New poem blog!

Visit me at http://brandydawnclark.tumblr.com.

I will be moving to Tumblr!

I feel more comfortable with Tumblr as a blogging platform. More used to that. :)

I will be posting up a link once it's set up! :)

A new semester.

I have started my second semester of graduate studies for my MA in English (Creative Writing). I am pumped about my classes and I am writing every chance I get.

What is my writing process?

Well, if I have an idea for a poem (even if it's not fully formed), I grab my notebook aptly titled Brandy's Poems:  Snippets, WIPs, and Ideas and write it down. It doesn't have to be polished, it doesn't have to be perfect. Then, I let it sit for a few days and go back to it. It is almost like going back to a place you haven't been to for a while...you see it through different eyes.

Then I revise, and I edit. I leave it alone again, and then I come back to it. I keep tinkering with it and edit it until it's the poem I want it to be.

I'm curious to hear about your writing process...how do you write? Where do you like to write? I'd love to know. :)

When it rains, it pours.

In the best of ways.

I truly feel blessed. In addition to my poems at Dead Snakes, I have work featured at Versewrights (work that's been previously published and a few new ones), and will have a brand spankin' new poem of mine, "Powerball", featured in the September issue of BareBack Literary Magazine. 

Persistence pays off.

I'm legit, yo! :)

More of my poems have been accepted for publication! Three of them, in fact.

You can find them here:

http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2014/08/brandy-clark-three-poems.html

And the second of my poems at The Camel Saloon has been published:

http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2014/07/last-mug.html

The road to publication is littered with rejections.

It has been a while since my last update. I have been focusing on writing and sending my poems to magazines. And I have learned something.

The road to publication is littered with rejections.

I have been submitting my poetry to different magazines since April of this year. I've had so many different rejection letters, but polite ones. Regardless of them being polite, it would have been very easy to give up. I didn't. I kept on plugging, and two of my poems have been accepted for publication at The Camel Saloon. The first of them have been published today:

http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2014/07/ribbons-pearls.html

I am going to keep on submitting.

Onward and upward.

10 Ways to Find Your Writing Style

It is normal, in the early stages of being a writer, that you imitate other writers. Throughout practice, practice, practice, you will find your own writing style.

http://collectiveinkwell.com/2009/05/20/10-ways-to-find-your-writing-style/

The link above is a very informative article with tips on how to find your writing style.

I tend to be a bit of a narrative poet. I love telling stories with my poems.

"If you do not read, you do not have the tools to write."

Stephen King said this in his wonderful book On Writing, and he couldn't be more correct. By reading, whether you write fiction, non-fiction, or poetry, you gain a broader vocabulary, an appreciate for other forms, and develop your own writing style.

I'm now reading Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, and this quote really stuck out to me, because I've never heard day changing to evening described quite like this before:

"Like a woman who had slipped off her print dress and white apron to array herself in blue and pearls, the day changed, put off stuff, took gauze, changed to evening, and with the same sigh of exhilaration that a woman breathes, tumbling petticoats on the floor, it too shed dust, heat, colour; the traffic thinned; motor cars, tinkling, darting, succeeding the lumber of vans; and here and there among the thick foliage of the squares an intense light hung."

Stephen King has been my favorite author since I was a teenager. I love his ways of description, and his ways have definitely influenced my poetry writing. Here is one of my favorite descriptions of his:

"Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure."

Comment below on your favorite description from your favorite novel/poem is! I am curious to know. :) 

Disappointments

The biggest thing I've had to get used to as a writer at the graduate level is disappointment.

As a writer, you always want to be told your writing is good. That is only you being human.

That's the attitude you have to have as a writer...if something is not working, there's always the next draft, the next poem, the next story.

The Brandy behind the Writer

No, I'm not speaking about the alcohol. Welcome.

If you've found this blog, that means you've either clicked on the link I sent you, or you've stumbled across it via Google or another random search engine. Welcome, regardless of how you found this blog. It's taken me almost thirty-two years and several jobs before I decided I wanted to focus specifically on my writing, and I am the happiest I've ever been.

I thought I'd kick off this blog by telling you a quick ten facts about me...the Brandy behind the Writer, so to speak.

1. I live in Missouri. Or Misery. Depending on your state of mind. The weather changes at the drop of a hat.
2. I am almost 32 years old. Though I've been told I look younger than my age. 
3. I have naturally curly hair. Not permed, and yes, people love to play with it. I'm also 5'10" and with a size eleven shoe; it's hard to find pants that are long enough and shoes that fit. 
4. I taught elementary school for four years before I decided to go get my master's degree. 
5. I came back to poetry after about a five, six year hiatus, and my mentor/teacher, Marcus Cafagna, has told me two things:  my work has been very strong (the work that I've workshopped thus far), and that he can definitely tell I've improved from my undergrad days. 
6. I've had two poems published in the Moon City Review as an undergrad (Missouri State's literary magazine). 
7. So far, I've submitted to two literary magazines at the undergraduate level, and I will keep on submitting till one bites. 
8. I have three dogs. Which is funny, because in the past I could not keep a dog to save my life, and now I have three. Go figure. 
9. I'm a Trekkie (more TOS than anything, but I do like and appreciate the new movies). 
10. My favorite poets are Robert Frost and Percy Shelley. 

And that's a bit about me. My main goal is to post once a week, so if I can meet that goal, I'll reach around to pat myself on the back, or, you can do it for me. Either way.