I’m going to take a month off in December from this site. I need to prepare a few things (maybe even a presentation) for my upcoming novel. I’ll be back in January, but still I’m nervous about leaving y’all. So in order to cope with this fear, I’ve decided to get my wife to film me naked and use it for this next presentation.

OK. It’s not quite that scary. I’ve censored the footage as necessary. And I promise you that all the footage is (somewhat) on topic.

So what is the topic? Fresh ways to look at your (read: MY) crappy writing. You see, I’m not so into the concept of writer’s block. Every week I write at least something. The problem for me is to make the writing suck less. I always want to find a way to look at my own writing with fresh eyes. Writing groups and mentors and editors and colleagues are immensely helpful for this purpose. But I think it is also valuable to have tools at your disposal without having to depend on someone else. So I give you some examples in this presentation about how I trick myself into looking freshly at my writing. You’ll notice that some of these examples actually do involve other people (or, in my case, a stuffed elephant), but they don’t require the other person to give you feedback. In this way, you can use your kind/loving/tolerant/manipulatable friends to help you without depending on their actual feedback. Check it out:

I’m sure I’ve only scraped the surface here… So what tricks do you use to get a fresh look at your writing?

Yuvi Zalkow writes and worries in Portland, Oregon. His stories have been published in Glimmer Train, Narrative Magazine, Carve Magazine, and others. He recently sold his first neurotic novel, which will be published by MP Publishing in Fall of 2012. He is working on a second novel (about one Jew obsessed with napkins and another Jew in the Klan). He recently received an MFA from Antioch University, which makes him feel official.
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