I recently wrote a 3-part blog post for WordsinSync on the subject of finishing your writing (“So You Think You’re Finished?  Think Again.”  See http://wordsinsync.blogspot.com/search?q=soules, at least for as long as it’s available).  It’s part of my continuous effort to find ways to know that you’re finished with a particular piece of writing.  The difference between finishing a piece and just stopping is huge because what every writer wants is a polished piece that feels “right,” not a piece where you’ve simply run out of gas. It’s part of why I have my page of “Poem Tips,” a page I tweak and add to regularly.

I think often about Isaac Babel, the great Russian writer.  His biographer said that when he couldn’t sleep, he would get up in the night and work on his current writing, cutting out words “with glee.”  Babel is reported to have said that you knew you were finished when you’d taken out everything that didn’t belong.  This is basically the same concept that was reportedly spoken by Michelangelo who said he didn’t carve the marble, but released what was in it.

I feel irritated when I read one of my poems or pieces of prose some time after I thought I was finished only to discover that it requires more editing.  I expect the struggle to know that I’m finished will go on for the rest of my writing life, but there are times when I feel more sure that I’ve reached a finished state than others.  Greater clarity on this issue would be welcome.

My book, Meditation on Woman ($15, ISBN: 978-1-937536-13-8, 6X9”, 80 pp), has just been published by Anaphora Literary Press (Dec., 2011).  As of this writing, it’s available on my publisher’s website at http://anaphoraliterary.wordpress.com/catalogue/aline-soules/ and will be available on amazon shortly.

I completed my class at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto.  The goal was to figure out what my book was all about.  My original goal was to have an outline by year end, but now that I think I know what my novel is about, my goal has shifted to creating detailed sketches of my main  characters by year end.  Gerry Jones’ recommendation is to write a short statement (no more than 100 words) that begins:  “This is a story about [insert protagonist's name]. . .  and to redo this periodically to keep on track.  Great advice.  Once I complete my sketches, I will rewrite my statement.  After that, I will begin envisioning scenes and writing my outline.

I just emailed Congress about the Internet Blacklist Legislation, known as the PROTECT-IP Act in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. If it passes, our executive branch would have the right to close down websites that allegedly host – or even link to – content that infringes on intellectual property rights. Whole domain names could disappear (have you tried to reach wikileaks?). The Internet Blacklist Legislation puts more sites than ever at risk, effectively upending the DMCA safe harbors that have been crucial to the growth of Internet innovation and creativity.

The problem is that the bills won’t really stop online infringement, but they will put at risk our ability to speak and read online with the kind of freedom we cherish in the offline world. Hollywood lobbyists want to control movies and other content in ways that go too far.

We need to stop this bill now. Please join me by contacting your representatives in Congress and urging them to oppose the Internet Blacklist Legislation? Visit: https://eff.org/r.C8A for an easy way to do this.

Having decided to write a novel, I signed up for a class this fall at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. It’s a terrific class because it’s entirely focused on figuring out just what your book (fiction, non-fiction) is all about. What are you really trying to say? It’s amazing to discover that what you thought you were going to write about is just the surface and the real topic/theme is hidden underneath. It requires being true to yourself, being honest with yourself, and admitting things that maybe you don’t want to articulate to yourself. My goal: an outline by the end of the year.

Thanks to Marlene Dotterer, I learned about Rachael Harrie’s Platform Building Campaign.  I’m not quite ready for it yet (you have to sign up as a “Campaigner” in her Third Writers’ Platform-Building Campaign by August 31st), but, tentatively, I have a print publisher for my manuscript Meditation on Woman and if all goes well, I hope Rachael will run a fourth campaign later in the year.

One of the things I love about poetry is its density.  Really good poems, for me, convey multiple meanings in as terse and clear a way as possible.  The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts believes this, too, and calls this process, not surprisingly, compression.  In a recent call for work, they asked for statements about this process to accompany submissions and they received so many good ones, they decided to publish them separately on August 22, 2011.

Ebooks are finally taking off.  After a decade of fits and starts, they are now hot property.  Poetry lends itself to this type of publication.  From chapbook to full-length poetry book, they can be mounted on Kindle or Smashwords or Bookbaby or a Nook and made available free or for a nominal or greater sum.  But, how do you get everyone’s attention.  I read somewhere that in 2010, 1.2 million books were loaded into amazon this way (can’t verify this).  If that’s the case–or even close to that number–there’s a lot of noise out there.  As I’ve begun exploring these options and learning more about marketing these new delivery modes, I wonder if this is just the mode of the moment or something that will last.  Will we read these books 10 years from now or will we be on to something else?

A poem, these days, isn’t always enough.  Now, we can be asked to submit our work with audio files, images, video files, who knows what?  While exploring these options may be fun, there are some who say that this is no longer poetry, but multimedia.  On the pro side, the oral tradition existed far longer than the print tradition, so why not audio? On the con side, it’s not the same experience, so it is more multimedia than poetry?  What do you think?

Pro or Con?  Let me know.

While Delicious is a great tool, I decided that I wanted to create my own page of “links” to websites that interest me, whatever that eclectic mix may be, so I started a new page on my site and entered the first of what I hope will be select, but useful sites.  I’d be happy to hear suggestions from my readers.