2011 Issue - Santa Fe Community College

names of the other writers, too, of course....it was such a queasy exercise
in self-aggrandizement...yet within a few hours, I had over 40 responses,
congratulations, good wishes, thanks for posting, etc. It works, I
thought. Tooting one's horn. How strange. (I still don't like it.) A lot of
us are going to smaller presses now, prize-winning writers who have formerly
published with the big houses. This is a good thing for the small
presses - they are picking up some of the most exciting, innovative writing
being done right now, work that the big houses can't risk losing
money on. It's sad, but like the young agent, though lacking his charm, I
am optimistic we can, as a community of original thinkers, weather this
hostile climate, and create a better one.
Meg: Any advice that you regularly give to your students that you
would like to share with us
Melissa: Write the book or story that you would love to sit down
and read.
If you are having a bad writing day, lower your standards and keep
writing. The next day may be better.
If you are writing something that is boring you, you can be sure it
will bore your reader. Throw it away, start over.
Be brave, ask the difficult questions, plumb the emotional depths of
the story. Your unconscious has given you everything you need to interpret
the dream of your first draft, but it takes stamina and courage to unearth
and shape human truths.
Read maniacally. The classics, the avant garde...study the writing
you are most drawn to.
Live an interesting life by being interested in others. Have something
to write about.
Develop a social conscience, volunteer somewhere locally or internationally.
Get outside of yourself. Writing is not about you. It's about
the human condition.
Eat well, love wildly, exercise, laugh, live with as large and endless
an appetite for life as you can bear. Then you will have stories to tell.
Meg: Thank you so much for all your invaluable insight and for tak-
Santa Fe Literary Review 75