The Weekly Atticus (12/09/2017)

Are You Writing Right? | The Weekly Atticus

A recap of the week at Atticus Review, along with some extras.

Dear ,

Did you know that if you don't write every day your hands will gnarl up like the roots of an old tree and a tiny leprechaun will steal words from your brain while you sleep?Did you know that if you don't wake up at 5 am to write every morning you will be cursed by the Muses to only write hyper-critical Yelp reviews of Arby's restaurants for the rest of your life?I'm a little tired of hearing about the "right" way to write. We read it in books and on best-selling author Twitter feeds. In workshops, we hear people testify to the one and only, tried and true method for achieving literary success. To stray from this advice will surely end in literary failure, or a job ghostwriting product endorsement Instagram posts for a minor Kardashian.I see too many talented writers become discouraged when conventional advice just doesn't help. It makes them feel less than, as if they cannot call themselves real writers because writing x-number of words each day isn't an achievable goal for their specific set of circumstances. But part of finding yourself as a writer is to find your own groove and the unique steps it takes you to get from first to final draft.The Right Way to Write™ is whatever works for you. It's a very unsexy thing to say. It doesn't look good on marketing materials. It might be easier to adopt another writer's strategy—and sometimes, yes, you'll discover a method that works for you—but it's rare to find one you won't have to at least tweak, and you may have to run through several strategies to find one that comes close to fitting into your life. We learn from reading authors we admire and take inspiration from them, but that's not the same as copying another writer's style or voice, so we shouldn't be concerned if their specific methods fail us. Be wary of rigid expectations and "one size fits all" prescriptions. And don't fret if the words don't come today or tomorrow, or if that hour you carved out of your day for writing was spent looking out the window. Staring at the sky is part of writing too. The commonality in each writer's journey is persistence, but how to cultivate that is entirely up to you.

Dorothy BendelManaging Editor

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FERAL TOWN by Adam Gustavson

BOOK REVIEW: Reading Into Radical BeingA review of NOTES FROM A FEMINIST KILLJOY: ESSAYS ON EVERYDAY LIFE by Erin WunkerReview by Eshani Surya"Instead of writing long, academic-sounding diatribes about feminism, Wunker creates a patchwork narrative that moves through short sections separated with white space. Each piece reads like a separate thought, jotted down quickly, and not overly wrought. Some are about politics, some are about pop culture, some are about personal experiences, and some are about the act of writing itself."READ ON

FICTION: HACEDORAby Kaitlyn BurdOur 2017 Flash Fiction Contest 3rd prize winning entry"Back in her pueblo, down south of the capital, Carlotta had woven the most splendid dreams of water rising up through slat floor and civilizations that came away as sugar in the mouth."READ ON

POETRY: SCHOOLEDBy George Drew"...right then we went from thinkingwe knew what war is to knowingit’s that one young soldier..."READ ON

POETRY: BAD NEWS FOR BIGOTSBy Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad"isn’t it just stellarno bigoted ballot can inch their hover,that looking downwardis the only way to avoid their fire"READ ON

CNF: TRUE BLUEby Kerry Beth Neville"Homer calls the Aegean 'a wine-dark sea.' Not blue."READ ON

FILM: A Vortex of American HateA Review of THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE OF EBBING, MISSOURIReview by Emily Moeck"[Martin] McDonagh is famous for subverting realism with loud bursts of humor and violence that often undermine the actions of every character involved. He has always been more interested in showing the moral ambiguity of any strong-minded opinion, rather than making clear-cut statements of his own. And THREE BILLBOARDS has its fill of strong-minded folk."READ ON