creative-writing – Page 24

Let’s have fun with it

Writing should not be drudgery

Sometimes, we writers take ourselves too seriously. We’re so busy writing and revising, polishing our jewels of poetry and prose to a high gloss, obsessively monitoring book sales or social media likes, and fretting over audience reaction — will anyone read it? will it even get accepted? — that we forget to enjoy the exciting, invigorating process of the creative act.

We would do well to heed the guidance of Sgt. Hulka from the comedy Stripes and “lighten up, Francis.”

Maybe I’m just giving myself a pep talk here. Maybe no on else takes themselves so seriously. Or maybe you’ve got those worrisome thoughts of perfectionism crawling around in the back of your mind like a cluster of spiders (I envision the daddy long legs variety: creepy but ultimately harmless).

Friday Five: writer Kristin Kozlowski

‘Like a lot of writers, I am trying to understand the world around me.’

Today’s Friday Five Q&A features a writer I only recently discovered, Kristin Kozlowski.

It was a serendipitous discovery. I was researching literary magazines to submit to when I stumbled across her quirky and delightful flash fiction piece, “My Neighbor Posts a Sign in His Yard,” in Fish Barrel Review. After that read, I knew I had to check out more of her writings, and the more I read, the more I was curious about what inspires and motivates her. So I reached out to ask if she would be interested in being a part of this feature. Fortunately for all of us, she agreed.

Photograph of writer Kristin Kozlowski — Kristin Kozlowski