By FLEDA BROWN
It's a thrill for me, too, to discover a writer I admire. It's nice to think that she just sprang full-grown from the head of Zeus, but, like all good things, a writer grows slowly and needs good soil.
Writers are the least demanding of artists: they use such primitive tools -- paper, pen (a computer would be nice) and books. They like solitude and silence.
But this is like saying that all a violinist needs is sheet music and a violin. What we know is that the violinist has spent years training, practicing boring scales, studying music, probably music theory. We know that the violinist practices every day. We know that he needs the modeling and feedback of experts and peers, and he needs a discerning audience. He needs an audience, period.
Likewise writers.
Anyone can start a blog and be read by thousands of people. So how does one make the leap to being a published writer? I'm using the word "published" to mean "refereed -- writing that has been chosen by a highly professional editorial staff as the best of what's been submitted, the work they'd like to publish.
I offer these thoughts and suggestions:
1. Read the best of the dead writers. Read a lot. Otherwise, you'll end up reinventing the wheel.
2. Read many contemporary writers as well as reading comments and interviews with contemporary writers. Subscribe to several of the best literary journals. Know what's being done and said right now. Find out how others approach the process of moving from draft to print.
3. Find a mentor -- another writer whose work is more advanced than yours -- to read and comment on your work.
4. Meet with other writers.
Let me recommend to you the local organization called Michigan Writers. As poet laureate of Delaware, I worked with a number of writers groups and, I have to say, I've never seen a more dynamic group than this one here in Traverse City. You can join for $35 a year. You can meet many other local writers at potluck dinners twice a year, you get discounts and scholarships to writing conferences and seminars, you're eligible to submit your manuscript to the Cooperative Press' yearly contest, you get a discounted subscription to the Dunes Review, a fine locally based magazine. Michigan Writers supports Writers on the Air, 91.5 Interlochen Public Radio, at 7 p.m. the last Saturday of each month, as well as open mike readings at Horizon Books at 7 p.m. the third Thursday of each month. Have a look at their Web site, www.michwriters.org.
You can learn more about Fleda Brown at fledabrown.com
