Saturday, January 13, 2007

Onward puppy, ho!

This past week, I finished up the final draft of "Fading" which will appear in the spring issue of Maisonneuve Magazine. I found working with the fiction editor, Matthew Fox, a real pleasure. An editor helps me stand back from the work, to see it as a product, something to be consumed. I feel fortunate that I am able to let go of my writing with general ease. I quite happily give up my material--blemishes, inconsistencies and impossibilities--in the hope that the resulting feedback will give me more entry points to my own experience with the text. In the case of "Fading", Matthew helped rearrange the material so that the plot moved along in a way that works best for the magazine format. He asked all the right questions, in all the right places, making me see the words for what they are, first and foremost--an attempt to convey thought, then feeling. The ultimate result, however, is that it helped me move past a nagging question I've been struggling with, one that had been keeping me from proceeding at a faster clip. This is exceptionally good news, because I was beginning to wonder where this puppy was heading. That, and the feedback of a few seriously in touch readers, has left me rejeuvenated that there is, in fact, room in this world for another story.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! I look forward to reading it. Maisonneuve is one of my favourite Canadian magazines (I had a subscription, for a while, when subscriptions were the sort of thing I could afford to have).

And there's always room in the world for more stories.

Heather said...

This is really wonderful news! I'm not a writer myself but I can certainly relate to finding helpful critics.

Julie Wilson said...

Thanks guys! I love that I get to be associated with Maisonneuve; moreover that it put a fire under my arse to keep tip-tapping away on the keyboard.

ver said...

Congratulations! Now I get to say I knew her when.

Yes, I imagine that working with Matthew Fox is a real pleasure indeed. Oh, wait. Not that Matthew Fox, you say? Never mind.

Julie Wilson said...

I could easily say the same thing about you, V! (Look at us! Look at us!)

I hoped someone would pick up on the Matthew Fox thing. (I'm sure he's heard it...) Truth be told, I thought it would bring traffic to the site. I'm tagging like it's nobody's...BRANGELINA!!!

Kidding! ;)