Submission

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

I just finished my third draft of “Train to God,” one of the stories I plan to submit to Clarion. I don’t know if the story will interest anyone at Clarion enough to extend me an invitation to the workshop, but I know that my writing has improved by leaps and bounds over the last year. I have a schedule that I’ve been pretty faithful in following for the last several weeks. I’ll continue working on the other story and take one last look at “Train to God” in about a week. Then I’ll send the two stories off to Clarion and see what happens.

I’ve read a few of the Clarion journals during the past several days. It seems that Clarion worked for some, but not for everybody. One woman got very little out of it, learning the hard way that she can’t thrive in an environment of group critiques. Another said that he definitely grew as a writer, but not by leaps and bounds. Someone said that he learned more from critiquing than from writing.

I’ve been reading a lot of short stories, trying to figure out how authors construct their work. The more I read, the more I see weaknesses in my own work, but I also am beginning to see how good stories are crafted. Two stories that have recently blown me away are Terry Bisson’s “Bears Discover Fire” and Karen Joy Fowler’s “Face Value.”

Tonight I’ll work on the second draft of my second story, “Who’s Your Mama?”