. Reason one that I'm happy - it means I am getting my writing out there. Reason two that I'm happy - well, I will let you read the rejection :

"Unfortunately this particular piece was not a right fit for Mason's Road, but we were very impressed by your writing. We hope that you will feel encouraged by this short note and send us something else.

We look forward to reading more."

I like this particular short story. I have workshopped it with several writing groups and individual writers and friends. I've edited and revised. I believe it's a strong piece of writing and I've received good feedback, and people like it - not everyone, but those who understand it, like it. I think it's hard to find the right fit for this particular story, but I am not giving up on finding a home for it out there in the world. I will keep looking for the right publication and go back to this one to see what I have which might be a better fit.

Rejections are a part of being a writer = getting a rejection means I am writing and submitting my stories. Thank you to Mason's Road for the note.
*

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Submissions are open at Calyx - Flash Fiction contest & Poetry contest

     

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A Good Day for Writing

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I want to report that today (Tuesday) was a very good day for writing.

One important factor is the weekly Tuesday morning writing date on my calendar. Rooze has been wonderful to write with. We take a little bit of time to check in - how the week has been, including our writing - then check in with what our plan for the day's writing session is, and then, we write! We usually have at least 90 minutes of writing time, sometimes a little more.

It's beautiful. It works really well. And, once in a while, one of us can't make it. The challenge then, only to ourselves, is for the other one to show up. The follow through when we're the only person who really knows if we go and what we do with our time. Most of the time we both show up. And today we were both there.

I also noted that it was right after completing another performance interpreting project. Noted that, again, performance brain done and writing brain rises to the surface.

Here is what I did today in my writing life:

Send in the requested information to Float On as application to their Writers Program.

Sent an inquiry to Sou'wester Lodge in Washington about their Artists Residency program. I'm hoping to get a time up there this summer; I could put it off until the fall, but I hope there is a slot available in the summer. It's for a week-long stay with a bit of break on the cost and I would love to do that to work on the M-book. That project is at a place where I need some distraction-free, immersion time in order to move it forward. From what I've seen and heard about the place, I think it would be perfect and this looks like a great do-it-yourself writing retreat.

I worked on the story which came to me in the float tank last Saturday. It is moving along well. It is not quite taking the path to the point of the story that I thought it would; but isn't that part of the fun of writing?

 I worked on the story I started the previous week. One of the two main characters has a name now; he is no longer just "the interviewer." His name fits and it just rolled off the keyboard. I like that.

 In searching for one of the stories - which was filed in the wrong folder - I discovered a story I forgot I'd written. I read the story and I like it. I made some minor edits and it needs more. But it's a good story and is worth additional attention. It is one I'd like to get ready to send out into the world. Another story which won't be easy to place; but I know it has a home. Somewhere.

See? It was a very good writing day.
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Reading Towards Submission

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...for writers!...

I was going to change the title of this writing, but it's too good to let go. It could be about something totally different. I could be plugging the newest version of "50 Shades of fill-in-the-blank" or starting a dialogue about something else - but I'm not.

 I would like to start a conversation about the process of reading publications, for writers, with the intent of determining if the maga/zine is appropriate for a specific story or article. The pros, articles, books, submission guidelines always say to read the publication before you submit. I "get it" and I agree. And I'll be honest: it isn't easy for me.

I mean, the reading is easy. The determination if my work will fit, has a chance of being selected, is difficult. It's relatively easy for me to read a publication and recognize that my work won't fit. The style of writing may be vastly different from mine, the content may differ from their description (or my interpretation of their description is probably more accurate than faulting their description), or there may be other flags where I feel that my writing or a particular piece would not be chosen. Or I may read some pieces and decide I don't want to be included in this publication; again the actuality of the writing may differ from the description or there's, well, a not so hidden slant. Or something.

But it is not so easy for me to know if my work is a fit. I could be mistakenly basing this on prior rejections; I know that every publication - or most of them - get many more submissions than they can publish. Sometimes I think my work would be a fit - maybe - probably.

What do you look for when you're reading publications with the intent of determining suitability of your writing to the maga/zine? One example which comes to mind is from a few years ago: a writing friend and I were discussing submission options and she noted that one publication under consideration seemed to not have any profanity in any of the pieces; the piece I was looking to place did have (shock) profanity. Or if a publication is sci-fi, I won't submit a slice of life piece.

Some obvious things come to mind: length of writing, dialogue, poetry versus prose or first person versus third person, hit-me-over-the-head moral or draw-your-own-conclusion, etc.

What do you look for in a publication in which you want to be published?

What are your red flags of either "yes, pick me!" or "hell no, you're not getting my work" or "they'd boot me out of the park;" how do you know? Or how do you guess?

Do you target your writing to publications? Or do you target publications for a particular work?

What are your criteria? And how do you know?
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Continuing the Practice of Writing

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One benefit of NaNoWriMo is strengthening my writing practice. Some years it is almost like starting over; sometimes, like this year, it is increasing the frequency and making a writing habit stronger.

So that is what I'm doing. And other things are already creeping in, other commitments, projects. But I am determined to not lose my writing practice, while being fair to other things requiring my attention. So I will need to proceed at a different pace.

I do have my Tuesday morning writing meeting tomorrow morning. And I have my Friday night writing group. In between I will divide writing time between editing (completing the M-book first, I guess; then one of the novels; submissions; writing new material). And I still have another two weeks in the online poetry workshop, which I am enjoying. I considered signing up for the next round in the Literary Kitchen, but with my upcoming show schedule in early 2014, I don't think it would be a good idea. Maybe the next one!

This week the Theatrical Interpreting Preparation Series workshop starts again and that will continue until March 2014. I am also preparing to interpret "Twist Your Dickens" at PCS on Thursday, December 12th. I am also interpreting the Back Fence PDX Anniversary Storytelling event on Monday, December 9th.

I still like the story of the novel I wrote and I am excited to have that project to return to, later. After it rests. That is a good sign.

In the meantime, editing, revising, and looking for appropriate places to submit several stories which need homes. I need to spend some time on Duotrope and at Poets & Writers.

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Overlapping Interests

* I've been busy writing about theatre, to theatre personnel, to the interpreting access teams, to producers. I've been writing feedback and my section of a standard practice paper related to performance interpreting. I've written and edited a prose poem which has become a spoken word piece. I've started a new piece for the memoir and wrote another piece which I shared with my Friday writing group.

I also submitted one piece to a publication last week and another piece to a different publication this week. It feels good to be back on the submissions track!

But I haven't written here for over a week. Not that I haven't been writing; just not here. I've even posted on PAIA (Performing Arts Interpreting Alliance) as the 2013-14 theatre season starts up, and there's much to do.

This week the first interpreted play at Portland Center Stage takes place on Thursday, September 19th at 7:30 pm, "The Mountaintop." And one of the interpreters I'm working with on "Fiddler on the Roof" (interpreted 10/3) and I went to our first viewing of the show last week. So theatre is in my schedule now, too.

Although I primarily talk about writing here, I do want to share this video, which is about theatrical interpreting. The two people being interviewed were the first sign language interpreters on Broadway (Alan Champion, on of the interviewees, passed away a few years ago). They are also two of the founders of the intensive Interpreting for the Theatre training which took place in NYC at Juilliard under the Theatre Development Fund for many years, (which I attended in 2001).

Just a little crossover in the important parts of my life - and a wonderful explanation of theatrical interpreting. This is my basic approach to theatrical and performance interpreting, as well.





Thank you, Candace and Alan, and TDF. And everyone else in the wonderful experience which was the intensive training - for your skills and guidance and for the awesome work you continue to do. *

Playing with Words

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...literally...

Have you heard of Wordle? It's a website where you input some text or link to a webpage and you get some art from what you entered. It's fun to spend some time there, playing with text. I first heard about it a couple of years ago during NaNoWriMo. I played; I forgot what it was called; I forgot about it. Periodically it surfaces in my brain and I try to remember how to get back to the site, since my bookmarks/favorites are so huge now and after changing computers due to blue screens of death and totally clogged systems I've even given up searching because it might not even be there, anyway.

Then yesterday Wordle surfaced again. I've been thinking about it recently, wanting to play, but too busy to look into finding it again. Then I received an email of a writer's blog post, which included her Wordle from one of her stories.

Yay! I decided to enter the text of the short story I'm preparing to send out into the world. There's an upcoming deadline I want to make for an anthology.

Wordle is an interesting experiment in taking the text apart, from which the Java applet creates a visual cloud. It lets a writer view her work in a new way - seeing what pops out and what gets lost. It's interesting - this Wordle is actually a pretty good visual representation of my flash fiction piece. (On Wordle I titled this, "It's a Food Thing." The name of the short story is "Meatballs on My Mind.")

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Port Cities Review has Launched

I don't know if you remember, not too long ago I sent out an announcement and a link to Port Cities Review. A new literary publication which is worth your time to read and worth your energy to submit to if you're a writer.

It has officially launched. Hop on over there and take a look for yourself... and check out their submission guidelines.

PORT CITIES REVIEW

New Literary and Arts Publication : PCR

There's a new publication in town. Well, and beyond - it's not limited to just Portland, OR.

Port Cities Review

You can sign up to be one of the first on the list of updates. They are also now open for submissions.

Click on the PCR Facebook page link to read more about them the publication.

It looks like a great lineup behind this venture and I'm looking forward to the first issue. And the second, and so on.

Who knows, I may even find something to submit!

Check it out and and sign up to be there for its launch.

Mixing it up

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I decided to take a break from my regular online writing group this time around. The facilitator is awesome and her prompts are excellent story starters, and her feedback is great. I've been doing it for a number of years and I have done several in-person writing workshops with her, as well. So it has nothing to do with her or with the other writers - many of whom are also frequent flyers in the Literary Kitchen.

It has to do with me.

My last time in there, my writing was slow and it became a chore. I wanted to give more feedback than just the minimum requirement, but that was all I had time to do. Most of my writing was for the assignments and I wasn't working on revisions of the two books in progress, I wasn't sending out much work. And I was feeling frustrated that I wasn't doing more.

So I decided to step back from the Kitchen and shake out my writing self and see what else I needed to do.

I joined a writing group, which made immediate changes the week I attended. I wasn't sure the group was for me with the new changes, but was willing to give it a try. I missed the second meeting because I was sick. And there were more changes to the group, including two of the originators dropping out.

Yesterday this group met and I went. This is a small group, now three of us, but I think we've got a nice plan which we're testing out. And it is what I need, I hope, although it's a little different than what I had envisioned. Again, I'm willing to try it and we'll reassess the plan over the next few months.

I can feel it working already. Just today I made more progress on one of the books than I have in the last two months. Having a deadline to submit a certain number of pages/words to others may work. We're starting with just our small group to see how this goes. We may add another person later, but we're being careful to not overwhelm ourselves; we all have other interests and responsbilities, too. We're trying a hybrid of online and in-person gatherings.

I also registered for a one-day writing mini-conference on Saturday, January 26th. I'm very excited about that, as well. (You can check back in my post archives for that information or search online. It's "Making it in Changing Times" put on my Jessica Page Morrell.) That looks like a nice boost and another change of pace for my writing self.

I've also stepped up sending out submissions. I've stepped up exercise - by buying a Wii for home, including Wii Fit which is so much fun! I bought Zumba dance, as well - but that one is hard and I need to take more time with it; the first time I tried I tweaked my back a little so it was back to the easy yoga, stretching, aerobics and balance games and exercises of Wii Fit. Tomorrow I'm also returning to swimming, from which I had to take a break because of an ear infection and then three rounds of the nasty cold/sinus illness which was circulating.

So, all in all, things are looking good. I have a new writing plan and it feels good. I've found some fun ways to exercise which can fit with my schedule. And the performance interpreting preparation workshop series is going really well.

Sometimes I need to change things up a bit to get a different result. I'm going to be exploring that a little bit. I know that sometimes having a routine, something familiar can help with productivity, but for me I needed something new. Like that saying which goes something like, "if you want to keep getting the same results, keep on doing what you're doing."

Maybe that's it - I wasn't happy with my results so I knew I needed to change what I was doing.

How do you know it's time for a change? Or know that it's a rough patch and you need to just keep at it?

Where is your line between the familiar or the new?
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Radical Writing Advice :Word Pairs - Sharing Time

Last week I sent a tweet into the world about a little run-in I had with Microsoft Word's spell checker. And it got me to thinking: I wonder what other little pet peeves writers have with Word. I know I've heard others grumble about what Word thinks is grammatically correct or not recognizing some words.

And Word certainly doesn't take kindly to creative license. It hates sentence fragments and, at least in my version of word, those get the squiggly red lines, reminiscent of the red pen marks of teachers in elementary school or middle school. Word insists on capitalizing words at the beginning of every line, even if it's poetry and I don't want that word capitalized.

Yet teachers and editors and agents still tend to advise: "Make sure you run spell checker on your document before turning it in - submitting." Like Word and its counterparts have the last word on all things creative.

I have known some people to even turn the spell checker off. I could do that. But once in a while it does catch a typo, an error. It lets more go than it catches, true, but it still has a place. Just don't depend on it to do all of the work for you.

This all started when I was editing a story for submission. (Yes, I did get it edited with feedback from a couple of years ago from my online writing group, and then additional feedback on an edited version from my new in-person writing group. Thank you everyone for your input. The story is in the 'zine's hands now.)

Where the issue came up is that, in the story, the protag is talking and says "...there is a character, who kills..." But Word marked it up and told me it should be "...there is a character, which kills ..."  I thought, No; no way. The character is a person so it should be who and not which. But then I started questioning myself as much as I questioned Word and soon, I found myself being able to justify it either way. I kept it with my original wording.

To be fair, I will say that the character the protag is talking about actually turns out to be a personification of the protag herself. Maybe that makes a difference and maybe not. But I will still stand behind my "character who" decision.

This discussion is not new. This same pair of words came up a couple of years ago in the online writing group. It was a great discussion and some helpful advice in choosing the appropriate word.

So when this situation came up with Word, I started thinking about other possible word pairs that sometimes trip writers up. Or at least make us pause and maybe even pull out our Strunk and White, or The Everyday Writer, or whatever your favorite online or in-print resource may be.

I'd love to hear from you.

What are the words which have (or maybe still do) cause you to doubt or pause the pace to make sure you have the correct usage?

What are a few tricks or hints you have to help make the better choice?

Here are a few which come to mind:
- which & that
- lay & lie
- drink, drank, drunk
- less & fewer.

Others?
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Harper Voyager accepting manuscripts

Harper Voyager Guidelines for Digital Submission

 Accepting Manuscripts

from October 1st – October 14th, 2012!

Keen to become a Harper Voyager author? Here’s your chance to join the imprint that publishes some of the biggest names in fantastic fiction—George R. R. Martin, Kim Harrison, Raymond E. Feist, Robin Hobb, Richard Kadrey, Sara Douglass, Peter V. Brett and Kylie Chan—to name but a few.

For the first time in over a decade, Harper Voyager are opening the doors to unsolicited submissions in order to seek new authors with fresh voices, strong storytelling abilities, original ideas and compelling storylines. So, if you believe your manuscript has these qualities, then we want to read it!

We’re seeking all kinds of adult and young adult speculative fiction for digital publication, but particularly epic fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, dystopia and supernatural. For more idea of the type of books we love to read and publish, check out our authors and their titles at www.harpervoyagerbooks.com

Submissions for digital originals will be open for a limited two-week period from 1st to the 14th of October, 2012.

 
More information on their website.

Radical Writing Advice: Taking a Pass

There are many types of "pass," I realized when I wrote the title for today's post. I mean, we all know that; but I had one of them in mind and as I typed and got a handle on what I was going to say, more "pass" definitions came to mind.

Language is good. It keeps us engaged and alert if we let it. It keeps us looking at more than just the words or symbols for the meaning, if we care, if we dare to go below the surface.

And I dare.

So. My original intention was to write about a "pass" as in: "No, thank you. I'll pass on ___________." Fill in the blank for whatever it is you feel obligated to do, unless you're ready to steep yourself in some heavy guilt or excuse making or having to make up for not doing the Big X if you follow through and "pass."

But as I started to make notes, I started thinking about other meanings of "pass," which may have some opposite connotations, much like the word "sanction."  That word can mean to punish or to reward.

To "take a pass" generally means to do something like "skip a turn" or turn down an offer. But a person can also "pass" as being something other than they are. One specific example I'm thinking of is in the LGBT/Queer community, a person can be said to "pass" as a member of a group even though they're not. Such as back in the 80s, when that community was still primarily called the "Gay Community," there was talk of gay men or lesbians "passing" as straight; or the stone butch women before that time who "passed" as men.

Sometimes to "take a pass" may imply avoiding a bad situation. Or avoiding getting in trouble by revealing something which is not supposed to be shared if someone asks you for information.

It may also mean - and here is where the opposition comes in - to take a turn. Such as asking someone to "take a pass" at repairing something. Which means give it a try and see if you can fix the thing.

Now that I've wandered down that side path, I'll come back to my original intent, which was to "take a pass" and let a deadline roll by without a submission.

Yes. I'm saying that sometimes we writers might find it useful to let a deadline slip by.

I want to be clear that I am not advocating for ignoring deadlines. And if you've made a commitment to an editor or a publication and you have a story or a poem or an article due, yes, do it. Your reputation and perhaps your livelihood could be affected if you just blow off a commitment. Although if you have an emergency situation ... well, you know what I mean. I don't want to wander down yet another side path. (Though I could, quite easily, I think.)

My point is that sometimes it is in our best interest to not put the pressure on ourselves and let something slide if there are not significant repurcussions. Especially if there is another opportunity.

One example is from the online writing group I'm in, the Wayward Writers in Ariel Gore's Literary Kitchen. Week before last I let the due date go by without submitting a writing for that week. I'd taken notes and worked on a story. And there were some intense and time-intensive things going on that week. To complete the story and get it in on time would have meant cutting back on sleep and not getting something else done and would have increased my stress level. So I let the story deadline for that week go by. Unattended by me.

Another example is that many publications, especially the well-established ones, have multiple submission deadlines. Often they repeat. If you miss it this time around, it will cycle back. There are exceptions of course, like zines with themes - that theme may not surface for a while, or The Sun's "Readers Write" which also has changing themes. But even those publications often accept general work. So, unless your piece of writing is for a specific theme, if you are feeling pressured and stressed to meet another deadline, maybe you can take a pass, as in letting it go.

I've done that with some general submissions. Places I want to submit but the deadline fell at a particularly hectic time or there were other timely conflicts. When I gave myself permission to let a deadline pass - such as a famous, well-established publications "short story contest" month, and they have that twice a year - it relieved the pressure. Yes, I missed that month's, but it will come back again. And it did.

So this week's advice, if you're struggling with feeling overwhelmed and stressed, is to look where you might be able to let a deadline go. Take that pass *for now* and swap it for the next opportunity.

Of course you are the only one who can make the determination if taking a pass will be less stressful or not. But sometimes it can feel good to know that you are in charge of your own deadlines. I believe in deadlines and they help me; sometimes more than I like to admit. But, like me, you may also find that sometimes not meeting that deadline really is okay and you can submit the story the next go 'round.

Try it. See if there is one thing on your list which can wait until later. Unless you have plenty of time and everything is perfectly balanced and you have no stress. Which could be true. Just one thing. Like the sales on computers (laptops, specifically) I've been tracking recently, the best new hot awesome "inventory sale" gave way to the "spring break specials" which gave way to the "mother's day sale" then the "grad sale" and the "dad's sale" - oh, I forgot the "Memorial Day Sale" - and the "Fourth of July Sale" and then the "New Release Sale" and now the "early back to school sale."

You get my point.

Except in the case of themes or special events, timely events, many things come back around. Sometimes it is in our best interest to "take a pass" on the current deadline and wait for the next. And, just maybe, sometimes it's in our story's best interest to let it age and take another look, as well.

Maybe.

Or you can look at it as "taking a pass" and letting the deadline go by, or "taking a pass at it" and giving it a try.

See which is most true for you and take a pass, your way.
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