I had an experience as a child in which I had a devastating prescient dream which I couldn’t tell anyone about (because of course no one would believe me). And then, as a mother, I recognized one of my daughters having a similar experience. Of course, I believed her, and then I got word later through the news that she was right.
(I call it rebalancing karma.)
I’ve written this into so many short story and storytelling forms, but it just never quite worked… until now.
GOOD NEWS!
Just got word that my flash fiction (I would call it autofiction), “Early Childhood Education,” is finally getting published! Lowestoft Chronicle has slated it for their September 1 issue.
I’m super stoked! I’ve published with them before (12 years ago!) and really love what they’re doing, so this is a fine moment and win-win all around. I’ll post a link when it goes live.
THE MINI LESSON HERE
Keep trying.
Not only trying to find a home for your work, but trying to find the right way to tell a story.
Sometimes the decisions we make as writers, at the first go around, aren’t the best ones for what the story needs to be, or these decisions do not mine our best skill sets.
I’ve often heard it said that when you have an idea, that as you go about developing it, write down all the ways you can move forward with that idea, then cast off the first two. This is because the first two are the obvious “anyone can do that” ideas that have likely already been done (perhaps done to death, even).
I could be entirely wrong here, but when it comes to making anything, it’s my opinion that there are so many shiny objects out there competing for attention that we are better off trying to make something that doesn’t quite fit a mold.
While I recognize, especially in commercial creativity (TV series, paintings, performance art, music, etc) that providing what an audience expects and demands is what “sells” the most, there can only be so many artists who can claim those top tier accolades.
The rest of us are simply makers, doing our own thing. I don’t mind this one bit, to be honest. I really don’t write for fame and fortune (not casting aspersion on those goals, it’s just not what motivates me).
Sometimes that unusual approach can break through the usual formula for cultural production (a fancy term for art, in any medium) and birth a new trend. How cool is that? Or not. But being able to create something that’s different and fresh, then seeing it out in the world getting eyes and ears and hearts and minds tuned to it is special.
In literature, I’m thinking of blurred and blended genres and how they are really gathering a following (I know I’m a fan) because they subvert expectations and question assumptions.
Case in point: Magical realism became more of a household name in the early oughts (maybe Margin had something to do with this, yes?) because it was not only recognized as a legitimate subgenre (literary, fantasy, speculative?), but it liberated certain groups of people for whom MR was a kind of default ghetto. (In short, not all Latin writers are magical realists; also, magical realism doesn’t only come from Latin America.)
On the notion of subverting audience expectations, I think the arts can claim a powerful corner because by creating this kind of work, and then sharing it (however risky that might be) with the world, there’s a good chance we can help reshape or change a person’s view of the world in a way that might be life altering.
I know I love it when a work of art—whatever that might be—shows me the world in a fresh, new light. I love that surprise, that Aha!, that depth and richness of understanding that I didn’t have before. What a gift, truly.
No, my little story probably isn’t a life-changer, at least not for anyone else. I’m not so egotistic to think I’m all that. But it is a spark of hope for me, knowing that someone else out there finds value in something I persisted at creating in a way that’s different while still being endowed with an important truth I felt was a necessary risk to share.