soalivesofree

Question: I know you are supposed to research and find out who the appropriate editor is when pitching a story to a magazine. Well, I found the appropriate editor for my idea at Ms., but the submission guidelines ask people to snail-mail the letter/clips to "Queries." So what, do I go ahead and address the letter itself to the editor, then hope that when the letter is opened by the intern, I don't look like a total douche bag? I don't want to be all "Dear Submissions Editor" because that is just poor form.

I feel like such a baby right now. I really need someone to hold my hand through all of this scariness. It's a bloody miracle anyone is successful at this shit.

Okay, now that my stupid angsty baby-writer bullshit is out of the way (not that you've even seen a tenth of it, I reserve all of that self-loathing for my paper journal, which cannot judge me for being pathetic and self-hate-y), can we talk about some motherfuckin' LOST?

Namely, do they always leave open more storylines than they tie up on their season finales? Because that pissed me off. Don't get me wrong, it was a totally entertaining two hours, and I am very sad that my Wednesday nights will be Hurley- and Sayid-free for nine months, but it ended and my face was just one gigantic WTF.

Spoilers in the event that you haven't seen it yet.

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I have a question.

What is good writing?

Or more specifically, how do you define good writing?

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I define "good writing" the same way that Justice Potter Stewart defined pornography: "I know it when I see it."

That is just not helpful at all.

I know there are certain guidelines that keep writing from being bad. You know, constructing sentences so they are clear, avoiding unnecessary words, avoiding redundancy (i.e., "She felt her fear palpably."), staying away from prose that screams you are trying way too hard, making sure only to use words whose meanings you know.

But that is pretty much Freshman Comp 101, and all it does is increase your likelihood that your point will be understood. I am trying to figure out what elevates writing beyond mere utilitarianism and into the realm of art. I am inclined to think that, like all art, the answer to this is subjective. (After all, how on earth to explain how one person can think "Atlas Shrugged" contains good writing, while another can think Virginia Woolf is a terrible writer?) But at the same time I am pretty sure there are standards by which art can be judged. Otherwise the whole art world would cease to exist as we know it.

Unfortunately, all this does is bring me back to where I started, which is that I know good writing when I see it.

Thoughts?

I just passed the 75,000-word mark.

I told Brian that, when I finish my draft, I am celebrating by buying a bottle of champagne and drinking the whole thing myself.

75,000 words. Holy shit.