Getting Serious

If you haven’t figured out by now, I’m pretty big into poetry.  I started writing when I was 16 and have penned about 50 poems that I’m willing to stake my name to (and another dozen or so, early works that will never see the light of day).  Although I’ve been writing for almost ten years, it has recently occurred to me that I haven’t really been taking my work seriously.  By that I mean, poetry has always been more of a hobby for me than a career.  Making it as a writer is hard enough, making it as a professional poet is damn near impossible.  That being said, I have resolved myself to give more to my craft, to expend every effort I can think of to further myself creatively and professionally.

To this end, my approach has two facets: 1) I have to write more.  I need to constantly be jotting down, ideas, lines, anything that inspires me.  I need to read more, experience more, expose myself to anything that could help me grow as a writer.  2) I have to get published; this is by far the more difficult aspect.  I have begun compiling a list of literary contests in which amateur poets can gain national acclaim and have their poetry published.   There are both contests for individual poems and for manuscripts of varying length.  Make no mistake, these are not so-called “vanity” poetry contests, these are legitimate, nationally recognized contests entered by professional writers.

Now I know that the likelihood of winning any of these contests is slim at best, and that’s ok.  In all seriousness, I don’t expect to win.  But even if I go my whole life without ever being a published author, at least it won’t be because I was too afraid or lazy to try.  I have begun revising my current manuscript that I started in college and I plan on adding new poems, removing works I feel are less than my best effort, playing around with the arrangement, etc.  The idea is to do this every year, submitting a copy of my manuscript to the aforementioned contests until I get published.  By doing this, at least I’ll be able to feel like I tried.