Writing exercise:
Take a very common thing from your kitchen and write a poem about it.
It will most likely become a poem about something else.
I think I’m going to try a spoon. (There’s actually a pretty famous poem about a spoon – by Billy Collins)
There’s a number of small presses and publishers looking for younger poets and writers. It’s always disappointing to me, infused with experience and wisdom, to see an age limit on a submission form of a literary journal or publisher.
I know that America, and much of the world these days, has no respect for age; however, there was once this school of thought that there was some value in life experience.
Publishers want to discover the bright new star or hang on to someone who has a long and bright future ahead of them.
Instead of what, I assume, they mistakenly believe will be a one hit wonder leading to a quick and timely death.
That is why age matters to them.
HOWEVER – age does not matter. Many great poets and writers were “discovered” well after their 29th birthday: Toni Morrison, J.K. Rowling, Janet Fitch, Billy Collins, among many, many more! 
You are not too old to learn the craft, you’re not too old to start writing, you’re not too old to submit, you’re not too old to publish.
When vexed by the youth, I remember that I can read a mapbook, I can light a fire, I know how to address a letter for post. If all technology were lost, I’d be able to survive.
Writer’s block is the writer’s arch enemy.
And though it can be solved, one of the problems is that it takes faith to believe it can be overcome and it does take work.
Someone, recently, asked me how to get over a block and I gave him the following advice. He responded, “that’s too hard!”
Too hard???
If you want to get through a block – you have to push. If you are not willing to do the work, then why are you here?
One way – and it is just one idea – to get through writer’s block is to write your way out of it.
Use a separate document, handwrite it, get out of the story you’re working on and write somewhere else – but write, and keep writing – it might take you ten pages to get to where you need to be, and you might get two or three good pages out of that – but guess what, you will have written yourself out of the block.
Ten pages not enough? Still feeling blocked? Keep writing!
Think of it this way – something is in your way. If you were driving somewhere and the road was blocked, would you turn around and go home, go back to bed, and give up? Or would you use mapquest to find a different way to get there.
Something is in your writing way, get off that street (document), look at mapquest (other ideas, roads, methods, ways), and get moving.
Sometimes, that’s what writing feels like.
I recently finished a particularly difficult story. I’d written it over the summer. Then life happened, and while I wrote here and there and started new things, finished other things, submitted, and even came back to this story repeatedly, it refused to be finished.
This story became the terrible twos who kept throwing a spoon down on the floor and crying for me to pick it up only to throw it down again.
When my real children did this – I left the spoon on the floor and shrugged, “guess you’re using your fingers now,” but you can’t do that with a story, huh?
But what you can do with the story – as with all writing – is keep showing up. That’s what I did. I kept putting that story in front of me and trying to work out of the kinks. We can’t give up the story when it gets hard.
One of my favorite stories is one Stephen King tells about Carrie. I’m paraphrasing here: His wife found Carrie in the trash and brought it back to him, saying something to the effect, you can’t stop just because it got hard.
(of course these are the days when we used typewriters or notebooks and were able to physically put those in the trash and not just click delete, which, by the way, don’t ever do! Ignore the story, put it elsewhere, but don’t delete it!)
And I’ve read/heard the above King/Carrie story a few different ways, so it may not be exact; however, the point is – You can’t give up a story because it’s hard.
Even if the story never gets published – I learned something by writing it, by sticking it out.
The new term in student success is “Grit.” (I know, it’s also an old John Wayne movie). It alludes to the idea that the students who struggle and push through who will become a successful student and graduate. It applies across the board – school, life, and definitely writing! (Not surprisingly, to that movie as well).
I recall another story I’d had a particularly challenging time with. And just when I thought it was finished – the dreaded blue screen! It was gone. Memory wiped. I gave it a few weeks (and a long weekend in New Orleans) and came back at it. “Psychic Surprise Party” was published six months later in The Oleander Review. (It will be republished in May online).
Even if this one is never published, I learned something by doing it. I’ve learned something in all of these not-yet-published stories and poems. We are writers. We are driven to write. It is our little corner of the puzzle-solving-world in which we exist.
The next one might be easier. And maybe it’s 
this challenging one that will push something out of the way for the next one. Maybe the next one will be difficult too, but we’re going somewhere, learning something – keep pushing through.
That’s what makes us writers.
And we’re all a little mad here…..
To some people it is.
I have a friend who picks and chooses where he wants to be published so carefully that he submits maybe once or twice a year at most. He hasn’t been published in maybe 6 or 8 years.
He’s an extremely good writer. Better than I. 
He says, he wants to only be published where his name will be seen, where it will matter.
I took this to mean he didn’t approve of my many publications with small presses, some of which no one has ever heard.
What do you value and why? Ask yourself.
Billy Collins, btw, began publishing in what he refers to as fly by night or small presses of which no one ever heard.
How did the three blind mice meet?
Why were they chasing the farmer’s wife?
Go – Write it!
The start of a New Year is a great time to re-evaluate your life, and discover a new direction!
You can start the ball rolling by simply making a choice, “I am now ready for my life to change!”
This in itself is a powerful acceptance. On making this choice you are nudging the door open, ever so slightly, to new opportunities.
The next step is to create clarity by reassessing your life. Take the time to think about how you would like your life to be? What is working for you and what is not! Also include how you are feeling emotionally, for example are you happy, sad, feel loved or unloved, motivated? What changes would you like to make?
Formalise your conclusions by making lists, which you can refer back to, and expand on. If you are unsure of how to change your life and the steps to take, this is ok, as it will come. If the mind has clarity and guidelines from you, then anything is possible. You are basically opening your life, to new opportunities.
Take the time to put energy into your new choices, to move them into creation. From time to time go back and look at your lists – also importantly set yourself tasks with a time frame.
On accepting a new choice, opposition on the subconscious level may arise, and unknowingly you may create an obstacle in your path. At these times it is important to seek to understand what is actually happening, and let go of the negatives, and continue to affirm your positive, new choices. Keep going, be determined, hold to your dream and you will get there!
STRENGTHENING POSITIVE CHOICES -AFFIRMATION
Life is a matter of choice. I choose to prosper, to be aware, to be strong, to be adventurous and safe. I choose to be happy, to be confident!
Visit Me Here for more Inspiration
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Thanks, Linda!
Noreen Lace 
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