COMET HEADQUARTERS

Greetings,

Our third Writers Issue features writers, writings and writings about writers. It’s pretty meta. I do believe the fourth installment will be called Writers Have ISSUES. Not because I think writers have more issues than other people (hold the laughter in, Evans - hold it in) but because writers have a lot of unique ways to explore, deal with, and if we are lucky…. exploit their issues.

Let’s be honest, good writing often comes from a vulnerable state of oversharing. And like most kinds of art forms it takes a lot of guts to run something you wrote up the flagpole to see who salutes it. Or flips it off. But unlike other art forms, there is usually not as much left to the imagination when it comes to writing. I mean sure, you can get fairly abstract and flowery with some of the themes but even the subtext is still text. It’s all out there on the page. Nowhere to hide. Being a good writer not only takes the talent and skill and the practice, it takes bravery.

As a magazine publisher, half of my life is spent sending anxious reminders (pleas) to writers who are way past deadline - and yet, I still have an affinity for writers. Most of the time. It’s clear that many of them don’t even start working on their articles until they get my post-deadline reminder, but that terror is often the writer’s best friend (much to my blood pressure’s chagrin). That’s just how they work, it’s where the gold comes from. That “oh shit, it’s due today” feeling that many of us remember from high school is often still a regular part of the writer’s world. And it’s probably by design, even if they don’t admit it.

As a fan of reading local writings, I always like to imagine all the people out there in the valley who have been crafting poetry, short stories and even full novels but have never shared them with anyone. It can’t all be terrible. Don’t you wish you could read some of it? This is part of why open mics and writers groups are so important - for encouraging (luring?) these inhibited wordsmiths out into the harsh light of day.

I love seeing people releasing their writings to the world for the first time which is why I also love the concept of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and I was happy to interview three local writers who have had experience with it for this issue. I hope their tips will encourage you to try your hand at it, even if you have never written anything, ever. And then maybe, just maybe - you can run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it.

Or flips it off. It’s all part of the writer experience.

Happy Trails, Ron Evans

Editor of The Comet