Writing Wrap-Up

You may have noticed that I haven't blogged recently (or rather, for about a month). However, it's been because I've been busy with other enticing writing. I've been working on my memoir, planning my NaNoWriMo novel, and sort-of editing The Tinkers ... But that's not all.

I'm on the NewsTeam of this awesome publication, ThreeSixty Journalism, a Minnesota-wide youth journalism nonprofit, operated out of the University of Saint Thomas. With the NewsTeam, I'm learning how to be a journalist, taking a once-a-week class on reporting basics from interviewing to personal essays. Eventually, I'll be published (and paid for publication) in their print (and online) magazine, published four times a year.

        They also have an Editorial Board, where all of the contributors meet once a month to pitch ideas for the next issue, which I could join in a few months. I've found the contributors' articles to be informative and accurate, so I'm really looking forward to joining the team. ThreeSixty's quite professional, with several editors, who have all worked in journalism themselves, a dedicated team of teenage journalists, and an outreach of more than 10,000 teens, through libraries, schools, and other youth organizations.


Additionally, I'm a first-reader with Polyphony HS, an international literary magazine written and edited solely by high school students. I read submissions that are assigned to me, and write comments, both positive and negative. Although most of the writing submitted is typical high-school writing, there's some pieces that are excellent.

        In finding specifics about what makes a piece excel or fail, and explaining those ideas in a diplomatic matter, I understand the craft so much more, and it's definitely helped my writing. In submitting to Polyphony, all writers get three different students' detailed feedback, much more than I've found at other literary magazines, as well as the standard chance for publication.

Here's to growing as a writer!