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A Writer Whistling in the Wind: How do you unravel the mystery of submission to Medium publications?

Dr. Patricia Farrell
4 min readNov 8, 2019
Photo by Hello I’m Nik 🇬🇧 on Unsplash

Writing is a lonely pursuit that has a goal of publication or some self-fulfillment. Joyce Carol Oates will tell you that you need that alone time to write, or you may not write at all.

The uber writer, J. D. Salinger, insured his alone time by sequestering himself in a cement-block writing shed each day and permitting no interviews, visits, or other interruptions. But somehow he managed to go into town one night a week to have dinner at a local organization’s evening meals for townies. Was it meatloaf that he craved? I forget.

Oates, somehow, manages to write, play music, tend to her cats, and teach at major universities. I envy anyone with that much energy and creative productivity.

For sure, these two writers have produced more than most of us will do in our lifetimes. Oates is a miracle of production with her writing novels in multiple genres, short stories, novellas, plays, poems, and she runs. In between all these activities, she finds time to love her cats…

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Dr. Patricia Farrell
Dr. Patricia Farrell

Written by Dr. Patricia Farrell

Dr. Farrell is a psychologist, consultant, author, and member of SAG/AFTRA, interested in flash fiction writing (http://bitly.ws/S94e) and health.

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