Melanie Unruh

The Art of Distraction

For most creative writers, we know it’s easy to get distracted from, well, writing. Whether it’s finishing up a project for work, watching the latest episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, or folding laundry, there’s always something else you can be doing that doesn’t require you to sit and stare at a blank screen until something brilliant (or, let’s face it, half-decent) strikes.

I don’t think I’m alone in saying that these types of distractions tend to multiply ten-fold when summer rolls around. Your cousin invites you to a last minute dinner party. Your kids want to go to the pool. You take a road trip to the mountains, the beach, the city that’s better air-conditioned than your own. Some variation thereof. I remember a friend once advising me to query agents about my novel in the winter months because, “They’re all cooped up inside in the city in the winter. Come summer, they’ll all be at the Hamptons or at late-night dinner parties.” (I’m not sure this really holds up, but at the time, it sounded pretty wise). Okay, so most of us aren’t jetting off to the Hamptons in the summer, but the point is, we’ve got a lot more stuff going on.

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As you may have seen on our social media channels, last Sunday Plume held a “baby shower” in celebration of its official launch. We had some yummy brunch food (Mimosas! Tortilla Española! Energy bites!), played games related to Plume (not your mom’s traditional baby shower activities), and celebrated this exciting new chapter in our business with writerly friends and subscribers in the Albuquerque area.

Jennifer’s delicious, homemade tortillas (traditional and with some NM flair!)

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The Myth of Summer Reading

If you’re like me, you often begin the summer with this image of relaxing in the backyard or by the pool, devouring all of the books you didn’t read throughout the year. Maybe it’s the pervasive myth that things will be easier in summer, that your schedule will magically clear itself to match the weather, or maybe it’s the memory of childhood summers, of having little to no structure or responsibilities, but then none of this ever quite materializes as soon as we pass Memorial Day. Many of us still have to work, and care for children and loved ones, and attend meetings, and do the dishes, and plan friends’ baby showers and retirement parties, and stay engaged politically, and take the cat to the vet, and and and—

The Book Stack (We All Have One)

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It’s that time of year when every other article you come across is about spring cleaning—throw it out, donate it, organize, organize, organize! But here at Plume lately we’ve been thinking about the idea of spring cleaning your creativity, so to speak. Just like a home, a creative mind can become cluttered and difficult to navigate. So how do you find your way back to your best creative writing self?

Get Inspired

It sounds obvious, but try reading books and authors that you love, or ones you’ve always meant to read, but haven’t yet. Great writers need to read and take in different ideas and styles of writing. Not sure where to start? Check out this great list of women writers from Powell’s.

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Ouch

Facing rejection is never easy. Whether it’s not getting a promotion, being dumped by your significant other, having your kid tell you that the dinner you just made is gross, or getting a form letter from your favorite literary magazine saying “unfortunately your work isn’t a good fit for us”, it all can sting.

As creative writers, if and when we decide to submit our work for possible publication, or apply for grants and fellowships, we are going to face a lot of rejection. This doesn’t mean we’re terrible at our craft or we should just quit while we’re ahead and throw ourselves into another creative endeavor that seems far less competitive. It’s simply the reality that getting published and receiving recognition for our creative work is a numbers game. Still, it can rankle. Even the most seasoned writer who has submitted her work hundreds, if not thousands, of times will findthat certain rejections sting a little more. 

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Library Magic

There’s something magical about libraries. Whether it’s being surrounded by so many books or being in the company of others who are of the bookworm persuasion or maybe it’s all of the childhood memories they evoke–whatever the case may be, I think of the library as my happy place.

As a child, I spent countless hours in my small hometown’s library, reading The Babysitter’s Club, The Borrowers series, and Sweet Valley Twins/High in old bean bag chairs in the library basement. In middle school, my best friend and I would go to the library to sneak read passages of Howard Stern’s Private Parts (We were such rebels!). As I grew older, I kept reading, but I forgot about the public library for a while. I went to college and then grad school, so I always used school libraries. Shortly after grad school, I started working at the local library in my new city. How had I forgotten that such places existed?!

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Closing Out Your Creative Writing Year

As the year draws to a close, it’s often the time when we take stock of our lives and set goals for the coming year. I’ll confess, my list of New Year’s resolutions is usually pretty lengthy, and it’s divided into different areas of my life. I always try to come up with a few writing resolutions, but like with any goals for the upcoming year, it’s hard to set ones that are both specific and achievable.

I was looking through some old notebooks recently and found a list of resolutions. Apparently my creative writing goal was to “write more” in 2009 (along with cleaning less and not eating French fries!). It’s a good thing to aim for, but not very specific. How can you really assess if you’re meeting your goal if it’s so intangible? If I were to create a similar goal this year, I would say something like, “Write three times a week for 30 minutes”.

And then there have been years where I’ve said things like “get this book published” or “write x number of stories”. Though you are the creator of your own goals, writing them down and sending them out into the universe can make you feel more accountable. Hey, that’s a good thing…. unless you’ve made your goals so specific or unrealistic that you’re setting yourself up to feel miserable if you fail to meet them by the end of the year.

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