I feel better when I tell you my secrets.

My last week of February should be wonderful. It's not that I've found a new lover or that I've recently visited the quiet little rooms found in the salons of Paris, but that I may just meet my meager writing goals. I have thirty pages of my novel left to write and I expect that to be done within three to four days. In addition, my query letter for a non-fiction book and an article have been received well by a few of my peers. Daunting as it seemed, the query letter leads to something bigger-the feature article itself. I've been reviewing leads from magazines to newspapers (though the NY Times is some hybrid of its own) in search for the irresistable lead. The leads at the top are just a few that have struck my fancy. Do these leads entice you to read? Do these articles make you search your own vault of locked secrets? Perhaps you might (or you have) been in a room watching three strangers have sex or maybe (or maybe you have) casually taken an artifact from an important archeological site and sent it to a friend for a little bit of cash or fame? I'll answer yes to one of those questions but I'll leave you wondering which it is that I have done...Some secrets are best left unsaid.

The Query Letter

Currently, I've been interested in expanding my horizon by studying freelance writing at UCLA. By next Tuesday, I have to have a query letter completed. It may sound like simple process. Send a letter to an editor and get them excited about what your article will be about. Yet, that's the problem. I'm sending a query letter out on an article that hasn't been written. I've been googling for resources for my article on the Desert for the last two days. I think that I've finally located all the items that I need but now I have to make a witty and sensible banter on a subject matter that I need more time with. The best professors that I've had were the ones that could take the subject matter at hand and simplify its content into a lecture worth listening to. I think that I will step away from my resources for the day, turn up some Chris Brown, and maybe even watch a movie. Stepping away from the material at hand contributes to a fresh perspective. I hope that my shower tomorrow morning is not only something that will wake me up but something that will bring me a sort of "a-ha moment."

Desk & Chair writes a letter to a young poet

Nothing can be worse to read than a sorry & give up blog. I stumbled across one this morning. Immediately, like the good-will ambassador that I am, I posted a comment telling the author to pull up her boot straps. If you want to read the blog that I stumbled across, then start with the post titled "WWTD" at closeclickcatch. Or read this opening blog post to get her point:

"In "Old times on the Mississippi" Twain laments that once you have learned the river it loses its beauty. In breaking down the science beneath every whirl and eddy, in processing the implications of dark stirs and a shifting sun, the mystery sinks, and you are left with an exhaustive outline.

What would twain say of the modern curriculum, where sixteen years are spent dissecting the mystery of every letter and the words they create, where our educational system is designed to make us sit for hours, meditating on rules and constructions and formalities, deciphering and memorizing the science and history behind our craft, Where we gain the tools to 'succeed' by having them repeated to us over and over... Where we are again and again told that there is nothing that cannot be learned? If nothing cannot be learned, then is there such thing as art? For what is art, if not mysterious inspiration?"

Oh, I feel like Rilke writing a letter to a young poet....But first...

Towards the end of the post she writes:

"I am no longer a poet. words fall apart on the screen. Sentences which I have studied so long to structure loses their shape and melt. Writing is not art, it is order. There is no more releasing a floodgate of words, now it is a carefully regulated trickle."

Blogs are real. People read them. I found her post because of a Neil Strauss search. Writers and poets must retain an inner sanctuary to write. Despite critics, educational systems, or your own inner devil, a writer can not allow negativity to reach into that place of creation. Writers are fighters and marathon runners that must be able to constantly fight to achieve the quality and results that they seek. I've have been in worse places than this young poet. I stopped writing for three years and I attempted to forge a new life to escape the weight and the responsibility of being a writer. Didn't work..

Find faith, my young poet. Be eager to fall and fight for words on a page. Read Philip Levine, listen to Mark Stand in Chicago talking about the Eros of love, or imagine the sort of nature that William Carlos Williams had in mind. But, don't despair-you don't have time for it. Read or Write. Those are your options.

I know that the young poet will be fine. She's reading Roughin It. Now there's a fine read....What Would Twain Do? I think I know the answer.

Welcome to My Writing Desk

Pull up a Chair and sit down at a Desk, you've just arrived at the newest resource for writers. In 2005, I spent most of my year conducting my own writing consultation business that included assisting clients in writing memoirs and book proposals. It's 2006-the year of me (and you). Currently, I'm only forty nail-biting pages away from completeing the first draft of my newest novel. Desk & Chair will not only document my process to publication, but it will also be a place for writers and readers to connect. I hope that people will take advantage of the comment box to post questions and responses. I also want to note that in my sidebar I have a link to the Desk and Chair Cheat Sheet, essentially the best of this website in terms of writing products, job listings, books and much more. Let's get back to the desk and keep the pages flying.