Seven Ways of Not Being Published

Well, come on, being published isn't everything.  Stories and poems still work when they're free.  In fact, they're sometimes more effective that way.  Here are a few ideas for letting the words sail.  Hell, why not?  That's what it's all about.

1. Write a quote from your work on a piece of coloured paper (have fun choosing, it needs to be a doozy) and leave it somewhere dull, where the finder won't expect it.  A locker at the gym.  Beneath someone's rug.  That dusty little corner on the train.  Stash it there knowing someone will discover it.  You've reached them somehow.  Let it go.

2. Learn your piece by heart and give a storytelling session.   Not only is this fun, but it teaches you a lot - you hear the rhythms in your work, you see what you might have cut, you start to know your story's voice in whole, new ways. 

3. Make your piece into a song and sing it, after a Guinness.

4. Print out a page in a great, big font, cut it into sections and make a piece of art.

5. Give your story to a friend.  Ask them to read it - not for "how good it is", but for knowing you better. 

6. Make a paper aeroplane out of the print-out and fly it off a roof.  (Don't get done for littering though - unless that's the plan).

7. Take it with you everywhere and read it out loud, or pin it up on cork boards, or tape it to your window.  Sleep with it under your pillow and wake at night and read it.  Learn from it.  Adore it.  Let it change you, baby.

Comments

[Cathy]

Is this a wish list or have you done all of these things?

[Sue]

I have done each and every one, though the paper plane was a print-out of a poem by someone else, and the little bits of paper I leave in dusty corners are usually quotes from the works of great writers. It's a thing.

[Chris brooks]

Thank you for this ..it actually made me think.. and chuckle..Things to try for fun.. when your not in the mod to submission...

[Sue]

I'm so glad to hear it! These things give me a kick too. Thanks for commenting, Chris.