Yesterday, I was halfway through facilitating the second and final day of our annual staff retreat when the new Inkwells arrived. I forgot how exhausted and stressed out I was; instead, I shrieked and pranced. Finally.
Inkwell is the annual publication written and edited by the staff of the Writing Center where I work. This is my third Inkwell article, but each year that excitement of seeing it in print for the first time is like Christmas morning. And each year I’ve been more proud of my new article than the one before.
The process of creating Inkwell, from brainstorming to holding the finished product, takes an entire year. But this article had an especially long percolation period before I was ready to put these thoughts on the page. I also tried out a hybrid writing style that was new for me; this nonfiction exploration of fiction-writing as a person with privilege is interspersed with bits of fiction that I hope one day make it into my retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon.
Once during the writing process when a friend mentioned my article from the pervious year, it took me several frightening minutes to remember what the heck that article had been about—I’d been so deeply absorbed in the work of writing this new piece that my brain simply couldn’t access that old file. (I eventually did remember—I’d written about the passive voice. And zombies.)
I hope someday soon I’ll be able to share a PDF of this new article. But my boss insists it needs to go beyond Inkwell, get picked up by a bigger publication, and reach a much wider audience. I glow when she says that.
In the meantime, here’s a tiny glimpse of the shiny new feather in my cap!
Update, 2/11/17: Here’s the PDF of “Solidarity in Fiction,” finally!
Beth Anna Cook 