It was a Very Good Year | Write Anything

10 Dec 2012 by Tiel Ansari in Uncategorized | 0 comments

2012 Goal 1: Get a second collection of poetry published.
2012 Goal 2: Be more productive.

In retrospect, these goals were really poorly phrased. Goal 1 was far too dependent on factors outside my control: any honest poet will tell you that luck and who you know are at least as important in getting published as talent and effort. Goal 2 is just? vague.

I see I phrased Goal 1 as ?collection,? not as ?book.? (Weird? that?s not what I remember.) I did get a chapbook published, High-Voltage Lines from Barefoot Muse. I noted it as a 50% success at the time, but given the original phrasing of the goal, I?m calling this one good. It?s now early in December; I don?t have another poetry manuscript in submission and likely won?t get one in before the New Year, but I did submit my unpublished novel to a local e-publisher.

On the publication front, I have a couple more notable accomplishments. I got three poems accepted into Measure, the premier formal-poetry venue in the English-speaking world. I also noted that, although the number of poetry submissions I made this year was low, my hit rate was 100%. Every journal I submitted to accepted at least one poem. Interestingly also, most were journals I hadn?t appeared in before, so it?s not like I?ve gotten into a rut of submitting to journals I know are good fits for me.

I also got some lines into a couple of public art projects (Tranquil Relief through Nature, Orange Linings), and my short story ?Midnight at Normandale? (featured in one of this blog?s contests) was accepted for a locally produced anthology (Roosevelt Writing Center).

Productivity

Looking at my blog archives, I?ve posted 159 poems so far this year, up from 110 at this time last year (all months except December). That?s about a 58% increase in productivity. That?s significant. I only posted 6 poems last December, so there?s a good chance that by the end of the year I could raise that number a little. So I?m calling this one good as well.

However, the calendar project (described in the original project post) has pretty much fallen by the wayside. I was aiming for about 100 calendar poems, and I?ve written 41; the most recent appeared in August. I?ve discussed the problems with the calendar prompts in earlier posts, so won?t rehash them here, but I do think it was a useful kick-start for the beginning of the year.

Other things that have helped my productivity: I joined a prompt-writing group that meets monthly and generates 3-4 poems. I still write a word salad poem every month. I also took on a project to write a sonnet redoubl?: the results are posted here. (I?d like to note that, if I count each sonnet in the sequence individually, it would boost the overall poem count by a half dozen or so.) While the weather was good? we had a beautiful summer this year? I did a lot of walking. I mean a lot? I completely wore out a pair of Vibram Five-Fingers, big holes in the soles.

Professional Development

I?ve been on the board of the Oregon Poetry Association since last October; over the course of 2012, I helped co-ordinate a conference, became vice-president, am chairing the annual statewide student contest, and have been the OPA?s unofficial data analyst. (Mostly tabulating and summarizing survey responses.)

All this in the face of escalating job challenges and some personal issues that I won?t discuss here. (Oh yeah, I broke a bone in my foot too, just ?cause not enough was going on in my life. Luckily it was after the good walking weather was done.)

I let the Write Anything editors know I wouldn?t be with them in 2013, shortly before the site closure was announced (I don?t think that had anything to do with it). I?ve enjoyed writing for this blog; I had opportunities to think out some important things, and rant about stuff, and generally indulge myself. But toward the latter third of the year, it was becoming clear I wouldn?t be able to keep up with the time commitment.

It?s been a good run. It?s time to run in other directions for a while.

Source: http://wa.emergent-publishing.com/2012/12/it-was-a-very-good-year/

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