i want this blog to be somewhere i can look back on my writing craft and journey to publishing.
it's going to be more of a diary where i can keep track of my projects. i would also share tips i've learned.
i hope to connect with other writers who would be interested in workshopping pieces and being friends!
about my writing
i mainly write poetry, but sometimes i get an idea for a short story. recently, i've been on a journey to getting published and am currently in the submission process.
my poetry is raw and explores ugly experiences/feelings using beautiful language.
i tell mundane stories centering black people under the genres of horror and literary fiction.
current wips
body chapbook.
this poetry collection unveils the grotesque beauty of our bodies, and the things we do with them. It's an honest exploration of body dysmorphia, trauma, and grief felt in the body.
Intro post
the vegetarian. (WT)
V learns what freedom means when she lets a chicken out of a slaughter farm.
intro post
a holy removal. (WT)
Nobody goes to the pentecostal church on the corner of Lennox and 5th anymore. Itâs too crowded now, overgrown with sinners.
intro post
connect with me
twitter
don't be shy! message me with any questions or comments you have.
*if you read all of this, you a real one and i'm rocking with you!*
chapbook progress, new publications, fellowships | Writing Update
Hi y'all! It's been a while since I've posted on here (this semester was busy!), but I'm back with some exciting news!
Your Body is a Hungry Thing
My first chapbook finally has 25 poems in the manuscript! It's a mix of introduction poems, dealing with body dysmorphia and trauma, and living in a Black female body. (It's a lot of body talk)
My plan now is to fully edit all of these poems, and then start organizing my manuscript so it will be ready for submission next year. I'm really grateful to all these poems and I hope I'll get the chance to share them with you all.
New Publications
"The Day I Learned to Garden"
I actually submitted this to a rejection contest and didn't win. But the editor enjoyed my poem so much, they requested it be accepted to their spooky zine.
You can read this poem on finally accepting the end of a broken friendship in Onwords Press' 'Things That Trouble Us' issue, here. Make sure you check out all the other awesome pieces in the issue too!
"The Ghosts of Summer"
This little poem is apart of Unstamatic's unconditional acceptance issue! There were 400+ submissions in this issue and you can click on random to generate a random poem from the massive collection. You can read my poem here.
"A Pantoum For Altar Call"
My last publication update is forthcoming in FEED Magazine! This was a tough poem to write! I'm not well-versed in form poetry, but I wanted to challenge myself to write a pantoum and this poem just blossomed into itself. There is a slight tw for hanging. It's implied, not necessarily an actual hanging. Once it's published, I will update this post with the link.
Poetry Fellowship
I recently applied to my first poetry fellowship through my school. It would be a big step in my writing career and would help me better my craft! The theme is reclamation, which a lot of my work centers on. Keep your fingers crossed for me please!
That's all I got for now. I know this was a bit long, but it's been a while since I've updated here.
Howâs your writing going? Any new publications or ideas? Tell me all the good and bad! Until next time, peace.
My poem "mortar & pestle" is out NOW in the Origami Review! This is my first experimental poem and it means a lot to me. I'm so grateful it found a home in this beautiful magazine! I hope you enjoy it and make sure to check out the other pieces in this issue!
So, I accidentally opened my writer email and saw this!! Iâm beyond grateful and overjoyed that this piece I wrote has found a home in The Origami Review! Iâm excited to be published next to some amazing writers in this lit mag, and share my piece with the world. The poem is about three women taking their power and confidence back from an oppressive religious cult.
hey lovely people! i am finally making a real writeblr introduction to pin to my profile, because i finally like my url and thus am happy to put it on a little graphic. anyway, letâs get on with this this.
some basics:
my name is August (he/him)!
iâm 19
iâm from Michigan (US)
iâm aroace, trans and disabled
i write literary fiction novels and poetry (and maybe short stories if i can ever figure those out)
iâm a cancer and an infj! not super into star signs or even mbti anymore but itâs still cool
my projects (in no particular order):
Hindsight Lives in Rose-Colored Glasses, a digital poetry collection currently up for purchase on etsy! it was meant to be a revamp of my traditionally published (but no longer available) 2020 collection Writing My Obituary, but ended up also becoming its own thing. check it out, half the profits go to Planned Parenthood!
Antonyms for Homesick (mind the WIP intro, it's not entirely accurate anymore as Georgia is probably being cut from the story and some other things have changed, but it's mostly solid), a literary fiction novel about four adult siblings who all move in together when their (evil) parents die and leave their estate to all four of them. Laurel, the oldest, still holds her abusive parents up on a pedestal. Clove is struggling to bond with his sisters after being estranged, with no contact, from the family for 8 years. Maevis is entering her 20s with a broken engagement and an identity crisis. and Evangeline, the youngest, has trouble finding friends and is being haunted by her dead parents. it takes place in the mid-90s and has cool little gay people, a multiracial family, and of course, ghosts.
Where Edges Meet Soft Things, a poetry collection i plan to finish editing by the end of this summer and start pursuing publication for in the fall. itâs about the past and people and emotions and, you guessed it, ghosts (except not really people ghosts, more like ghosts as a metaphor or something)
Insect Poison (this link leads to a WIP update for the book, but basically nothing i wrote about any of it is true including the actual excerpts of the novel), a novel i have been fighting with for 5 years now. it was originally about a serial killer and a group of teenagers he kidnaps, but now itâs follows a set of twins, Robert and Ramona, and the turn the family takes after Ramona drowns in a lake in the middle of the night. did her brother do it? was it an accident? did she lowkey deserve it? these are questions i cannot answer because i do not know. iâm not currently drafting this book but itâs been in my head even more than usual lately, so weâll see. but the twin sister definitely becomes a ghost, i know that much
i have two major taglists: a fiction taglist (even though i just call it a WIP taglist) and a poetry taglist. feel free to let me know if youâd like to be added to either one!
okay so now if youâre only really here for writing, feel free to peace out because this is where i start talking about other stuff! if other stuff interests you, feel free to carry on.
my hobbies outside writing include reading, art, photography, crochet, guitar, singing + music production, and applying for jobs iâm not qualified for.Â
here are some other fun facts/some of my favorite things if youâre still here:
i have a wonderful cat named Nemo
my favorite book is The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (but iâm currently reading The Haunting of Hill House and i have a feeling theyâll tie)
i have a slightly unhealthy (but otherwise harmless) fixation on Taylor Swift
if you also like Taylor Swift i already know youâre wondering. my favorite album is evermore but i truly do love them all very much, except Fearless, which i only love a little
i very rarely watch movies or TV shows, but my favorite show is The Haunting of Hill House
i have literally never had caffeine, aside from a few sips of a few sodas
deer, birds, bees and moths are my favorite creatures on the earth
as you have probably figured out, i really like ghosts. metaphorical ghosts, fictional ghosts, evidence and stories of possible real-life ghosts. i just think theyâre great
well. i think thatâs about it. iâm still trying to figure out how to post here again (specifically how i want to format my poetry), but you can see a lot more content from me on instagram! i post poems about once a week and post on my stories way more than anyone would want to see. and there you have it, an intro.
i started writing a description of this church I found on google, and then this story just kinda came out. i'm not really sure where it's going yet, but we'll see!
This is my original work and plagiarism of any form will not be tolerated.
logline
Nobody goes to the pentecostal church on the corner of Lennox and 5th anymore. Itâs too crowded now, overgrown with sinners.
genre
a lil speculative fiction
pov
collective first person, present
word count
308
characters
an unnamed collective "we"
excerpt
Before, old bodies swayed with spirit, swallowed up by masses and miracles. The sunken double doors yawned in acceptance, encouraging the sick to come be healed, the imperfect to be restored. The doors of the church are closed now. The brick abalone steps look less stable, like they lost the ability to support extra weight. When we were small and inconsequential, the steeple extending from the top, an antenna, made the church look bigger than it was.
if you made it this far, you might as well ask to get tagged!
this is a short story i'm working on? i kinda gave up on it because i'm not sure how the story wants to be told. posting this for accountability.
This is my original work and plagiarism of any form will not be tolerated.
logline
V learns what freedom means when she lets a chicken out of a slaughter farm.
genre
speculative fiction with horror-ish vibes
pov
third person, present
word count
556 (i think i want this to be a flash fiction)
characters
V (she/her) - early to mid 20s, comes off childlike at times. tends to fixate on things. hates the smell, feel, and taste of meat. Billie raised her, but they're not related, and she doesn't feel connected to her. she wants to be free, but doesnât know what that means.
Billie (she/her) - mid to late 50s. not open to emotions. She's all about the chicken farm. Independent and big on responsibility. She indulges in the meat she produces and is proud of it. Missing a pinky toe on left foot from an axing accident as a child.
excerpt
V wondered how Billie kept her hands soft after the killings. She wondered if sinning made you delicate, more pliable. She wondered if mosquitoes stopped biting once they smell another animal's blood on your flesh. But, most of all she wondered when Billie would realize she started setting the chickens free.
I recently took part in the Authortube Writing Conference where I shared an in-depth seminar on how to title your book (or any project youâre working on)!
Titling can be so hard. In my seminar, I discuss:
Why your title is important
A definition of what makes a powerful title
A breakdown of the (10) different types of titles
An in-depth analyzation of various titles
5 practical, rapid-fire tips for constructing better titles
3 exercises you can try to create enticing titles
The seminar is 100% free and available to view (power point slides that you can screenshot included) here:
I think this video has my best title tips to date! If you want to learn how Iâve upped my title game, check out the seminar!
i'd like to introduce you to my baby boo, my first ever poetry collection!
This is my original work and plagiarism of any form will not be tolerated.
the pitch
this poetry collection unveils the grotesque beauty of our bodies, and the things we do with them. Itâs an honest exploration of body dysmorphia, trauma, and grief felt in the body.
the inspo
for the past five years, i've been adapting to my weight gain. it's been an up and down journey of body positivity, and I found myself writing about it. through writing, past trauma and shame came up and catapulted me into a full body healing. this is something a lot of people can relate to and could help others feel seen, so why not share it?
the plan
i'm currently trying to get 8 of the 17 poems published. i would like to have around 22 to 30 poems in this collection, so i need to get to writing. since i broke through the invisible cap on my creativity, i've been revising a lot of older poems. after the poems are published individually, i want to submit the whole manuscript in a chapbook competition.
once each poem is published, I can include links to where y'all can find them in a writing update!
*if you read all this, you a real one and i'm rocking with you!*
My writing has gotten so much better lately! Itâs like there was an invisible lid on my creativity, and Iâm just now realizing itâs limitless. I feel like I have an actual craft now
How to convey information through dialogue without shoehorning it in
So you have information you want to plant into your story, and you would like to do that through dialogue. Naturally, you'd want to make the dialogue look natural, so that it doesn't scream -> This Piece Of Information <- Will Be Relevant To The Plot Later!!! I never saw any writing advice about this subject, so I thought Iâd write up a post about it.
Say, for example, you want to plant the information that Barney is afraid of fridges. Fridges? Jup. That's weird. Jup. Which makes it all the more difficult to bring up in a scene. And what makes it even more difficult, you decided you want this dialogue to take place before the Thing With The Fridge Happens later on, so you're in a pickle. How do you bring up a fear of fridges, when there are no fridges around?
First, I'm going to show you how shoehorning the information in a dialogue would look like.
Don't do this:
Annie and Barney are in a scene that has nothing to do with fridges.
Annie: "By the way," she asked casually, "have I ever asked you what your worst fear is? Since weâre on this quest together, we should know these things about each other."
Barney: "Fridges. They scare the bejeebers out of me."
Annie: "Fridges?" She laughed incredulously. "How come?"
Barney: "Well, one time my brother locked me into a fridge, and I've been afraid ever since."
Annie: âThat makes sense, Barney. Iâm sorry you had to go through that.â
Try to avoid using things like âby the wayâ or âsuddenlyâ in this part of the dialogue, because thatâs a shoehorn red flag.
Instead, you want the conversation to flow from something inconspicuous to the information you want to plant and then into at least one other topic.
Do this:
Annie and Barney are in a scene that has nothing to do with fridges, for example they are thrown into a snake pit during their quest.
Barney deals with venomous snakes without a second thought.
Annie, in the corner, trying to get a hold of herself: "I can't believe you're not afraid of those snakes."
Barney: "You just got to know how to handle them."
Annie, in awe: "You're fearless."
Barney, laughs: "Trust me, I'm not. You should see me around fridges."
Annie: "Fridges...?"
Barney: "My brother locked me into one when we were little. I almost suffocated. Never trusted them ever since. Nor my brother, obviously."
The conversation continues about his relationship with his brother, making it seem like that's the important bit. You sneaked the information about Barney's fear for fridges into the dialogue about snakes and his brother.
Letâs break that down, shall we?
This conversation has three topics: snakes, fridges, and Barneyâs brother. The snakes and Barneyâs brother donât really matter. They could just as well be completely different topics. (I'll show you later.) Their only function is to ease into the conversation about Barneyâs fridge fear and ease out of it without drawing the readerâs attention to its importance.
Topic 1: Something present in this scene that has a thing in common with topic 2
Discussing the snakes feels organic and natural, because they are kind of hard to ignore in this scene. Make the first topic something related to what the characters see, feel, experience in that particular scene⊠Write a piece of dialogue about topic one.
Topic 2: The information you want to plant
Then transition into the topic switch. How? The topic of fridges and the topic of snakes have one thing in common: fear. Specifically, Annie is afraid of snakes and Barney isnât, but he is afraid of fridges. Bringing this interesting bit into the conversation changes the topic again, because how can you not go into a sentence like this?
Topic 3: Anything related to topic 2 you can latch onto
The topic is changed yet again after the information you planned to plant. Just let this part of the dialogue run its course. It doesnât matter much what you do with it, as long as you donât stop the dialogue right after the moment you delivered the line you needed to deliver. The trick is to make the conversation flow to and from your chosen topic.
Letâs look at another example, something more realistic. You still want to convey the fact that Barney is afraid of fridges, but this time, Annie and Barney are not on a quest, they are in a romance novel.
Barney and Annie are looking out over the ocean. She brought a bottle of wine, a light breeze cools their skin, in the distance, a cargo boat slowly glides along the horizon. It seems like a perfect moment.
Barney raises his glass and compliments Annie: âYou pick great wine.â (topic 1)
Annie: âThanks. I did a wine course last year in my local community center, a series in which we learned all about the different kinds of wine and what to pair it with.â
Barney: âSounds like fun. You should teach me sometime. Did you get to taste everything?â
Annie: âYeah, of course. That was the main reason I joined. What about you? Which wine do you prefer?â
Barney: âOh, Iâm not a connaisseur. I like anything but white wines.â (change of topic)
Annie: âWhy not?â
Barney, embarrassed: âRed wines are usually kept at room temperature, and white wines go in the fridge.â
Annie, after a second: âI canât see the problem there.â
Barney, embarrassed: âAh. Well. I donât like fridges. Like, not at all. My brother once locked me into one, and â well, letâs say it was a hugely traumatic experience.â (boom, there it is: topic 2)
Annie, confused: âBut â How do you keep your food fresh?â (change of topic) (doesn't necessarily have to happen so soon after The Line)
Barney, still embarrassed: âI go to the supermarket every other day.â (topic 3)
The conversation continues about going to the supermarket every other day and foods that Barney can't eat because they spoil too fast outside of the fridge. Annie is surprised to hear how many things can be kept at room temperature for a day or two. (topic 3,5)
That's it, folks :)
I hope this was helpful. Donât hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing! This post was inspired by a question from @therska.
Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing tips here. New topics to write advice about are also always appreciated.
Tag list below the cut. If you like to be added to or removed from the list, let me know.
