By Judy Clement Wall When I first decided to take myself seriously as a writer, I was writing fiction. Only fiction. I was in my thirties, in the midst of getting my creative writing degree, writing short stories for workshop classes (which, in hindsight, maybe wasn’t the best place to decide to take myself seriously…
Category Archives: j’s Journey
j’s Journey: Writerly Angst (and who needs it)
By Judy Clement Wall Some time ago, a writer I used to read frequently posed this question: “What does the writer have to write about if she’s living a frictionless life?” The question seems academic, I know, because who lives a frictionless life, right? It’s hard to even imagine. But the writer asking the question…
j’s Journey: What kind of writer do you want to be?
by Judy Clement Wall Once, in a memoir class called “Writing Women’s Lives,” I was told by my professor that I needed to decide what kind of writer I wanted to be. I had been writing stories that skimmed along the surface of my life with humility and humor, and little else. My professor told…
j’s Journey: On the value of writing groups
By Judy Clement Wall The first writing group I ever joined was (fate-temptingly) named the Writer’s Block. Once upon a time, it had been more of a full-fledged organization with membership dues and guest speakers but by the time I joined, they were ten or so people who loved to write, meeting one Thursday night…
j’s Journey: In search of the muse
By Judy Clement Wall I’m a huge fan of bentlily. If you haven’t visited her site, you should. Her real name is Samantha. She’s a writer and new mom who, instead of making resolutions for 2011, committed to writing a poem every day. Here’s what she wrote about her decision: I pledged to write one…
j’s Journey: Writing brave
By Judy Clement Wall I recently read Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, The Chronology of Water, a book I absolutely loved for its determination to look squarely at the wreckage of a truly broken heart and not make it pretty or poetic or simple. Here is the opening sentence: The day my daughter was stillborn, after I…
j’s Journey: Navigating a fluid landscape
By Judy Clement Wall It’s been a while since I’ve posted about my novel, BEAUTIFUL LIVES. That’s because I haven’t been querying agents, and therefore haven’t had anything new to report. But since the reasons I haven’t been querying are very tangled and logical and neurotic and interesting, I thought I would share them… First,…
j’s Journey: Rejection Like Snow
By Judy Clement Wall As soon as Milli and I decided to expand the j’s Journey series to include all aspects of writing for publication, I knew that, at some point, I’d be writing about rejection. There may be writers out there submitting their work who never feel the sting of an editor’s “Thank you…
j’s Journey: an epiphany in three parts
by Judy Clement Wall 1. I’ve been thinking about (researching, dreaming of, obsessing over, attempting) publication more these days. It’s not an entirely new process for me. My work has been published in literary journals and anthologies, and on some really cool websites (like this one), but ever since finishing my novel in May, my…
j’s Journey: A little detour
Since our last play date… I revised my query letter one last time. Seriously. This is the last one. (Stop laughing.) After my last post, a talented, experienced author offered to read my letter. She gave me advice that made my inner tuning fork hum. I felt the rightness of it, updated my letter, and…
