Getting published in general is difficult, but getting published during a pandemic? Don’t even get me started on how difficult that is. Starting the semester knowing that I had to be published in order to pass the class was daunting enough, adding the challenges of a global pandemic made it an even bigger feat. There were moments where I was sure I would not be able to pull it off. I was sure I would have to retake the class in the Fall. To my own surprise, I was published not only once, but twice!
I had already written my first article and sent it out to a potential outlet when the pandemic started becoming an issue and IUPUI campus stopped having face-to-face interaction. Despite having done this, I was getting nervous that COVID-19 had affected the outlet in some way and that they were not going to be accepting any submissions. When Tracy, my professor for Writing for Popular and Professional Publication, offered an alternative assignment for being published, I was so relieved. Because of this, I was able to be published twice during this course.
I am a fiction writer so the idea of writing a nonfiction piece was a bit overwhelming, but I immediately knew what I wanted to write about. My niece and nephew have been a profound part of my life, and I wanted to showcase that. I also wanted to highlight how being an aunt can prepare you to be a mother. In the journal entry we did for our possible pitch ideas, I mentioned how I always see articles saying how important aunts are, but I had never seen an article written about how it prepares you for your own children. I wanted to change that.
Initially, I found two outlets directly related to being an aunt. Both were blogs that published pieces about being an aunt, but neither one offered the type of publication I needed to pass the course. I started to step away from outlets that were centered on being an aunt—not that there were very many to begin with—and started looking at literary magazines. I found Literary Yard by looking through publications of students from past semesters. Literary Yard seemed like they accepted pieces of all genres and topics, so I figured that would be a good route to go. Tracy and I started looking into the website and how the best way to pitch my topic to them would be when we discovered that this literary magazine had a different way of accepting submissions. Literary Yard did not want to receive pitches for article ideas, they wanted to be sent the finished piece up front. This meant that I had nothing to go off of in terms of what they were looking for.
Pitching is something we talked about a lot in class. With most outlets, a good pitch is what makes or breaks you in terms of working with that client. Some of the best advice, in my opinion, on pitching came from an article called Pitching Errors: How Not to Pitch. Seven editors came together and discussed what they look for in a pitch and what turns them away from a pitch. It was so insightful, and I loved seeing advice coming from people currently working in the field I want to work in after college. All this information on pitching was so helpful and I am sure it will be in the future if I try to get published again, but it did not apply to my piece or my outlet since the outlet wanted to receive the finished piece right out the gate.
The ethics of writing creative nonfiction was another important topic we discussed in class. David Hood’s The Ethics of Writing Creative Nonfiction contained information and tips that I took into consideration when writing my piece. For instance, Hood suggests that if you cannot remember an exact detail, it should not be included in the piece because it is not essential to the story. Hood’s article also mentioned “emotional truth,” which played greatly into my article considering the personal and emotional topic I chose to write about.
Deciding how to write about my connection with my niece and nephew was a bit tricky. Of course I know exactly how I feel and why I feel that way but coming up with a way to put it in writing so others could understand it was where it proved to be difficult. I had to decide how many personal details and intimate moments to include without it being too invasive into their lives. I had to decide whether or not to include their names—which I ended up doing and it made the piece so much better. Considering I was writing about children that are not my own, I had to take these things into consideration as potential ethical issues.
Tracy and I spent a good amount of time going over my article draft editing it, picking which details were best to include or exclude, deciding which areas of the story needed to be fleshed out more, and figuring out the best way to bring out the emotion I was trying to convey. When we finally got the piece just right, I was so in love with it. I still am. It is raw and it showcases my bond with my niece and nephew perfectly. It was time to send it off to Literary Yard and after that, all I could do was wait.
Time passed and I had not heard anything from Literary Yard. This concerned me because reviews on their website noted how quick the editor(s) responded to their submissions. I started thinking I would need to look for another outlet, and it being so late in the semester, on top of the pandemic, is what made me start to think I would have to retake the course. This is when Tracy offered an alternative assignment: our class would start a blog about COVID-19 and we could write an article to be published on the blog in place of having a nonfiction piece published by another outlet, though we were encouraged to continue pursing having our original articles published. I got my new article idea submitted and approved by Tracy as quickly as I could and began writing my article…for the second time this semester.
My article for the COVID-19 blog was about how my world came crashing down—for many reasons—right as the virus started becoming an issue and the country began shutting down. This article was harder to write than my previous article. Not only was I writing about my own life and emotions, I was linking it to a pandemic and trying to find a way it all fit together in a way that made sense. There were so many difficulties that came with writing this second article. Aspects that Tracy and I had originally discussed including were taken out because they simply did not fit with the rest of the article. My USB decided to stop working, which meant I lost all the work I had done on the article. If I had not been able to download my most recent draft from my emails with Tracy, I am not sure what I would have done. I would have had to start over from the beginning, and I just did not have the time for that.
Oddly enough, losing everything on my USB ended up working out in my favor. My article about my niece and nephew was on it, so I went through my sent emails to find the file I had sent Literary Yard so I could still have a copy. This is when I saw an email from them letting me know I had been published weeks ago! The email never went into my inbox or spam folder, so if my USB had not broken I probably never would have found out. My first article was published, and I was days away from having my second one published on the class blog. I had met the requirements of the course, and a major weight was lifted off my shoulders.
At the beginning of the semester we wrote an initial reflection about who we felt we are as writers. I have always described myself as a fiction writer; I did not like journalistic writing in high school because I did not think it could be fun or creative. I mentioned that I no longer enjoyed academic writing as I had in the past. This class changed that. I looked forward to writing these pieces. I enjoyed writing from what could be considered a journalistic point of view. I am coming out of this class a different writer than I was when it started, and I feel that this class made me a better writer than I ever thought I could be.