Lisa Young

Last weekend I went to a poetry retreat in Haileybury and as I told one of my friends the other day – I had a breakthrough. I don't know what I broke through – or what broke. (As my friend said – the important thing is something broke.) Back home, I'm still riding the Haileybury high. Writing together is such a rich experience. But what about writing when it's just me? No writing friends to inspire you. No mentor to lean on.  The words just don't seem to come as easily. But then it hit me. It's usually near the end of a workshop, when I'm "warmed up," that something more "real" and "fresh" can emerge. I just never noticed this trend before. When writing alone, I need to push past the initial "cold" writing. Writers are, after all, like musicians – we have to warm up our instrument – tune it and be ready to hear some flat notes and squeaks in the process. I've heard this idea before – but you know – it's...

At the beginning of April, my poetry manuscript, When the Earth , was accepted for publication. The night I found out, my husband poured me a scotch and I was so calm. I expected to stay calm, but by the next morning, the excitement was intense. Nerve-wracking and thrilling.    My poetry editor explained that it's not too late to add some additional poems to the manuscript - but I have a fairly small window. My book is already available for preorder!  In the midst of all this, I had my first speaking engagement coming up at WriteNow!@King – the writers’ group that meets at the King City Library. It took a lot more time to plan the talk than I imagined  –  from handouts to researching hot leads. I did get a bit side-tracked in my research, but it was worth it. I had one link that looked interesting about how to make a free book trailer. Free book trailer? Fantastic. But I thought I'd better check it out thoroughly before ...

I recently took a workshop on marketing your wares as a writer. As writers, we've been told that we need to play our part in selling our books  –  that publishers expect writers to promote their own work. Of course. I get it. And this isn't exactly new news. Everyone in the arts is expected to get out there and promote themselves. I've always agreed that a writer should get behind their work and do what they can to sell their books. Well, why not? We have to. However, lately I've been thinking about this whole thing and I feel like I don't want to spend all my time marketing/promoting instead of writing. A little bit of promo work suits me just fine. But too much, and I'll start to lose my focus. I want to write. The business side of writing is important. I do do it. I send out my work in hopes of publication. I promote events that I'll be reading at... but I can't turn into a marketing machine. It just doesn't feel right for me. I'd rather ...