In the past couple of weeks, I've started using Twitter. I learned about this application when a political figure made the news by tweeting about a secret mission to Baghdad, letting the world know when he wasn't supposed to that American politicians were visiting Iraq. (Thank goodness the people in charge are rocket scientists.)
So I googled Twitter and found the website, signed up for an account, and off I went. At first I couldn't understand how posting 140 character status updates could be useful. I did it anyway, though. Call it an experiment. (What can I say? I'm an experimental girl.) By giving Twitter access to my email address book, I found several of my friends who were already on Twitter. So I started out following those nine people. And pretty soon, most of them were following me, too. That, on its own, was a little like the status updates on Facebook. I could see what those friends were doing from time to time. Okay, I thought. This is easier than Facebook and less of a time sink.
There were applications that could take your Twitter status updates and make them your Facebook status updates, and I considered using on of them. But then something interesting happened. I started using Twitter differently than I used Facebook. I developed a Twitter personality, almost. One that my writer friends said they'd never seen before. "You're funny on Twitter," they told me. Hunh?
The next step was to look for the Twitter feeds of published writers. And sure enough, without too much difficulty, I found some. Followed by those of agents, publishers, and other interesting people and organizations.
Now I'm a huge fan of Twitter. I completely see how a person could meet a lot of others in their industry or just get to meet people whose work they're fans of. And some of them are very entertaining. You can follow anyone you want, unless they've blocked access to their updates. And anyone can follow you. It's a really interesting way to meet people who you'd never ordinarily get a chance to meet.
For example, one of the people I'm following is John Cleese. You know, THE John Cleese, from Monty Python. It's strange to see his updates in real time and to be able to reply to them if I want to. Now, Mr. Cleese has 80,000 followers so obviously he can't answer every tweet he gets, but he does answer some of them. Cool.
But here's my bete noir: There are a whole group of Twitterers who are trying to market themselves or their products with their Twitter feeds. They randomly follow thousands of people in hopes that those people will look at their tweets (Twitter messages are called tweets, if you haven't gathered that by now) and buy their products or subscribe to their feeds (and eventually buy their products or tell others about them.) I've even seen Twitter links that talk about some kind of multilevel system that automatically gets people to follow you on Twitter. This is really annoying. I don't want 10,000 followers who are only in it for some random marketing reason. If someone is following me, I want it to be because we share some interests. So when people start following my tweets who seem to be just marketing people, I block them.
it's true that I myself am thinking forward to the day when I'll have a published book. Everybody's got to make a living. But can't I just put my message out there, like setting a bottle adrift on the virtual seas, and see who comes looking for me? I hope the crate of canned goods washes up on the deserted island with me though. Otherwise, this may be a long, hungry sojourn. (Note to self: Bring a can opener.)
You can find my Twitter feed here.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Write or Die
I discovered a writing program called Write or Die that puts pressure on a person to put words on the blank screen. This seems both like a helpful idea and a terrible idea. The premise behind is that the only thing you can't fix is a blank page. I don't know if I agree with that. If pressure makes you write in the wrong direction entirely, you will end up wasting a lot of time trying to fix pages that shouldn't be there in the first place.
But on the positive side, I wrote more in 22 minutes with this program than I normally would in 2 or even 4 hours. It worked because it forced me to not be distracted by other things. How did it do that? Well, on "normal" level, when you don't write for more than about a minute, the screen starts to turn pink, then red. When it gets red, a loud annoying song starts playing in the background. (My only issue was that I actually couldn't stop singing the song for the next two days.)
But, as a coworker asked, was the writing good or was it crap?
Well... to be honest, it had it's weaknesses. But generally at this point, when I am constantly forcing myself to write, I end up having to do revisions, major revisions. Even if it takes me hours to write a couple of pages. So at least I made some progress. I think the events are fine. It's the wording that needs work. And that's ok.
It's a very different experience of writing for me. I'm usually slow and careful, easily distracted by ideas that I have to research and sometimes this leads me to other ideas and soon I've done a ton of research, only some of which is useful, goofed off some, had a snack and my page might still have only two sentences on it. I'm still deciding whether this is a better way. Try it for yourself and let me know what you think.
But on the positive side, I wrote more in 22 minutes with this program than I normally would in 2 or even 4 hours. It worked because it forced me to not be distracted by other things. How did it do that? Well, on "normal" level, when you don't write for more than about a minute, the screen starts to turn pink, then red. When it gets red, a loud annoying song starts playing in the background. (My only issue was that I actually couldn't stop singing the song for the next two days.)
But, as a coworker asked, was the writing good or was it crap?
Well... to be honest, it had it's weaknesses. But generally at this point, when I am constantly forcing myself to write, I end up having to do revisions, major revisions. Even if it takes me hours to write a couple of pages. So at least I made some progress. I think the events are fine. It's the wording that needs work. And that's ok.
It's a very different experience of writing for me. I'm usually slow and careful, easily distracted by ideas that I have to research and sometimes this leads me to other ideas and soon I've done a ton of research, only some of which is useful, goofed off some, had a snack and my page might still have only two sentences on it. I'm still deciding whether this is a better way. Try it for yourself and let me know what you think.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Author website
I took the first step to having an author website yesterday. I bought three urls. I haven't set anything up yet. I really want to have some photos taken, with props, and it will take a bit of planning and setting up. None of which I have time for now. But at least I have a web address to put something up on.
I almost changed the title of my novel. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea as I thought about what the novel meant. it's really about what underlies a person's conscious being. In art, it would be an underpainting, something never seen directly, but which affects the final outcome. I thought Underpainting would be a good title. I proposed this idea to Abby Murray, my brilliant poet friend. What?! she exclaimed. You're going to call it underpants?! No, I laughed. Underpainting.
That is a terrible title. It sounds too much like underpants. You need to introduce your head to the gutter. Adrianna's head, this is the gutter.
It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that I will not be calling my novel Underpants... I mean Underpainting.
I almost changed the title of my novel. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea as I thought about what the novel meant. it's really about what underlies a person's conscious being. In art, it would be an underpainting, something never seen directly, but which affects the final outcome. I thought Underpainting would be a good title. I proposed this idea to Abby Murray, my brilliant poet friend. What?! she exclaimed. You're going to call it underpants?! No, I laughed. Underpainting.
That is a terrible title. It sounds too much like underpants. You need to introduce your head to the gutter. Adrianna's head, this is the gutter.
It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that I will not be calling my novel Underpants... I mean Underpainting.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Bumps in the imaginary road
Perhaps you've heard of writer's block. If you're a writer, you probably have at least a vague idea of what it's like to have writer's block. If you're not a writer, I will try to explain it as similar to dieter's block. Dieter's block is when you're trying to lose weight, but you keep getting tempted off your diet by the chocolate cake that your coworker brought to the office, or the French fries that your roommate brought home, or the jar of chocolate hazelnut creme that you just discovered in the back of the cupboard. And you know you shouldn't eat these things, but you think--aw, just this little bit. And suddenly you're off your diet. And since you ate that bowl of ice cream, what could it hurt to have a few more forbidden foods. So maybe just for today, I won't diet, but tomorrow, I'll get right back on it. And then tomorrow comes and you accidentally have a doughnut before you remember that you're supposed to be dieting. And on it goes.
So, writer's block is like that in that you know you should be writing, but there are all these distractions and even though you know that if you sit down and write, eventually you'll have something great (a better figure or a new novel chapter), compared to whatever is distracting you, it somehow doesn't seem worth it It's too painful to write, to put yourself through the discipline and the emotional and mental turmoil that it takes to write true characters and disturbing events. And anyway, you don't have any ideas right now. No ideas at all, so how can you write? Maybe a break would do you good. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day. Or next week.
I can't help you with dieter's block. All I can say is avoid, avoid, avoid tempting snacks. Threaten your coworkers with some dire consequence if they bring chocolate cake anywhere near you. Toilet paper their cars or something. (You did not hear this from me, by the way.) But writer's block is a different story.
Here are a few tactics I've used to get myself unstuck when struck with lackofstoryitis.
1) Do something else for one day or evening or whenever it is you usually write. One day does not a disaster make. And sometimes it's very helpful to just give your brain a break from thinking about the same story. Go see a movie, read a book, go out to dinner, go to a carnival. Do something fun. Feed your muse. But beware letting it drag on too long. Especially if you are writing a long work, like a novel or memoir. At least in my experience, if you stay away too long, it will get harder and harder to start again.
2) Sometimes just the sheer desire to write something, to try my hand at writing something specific will jolt me out of writer's block. So I encourage myself to write by reading blogs about writing or about writers who are doing something interesting. Google writers who interest you and look at their websites, or blogs. Think about finishing your novel, selling it, and becoming like them, with people looking at your website and wanting to be like you.
3) Awakened Minds Focus CD has helped me through a block many times. I just sit down with it and start writing and almost every time, I get something done. Except when Ariel, the rubber band cat, keeps jumping up on my desk and acting all cute, rubbing against my chin and blocking the keyboard. Then I'm pretty much doomed.
4) Write about your current story from a different angle. Recently while feeling stuck, I started writing about a therapy session where my main character went to a psychiatrist and talked about her life. I had been struggling to write a page a day of my novel, but I whipped off almost eight pages in two days when writing about the session. Then I was able to go back and work on my novel and make real progress. Some might say I wasted two days, but actually I may be able to use some of what I wrote there, if not directly then as history for my character.
5) Call me crazy, but I recommend hypnosis. There's this company called Hypnosis Network that makes CDs with liscensed hypnotherapists. I have several of their programs and I have found them useful. One in particular called the Hypnosis Experience, I've used to break out of writer's block a couple of times. It guides you through some exercises (no gym equipment needed!) that help get your brain going in the right direction. Hypnosis has been studied and used for all sorts of things, but normally, I'd say those recordings are a waste of time. These particular ones, though, seem to be really good. The company often has sales, so get on their mailing list and watch for one.
I have nothing to do with any of these companies I'm mentioning. I have just had to search high and low for ways to deal with my own inability to sit still long enough to write anything and I've been lucky enough to find these things.
6) One last suggestion: Blog about your writing dilemma. It will get you writing, get you thinking, and if you're lucky all your writer friends will email you sympathetic messages. And then you'll stop procrastinating and get to work. Like I'm about to. heh.
So, writer's block is like that in that you know you should be writing, but there are all these distractions and even though you know that if you sit down and write, eventually you'll have something great (a better figure or a new novel chapter), compared to whatever is distracting you, it somehow doesn't seem worth it It's too painful to write, to put yourself through the discipline and the emotional and mental turmoil that it takes to write true characters and disturbing events. And anyway, you don't have any ideas right now. No ideas at all, so how can you write? Maybe a break would do you good. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day. Or next week.
I can't help you with dieter's block. All I can say is avoid, avoid, avoid tempting snacks. Threaten your coworkers with some dire consequence if they bring chocolate cake anywhere near you. Toilet paper their cars or something. (You did not hear this from me, by the way.) But writer's block is a different story.
Here are a few tactics I've used to get myself unstuck when struck with lackofstoryitis.
1) Do something else for one day or evening or whenever it is you usually write. One day does not a disaster make. And sometimes it's very helpful to just give your brain a break from thinking about the same story. Go see a movie, read a book, go out to dinner, go to a carnival. Do something fun. Feed your muse. But beware letting it drag on too long. Especially if you are writing a long work, like a novel or memoir. At least in my experience, if you stay away too long, it will get harder and harder to start again.
2) Sometimes just the sheer desire to write something, to try my hand at writing something specific will jolt me out of writer's block. So I encourage myself to write by reading blogs about writing or about writers who are doing something interesting. Google writers who interest you and look at their websites, or blogs. Think about finishing your novel, selling it, and becoming like them, with people looking at your website and wanting to be like you.
3) Awakened Minds Focus CD has helped me through a block many times. I just sit down with it and start writing and almost every time, I get something done. Except when Ariel, the rubber band cat, keeps jumping up on my desk and acting all cute, rubbing against my chin and blocking the keyboard. Then I'm pretty much doomed.
4) Write about your current story from a different angle. Recently while feeling stuck, I started writing about a therapy session where my main character went to a psychiatrist and talked about her life. I had been struggling to write a page a day of my novel, but I whipped off almost eight pages in two days when writing about the session. Then I was able to go back and work on my novel and make real progress. Some might say I wasted two days, but actually I may be able to use some of what I wrote there, if not directly then as history for my character.
5) Call me crazy, but I recommend hypnosis. There's this company called Hypnosis Network that makes CDs with liscensed hypnotherapists. I have several of their programs and I have found them useful. One in particular called the Hypnosis Experience, I've used to break out of writer's block a couple of times. It guides you through some exercises (no gym equipment needed!) that help get your brain going in the right direction. Hypnosis has been studied and used for all sorts of things, but normally, I'd say those recordings are a waste of time. These particular ones, though, seem to be really good. The company often has sales, so get on their mailing list and watch for one.
I have nothing to do with any of these companies I'm mentioning. I have just had to search high and low for ways to deal with my own inability to sit still long enough to write anything and I've been lucky enough to find these things.
6) One last suggestion: Blog about your writing dilemma. It will get you writing, get you thinking, and if you're lucky all your writer friends will email you sympathetic messages. And then you'll stop procrastinating and get to work. Like I'm about to. heh.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
For those who don't read fantasy (and those who do): Contemplate this.
In 1817, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley wrote Frankenstein, the story of a obsessed scientist who creates life from the remains of various corpses. This work is said to be the first fully realized science fiction novel.
The story of Victor Frankenstein and his created creature spawned a whole genre of writing and has been made into several films. The idea of man being given the god-like power to create another human being never seems to get old.
But the truth is that people do have the power to create life.
I found out recently that two of my friends are pregnant. As I have lived my entire life never having created a human, the ease with which others are doing it seems amazing to me. More magical than biological.
Anthropologists believe that early in human evolution woman were worshiped for their creative powers as it was not well-understood during the transitional period from more instinctive animal-like human thinking to the development of less instinctive and more logic driven thinking patterns, how women were able to produce children. To me, it is no less miraculous given the knowledge that it is not only women, but a pair of humans who create a child. A small group project so to speak. Let's just whip up another person, shall we? It's not exactly making a sandwich or even creme brulee. In fact, it's harder than rocket science.
The idea of child bearing as miraculous continues to provide fodder for fiction. In 2006, the film Children of Men portrayed a near future where women have stopped giving birth. The end of humanity is nigh. In that film, when a woman does conceive and bear a child, it is seen as so miraculous that soldiers fighting in the streets in the midst of all out war stop and stand aside in awe as this new mother passes by.
We're a strange lot who don't believe in magic when it happens all around us all the time. Babies are born, lightning explodes from the sky, trees bear fruit, we feel joy, we fall in love, our brains capture the information collected by our senses and create an impression of the world, we build cities destroying nature to do so, nature takes the earth back bit by bit. Those of you who don't believe in magic will say, "This isn't magic. it's science." We've come to take these things for granted. Just as we come to take for granted the relationships in our lives that last the longest and give us the most.
Sad really, when you think about it. In an effort to be intellectual, we are blinded to the magic all around us. Thank goodness there is fiction that lets us safely believe in magic, while maintaining our intellectual affectations
Otherwise we might forget the experience of wonder.
The story of Victor Frankenstein and his created creature spawned a whole genre of writing and has been made into several films. The idea of man being given the god-like power to create another human being never seems to get old.
But the truth is that people do have the power to create life.
I found out recently that two of my friends are pregnant. As I have lived my entire life never having created a human, the ease with which others are doing it seems amazing to me. More magical than biological.
Anthropologists believe that early in human evolution woman were worshiped for their creative powers as it was not well-understood during the transitional period from more instinctive animal-like human thinking to the development of less instinctive and more logic driven thinking patterns, how women were able to produce children. To me, it is no less miraculous given the knowledge that it is not only women, but a pair of humans who create a child. A small group project so to speak. Let's just whip up another person, shall we? It's not exactly making a sandwich or even creme brulee. In fact, it's harder than rocket science.
The idea of child bearing as miraculous continues to provide fodder for fiction. In 2006, the film Children of Men portrayed a near future where women have stopped giving birth. The end of humanity is nigh. In that film, when a woman does conceive and bear a child, it is seen as so miraculous that soldiers fighting in the streets in the midst of all out war stop and stand aside in awe as this new mother passes by.
We're a strange lot who don't believe in magic when it happens all around us all the time. Babies are born, lightning explodes from the sky, trees bear fruit, we feel joy, we fall in love, our brains capture the information collected by our senses and create an impression of the world, we build cities destroying nature to do so, nature takes the earth back bit by bit. Those of you who don't believe in magic will say, "This isn't magic. it's science." We've come to take these things for granted. Just as we come to take for granted the relationships in our lives that last the longest and give us the most.
Sad really, when you think about it. In an effort to be intellectual, we are blinded to the magic all around us. Thank goodness there is fiction that lets us safely believe in magic, while maintaining our intellectual affectations
Otherwise we might forget the experience of wonder.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Writing made simple. Sort of.
Congratulations should be going out to Mindie Kniss and me. We, for the second week, succeeded in putting enough words on paper to equal six pages of prose. I think the truth for both of us could be summarized by the subject line of the email Mindie sent me in the wee hours of the morning.
Do we really have to get this done by April 30th?
Yes, Mindie. There is a Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Mother Theresa, the Big Bad Wolf. You have a fairy godmother and so do I. That dollar under your pillow came from the Tooth Fairy. Her name is Daisy, by the way. Babies are grown in cabbage fields. Al Gore invented the Internet and George W. Bush invented pants. I personally own the Brooklyn Bridge. It's been in my family for generations, and if you offer me the moom, I'll sell it to you. And speaking of the Moon, it's either made of cheese or it's a boat carrying a beautiful woman floating on the dark river of night.
But if you believe nothing else, Mindie, believe this:
Our thesis manuscripts are due on April 30 and we will gt them done. And Valerie Miner will be as shocked as Captain Louis Renault.
Do we really have to get this done by April 30th?
Yes, Mindie. There is a Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Mother Theresa, the Big Bad Wolf. You have a fairy godmother and so do I. That dollar under your pillow came from the Tooth Fairy. Her name is Daisy, by the way. Babies are grown in cabbage fields. Al Gore invented the Internet and George W. Bush invented pants. I personally own the Brooklyn Bridge. It's been in my family for generations, and if you offer me the moom, I'll sell it to you. And speaking of the Moon, it's either made of cheese or it's a boat carrying a beautiful woman floating on the dark river of night.
But if you believe nothing else, Mindie, believe this:
Our thesis manuscripts are due on April 30 and we will gt them done. And Valerie Miner will be as shocked as Captain Louis Renault.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Focus
I don't know when this started to be a problem for me, but I'm sure it's gotten worse over time. I've said for years that I have the attention span of a gnat. Now I'm not even sure it's that long.
I spend more time on Facebook than ever before and I just joined Twitter yesterday. While entertaining and useful in keeping me connected with friends, I'd compare these social networking tools to being in the back of a kindergarten class with the ADHD kids.
I don't know if any of the rest of you (and when I say you, I mean writers or writing students)have problems trying to follow the butt-in-chair rule that gets you to that much-to-be-desired Zen place, but I'm betting that I am not alone.
So here are some things that have worked for me, or at least made it a little better. I'd say I have roughly doubled my writing output by following these tips.
1) This will sound weird, but change your eating habits. There is no doubt that what you put in your mouth affects your ability to concentrate. To learn how important this is, read The Ultramind Solution: Fixing Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First by Mark Hyman, M.D. What Dr. Hyman says in this book was not new to me, since I've been studying natural medicine as a hobby for a long time. I knew a lot already about how good certain things were for my body, but I never quite realized the impact nutrition and things like hormonal balance had on my brain. I'd like to summarize it for you, but you won't really get it until you read the book.
Best tips: Balance your omega 3 to omega 6 ratio and eat more plants.
2) Awakened Minds, Inc. makes these CDs using binaural beats, which basically means they play a different tone in each one of your ears (using headphones) and this triggers changes in your brain wave state. If you took psychology in college, you may remember that your brain waves change with different mental states from deep sleep to active problem solving and several varieties in between. By changing your brain waves, you can crate better focus or creativity. It sounds like mumbo jumbo, but it was recommended to me by a doctor that I trusted. And these cds are not that expensive. I know about another system, but it costs a lot more. As a starving artist, I'm fine with cheap stuff that works. Anyway, one of these CDs is called Focus. It plays a rain sound (and now I think they sell the same one with an ocean wave sound instead)so you don't consciously hear the different tones. I am amazed though that when I just can't concentrate, I put that CD on and listen to it with headphones and it makes a dramatic difference. Basically, it's the difference between me goofing around on my computer and actually putting words on the page.
3) Caffeine does me wrong. I mean, it helps me stay awake and all, but it also increases my blood pressure, keeps me from sleeping when I want to, makes me tired the next day. I try never to drink caffeinated beverages any more. So what I've started doing instead is taking sub-lingual B vitamins. I buy a liquid called B Total that gives me a big dose of Bs. B vitamins are water-soluble, so they get filtered out of your bloodstream by your kidneys. Unless you have some health issue that prohibits it (and I don't know of one--maybe a B vitamin allergy?), you can safely take a lot more B vitamins that the RDA. They do a lot of good things, like giving you more energy, focus, and helping your heart and nervous system. B vitamins, especially B 12 get more difficult to absorb as you age or if you have digestive difficulties and take antacids or proton pump inhibitors. (If you want to read more about this, just google it.) So chances are, you could use more B 12 if you're over 40, take those stomach meds, or if your a vegetarian because the primary sources of B 12 are animal-based foods.
d) Also, from time to time, I have to remind myself to get up and move around, go for a walk or--because I live in the godforsaken Northern winter wasteland--just stretch or dance or something. The motionless office will be the downfall of Western civilization. We'll all get really big heads and little scrawny bodies. Ew! I don't look forward to that future. And what's the point really? The Singularity is coming anyway, and we can never out evolve intelligent machines, so why not just keep our muscles and actually write about what it's like to BE HUMAN amid all this chaos?
What some of us have to go through to come up with a blog post!
I spend more time on Facebook than ever before and I just joined Twitter yesterday. While entertaining and useful in keeping me connected with friends, I'd compare these social networking tools to being in the back of a kindergarten class with the ADHD kids.
I don't know if any of the rest of you (and when I say you, I mean writers or writing students)have problems trying to follow the butt-in-chair rule that gets you to that much-to-be-desired Zen place, but I'm betting that I am not alone.
So here are some things that have worked for me, or at least made it a little better. I'd say I have roughly doubled my writing output by following these tips.
1) This will sound weird, but change your eating habits. There is no doubt that what you put in your mouth affects your ability to concentrate. To learn how important this is, read The Ultramind Solution: Fixing Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First by Mark Hyman, M.D. What Dr. Hyman says in this book was not new to me, since I've been studying natural medicine as a hobby for a long time. I knew a lot already about how good certain things were for my body, but I never quite realized the impact nutrition and things like hormonal balance had on my brain. I'd like to summarize it for you, but you won't really get it until you read the book.
Best tips: Balance your omega 3 to omega 6 ratio and eat more plants.
2) Awakened Minds, Inc. makes these CDs using binaural beats, which basically means they play a different tone in each one of your ears (using headphones) and this triggers changes in your brain wave state. If you took psychology in college, you may remember that your brain waves change with different mental states from deep sleep to active problem solving and several varieties in between. By changing your brain waves, you can crate better focus or creativity. It sounds like mumbo jumbo, but it was recommended to me by a doctor that I trusted. And these cds are not that expensive. I know about another system, but it costs a lot more. As a starving artist, I'm fine with cheap stuff that works. Anyway, one of these CDs is called Focus. It plays a rain sound (and now I think they sell the same one with an ocean wave sound instead)so you don't consciously hear the different tones. I am amazed though that when I just can't concentrate, I put that CD on and listen to it with headphones and it makes a dramatic difference. Basically, it's the difference between me goofing around on my computer and actually putting words on the page.
3) Caffeine does me wrong. I mean, it helps me stay awake and all, but it also increases my blood pressure, keeps me from sleeping when I want to, makes me tired the next day. I try never to drink caffeinated beverages any more. So what I've started doing instead is taking sub-lingual B vitamins. I buy a liquid called B Total that gives me a big dose of Bs. B vitamins are water-soluble, so they get filtered out of your bloodstream by your kidneys. Unless you have some health issue that prohibits it (and I don't know of one--maybe a B vitamin allergy?), you can safely take a lot more B vitamins that the RDA. They do a lot of good things, like giving you more energy, focus, and helping your heart and nervous system. B vitamins, especially B 12 get more difficult to absorb as you age or if you have digestive difficulties and take antacids or proton pump inhibitors. (If you want to read more about this, just google it.) So chances are, you could use more B 12 if you're over 40, take those stomach meds, or if your a vegetarian because the primary sources of B 12 are animal-based foods.
d) Also, from time to time, I have to remind myself to get up and move around, go for a walk or--because I live in the godforsaken Northern winter wasteland--just stretch or dance or something. The motionless office will be the downfall of Western civilization. We'll all get really big heads and little scrawny bodies. Ew! I don't look forward to that future. And what's the point really? The Singularity is coming anyway, and we can never out evolve intelligent machines, so why not just keep our muscles and actually write about what it's like to BE HUMAN amid all this chaos?
What some of us have to go through to come up with a blog post!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Ay carumba!
First the bad news.
I reread my six pages submitted as part of my agreement with Mindie. There is really no gentle way to put this. THEY SUCK!
Now the good news.
Since Monday, I've been steadily working on them and while I originally thought they might be beyond salvation, they are coming along nicely. It seems so much harder than it used to, this getting myself into the head of my character. A warning to all those writing their critical essays: Don't let your fiction languish too long. It will make it harder to get back to it later.
So now I'm a little behind in my next six pages because I've spent the past two days doing revisions. I'm not done with the revisions yet, but I think once I finish them, the next part will be easier because I will be in a groove. I'm hoping to finish the first four chapters relatively quickly so that I can draw from them for my thesis. The truth is, chapter 5 is 23 pages olong, so it's possible that I could just use chapters 1-5. I only need 70 pages minimum, which means I need less than 50 pages in the first four chapters and I'll have plenty. But I'd rather use some of the later chapters than put the whole beginning in. I guess I'll see. I have 12 more weeks.
Hey Mindie, how's it going over there? What color T-shirt would you like?
I reread my six pages submitted as part of my agreement with Mindie. There is really no gentle way to put this. THEY SUCK!
Now the good news.
Since Monday, I've been steadily working on them and while I originally thought they might be beyond salvation, they are coming along nicely. It seems so much harder than it used to, this getting myself into the head of my character. A warning to all those writing their critical essays: Don't let your fiction languish too long. It will make it harder to get back to it later.
So now I'm a little behind in my next six pages because I've spent the past two days doing revisions. I'm not done with the revisions yet, but I think once I finish them, the next part will be easier because I will be in a groove. I'm hoping to finish the first four chapters relatively quickly so that I can draw from them for my thesis. The truth is, chapter 5 is 23 pages olong, so it's possible that I could just use chapters 1-5. I only need 70 pages minimum, which means I need less than 50 pages in the first four chapters and I'll have plenty. But I'd rather use some of the later chapters than put the whole beginning in. I guess I'll see. I have 12 more weeks.
Hey Mindie, how's it going over there? What color T-shirt would you like?
Monday, February 2, 2009
Week One Success!
I am happy to report that Mindie and I both got our first 6 pages done and in on time. We rule!
And now for something completely different. I just got an email ad from Barnes and Noble about a book titled, I Can Make You Thin. Way to self-aggrandize, Paul whatever your name is. I could make someone thin, too, if I could lock them in a room and give them only water and salad. Get over yourself. It is not you who makes another person thin (unless you do what I suggest above). It is that person. You can't do it for them.
Remind me never to give my book a title like that.
And now for something completely different. I just got an email ad from Barnes and Noble about a book titled, I Can Make You Thin. Way to self-aggrandize, Paul whatever your name is. I could make someone thin, too, if I could lock them in a room and give them only water and salad. Get over yourself. It is not you who makes another person thin (unless you do what I suggest above). It is that person. You can't do it for them.
Remind me never to give my book a title like that.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The exchange experiment
Unable to make myself write as much as I wanted to, I came up with the idea of making a pact with Mindie Kniss, who I knew had a lot of writing to get done herself. I approached Mindie about this in an email proposing some vague kind of exchange. She immediately responded, "I'm in," and we hammered out the details in a few more emails. So the deal is that we are to send each other six polished pages of our thesis manuscripts every Sunday night before we go to bed, starting today. We don't have to read the other's work if we don't have time. We just have to send it to each other. There's no punishment (yet) if we don't, but we'll send each other little rewards for getting the work done on time.
So it's Sunday, and I am actually grateful that we have this deal, because I don't know if I would have sat here all day and all day yesterday and all evening the day before if not for the fact that Mindie will know if I don't get my work done. It really is good to be accountable sometimes. I have about a page and a half left to write--which you might say is easy, but the previous page and a half has taken me all afternoon. But still, the goal is within sight. Man, I hope this gets easier as the weeks go on.
And I can't wait to see what Mindie is writing.
So it's Sunday, and I am actually grateful that we have this deal, because I don't know if I would have sat here all day and all day yesterday and all evening the day before if not for the fact that Mindie will know if I don't get my work done. It really is good to be accountable sometimes. I have about a page and a half left to write--which you might say is easy, but the previous page and a half has taken me all afternoon. But still, the goal is within sight. Man, I hope this gets easier as the weeks go on.
And I can't wait to see what Mindie is writing.
Friday, December 12, 2008
A Semester's Worth of Posts in Three Paragraphs
Well, I've managed not to blog for a whole semester. I've been busy writing my critical essay. I think it came out okay, though of course, I never really will be satisfied with it. Writing. You know how it is.
One thing I think I did succeed at very well this term is getting that annoying monkey off my back, the one gibbering in my ear about whether fantasy can be literature. And my conclusion after reading half a library's worth of essays and novels that either speak to or exemplify the topic, is that of course it can.
Once, a squirrel started hanging out on our back porch. At first, I thought he was adorable, the way he would taunt the cats through the screen door. I started putting out peanut butter for him and nuts and seeds. He became even friendlier. Eventually he started napping stretched out on the railing and if I would get crackers out of the cupboard, he'd move toward the door assuming that I was going to give him some. He got so brave in his pleas for snacks that he would come right to the screen door and stand inches from our biggest tom, who sat just inside the screen, his tail lashing madly back and forth. I began to fear the squirrel would dart inside when I opened the door. I imagined utter chaos erupting as he dashed inside and all five of our cats ran after him, upending furniture and knocking breakable items to the floor in their excitement. I tried to scare the squirrel away by yelling at him, but he would only take a few steps back and then edge closer again, his eyes on my box of Wheat Thins. Eventually, I threw a glass of water in his face, right through the screen. He didn't even flinch as the water whooshed over him. Of course not, I thought. Water is no threat to a squirrel.
One thing I think I did succeed at very well this term is getting that annoying monkey off my back, the one gibbering in my ear about whether fantasy can be literature. And my conclusion after reading half a library's worth of essays and novels that either speak to or exemplify the topic, is that of course it can.
Once, a squirrel started hanging out on our back porch. At first, I thought he was adorable, the way he would taunt the cats through the screen door. I started putting out peanut butter for him and nuts and seeds. He became even friendlier. Eventually he started napping stretched out on the railing and if I would get crackers out of the cupboard, he'd move toward the door assuming that I was going to give him some. He got so brave in his pleas for snacks that he would come right to the screen door and stand inches from our biggest tom, who sat just inside the screen, his tail lashing madly back and forth. I began to fear the squirrel would dart inside when I opened the door. I imagined utter chaos erupting as he dashed inside and all five of our cats ran after him, upending furniture and knocking breakable items to the floor in their excitement. I tried to scare the squirrel away by yelling at him, but he would only take a few steps back and then edge closer again, his eyes on my box of Wheat Thins. Eventually, I threw a glass of water in his face, right through the screen. He didn't even flinch as the water whooshed over him. Of course not, I thought. Water is no threat to a squirrel.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The long essay
The third semester of the MFA program includes writing a long essay. Apparently, early on this essay had to be 30 pages long. Now it's been reduced to 15-20 pages. I've heard various theories about the reasoning behind this. The most pragmatic is that an essay of 15-20 pages could be published. I have no idea if this is true, since I don't really read essays on any sort of regular basis, except in books. I don't really know how manuscript pages convert to book pages, but some of the essays I've read in books are certainly longer than 15 pages. I guess all this is moot though, since I don't expect tat I will try to get my essay published. But maybe I will. You never know.
I'm sitting in Espresso Royale right now, preparing to work on my essay or my book. I thought I'd take advantage of the wifi and do a blog entry. Marc is downstairs at the Labyrinth. We had lunch at the Red Hawk because I begged and said we needed to get out more.
As far as I can tell, this essay is meant to be about a personal experience of literature as it intersects with our lives and writing. It's odd. I didn't expect to learn anything about myself and my writing in the preparation of this essay. But as it turns out, even I didn't understand why I write what I do. And maybe I will never fully understand. But in trying to sort out what I should say to people about why some fantasy is literature, why it's important, why they should reconsider its validity, I've discovered some clear connections between my own spiritual longing and what i write. I've also identified the ways in which fantasy has shaped my life, the presence of fantasy in my life from a very young age. I think I've even come up with a fairly strong case for fantasy being the American/Western/industrialized equivalent of magical realsim in the motivation behind it and the purpose it serves for both the writer and the reader. Now of course, not all fantasy falls into this category. I'm leaning toward drawing the conclusion that it's mostly fantasy written in first person, and mostly by women or people of color or other people who have for some reason experienced oppression. I'm leaning toward saying that where the "magic" in magical resalism arises out of the cultural norms of societies heavily influenced by organized religion, the magic in the kind of fantasy I am referring to, the kind I write, arises out of the lack of such cultural beliefs. It arises out of a longing for the existence of some great power for good, something that could rescue us all, no matter what. It arises out of the fear that such a being or force does not exist, or perhaps out of the refusal to accept what seems obvious to our logical minds. We are alone, trapped in prisons of flesh, unable to control anything outside ourselves and actually not even our own physical bodies and often even our own thoughts, unable to count on anyone's help, always wondering if we will be let down, abandoned, disappointed, doomed. It arises as a response to the knowledge that death is inevitable, yet seems impossible to even contemplate. How could we simply cease to exist? It's the original human question about the meaning of life, re-framed by science and technology and the recent change in cultural standards.
Fantasy, well-written, character-driven fantasy, allows us to suspend our disbelief and belong to a world where there is a great force for good, where the impossible can be hoped for, where, though we are all in great danger, there is something that could save us, no matter what.
OK. I've pretty much written a book here. I'll stop now and get to work.
I'm sitting in Espresso Royale right now, preparing to work on my essay or my book. I thought I'd take advantage of the wifi and do a blog entry. Marc is downstairs at the Labyrinth. We had lunch at the Red Hawk because I begged and said we needed to get out more.
As far as I can tell, this essay is meant to be about a personal experience of literature as it intersects with our lives and writing. It's odd. I didn't expect to learn anything about myself and my writing in the preparation of this essay. But as it turns out, even I didn't understand why I write what I do. And maybe I will never fully understand. But in trying to sort out what I should say to people about why some fantasy is literature, why it's important, why they should reconsider its validity, I've discovered some clear connections between my own spiritual longing and what i write. I've also identified the ways in which fantasy has shaped my life, the presence of fantasy in my life from a very young age. I think I've even come up with a fairly strong case for fantasy being the American/Western/industrialized equivalent of magical realsim in the motivation behind it and the purpose it serves for both the writer and the reader. Now of course, not all fantasy falls into this category. I'm leaning toward drawing the conclusion that it's mostly fantasy written in first person, and mostly by women or people of color or other people who have for some reason experienced oppression. I'm leaning toward saying that where the "magic" in magical resalism arises out of the cultural norms of societies heavily influenced by organized religion, the magic in the kind of fantasy I am referring to, the kind I write, arises out of the lack of such cultural beliefs. It arises out of a longing for the existence of some great power for good, something that could rescue us all, no matter what. It arises out of the fear that such a being or force does not exist, or perhaps out of the refusal to accept what seems obvious to our logical minds. We are alone, trapped in prisons of flesh, unable to control anything outside ourselves and actually not even our own physical bodies and often even our own thoughts, unable to count on anyone's help, always wondering if we will be let down, abandoned, disappointed, doomed. It arises as a response to the knowledge that death is inevitable, yet seems impossible to even contemplate. How could we simply cease to exist? It's the original human question about the meaning of life, re-framed by science and technology and the recent change in cultural standards.
Fantasy, well-written, character-driven fantasy, allows us to suspend our disbelief and belong to a world where there is a great force for good, where the impossible can be hoped for, where, though we are all in great danger, there is something that could save us, no matter what.
OK. I've pretty much written a book here. I'll stop now and get to work.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Apparently I've been tagged
Now, I had no idea what Stephanie was talking about when I read her comment. I've been tagged as a meme. WTF? First of all, I had to refresh my memory on this whole "meme" thing. I couldn't even figure out how to pronounce it. Like 'meem' or like 'mimi'? Well, the audio portion of the online dictionary says 'meem' but a friend tells me it's meh-meh. Who knows?
So here's the definition: n. A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.
In other words, this is someone's fancy way of getting us all involved in a chain letter. Or a chain blogging event. By telling us that we're transferring a unit of cultural information. I find it difficult to buy into. And who says I have six quirky behaviors anyway?
Oh, all right. Here you go. (huge sigh)
1. When left to my own devices, I never eat a proper meal. Instead I collect about three items from the cupboards and refrigerator and eat them sequentially. On rare occasions, I will actually put something on a plate. This seems to be my best form of eating because I lose weight (just enough) when I do this for long enough and gain weight when I eat actual meals.
2. I love writing. If allowed, I will not only spend all day either writing, thinking about writing or talking about writing, I will dream about my characters. Of course, I am not really allowed to do this. Job. Husband. Friends. Cats. heh.
3. I have a crazy imagination. In a normal conversation, I will suddenly get an idea for a story and launch into a "I was just thinking, what if...?" Some people don't react well to this. My husband looks at me like I'm an alien, especially when I ask these questions about news items. Me: What if he just admitted that he likes men? What do you think would happen? Him: He won't. He's a Republican. Me: I know, but what if he did? Him: He won't. Me; I know, but do you think it would be a big deal if he did? I mean, if he can meet men in a public restroom, then I don't see how it could be that bad. Does he think he can just hide in the stall and no one will recognize him? Him: (you-are-an-alien-stop-it-right-now look)I have no idea.
4. I have no sense of thirst. I sometimes forget to drink anything for days, until I am literally light-headed. I try to get myself to drink without a sense of thirst, but my abject failure at this proves to me the real reason why we have a sense of thirst in the first place. I don't know what happened to mine. It's just gone.
5. I am the world's worst procrastinator. Except for Mindie Kniss. She's worse than me. But she doesn't think of it as procrastinating. She just thinks of it as living. Which makes me worse, I think. I feel horribly anxious about it. I even feel anxious about Mindie's procrastiinatory behavior. I feel better having discovered that Annie Dillard is a pretty good procrastinator herself. (This sounds like something a homeopath could use to figure out a remedy for this quirk. You know, worse when thinking about Mindie's procrastination. Better when thinking about Annie Dillard. Any takers?)
6. If I could eat only one food for the rest of my life, it would be chocolate cake with frosting. As luck would have it, I'm an insulin-dependent diabetic and I'm allergic to wheat. I never, ever get to eat chocolate cake. I mean, I could. But it would make me feel terrible. Stupid biology.
Now I'm supposed to tag six people. I don't actually know that many bloggers. So I'll have to say Felicity and Mindie. And then I'll have to tell them. But now I need to stop procrastinating, go to the kitchen and eat three foods and then get some work done.
So here's the definition: n. A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.
In other words, this is someone's fancy way of getting us all involved in a chain letter. Or a chain blogging event. By telling us that we're transferring a unit of cultural information. I find it difficult to buy into. And who says I have six quirky behaviors anyway?
Oh, all right. Here you go. (huge sigh)
1. When left to my own devices, I never eat a proper meal. Instead I collect about three items from the cupboards and refrigerator and eat them sequentially. On rare occasions, I will actually put something on a plate. This seems to be my best form of eating because I lose weight (just enough) when I do this for long enough and gain weight when I eat actual meals.
2. I love writing. If allowed, I will not only spend all day either writing, thinking about writing or talking about writing, I will dream about my characters. Of course, I am not really allowed to do this. Job. Husband. Friends. Cats. heh.
3. I have a crazy imagination. In a normal conversation, I will suddenly get an idea for a story and launch into a "I was just thinking, what if...?" Some people don't react well to this. My husband looks at me like I'm an alien, especially when I ask these questions about news items. Me: What if he just admitted that he likes men? What do you think would happen? Him: He won't. He's a Republican. Me: I know, but what if he did? Him: He won't. Me; I know, but do you think it would be a big deal if he did? I mean, if he can meet men in a public restroom, then I don't see how it could be that bad. Does he think he can just hide in the stall and no one will recognize him? Him: (you-are-an-alien-stop-it-right-now look)I have no idea.
4. I have no sense of thirst. I sometimes forget to drink anything for days, until I am literally light-headed. I try to get myself to drink without a sense of thirst, but my abject failure at this proves to me the real reason why we have a sense of thirst in the first place. I don't know what happened to mine. It's just gone.
5. I am the world's worst procrastinator. Except for Mindie Kniss. She's worse than me. But she doesn't think of it as procrastinating. She just thinks of it as living. Which makes me worse, I think. I feel horribly anxious about it. I even feel anxious about Mindie's procrastiinatory behavior. I feel better having discovered that Annie Dillard is a pretty good procrastinator herself. (This sounds like something a homeopath could use to figure out a remedy for this quirk. You know, worse when thinking about Mindie's procrastination. Better when thinking about Annie Dillard. Any takers?)
6. If I could eat only one food for the rest of my life, it would be chocolate cake with frosting. As luck would have it, I'm an insulin-dependent diabetic and I'm allergic to wheat. I never, ever get to eat chocolate cake. I mean, I could. But it would make me feel terrible. Stupid biology.
Now I'm supposed to tag six people. I don't actually know that many bloggers. So I'll have to say Felicity and Mindie. And then I'll have to tell them. But now I need to stop procrastinating, go to the kitchen and eat three foods and then get some work done.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Your Friend, the Swirling Vortex of Doom
Craft talk by Pete Fromm.
Pete fromm tells us in his craft talk that he keeps seeing stories in which the writer takes his characters only to the edge of trouble and then lets them off the hook. Pete says he writes to get to the place where things are terribly wrong. I really appreciated the fact that he used student writing before and afters to demonstarte how the scene becomes more interesting if we don't evade danger to easily.
As happens often during residencies, while Pete was talking, I saw a possibility for a swirling vortex of doom for the main character of my novel. (Yes, residencies are the riskiest times for my characters!) Pete had discussed various reasons why writers might stop short--they like their characters too much, they don't want to go through the tough emotions of writing these scenes. But I saw a different kind of issue with going into the vortex. How would I get her out? And even if I did get her out, would the reader's view of her be changed so much that she would be irredeemable? Wanting to know the answer, I came back to my room at the end of the day to write toward the vortex.
Pete fromm tells us in his craft talk that he keeps seeing stories in which the writer takes his characters only to the edge of trouble and then lets them off the hook. Pete says he writes to get to the place where things are terribly wrong. I really appreciated the fact that he used student writing before and afters to demonstarte how the scene becomes more interesting if we don't evade danger to easily.
As happens often during residencies, while Pete was talking, I saw a possibility for a swirling vortex of doom for the main character of my novel. (Yes, residencies are the riskiest times for my characters!) Pete had discussed various reasons why writers might stop short--they like their characters too much, they don't want to go through the tough emotions of writing these scenes. But I saw a different kind of issue with going into the vortex. How would I get her out? And even if I did get her out, would the reader's view of her be changed so much that she would be irredeemable? Wanting to know the answer, I came back to my room at the end of the day to write toward the vortex.
Friday, June 20, 2008
The Habit of Art
This morning's first craft talk was by Claire Davis. Here's my review.
You have to make a habit of art. No, you have to make a habit of art. That's what Professor Greg ( ) told Claire Davis's college writing class. Do you understand? he would ask them, getting frustrated when they barely paid attention, did the minimum work for the assignments or when half of them didn't bother to show up. Of course, they'd say. But we didn't, Claire tells us.
She has written the talk in the same way that she writes her fiction, revealing reality to us as if we've never actually experienced it for ourselves. And we realize as she's speaking that maybe we haven't. In a breathy voice that is almost sing-song, Ms. Davis takes us on a sensory experience of words. The word is smarter than we are, she quotes ( ).
Habit, she tells us, has some unpleasant connotations. Let us make it a ritual, whatever ritual it is that gets us to sit down with pen and paper or computer screen and keyboard and put words down, make images into words, tell a story.
Find the community of like-minded souls, artists, creative people and discuss things with them. Connect with the most primeval source of inspiration: the world. But maybe, she tells us, it's not any of these things that is what is meant by the habit of art. Maybe it is being fully present, in the moment, experiencing life, noticing the way the world smells and sounds and tastes and feels and how every color is absorbed into our eyes and passes into our minds. Be in the moment. Maybe that's what the habit of art is--living fully.
She suggests that we must get past the distractions that call to us in a world where our attention is being pulled in dozens of different directions every minute of every day. They are excuses. We all have them. But the writing is the thing.
She describes going out into her garden and absorbing it with her senses. While she speaks I am there, where roses grow around her door and because she doesn't have the heart to trim the vines, she has to duck as she goes out of the house and her screen door never completely closes. I am there with the green and green and silver of the leaves. I am standing in her back yard looking out past a field of grass toward the mountains. I am breathing the air of a place I've never been, never seen.
I know exactly what she means when she says, "What if this experience is here all the time, not just at that one moment? What if we just don't notice?" She compares the experience of imagining deeply to Zen. The habit of art is an evolutionary necessity, she tells us, and I believe her as if this message is written into my genetic code. You will never imagine deeply enough, she says, if you only see the surface of things.
I don't remember having gotten teary at a craft talk before. But, well... I know exactly what she means.
You have to make a habit of art. No, you have to make a habit of art. That's what Professor Greg ( ) told Claire Davis's college writing class. Do you understand? he would ask them, getting frustrated when they barely paid attention, did the minimum work for the assignments or when half of them didn't bother to show up. Of course, they'd say. But we didn't, Claire tells us.
She has written the talk in the same way that she writes her fiction, revealing reality to us as if we've never actually experienced it for ourselves. And we realize as she's speaking that maybe we haven't. In a breathy voice that is almost sing-song, Ms. Davis takes us on a sensory experience of words. The word is smarter than we are, she quotes ( ).
Habit, she tells us, has some unpleasant connotations. Let us make it a ritual, whatever ritual it is that gets us to sit down with pen and paper or computer screen and keyboard and put words down, make images into words, tell a story.
Find the community of like-minded souls, artists, creative people and discuss things with them. Connect with the most primeval source of inspiration: the world. But maybe, she tells us, it's not any of these things that is what is meant by the habit of art. Maybe it is being fully present, in the moment, experiencing life, noticing the way the world smells and sounds and tastes and feels and how every color is absorbed into our eyes and passes into our minds. Be in the moment. Maybe that's what the habit of art is--living fully.
She suggests that we must get past the distractions that call to us in a world where our attention is being pulled in dozens of different directions every minute of every day. They are excuses. We all have them. But the writing is the thing.
She describes going out into her garden and absorbing it with her senses. While she speaks I am there, where roses grow around her door and because she doesn't have the heart to trim the vines, she has to duck as she goes out of the house and her screen door never completely closes. I am there with the green and green and silver of the leaves. I am standing in her back yard looking out past a field of grass toward the mountains. I am breathing the air of a place I've never been, never seen.
I know exactly what she means when she says, "What if this experience is here all the time, not just at that one moment? What if we just don't notice?" She compares the experience of imagining deeply to Zen. The habit of art is an evolutionary necessity, she tells us, and I believe her as if this message is written into my genetic code. You will never imagine deeply enough, she says, if you only see the surface of things.
I don't remember having gotten teary at a craft talk before. But, well... I know exactly what she means.
Schmooz and Cruise
We arrived at te residency yesterday. The whole Fab Four arrived together since Deb flew in at 7:30 yesterday morning and came over to Abby's sister's house to sleep, and then Linda came to pick the three of us up in the afternoon.
We arrived at our room which is just down the hall from where we were last year, unpacked and went grocery shopping. Then we had dinner together, each of us eating different stuff.
Deb and I are in the same workshop and we had arranged for everyone in our workshop to meet up in advance. There was already a social hour planned for all students and faculty, so we just met there early. I think it was a good idea. Now we are more relaxed together.
After we'd been there a while, all the other people in the program started showing up. I introduced Molly to everyone and I introduced David Long to two new guys in our workshop. (Molly and David are our workshop leaders.)
[Hahahaha. I can hear one of my roommates snoring through the wall. (I won't name names. She might kill me. )]
And finally, I talked to Pete. We talked for a while.
I felt very social, but I think it's because I had a purpose. My purpose (self-defined) was to make sure the new people got to meet everyone.
I saw Felicity and Mindie, and as it turns out they are in te same room only a couple of doors down from us.
This is going to be a good residency. I can tell already.
Today we start lectures. Linda said there wasn't that muc going on today, but I have to teach with Julie Rember at 4:00, so it's going to seem like a lot to me until that happens.
I don't know what's on the schedule. I think I want to corner --well, not corner, but yeah, find and convince to chat--Claire Davis. I wanted to talk to her last time. There was kind of a faux pas last time in that after my worshop session with her, I was talking about it in the lunch line and it turned out she was sitting right near where we were. I actually wasn't saying anything about what I thought. I had just said, "You should have eard my husband wen I told him. He said, "What a lot of horseshit." And at that exact moment, she and I looked right at each other. I was planning to go talk to her and clear the air, but she had to leave early and before I could find her, she was gone. So, I want to do it now and maybe she and I can come to a meeting of the minds.
My romom is all arranged and I have some books on my shelf: Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, and Robert Holdstock, right next to a cookbook about meat. (That's a present for Marc.)
We arrived at our room which is just down the hall from where we were last year, unpacked and went grocery shopping. Then we had dinner together, each of us eating different stuff.
Deb and I are in the same workshop and we had arranged for everyone in our workshop to meet up in advance. There was already a social hour planned for all students and faculty, so we just met there early. I think it was a good idea. Now we are more relaxed together.
After we'd been there a while, all the other people in the program started showing up. I introduced Molly to everyone and I introduced David Long to two new guys in our workshop. (Molly and David are our workshop leaders.)
[Hahahaha. I can hear one of my roommates snoring through the wall. (I won't name names. She might kill me. )]
And finally, I talked to Pete. We talked for a while.
I felt very social, but I think it's because I had a purpose. My purpose (self-defined) was to make sure the new people got to meet everyone.
I saw Felicity and Mindie, and as it turns out they are in te same room only a couple of doors down from us.
This is going to be a good residency. I can tell already.
Today we start lectures. Linda said there wasn't that muc going on today, but I have to teach with Julie Rember at 4:00, so it's going to seem like a lot to me until that happens.
I don't know what's on the schedule. I think I want to corner --well, not corner, but yeah, find and convince to chat--Claire Davis. I wanted to talk to her last time. There was kind of a faux pas last time in that after my worshop session with her, I was talking about it in the lunch line and it turned out she was sitting right near where we were. I actually wasn't saying anything about what I thought. I had just said, "You should have eard my husband wen I told him. He said, "What a lot of horseshit." And at that exact moment, she and I looked right at each other. I was planning to go talk to her and clear the air, but she had to leave early and before I could find her, she was gone. So, I want to do it now and maybe she and I can come to a meeting of the minds.
My romom is all arranged and I have some books on my shelf: Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, and Robert Holdstock, right next to a cookbook about meat. (That's a present for Marc.)
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Portland
I arrived in Portland yesterday. It's cool here, in the 60s. It's very interesting because I'm getting alittle familiar with the airport and I know what certain streets look like now. Also, I am enjoying the smells of Portland for the first time.
Yesterday I ate a peach and almost started crying It was so amazing. I had forgotten wat a peach really tasted like. The memory was still there, of course, but it had gotten all vague.
Abby is still sleeping. She really should get up so we can go and do something fun. Go out out to breafast. That's what we should do. We stayed up last night reading our writing to each other. Abby has some great poems.
OK< I'm going to try to get her up.
Tomorrow is the fist day of residency, although it doesn't start until evening.
Yesterday I ate a peach and almost started crying It was so amazing. I had forgotten wat a peach really tasted like. The memory was still there, of course, but it had gotten all vague.
Abby is still sleeping. She really should get up so we can go and do something fun. Go out out to breafast. That's what we should do. We stayed up last night reading our writing to each other. Abby has some great poems.
OK< I'm going to try to get her up.
Tomorrow is the fist day of residency, although it doesn't start until evening.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Off Again
I'll be going back to Oregon on Tuesday for my third residency. As usual, I am both looking forward to it and vaguely dreading it. I really don't like the traveling part of it, trying to make sure I have everything I need, managing my luggage, flying, being away from Marc and my cats. But I love seeing my friends, going to classes, being immersed in the creative atmosphere, getting to talk to other writers.
Usually, just before I go, I wish I could cancel it, get out of it somehow. Then after I get there, I almost immediately stop thinking about it and have a great time. Fortunately.
I'll be rooming with my usual roommates in the same dorm as last time. That should make it easier for me to settle in. It'll at least be familiar.
I'll be blogging the trip, as usual. Hopefully there won't be so many typos this time. I have a couple of new goals. We always have to do reviews of the classes we attended while at the residency. They're due within a week of the end of the residency, or we can turn them in before we leave. I've never had mine done in time to turn them in at the res, but I'm going to try to write about each thing I attend on the day I attend it. Maybe I'll do that here. I'm also going to try to make my reviews more formal and meaningful than I have in the past. I'm usually so tired by the time I write them that they are just a kind of fill in the blanks report of what the lecturer said. But I'm hoping that if I do them immediately after, and if I find some way to take better notes (and if I can actually read my handwriting--heh), hopefully I can write a good summary.
Every semester, a few well-written reviews make it onto the MFA website, a sort of advertisement for the program, and an endorsement of the student writer's work. Two of my roommates have had pieces up over the past two semesters. When I've seen theirs I've felt like a moron, because I can't imagine how they were able to focus enough to write such strong essays. So this time, I'm going to do it. I don't know how yet, but I'm going to.
The residency starts on the 19th, so I'll begin blogging after that. I'm co-teaching the reading for writers class again with Julie Rember. We're doing two sessions, but each one is only an hour this time. I'll write about those, but I expect it will go like it did last time.
More during the week.
Usually, just before I go, I wish I could cancel it, get out of it somehow. Then after I get there, I almost immediately stop thinking about it and have a great time. Fortunately.
I'll be rooming with my usual roommates in the same dorm as last time. That should make it easier for me to settle in. It'll at least be familiar.
I'll be blogging the trip, as usual. Hopefully there won't be so many typos this time. I have a couple of new goals. We always have to do reviews of the classes we attended while at the residency. They're due within a week of the end of the residency, or we can turn them in before we leave. I've never had mine done in time to turn them in at the res, but I'm going to try to write about each thing I attend on the day I attend it. Maybe I'll do that here. I'm also going to try to make my reviews more formal and meaningful than I have in the past. I'm usually so tired by the time I write them that they are just a kind of fill in the blanks report of what the lecturer said. But I'm hoping that if I do them immediately after, and if I find some way to take better notes (and if I can actually read my handwriting--heh), hopefully I can write a good summary.
Every semester, a few well-written reviews make it onto the MFA website, a sort of advertisement for the program, and an endorsement of the student writer's work. Two of my roommates have had pieces up over the past two semesters. When I've seen theirs I've felt like a moron, because I can't imagine how they were able to focus enough to write such strong essays. So this time, I'm going to do it. I don't know how yet, but I'm going to.
The residency starts on the 19th, so I'll begin blogging after that. I'm co-teaching the reading for writers class again with Julie Rember. We're doing two sessions, but each one is only an hour this time. I'll write about those, but I expect it will go like it did last time.
More during the week.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Almost mid-term
Obviously, I haven't been writing as much here this semester as I did last semester. This has something to do with the fact that my parents got a computer virus and something to do with the fact that I got a biological virus. The first part of that is probably harder to understand than the second part.
In some ways, I write this blog so that my mom will get to read about what happens with my school work. I mean, I want other people to read it, too, but my mom saying, "You haven't written for a while," is what motivates me to write here, or at least, reminds me to write here. So when my parents' computer was in the tech hospital because of a virus, she couldn't read my blog and so she didn't remind me to write in it. And then I got the flu, as in the real FLU.(I thought it was just a myth, like Santa Claus, the boogeyman and the toothfairy. [Actually, the toothfairy is real. I got a note from her when I was a kid. Her name is Daisy.)
Anyway, both viruses are cured now, and here I am to give an update.
I've sent and gotten back two packets. I've been happy with the feedback I've gotten and nothing has been a terrible surprise. Mostly, the comments that have helped have just broadened my perspective. I'm getting more confidence in my writing now and this is probably part of why I'm writing more. Last semester, I didn't really write anything brand new. Well, OK, I wrote a tiny piece of chapter XX, but other than that, I mostly added to things I had already been working on. But so far this semester, I've written the better part of two new chapters and I have a lot of new ideas.
Since everything seems to be going well on the small scale and since I'm a worrier, I have started to worry about the book as a whole and whether, after all is said and done, it can really work. I think it can, but then I start to panic. Yet I tell myself that all I can do is finish writing it and see.
About a month ago, I passed the hundred page mark, which seems both good and bad. I've been writing for a long time to only just have passed the hundred page mark. But then, it's going faster now and I think I'm about a third finished, with a lot of work that is relatively polished. I'll have to speed things up and there's going to be that pesky essay semester starting in June, during which I'll have to work on my essay. This will distract me from writing the novel, I think. So... I guess I had better stop writing this blog for now and GET TO WORK.
:)
In some ways, I write this blog so that my mom will get to read about what happens with my school work. I mean, I want other people to read it, too, but my mom saying, "You haven't written for a while," is what motivates me to write here, or at least, reminds me to write here. So when my parents' computer was in the tech hospital because of a virus, she couldn't read my blog and so she didn't remind me to write in it. And then I got the flu, as in the real FLU.(I thought it was just a myth, like Santa Claus, the boogeyman and the toothfairy. [Actually, the toothfairy is real. I got a note from her when I was a kid. Her name is Daisy.)
Anyway, both viruses are cured now, and here I am to give an update.
I've sent and gotten back two packets. I've been happy with the feedback I've gotten and nothing has been a terrible surprise. Mostly, the comments that have helped have just broadened my perspective. I'm getting more confidence in my writing now and this is probably part of why I'm writing more. Last semester, I didn't really write anything brand new. Well, OK, I wrote a tiny piece of chapter XX, but other than that, I mostly added to things I had already been working on. But so far this semester, I've written the better part of two new chapters and I have a lot of new ideas.
Since everything seems to be going well on the small scale and since I'm a worrier, I have started to worry about the book as a whole and whether, after all is said and done, it can really work. I think it can, but then I start to panic. Yet I tell myself that all I can do is finish writing it and see.
About a month ago, I passed the hundred page mark, which seems both good and bad. I've been writing for a long time to only just have passed the hundred page mark. But then, it's going faster now and I think I'm about a third finished, with a lot of work that is relatively polished. I'll have to speed things up and there's going to be that pesky essay semester starting in June, during which I'll have to work on my essay. This will distract me from writing the novel, I think. So... I guess I had better stop writing this blog for now and GET TO WORK.
:)
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Nervousmess and excitement
Just a quick update on how things are going since I've been back.
Something happened to me at the residency. I didn't fully realize it until I got home and got rested, but I think all the things I had been studying over the course of the term clicked in my head. Well, probably not all of them, but some substantial new thing has happened for me. I can tell I understand a critical aspect of what makes writing good that I only vaguely had some external notion of before. It's almost like I had an epiphany, but I know it was really a synthesis of the semester's work and things I heard at the residency.
So I am more and more excited about that. Could I be a little more specific? Well, here it is. It's the difference between showing and telling. Everyone says it, but it's so vague what they say. It's like understanding quantum mechanics or something. You might know something about it, but the hows and whys of it are probably beyond you. It's kind of like that. Because really, writing is telling. It's using words to make a story. How much closer to telling can you get than that? So how can you show without telling while creating a story with words?
The best way I can find to explain the difference is to use the analogy of a photograph versus a film. When you describe something in a static way, you capture a photo. When you describe it in a dynamic way, one that uses words to do dual duty depicting things not as they are in a particular stopped moment of time, but as they are during a period of time, you capture a film with words.
I never thought about this consciously until recently. I think sometimes I might have inadvertantly done this, but it was hit or miss. Now that I am aware of it, I have a lot more control. I also realized that one of the keys is to use very precise verbs. I had been an advocate of using adverbs and I couldn't understand why adverbs had to be used sparingly or not at all. But I now understand that single words have a lot of power. If you use weak or static verbs to tellyour story and add adjectives to get the nuance of meaning across, the nuances of your story become static. If you use active, precise verbs, the nuances of your story remain active, captured in the verbs. Compare "he ran" or "he strode" to "he walked quickly".
Of course, adverbs are a part of the language, but they need to be rarely used. They are scaffolding, not solid foundations.
So that's the exciting part. The nervousness comes from not knowing if I can get everything done on time. I have only three weeks each period instead of four like last time, so I really ahve to be on point all the time. And I'm having troulbe with reading. My reading speed is really down. I'm still trying to finish my first book this semester. But I'll make up for it by reading an essay for my seoncd work.
I find that I really want to impress Molly. I don't know why I should feel that way. But then, I wanted to impress Pete also. We'll see what happens.
Something happened to me at the residency. I didn't fully realize it until I got home and got rested, but I think all the things I had been studying over the course of the term clicked in my head. Well, probably not all of them, but some substantial new thing has happened for me. I can tell I understand a critical aspect of what makes writing good that I only vaguely had some external notion of before. It's almost like I had an epiphany, but I know it was really a synthesis of the semester's work and things I heard at the residency.
So I am more and more excited about that. Could I be a little more specific? Well, here it is. It's the difference between showing and telling. Everyone says it, but it's so vague what they say. It's like understanding quantum mechanics or something. You might know something about it, but the hows and whys of it are probably beyond you. It's kind of like that. Because really, writing is telling. It's using words to make a story. How much closer to telling can you get than that? So how can you show without telling while creating a story with words?
The best way I can find to explain the difference is to use the analogy of a photograph versus a film. When you describe something in a static way, you capture a photo. When you describe it in a dynamic way, one that uses words to do dual duty depicting things not as they are in a particular stopped moment of time, but as they are during a period of time, you capture a film with words.
I never thought about this consciously until recently. I think sometimes I might have inadvertantly done this, but it was hit or miss. Now that I am aware of it, I have a lot more control. I also realized that one of the keys is to use very precise verbs. I had been an advocate of using adverbs and I couldn't understand why adverbs had to be used sparingly or not at all. But I now understand that single words have a lot of power. If you use weak or static verbs to tellyour story and add adjectives to get the nuance of meaning across, the nuances of your story become static. If you use active, precise verbs, the nuances of your story remain active, captured in the verbs. Compare "he ran" or "he strode" to "he walked quickly".
Of course, adverbs are a part of the language, but they need to be rarely used. They are scaffolding, not solid foundations.
So that's the exciting part. The nervousness comes from not knowing if I can get everything done on time. I have only three weeks each period instead of four like last time, so I really ahve to be on point all the time. And I'm having troulbe with reading. My reading speed is really down. I'm still trying to finish my first book this semester. But I'll make up for it by reading an essay for my seoncd work.
I find that I really want to impress Molly. I don't know why I should feel that way. But then, I wanted to impress Pete also. We'll see what happens.
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