Today Youth Programs Director Mr. Eric returned to talk to us about what to do with “finished” writing. We’d spent the last two weeks inspired to make new writing, sharing with our peers, getting and giving feedback, and hunkered down in the revision trenches. But what next? Apparently this is a problem for a lot of writers who learn how to write but never learn what to do next. So today we learned about publishing: editors, agents and more!
Then we took on those roles! The Older Group created their own literary agencies.
And the rest of us got our editor hats ready to help out friends in need. (No literally, we made paper hats and wrote “editor” on them so that we could wear them to indicate we were available to help our fellow writers.)
When we felt we were ready with our pieces, we walked ‘agency row’ and found someone who’s taste matched our writing.
Often times we got an R&R (that’s insider talk for “Revise and Resubmit”) and it was back to working with our editor friends, trying to make our writing the best it could be. Eventually, an agent would take our work and represent us to a publisher (one of the facilitators), but it wasn’t over yet! They had to sell the work. They had to make the facilitator want to read it.
And maybe that would result in more R&Rs but eventually, finally, at some point… success!
I.C.E. Writers is a place to learn and grow as a community. So much of that involves building trust, learning to have fun and share with each other. But today, we took that even further. Our writing is not a solitary task, but a collaborative one. We are proud of the work going into this year’s anthology because we know it’s the best. It’s not just that our writing went through peer review, but it had to be taken on by a peer willing to fight for it and a facilitator willing to spend their time submitting it to the E.AR.T.H. Publication camp.
Though at times we wore different hats, today, everyone was a writer and part of a larger, deeply interconnected writing community. And at the end of the day, everyone got a writer’s dream… an acceptance letter.
Lesson Learned: “A writer needs an editor, agent and publisher.” Aubrey
Quote of the Day: “I’ve got my fidget spinner and Mr. Eric will share memes – You have my attention till lunch.” -David, submitted by Jasmine