On Writing and Sending Out Chapters or Stories

This morning I woke up thinking I've never been good at sending out my writing, unless for pay. 
 

Labeled pages with "calls"

Not that I lack knowledge about where to send material. I've been a subscriber to writers' trade magazines since 1989, with exception of the years I lived in Amsterdam, and relied on The American Book Store for my fix on writers' craft publications. As such, a subscriber to Poets & Writers, Writer's Digest and The Writer Magazine, I've spelled out the "wanted" ads in the back, noted deadlines for contests and such. But with the exception of 1989-1990 the year I decided to become a writer for real, sending out poems to literary magazines such as Trivia, I have hardly ever put my creative writing pieces in the mail with the intention to get them published.

What's up with that?

It's not that I haven't been published, I have, by paying publications. Yet, the work created when I'm not working on assignment mostly just remains filed on my computer. Telling, no? Writing for pay, means your work is accepted already. While sending out unrequested material, may mean a possible rejection.

Little Stevie King pinned rejections slips to his wall.

These early morning musings were no doubt influenced by reading "On Writing: a memoir of the craft" by Stephen King last night. His mom really encouraged him to write, not just copy stories he'd read, and paid him a quarter for each of his first four. He started sending out his work when he was a teen, pinning rejection slips on his wall, meanwhile he kept on writing and kept on sending out. The rest is history. 

I wish I was better at sending out work, but the moment I've written something short, I forget about it. Easy, since on my computer, anything out of sight is out of mind, lost in the black hole. The pieces that are part of a book length manuscript thank goodness are tied together by a red line, the plot line if you will. But why wait until the book is finished? Why not send out a chapter that can stand on its own? 

Send out a chapter that can stand on its own. 
For “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans” ~ John Lennon.

This work by by Judith van Praag is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship

	Passing on the News to you all: USC Annenberg seeks journalists, designers and developers for Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship Contact:  Arianna Sikorski, USC, 213-740-1899 or Melissa Abraham (310)440-6861 LOS ANGELES, June 12, 2012 -- The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism announced this week that applications for the 11th annual USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program, which will operate as a 15-member pop-up newsroom in Los Angeles, are now being accepted. The fellowship, which will be held Nov. 8-18, 2012, seeks to assemble an all-star team of arts journalists committed to using their skills to imagine and create new and innovative ways of reporting on arts and culture. Most costs are covered by the fellowship, including air travel, hotel, transportation within the city and most meals. National and international arts journalists, web designers and developers are welcome to apply. Applications are due July 24, 2012 click here to apply. The USC Annenberg/Getty Fellowship will be built around creating next-generation reporting tools for arts journalism. The fellowship, funded by The Getty Foundation, plans to design, develop and build this new project over the course of 11 days in a pop-up newsroom called Engine30. The program is looking for fellows who fit into one or more of these categories: ARTS JOURNALISTS who are committed to finding and telling stories in new ways, thinking about journalism as a dynamic system and process rather than a product, as well as those who care about finding better ways to engage with audiences. DESIGNERS who are committed to thinking imaginatively about information architecture, user interaction, story-telling and visualization of multi-level data with design that is intuitive, simple and fun to use. DEVELOPERS who are committed to imaginatively finding, adapting and integrating existing tools into Engine30 with a focus on ideas/intent behind what is developed rather than specific ways to realize them. Engine30 is the latest in a series of experimental arts journalism projects dedicated to rethinking the ways journalists report on the arts. Engine28 was a pop-up newsroom with 40 journalists who produced 100+ stories around two theater festivals in one week. Engine29 sent 28 arts journalists to explore gaming, crowd-sourcing, community engagement, slow journalism, meta-data, distributed storytelling, incremental journalism and social media as tools for covering the arts. Engine30 will build on the lessons of Engine28 and Engine29 and focus on creating a series of stories told in innovative ways. “We have discovered that bringing groups of talented people together and having them work side-by-side inventing something new is tremendously creative and fulfilling,”said Sasha Anawalt, who will direct the 2012 USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program. “Each of the fellows chosen for Engine30 will bring some skill or way of thinking that will challenge and help the team. The sparks of these collaborations will expand our collective thinking about arts coverage.” Joining Founding Director Anawalt will be Douglas McLennan, director of the newly-created USC Annenberg Center for Arts, Media & Audience, and the project architect for Engine30. Also part of the programming team is Edward Lifson, a frequent NPR arts and culture reporter. “We think of this project as ‘360-degree’ or ‘liquid’ journalism,” said McLennan, “How do you build stories that have context and depth and that engage people where they live? This is an opportunity to assemble a team that will go about creating stories in multi-dimensions.” The only program of its kind in the United States, the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program underscores the importance of arts journalists covering the arts ecosystem as a whole. The fellowship emphasizes the societal value of arts coverage and strengthening a global arts journalism network while working collaboratively toward making the arts accessible to all. “The Getty Foundation is delighted to once again collaborate with USC Annenberg and to support these special arts journalism fellowships. In a fast-changing world, it is critical that the fellowship program continues to evolve and seeks to establish a new standard of excellence in arts and cultural coverage,” said Getty Foundation Director Deborah Marrow. The Getty Foundation fulfills the philanthropic mission of the Getty Trust by supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the understanding and preservation of the visual arts locally and throughout the world. Through strategic grants and programs, the Foundation strengthens art history as a global discipline, promotes the interdisciplinary practice of conservation, increases access to museum and archival collections, and develops current and future leaders in the visual arts. The Foundation carries out its work in collaboration with the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute to ensure that the Getty programs achieve maximum impact. Additional information. About the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is a national leader in education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public diplomacy and public relations. With an enrollment of more than 2,200 students, USC Annenberg offers doctoral, master's and bachelor's degree programs, as well as continuing development programs for working professionals across a broad scope of academic inquiry. The school's comprehensive curriculum emphasizes the core skills of leadership, innovation, service and entrepreneurship and draws upon the resources of a networked university located in the media capital of the world.
	Contact USC Annenberg Public Affairs at (213) 821-3015