[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Welcome to who’s on fourth where we interview one member of the yeah write community and the interview will publish the fourth Monday of each month. Next in the series features Arden of Arden Ruth Writes interviewing our very own Rowan of CrossKnit and Textwall.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][vc_column_text]
yeah write on yeah write: Arden interviews Rowan
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]If you ask most of us here behind the scenes at yeah write, I would bet most of us aren’t sure when Rowan first showed up as our resident submissions editor. She honestly just seemed to magically appear out of nowhere with a spunky attitude and a big red pen. She’s been working hard as hell ever since.
In reality, it was Christine who brought Rowan on board. Christine had also just recently joined the yeah write staff after the Trifecta writing challenge closed up shop. We were so happy to have her and listened with eager ears when she informed us of a friend who might be down for the open submissions editor position. Rowan wrote exactly one piece for the grid (a microstory) and we yanked her up faster than you could read it.
You see, the submissions editor position is not a glamorous one. Most of your communication with the participants is telling them they weren’t good enough for that week’s grid. You get pushback. You get told you’re wrong. Every now and then though, you get someone who thanks you. Accepting rejection is hard, but once you do it, you’ll begin to notice how much easier it is to not only submit your pieces to our site and others, but also how to pick apart feedback and use what you need to make yourself a better writer.
It didn’t take long for us to recognize Rowan as the person we were missing to best help our participants week after week. For each grid, she spends hours reading every submission. She takes care with the love letters she sends. These are not generic, copy and paste emails that she sends to everyone. Each letter contains specific examples of how your writing could be improved. That takes a lot of time and a lot of skill.
Did we mention this was a volunteer position?
Writing love letters is hard, but we know receiving them is difficult as well. No one likes being told they aren’t good enough, and we understand that keeps a lot of people from diving onto our grids for the first time. However, as Rowan says below, feedback is critical to your writing.
Get feedback. Get as much honest feedback as you can, whether that’s finding a friend in the coffeehouse or trying to get on a grid and getting a love letter, or reading your comments carefully. You can’t learn in a vacuum. If you’re intimidated by the thought of getting a rejection, try an unmoderated week. But like the size tag in your jeans, nobody reads your love letter but you. Hitting “submit” is the hardest part, but it’s also the one you can do with your eyes closed!
All this being said, we will admit that it is okay not to accept every piece of constructive criticism you receive. However, you have to learn how to differentiate between the two. Are you dismissing feedback because it just pissed you off? Or does the critique actually not apply?
Not all criticism is useful. It’s entirely possible to get feedback that tells you how to get better at something you’re not trying to do. In that case, you have to read the criticism carefully and decide what’s there that’s useful to you now, and what would be useful if you were trying to actually do that thing. For example, one time I got feedback on a fantasy story (for a fantasy story writing competition) that said “this seems unrealistic, what with the magic.” That wasn’t actually useful, although it told me a lot about whether that judge had read the rules for the competition. The judge did include some great suggestions for how to write that story without using magic, though, so if I ever re-work it for a different genre I’ll have an idea where to start.
Most importantly though, you have to understand that constructive criticism should never be taken personally.
It’s not about you. You are not your writing. I know it’s hard to separate the two, because we all put a lot of ourselves into our work. But criticism has absolutely nothing to do with you or your ideas or your soul or heart, and everything to do with how well you communicated those ideas, soul and heart.
Besides comments on feedback, one of the most frequent questions we receive is why a particular participant always seems to huddle around the middle of the grid, or at the bottom, week after week. Now, understanding that each participant’s writing and circumstances are unique, here is Rowan’s advice:
Try something new, because what you’re doing isn’t working for you. I mean, that’s it. What you’re doing is not working. Maybe one week there’s just a great grid and your merely good story didn’t do well, but if you’re consistently at the bottom of the grid it’s time to start taking risks. Either you’ll get better or you’ll get a love letter telling you how to get better.
It’s scary to try new things, especially when you’re really attached to what you’re currently working on. However, I can vouch for Rowan’s advice. Most of the times when I’ve ended up near the top, it’s been because I tried something new and took a risk. So just go for it. Like Rowan said, the worst that will happen is you’ll get a love letter with some excellent feedback. What’s the harm in trying?
When it comes to Rowan’s own writing, you can find her on any number of grids each week.
Nonfiction takes me the longest to write, because usually I’ll have an idea percolating for days or even weeks in the back of my brain before it comes together well enough to be a blog post. Micro is probably the hardest to write, because I have to both have an idea and strip it down to two or three phrases I really like. Usually if I get a micro on the grid it’ll be because I’ve been thinking about the UQ since Sunday and then Tuesday or Wednesday I’ll get one sentence put together in the shower and the rest will flow from there. If I really just want to get on a grid, though, fic|po is my go-to. I have the most practice writing fiction and poetry so they come together a little faster.
One of the toughest things Rowan has accomplished is calling herself a writer and understanding that it’s her job, not just a hobby or a dream. It’s who she is.
This is actually my job. I take it pretty seriously. That was hard at first; I had to learn to say “I’m working” instead of “I’m writing” because otherwise even I was sort of pushing it down the priority list. When you work from home, it’s a little tricky to figure out where ‘work’ and ‘laundry’ come in order. Then you realize you can just wear sweatpants forever and it all gets much simpler.
I’m super jealous of the sweatpants.
When Rowan isn’t knee-deep in love letters, you can find her tending to her two blogs when she can, but her main projects are larger in size. I, for one, can’t wait to get my hands on them.
I don’t really have goals for my blogs- I’m the actual worst at checking metrics and all that stuff that you’re supposed to do as a responsible blogger. It’s just fun to write stuff. Behind the scenes I’m working on a sequel to my first novel, and a collaborative novel that has gotten a little out of hand but which is just an absolute joy to work on.
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Thank you Rowan for letting all of us get to know you a little better here at yeah write. We are so happy to have you on board. We don’t know what we’d do without you! Make sure you follow Rowan’s blogs, CrossKnit and Textwall.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”22649″ alignment=”right”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][vc_column_text]Oh, you want more? Well here are five things you never knew about Rowan:
- She’s allergic to tomatoes, hops and wool.
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She has a full suit of armor and she uses it. Sometimes.
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She hates spring and summer.
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She dislikes the vast majority of babies and other small humans.
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She’s not actually very good at being an adult.
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Are you ready for the yeah write #250(!!) weekly writing challenges opening this week? We hope so! Your badges await in the sidebar. Grab the code, paste into the text or HTML view of your post, then submit your post to the grids for a little friendly competition. We’re glad you’re here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
