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javainkIt's happened again. Right when I said I'd catch up with my reading page on DW and jump back into using DW in general, I let weeks slip by. This time thanks to feeling busy, despite still being unemployed.
Back in March, I applied as a writing contributor to a small-time ORV zine centered on the themes of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. I wasn't expecting to get in, though a large cocky part of myself grumbled that yes of course they should accept me, blahblah. I prepared myself all April to get rejected; so you can imagine my utter glee at getting accepted. I am one of 9 writers on the team, with 9 artists too, so 18 contributors total.
Here's the twitter link and tumblr link.
I'm nervous and getting self-conscious about my writing, mainly because I haven't written over 1k in such a long time. But the timeline for the zine is extremely fair, and gives us all a good amount of breathing room to create our pieces, so I feel on track for everything! I even turned my pitches in a day earlier. We had to give 3 pitches, and the mods assigned us one of three, so that there wasn't much overlap between contributors.
I'm one of the few peoples that won't be focusing on the main characters, instead fleshing out some ignored side-characters. I'll be writing about the relationship between the Dokkaebi King and Wenny King, their old comradeship, their identities as protagonists/writers, and getting lost in their roles. All themes that get reflected in Kimcom themselves, so still definitely hitting some of the big themes in ORV. Writers only get 1.5k to work with, which is so small, but for me who has had trouble with writing fiction for so long and is nursing my old writing skill...it's a blessing. I do get wordy, so I'll probably have to prune a lot. This'll be fun either way, I'm having a blast already.
I've assigned myself two plays to read to help wrap my head around some of these themes. "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead" by Tom Stoppard and "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett. I'm gonna be honest...this is also just a reason to read these plays. I've been meaning to for years. I'm not sure what help they'll be--I fear they may do the opposite of help, but looking at my draft...the tone is so somber, so perhaps they'll knock some humor around my head and leak onto my page.
Outside of my zine work, I've come upon some good advice thanks to an interview I had with an academic press production manager. She advised that I really needed to get more experience doing editorial work, which I think is her implication on why she didn't hire me. I was on her short list for the editorial assistant position, but she stressed that I get experience at the end of her kind rejection email, and upon my further questioning, suggested I volunteer as at local charities, historic societies, and lit mags. I suppose my time at internships during college weren't enough, or didn't have enough of the right kind of work. I wish I had known this while still in college, but I wasn't thorough enough I suppose.
So I've been looking for internships, unpaid ones too, for that kind of work. I'm not seeing much of what I want in my city, which is. Unfortunate.
I'm considering also applying to the Denver Publishing Institute, but then, the deadline is next week and I'm uh. Not sure I'll make it. Not sure if I should do it. It'd be great for networking, is the only thing. But I could also network at internships I land at lit mags/etc. If I land a role there. I don't know, I thought I had myself focused last week about all this, determined, ready to go. But I feel the need to sleep.
Lately, besides those 2 plays, I've been reading Vol. 1 of The Journey to the West, trans. and ed. by Anthony C. Yu, and Dracula by Bram Stoker, thanks to Dracula Daily on Substack.
Back in March, I applied as a writing contributor to a small-time ORV zine centered on the themes of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. I wasn't expecting to get in, though a large cocky part of myself grumbled that yes of course they should accept me, blahblah. I prepared myself all April to get rejected; so you can imagine my utter glee at getting accepted. I am one of 9 writers on the team, with 9 artists too, so 18 contributors total.
Here's the twitter link and tumblr link.
I'm nervous and getting self-conscious about my writing, mainly because I haven't written over 1k in such a long time. But the timeline for the zine is extremely fair, and gives us all a good amount of breathing room to create our pieces, so I feel on track for everything! I even turned my pitches in a day earlier. We had to give 3 pitches, and the mods assigned us one of three, so that there wasn't much overlap between contributors.
I'm one of the few peoples that won't be focusing on the main characters, instead fleshing out some ignored side-characters. I'll be writing about the relationship between the Dokkaebi King and Wenny King, their old comradeship, their identities as protagonists/writers, and getting lost in their roles. All themes that get reflected in Kimcom themselves, so still definitely hitting some of the big themes in ORV. Writers only get 1.5k to work with, which is so small, but for me who has had trouble with writing fiction for so long and is nursing my old writing skill...it's a blessing. I do get wordy, so I'll probably have to prune a lot. This'll be fun either way, I'm having a blast already.
I've assigned myself two plays to read to help wrap my head around some of these themes. "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead" by Tom Stoppard and "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett. I'm gonna be honest...this is also just a reason to read these plays. I've been meaning to for years. I'm not sure what help they'll be--I fear they may do the opposite of help, but looking at my draft...the tone is so somber, so perhaps they'll knock some humor around my head and leak onto my page.
Outside of my zine work, I've come upon some good advice thanks to an interview I had with an academic press production manager. She advised that I really needed to get more experience doing editorial work, which I think is her implication on why she didn't hire me. I was on her short list for the editorial assistant position, but she stressed that I get experience at the end of her kind rejection email, and upon my further questioning, suggested I volunteer as at local charities, historic societies, and lit mags. I suppose my time at internships during college weren't enough, or didn't have enough of the right kind of work. I wish I had known this while still in college, but I wasn't thorough enough I suppose.
So I've been looking for internships, unpaid ones too, for that kind of work. I'm not seeing much of what I want in my city, which is. Unfortunate.
I'm considering also applying to the Denver Publishing Institute, but then, the deadline is next week and I'm uh. Not sure I'll make it. Not sure if I should do it. It'd be great for networking, is the only thing. But I could also network at internships I land at lit mags/etc. If I land a role there. I don't know, I thought I had myself focused last week about all this, determined, ready to go. But I feel the need to sleep.
Lately, besides those 2 plays, I've been reading Vol. 1 of The Journey to the West, trans. and ed. by Anthony C. Yu, and Dracula by Bram Stoker, thanks to Dracula Daily on Substack.
