A Chat with Published Poet Dr. Clark

    In early October, I had a chat with Dr. Micheal Clark, an English teacher at Singapore American School and a successfully published poet. He published his first piece, a poem he sent to scholastic, in the 6th or 7th grade (which still seems absolutely crazy to me). In my last post, I went over my biggest take away from that conversation, which was the undeniable fact that you have to write to be a successful writer. This seemingly obvious bit of information has dramatically helped me understand why being an author is a much more gruelling task than many think. Everyone wants to write a book, but not many people actually have the patience to do it. Authors need to write, write and write some more.

    Although that was probably one of the biggest takeaways from the interview, Dr. Clark gave me many more tips. Firstly, he told me that writers who want to get their work published should read mentor texts and find out where they get published. They also show you what professional writing looks like and gives you an idea of how your book should feel when you're reading it. That way, you understand what the publishers are looking for when they publish books. Find out who publishes what and why.

    He told me was that once authors have a totally finished product, they need to be patient. More patient than most, because as a writer, you will be rejected time and time again. You also need to be determined and not get discouraged by all the rejections. In fact, Dr. Clark told me to "Get used to it." You have to try and keep trying until you get your work published. As I mentioned in the Hallam interview, it's better to have some sort of following when trying to get your work published, so the more you build that following, the more you build your chances of getting your work published. 

    Adding to the building the following topic, we also discussed how authors have a lot of success with social media like Instagram, Facebook, and some are even creating websites of their own, Dr. Clark included. They will join Facebook groups with other authors in their genre, promote their books on websites, or even make a more personal relationship with their readers by having an interactive Instagram account. It lets their community feel like they have a connection with the author, going so far as to possibly feel involved with creating the book itself. This also benefits you because if the reader feels like they had a hand in writing the story, they are more likely to buy it. 

    However, although it's great to get feedback on and let other people feel involved in your writing process, you have to make sure that it is indeed your creative process and not theirs. This also goes for people who are giving you feedback. Adding on to this, obviously, getting other people's opinions is necessary for the creative process. Still, Dr. Clark gave me this warning during our interview, "Avoid falling into the trap of getting feedback on something that’s not finished. Don't get feedback on ideas because it will just make you wait for more." This is coming from a poet's point of view, so for different types of writers, there can be some differences, but overall I think getting feedback on mere ideas is an issue many authors accidentally run into when writing, no matter the genre. 

    Finally, Dr. Clark's most important standard for creative writing is to build a following and produce. It ties back to what I said before about writing as much as you are able. The wider your portfolio is, the more chance you have to get it found by readers, and once you have those readers produce more to keep them interested and entertained. A steady pattern I am starting to see for writers is making a presence for themselves and getting your work out there so people can read and experience the piece you put so much into. 

     Huge thanks to Dr. Clark for allowing me to take some of his time to have this interview. I still can't believe how incredibly lucky I am to have such great resources available to me, and I'm happy that I have this blog to share my findings with anyone who decides to check it out.