So Saturday afternoon I left our work event in Winston-Salem to attend a poetry workshop at the Main Street Rag offices outside Charlotte. Most of my hangover faded by the time the workshop kicked off, and I got some pretty valuable information out of it. It was essentially two workshops, the first half dealing with revising and polishing your work before submitting, and the second half dealt with how to select literary journals and places to submit your work.

I found the second half of the workshop really valuable for the information I gathered, because I’m very new to the whole submission process and have no idea how simultaneous submissions work, or things like that. So that was good as a learning experience, but I got a lot more out of the first half. Mostly because it woke up a part of my brain that I haven’t used in years, that piece that takes apart a poem and puts it back together stronger. There’s a certain analytical bent to revising your work that has been pretty dormant in me since I got back to creative writing, and I think it will make my work stronger, not just in my poetry but my short stories as well.

This whole “be a writer” kick is an interesting ride, and I need to make sure that I refine my technique and acquire all the skils that I can to augment whatever minimum of talent that I might have started with. Because talent isn’t enough, and there’s no real judge of whether or not I have any. But if I polish my technique as much as I can, I can create good work, and with the right information behind me, I can get some stuff published and maybe the next time I publish a book, it won’t be on my own nickel. And maybe, just maybe, sometime I can make a few pennies doing this.

If you enjoy this post, or just want to make sure you don\'t miss a new release, please take a second to support me on Patreon!