Taking Stock
In March 2010, I received a grant from the Ontario Arts Council to support the creation of a short story collection.
Since then, five of the ten works I proposed in the collection (and revised extensively, thanks to the $upport) have found homes.
Since then, five of the ten works I proposed in the collection (and revised extensively, thanks to the $upport) have found homes.
- * "Iceberg," The Blind Hem www.theblindhem.com, May 4, 2012.
- * "Improvisation," chosen as part of the Liar, Liar project of Northern Mosaic, an integrated arts organization based in Thunder Bay.
- * "Walking Out," South Dakota Review 49.3 (Fall 2011).
- * "MacDonald Variety," Prairie Fire 32.3 (Fall 2011).
- * "Thirty-Two Faces," 11th edition of Ten Stories High, the annual anthology of short fiction published by the Niagara Branch of the Canadian Authors Association.
I have nattered around before about the difficulties I get into when I try to apply the mindset and metrics from "writing as a day job" to writing fiction and essays. However, taking stock is one activity that is useful in both arenas. The list above represents part of my journey I've come since submitting my OAC proposal in December of 2009.
The next part is planning. I do some of this every week -- usually, close-to-the-ground planning, the "what am I sending where next" planning. I also do some fiction/essay planning every year, of the "this time next year I want that novel draft DONE" type. And I daydream, which is like planning to plan. But periodically, it's good to look somewhere between the week and the year. It's time again for me to see where other elements of that collection are, where they could go, what could happen next.
It's an optimistic time for this kind of planning. The world is waking up. Yang Time is here. Time to get out into the world again!