Leigh Stein

Hi, I'm here!

Rschuder, what a great question! Yes, absolutely. Deadlines are essential. I thought I'd finally achieved my dream life of working from home without the outside commitments of teaching or going into an office, but then I realized my new problem is that there are no boundaries on my time at all, unless I impose them upon myself... My other secret trick is the Pomodoro technique (named after a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato): set a timer for 25 minutes and work, and then take a 5 minute break. I do this all day, every day, no matter what the project I'm working on is. If you're procrastinating on something, you can usually trick yourself into working on it for "just" 25 minutes...and then you'll build momentum.

Steph, I am always taking on projects that are over my head! This seems to be my daredevil pattern in working. I think my ego says, "How hard could it be?" and then my anxiety says, "WTF HAVE YOU DONE TO YOURSELF." I really rely on my community to give me honest feedback. I have trusted readers, friends, women in my writing workshop, who read and comment on my drafts. You just have to get out of your head sometimes, so you can hear 1) "This isn't terrible, keep going, we love you!", and 2) where your blindspots are.

Leigh, can you talk about this more? " I really rely on my community to give me honest feedback. I have trusted readers, friends, women in my writing workshop, who read and comment on my drafts." I need ot develop a group of readers I trust, but I'm not sure where to start.

Have you ever received a rejection letter that you took particularly personal? How did you overcome and prevail?

jkashiwabara, rejections for my forthcoming memoir nearly destroyed me. I spent 3 months basically just crying. One editor emailed the week before Christmas to say rejecting my book was the hardest decision she'd ever had to make as an editor. Many said they loved my writing and my story and they couldn't put my book down but...they weren't going to make an offer on it. That's really hard to hear. I do think the dating analogy works, even if it's become cliche. I went through the same thing for years with dating, wondering why I couldn't find anyone, even if my friends told me how great I was. But you really just need that ONE person, or ONE editor, to fall in love with you/your project.

How do you tell the difference between criticism you suspect you should ignore and criticism that is entirely valid?

While editing this piece, one of the (many) things I kept coming back to was the issue of being more confident in one form and maybe less so in another. Now that you have a poetry collection and a novel, and a memoir coming out in August, do you still feel this discrepancy in your work? And do you feel it while making the work, or just when you're pitching it? 

I do like the challenge of learning a new genre, but I think I lose my strength in whatever I don't practice...I haven't written fiction in years. I tried starting a short story at the end of last year and became paralyzed with self-doubt. I definitely feel most comfortable with whatever I've most recently practiced (currently non-fiction). I guess what it comes down to is sometimes in life, it's the time to stretch yourself, learn new tricks, and take risks, and sometimes it's the right time to practice and develop what you already know. With promoting my book release this summer, I'll definitely be writing and pitching more non-fiction. After that? A novel-in-verse? :)

Lessons learned: you need good people you trust in your corner, whether these are readers or editors or your agent. Trust your gut if your gut says "this professional relationship isn't working/doesn't make me feel good." Multi-task on projects so you can take breaks and put things away. Every time I workshop something, my first reaction is "Everyone is wrong, they don't understand my genius!!!!!!!" And then time passes and I think, "Oh. They were right about everything." Some of the best advice I ever got was from my teacher Karen Karbo at Tin House who told us "submit work when you're in a secretarial mood, not a creative one." Find the habits that work for you in order to sustain your writing practice. I don't write every day, but when I do have something I'm working on, I know that I must do it first thing in the morning, before I check email or social media, if I'm going to do it at all. I'm not a binge writer who can write for 8 hours. I can get in maybe 2 or 4 hours a day, maximum. Consume work that feeds you, go back to your favorite books and essays to feed your process and trigger ideas when you're stuck or lost.

Nice Post