by Joe Bunting |
I’ve noticed the following two problems in my own writng and in the writers I edit:
1. Too much inner monologue.
2. Not enough setting and description.
This is a problem because the more inner monologue you use, the yonger your writing sounds. I don’t know why this is, but inner-monologue-heavy novels feel younger and more fit for teenagers than novels that give less access to their characters’ heads.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Hunger Games is selling millions of copies while Cormac McCarthy is winning awards and living in relative obscurity. We like our inner-monologue-rich novels. But they also feel less like art. Decide whether you want to use it accordingly.
by Joe Bunting |
Glimmer Train literary magazine is harder to get into than Harvard. In 2011, Harvard accepted 6.2 percent of applicants. Literary magazines like Glimmer Train often have acceptance rates of under one percent.
So when I asked Linda Swanson-Davies, who founded the journal with her sister in 1990, to chat with me about Glimmer Train and how to get published in literary magazines, I honestly wasn’t expecting her to say yes.
But she did!
I’m so excited to share our conversation with you. I hope it challenges you to consider submitting your work to literary magazines like Glimmer Train, and I hope it provides something of a salve to the soul if your story isn’t chosen. Mine certainly haven’t been!
Enjoy the interview.
by Joe Bunting |
If you want to be a writer, stop worrying about writing well. Instead, write now.
Earlier this week, I was blocked. I tweeted my friend Andrea Cumbo, “I have low creative confidence right now. I’ve forgotten how to write fiction.” There was guilt associated with that statement. I thought, You’ve forgotten how to write fiction, and yet you write a blog about writing? What a hypocrite.
So guilt tripped into action, I sat down and wrote a few sentences.
They were bad. Really bad. I almost threw up in my mouth they were so bad.
But still, I wrote a little more and when I felt I had been through enough torture, I stopped, satisfied I had written something at least. I didn’t write well, but I wrote.
by Joe Bunting |
PRACTICE
Write a scene where two characters of different backgrounds (think Romeo and Juliet) fall in love at first sight.
Write for fifteen minutes. When you’re finished, share your practice in the comments section. And if you share, be sure to leave feedback for a few other writers.
by Joe Bunting |
I’m editing a book by an author who lives outside the US. Most of the novel takes place in locations I’ve never seen except in pictures. Sometimes there are words I don’t understand The book has a strangeness I find captivating. Since working on it, I started to wonder if I could write something outside of my own cultural tradition.
Why? Except for his histories, Shakespeare wrote plays that took place in exotic locations like Florence and Scotland. Nearly all of Hemingway’s novels took place outside of the US, usually in Europe or the Caribbean.
We like stories that feel a little foreign.
