The importance of being less earnest.

It’s been a week where my career has been the prevalent factor and so my writing has been slower. However, I see it as a positive thing; I’ve padded the limited time outside with poetry (Jacob Sam-La Rose, Lorca and Plath to be precise) and had time to catch breath and think.

It can be too easy to get caught up in sending work out. Maybe, just maybe, the new writer determined to be published is sometimes a little hasty; sending a piece with a few barnacles left on it still. I’ve just stated probably the worst thing any writer could admit to. But it’s true – especially in these early stages.

The value of revisiting and editing work can not be emphasised enough. It’s probably the toughest lesson to learn; only send it when it’s good enough. If not only to save receiving yet another rejection, then to save your reputation! If you can’t get another writer (I suffer from this scenario) then leave it aside a few weeks, a month or two before revisiting. But remember, sometimes it’s a dud; accept that.

Edit enough and you’ll reap the rewards. This gentle week has bore some very nice fruit indeed; The Ranfurly Review has accepted my submissions Shadow Puppets and On My Father: Sheik Mohammad Jallow for their 3rd issue which will be published in June. My latest six sentences flash fiction has gone live, along with another of my Dogmatika haiku.

I’ve also an agreement from Jacob Sam-La Rose to review his Arts Council commissioned piece Magnitude (you can read my review here). Now lets just hope the Arts Council will let me reproduce the poem…