Blog #8 NV Experience
The experience of selecting work for this anthology was, obviously, quite different from the experience with Dust and Fire. The level of writing was less developed than much of the other writing we had witnessed for submission to Dust and Fire. I noticed that high school students generally felt the need to summarize or reflect on what they wrote in the piece, instead of rendering specific events to the reader. I also felt that most of the students were trying to write the way they think a writer should sound, as opposed to writing what they want. Of course, I can relate, as I recall doing the same thing years ago.
I again noticed that some pieces simply attempted to be too abstract without offering much concrete detail, and I cannot handle that. I simply can’t follow a piece like that because I lose interest. Pieces that were original in perspective, that found the uncommon in the common, that gave me concrete detail, got my vote.
The experience has been great, and it is fun to see the general progression of writing that takes place. In New Voices, we all agreed that we mostly had to look for potential in pieces and not polished final drafts. I did feel that I could have worked with the writers of many of the pieces, and made them much better.
