Thesis reading follow-up
My Creative Writing MFA thesis reading was on Friday night and it was a proud evening for me. Jon Surdo read from his thriller-horror screenplay, Rat Trap, first and I went second reading from my science fiction adventure-comedy screenplay, Earthlings.
Jon and I each presented our work in our own way. Both of us displayed our pages on a document camera, and Jon had seven readers sit to either side of the projector screen and read the characters as he read the scene direction. As for me, I went ahead with my solo read, putting the pages on the document camera while also displaying eight illustrations on the computer. I’ve been a reader for three of my peers this semester and enjoy the ensemble process, but ultimately I decided to challenge myself to the solo experience and it went well. I provided voices for all of the different characters and when I ran out of voices I stole voices (thank you, Peter Lorre). I read it with as much enthusiasm and excitement as I felt the material was supposed to convey on-screen, speeding through space battles with intensity. As for the illustrations, they were done in pencil, then inked with my trusty Zebra Zeb-Roller 2000 0.7mm Liquid Black Ink Pen with the Rubberized Grip, then colored in grayscale on the computer. Those illustrations make up the very end of my thesis and will be bound along with the writing.
We had a crowd of approximately fifty in attendance and they were an excellent audience. They asked good questions, listened intently, laughed at all the right spots and a few more that surprised me, plus were genuinely interested to know what happened in my script beyond the portion I read, act one. The fiancée made the drive down and my parents surprised me by my mother driving up for the event. I knew my father was coming (he’s a few hours closer right now, having taken a new job in a new city while mom prepares their house to sell), but she completely surprised me. After the reading we went to Blue Bricks and had a fun time with friends. My ride home saw me with a pretty big smirk on my face.
Earlier that afternoon, I printed four copies of my thesis on fancy-schmancy (that should really be a brand name) 100% cotton paper with a watermark, got final adviser signatures, and turned them in to the office of graduate studies. I came close to crying. An emotional weight has been lifted, one which has consumed so much of my time and energy over the last three years, especially in these last few months but especiaspecially (that should be a new adjective) in the last few weeks. That’s already started, with funding approved tonight for my promotion at work (perhaps tomorrow’s blog, dear reader) and a new outlook on how / what / when to write. Things are looking up. :)
Except for my taxes. I’m getting enough back to go to the movies. By myself.
-nm
Technorati Tags: thesis reading, creative writing mfa, document camera, screenplay thesis, trading places movie quote
Inspiration in the grocery aisle
Today I took a cartload of groceries through the self check-out aisle at Cub Foods. I had a coupon for most every item. Now, I’ve used this lane before, but only for small purchases. If you have a cartload of groceries like I did, do not use the self check-out lane. It will be the longest, most-grueling experience you’ll ever put yourself through. The system is counter-intuitive to the mass purchase. I’m faster than the machine, so I was constantly waiting for the “blipper” to ring up items. Coupons wouldn’t work. Items couldn’t be taken off the bagging area and put in the cart until they “weighed in,” or something. I stepped into the aisle to save time. I added at least ten minutes for my trouble.
What does this have to do with a blog on writing and creativity? Halfway through scanning the items that added up to the longest receipt I’ve ever had, I had to chuckle to myself. I couldn’t wait for this moment, and the emotion behind it, to find its way into a story. The idea of someone going through the painstaking process of ringing up their own groceries and the ridiculous process which ensues is interesting, but the emotion that goes with it inspires me even more. To feel such frustration, to feel all eyes on me as people wait behind me in line. That emotion is what drove the moment, and that’s the important thing to capture in a story. I wonder what would happen if I let more stories lead with emotion than plot.
Inspiration will find you, if you let it.
-nm
Technorati Tags: grocery store, self check-out, writing and creativity, finding inspiration, inspiration finding you
Gone, Gary Gygax, Gone
I’m a few weeks late, and there are some great online eulogies out there already (The Simpsons writer Matt Selman’s blogging partner, Lev Grossman, wrote one, as did one of my favorite screenwriters, John August), but I just don’t think I can let the passing of Gary Gygax, inventor of Dungeons & Dragons, go without comment…
I’m not a Dungeons & Dragons expert. In fact, I’m not really an expert on any particular brand of geek culture; I continually meet people who know more about their area of focus than I could ever hope to know (eh, maybe I’m The Simpsons Guy). I enjoyed Dr. Who as a kid, but Tim Uren is the walking master database. I know the Star Wars films inside and out, but my brother, Jordan, is the person to talk to about the “expanded universe” of books and comics. Want to talk Batman? Talk to Greg Nesbit of local rock band, Freeze-Dried Fun. At any rate, D&D was a part of my experience growing up and it affects who I am today.
My first exposure to D&D was through my uncle Larry. He was a teenager when I was a wee tot of four in 1983 as the first episodes of the animated Dungeons & Dragons episodes hit the air. I watched that cartoon every Saturday, digging on rotating villains, amazing weapons, and Tiamat the dragon. It was violent, epic, and unapologetically unlike any other cartoon I’d ever seen.
On a visit to my grandparents’ home, I found Larry not only had D&D toys, he had a lot of D&D toys. Many of the toys back were big pieces of PVC, sometimes articulated with inner-wired tentacles, though he had several traditional-style action figures, too. I was really into Star Wars and G.I. Joe toys, and my mother couldn’t see investing in yet another toy line (wait, that’s not true - He-Man was in there somewhere, too). 
The only D&D toy I ended up with was still a pretty cool one: Grimsword the Evil Knight.
What I remember most about that visit is that I learned D&D was more than toys and cartoons - it was a game, too. But it was unlike any game I’d ever seen; this game had more paper, pencil drawings, and loads of imagination. Larry had this tri-fold cardboard border that stood up to separate the players’ information with his information as “Dungeon Master,” a terms I was familiar with from the cartoon. He and his friends spoke of characters they created, beings and creatures depicted in numbers and lists as well as the occasional rough pencil sketch. I was already enamored with drawing, so pretty soon I was making up my own characters, too.
Larry and his friends let me play a game with them. I don’t want to go on some sort of smug self-indulgent tale about how at the age of four-nearly five, I could follow the game, write up my character, and even read the monster descriptions (I could, though. Ask my mother.), but that’s what happened. I remember having trouble understanding why certain dice did certain things, but they kept it simple and were all pretty understanding of this tag-a-long kid. I didn’t have much to do with D&D after that for around a decade.
In middle school and high school, I spent a lot of time in Aaron Weet’s basement playing AD&D 2nd Edition (I’m now aware Gygax was shed of royalties by shady TSR dealings through this distinction from his regular, Gygax-controlled D&D, but we didn’t know, and this was what was new at the time) at the end of elementary school, all of middle school, and some early high school. Our group was more into hack-and-slash missions and goofing off while playing, much to Aaron’s chagrin as DM. One mission I remember playing over and over was Of Kings Unknown, a kill-the-orcs, get the gold adventure from Dungeon Magazine #25 where characters gathered a fruit called “moon melons” for some old guy. 
If one ate the moon melons, crazy stuff happened to them, like a change in size, intelligence, armor class due to the growth of natural armor or exoskeleton, or even grow additional eyes. My ultimate grand idea? Find a way to raise an army of a thousand skeleton warriors and go toe-to-toe with a dragon for his hoarde (in fact, this dragon in particular). This eventually lead us to picking up a lot of books by Palladium, too, including Heroes Unlilmited and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness. Sidenote: the TMNT role-playing game was especially interesting to own and play at the height of ninja turtlemania. 
All of our friends were obsessed with the Saturday-morning cartoon depiction of the characters, while we who played the role-playing game came to learn of their comic book origins and their original, more adult-oriented adventures.
Between AD&D 2nd Edition, TMNT, HU, Magic: The Gathering, and epic, sweeping board games like Risk and Axis & Allies, gaming was a big part of my life, and the social networks and companionship it developed in us as young men was an important part of my growing up. I learned how to explore my imagination within an established world, expand it to the creation of my own endeavors, and appreciate the nuanced details one can take when creating a storytelling world. As far as I can figure, much of this has to do with Gary Gygax.
Gary had imagination, and he was generous enough to not only share it with the world but also allow people to take his vision and do something new with it. I’m not talking about shady TSR business practices, I’m talking about how he empowered young men everywhere to write up characters, adventures, and have a great time with good friends. I think this has a direct correlation to many of those involved in creative entertainment today; the effects of Gary’s vision are far-reaching.
If you have a D&D story to share, I’d love to hear about it. I’ll give you a +1 pat on the back.
-nm
Technorati Tags: Gary Gygax, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, D & D, ninja turtles, imagination, heroes unlimited
Missing deadlines and justifying behavior.
So this is what happens when I miss a few deadlines.
This week, I missed four self-imposed deadlines, all having to do with this blog. I didn’t put up a Friday Recommendation last week, or a Monday Prompt this week, or the two promised Wednesday posts on reporter’s questions about your writing habits. The plan is to go back and put them in place so as to keep up with our consistent numbering system, though I’ll toss in a little “This post was retroactively placed here” sort of disclaimer to be fair. All of this does have me thinking about one question:
Who’s stopping me from blowing a self-imposed deadline?
Me. There are certain deadlines I have to meet. I have to pay rent on time. I have to have essays graded so students can revise them in time for their next due date. I have to finish a short story in time for a workshop if I want to be included in the next round of stories. These sorts of deadlines are put on me by other people, so I have a tendency to stick to them a lot easier than self-imposed deadlines. With those, it’s easier for me to justify behavior that doesn’t get things done. Oh, what’s one week’s worth of missing blogs? Oh, what’s one more day off the exercise bike? Oh, what’s one missing hour of ukulele rehearsal? Oh, what’s just one more double cheeseburger? Oh, what’s a measly ten dollars on another DVD?
I know the answer to those five hypothetical questions. It’s me not giving my readers what they deserve. It’s me not supporting myself like I deserve. It’s me not 100% preparing myself for a show. It’s me not embracing a lifestyle change. It’s me not saving money for my wedding. All of these self-imposed deadlines have one thing in common - they address a plethora of small, specific short-term goals which all feed into a handful of large, important long-term goals. I write the blog to better my writing - if I’m not writing it, I’m not helping myself. I work out and eat better for my health - if I don’t, things will stay on a downward slope. I practice ukulele because I have shows coming up - plus it’s fun, so I should make time for it. I save money because weddings cost money - it’s no longer in the distance; it’s practically just around the corner. Yet these points are often met with justified behavior. But you know what?
‘Justification’ will kill your creativity, if you let it.
To be fair to myself, this has been a really busy week for a variety of reasons: extra essays to grade, extra projects at work, a handful of improv shows after not doing shows for a while, my final comprehensive exam for my MFA is on Saturday morning, and so on. In a way, my life sort of interrupted my life. Don’t take this as justification, dear reader, rather think of it as me being honest with myself in a public setting. Everything I did and everything I missed is important to me - I just wasn’t able to give everything the time and attention they deserved in one overly-busy week.
My apologies to any reader who missed my intended posts this week; they’ll be up soon. Apologies to me for allowing justification to take over some of my recent decisions; I’m going to try to put justification aside for a while. Apologies to justification, but it’s just not working out. We’ve had a good run, and I know we’ll probably see each other again, sometime. But our relationship isn’t going to be the same. It’s not you, it’s me.
Help a writer know he’s not alone in the fight against justifying behavior - have you faced this abusive lover, too?
-nm
Technorati Tags: missing deadlines, justify behavior, lifestyle change, ukulele, improv, killing your creativity, what’s important to me
Grant a child your Compassion.
The youth group I work with is currently in the process of selecting a new child to sponsor through Compassion International, a child’s rights advocacy group who provide opportunities for education and safe play, better health care and nutrition, and faith-building. We’ve sponsored a child in the past, and we’re choosing a new child to give this fresh young group more personal ownership of the responsibility. We began the process the day before Valentine’s Day to help our teenagers consider love beyond romantic “eros” love and look more at brotherly “philia” love and undying “agape” love (leave it to the Greeks to have several words for love). The group has taken to this task with amazing seriousness and interest. We hope to choose a child by the end of this week and begin sponsoring them with a weekly donation collection during youth group activities.
Why mention this on a blog about writing and creativity? Because it’s time to get creative with how we help others. Because our group hopes to help a child without a voice be heard, to be able to write or tell their story untold. Because by writing about the need for help, it spreads awareness - the first step toward helping someone. Call me sappy or overly dramatic, but I will in turn call you to check out the Compassion website and not be touched by the poverty children all over the world could simply use a break. We hope to give a child a break, and that’s why I’m filing this post under “inspiration.” Get inspired, and do something.
If you decide to work with Compassion or another organization helping children, I encourage you to let me know in the comments. In the meantime, I’ll keep you posted once the youth group has chosen a child.
-nm
Technorati Tags: Compassion International, Compassion, child advocacy
My reflections on AWP.
Over twenty people from MSU’s MFA program attended the Associated Writer’s Programs (AWP) conference in NYC this weekend. I’ve returned home owning twenty pounds of new books, a few new brain cells of knowledge, and one deliciously nasty cold. I’m also home light several hearty belly laughs and a few hundred bucks, but that’s the price one pays for a whirlwind weekend in the Big Apple. The miserable cold I picked up my first night at AWP is the main factor which kept me away from several of the panels I tentatively scheduled for myself last Tuesday (Who’s the fool who missed John Irving? Me. The coughing, sneezing, head-aching, sleeping fool). Rather than critique programs I attended, I’m concentrating on the highlights my time in NYC.
Best times with my MSU peers…
Part of making AWP succeed on a personal level is the networking and connecting. I had a chance to spend time with many of my peers - of which I can point you to the blogs of Danielle Starkey and, once again, Bryan Johnson - as well as see old pal Charlie Jensen from the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, and English undergrads and professors from Southwest Minnesota State University I met last fall at Beth Ann Fennelly’s Good Thunder Reading at MSU. Highlights with my MSU peers include a trek through Time Square with the gang, a too-late night in Greenwich Village with the guys, ridiculous text messaging, nocturnal activities in a hotel room in which all occupants have wildly varying sleeping schedules, tossing tunes on the jukebox the crowd actually enjoyed, David Clisbee playing a violin at the request of a subway busker, and a trip to the Upright Citizens Brigade theater. Thanks for the great times, gang.
Most unexpected person I saw at AWP…
While on my way to have Blue Hour signed by Carolyn Forché, I ran into Kurt Caswell; he was teaching English at Laramie County Community College while I was there serving as the Residence Life Coordinator, and he’s since moved on an assistant professorship at Texas Tech University. It seems Kurt’s had plenty of success during his time at TTU and I wish him the best. Seeing him at AWP is yet another bit of evidence that it is indeed a small world.
Best AWP Book Fair Promos…
My favorite three were all at the AWP Book Fair last year, too, and perhaps I’m just excited to get my hands on a few more. The aforementioned Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing handed out slap bracelets, Roger Magazine handed out Roger mini-frisbees (I made up a new game with these frisbees; every time you throw or catch the Roger frisbee, you say, “Roger!” with a faux-British accent for hours of fun), and thank you, thank you, thank you to the Poetry Foundation for digging up a few more black-on-white buttons featuring the fantastic first line of Marianne Moore’s “Poetry,” which begins: “I, too, dislike it.” Yeah, plenty of booths had free candy and even free publication issues, but the three items mentioned above are guaranteed conversation pieces.
Best NYC alone time…
Sneaking away for a little solo R & R never hurt anybody, especially when the alternative is a hotel filled with thousands of people. I spent time walking through Time Square for gift shopping, strolled through Rockefeller Plaza to see the ice skating rink, wound up in the background of the Today Show’s outdoor segments, ate highly-addictive gyros from a cart vendor, and usually spent my panel time alone, preferring to catch what drew my attention rather than following the group. To this end, I saw…
My three favorite AWP panels…
Like I said, a cold made me miss many of the panels I intended to see. However, here’s what I saw and really enjoyed:
Show and Tell: Collaborations of the Verbal and Visual.
I met panelist and favorite playwright Christopher Durang after the panel, something I never imagined happening in my lifetime, as well as excellent cartoonist Jules Feifer. The panel spoke on ways of approaching writing which will be accompanied by visual representation, and spoke with fond nostalgia of foregone days of cartooning and its writer / artist approach. Feifer gave a particularly poignant capsule of wisdom: the artist’s responsibility is to visually represent the text to partner with it, not to overplay it or to downplay it. That’s a professional who loves his craft.
Saying ‘Goodbye’ to Sweet Valley High: The New Young Adult Literature.
While I can’t say I gained extraordinary insight into YA craft or publishing strategies, it was inspiring to hear YA writers speak of the craft with as much enthusiasm and passion as any other literary writing. I was disheartened to hear many academic settings don’t consider a YA publishing credit as legitimate, yet the panel posited we’re perhaps seeing the dawn of something new in the YA world: more and more prestigious awards that matter, and those awards and recognitions add up to something respectable.
Dramatic Writing For Stage, Screen & Digital Media: The Need for a New Kind of Interdisciplinary Writing Program. The MA in Professional Writing program at Kinnesaw State University is an enviable one, allowing student writers to collaborate with student actors, filmmakers, and creative artists to combine their writing with staged plays, short films, and other digital media content which combines the verbal and visual. Jeffery Stepakoff, a writer for Dawson’s Creek, Major Dad, and The Wonder Years, gave some great perspective on how new writers trained in new writing outlets are going to get jobs, and Aaron Levy presented a formula I dig: IDEA + FORCE + FORM = IDEA REALIZED. In other words, one’s creativity plus the drive to work on it, combined with the right presentation method equals the idea reaching its highest potential. The main argument of the KSU program is writers need to study the classic methods of writing but instead of fearing new forms of output, they should embrace them. This is a progressive idea I can get behind. I should see if they’re hiring - it sounds like a brilliant environment to teach within.
Carolyn Forché, Tao Lin, and Frank McCourt, oh my…
I brought my copy of Blue Hour for Carolyn Forché to sign. Her reading was delightful and it was nice to meet a professor of one of my professors (Rick Robbins worked with her during his college days). I did chicken out, however, and decided not to tell her I’ve nicknamed her sweeping, forty-five-page long poem “On Earth” as her “LMN-Opus.”
I picked up a copy of Tao Lin’s You Are a Bit Happier Than I Am poetry collection at last year’s AWP bookfair and made my way to the Action Books table to see what new work they had from him. Turns out they had none, but recommended going to Melville Press for his new novel and short story collection. At Melville, I was informed I had missed Tao Lin by five minutes. I stalked my way through all three floors of the book fair, Tao’s books held in front of me, hoping I’d catch a glimpse of him or he’d catch a glimpse of his books. Finally, a thin, quiet-voiced young man approached me and said, “Hi, um, those are my books.” I smiled and pointed a finger at him, proclaiming, “I’ve been looking for you.” He took a noticeable step back and then I told him the whole story and he was happy to sign my books (with doodles) and talk about his future work (more on the way, soon!). Tao Lin is a young talent who’s writing is indeed worth your time.
Frank McCourt and Billy Collins gave thousands of AWP attendees the most-entertaining hour of the week. The two men told jokes, spoke casually with the crowd, razzed each other a bit from the stage while the other was seated, and gave readings that really clicked with this attendee. My only regret? I forgot to bring my digital voice recorder. If AWP didn’t think to record that reading to release as a podcast, their regret should be at least mine tenfold.
And while my time in NYC and at AWP were for the most part wonderful, I can’t help but present two sour notes…
My biggest missed opportunity in NYC…
I should have visited MAD Magazine. I love MAD, nay, I lurve it, as Woody Allen might say. It only occurred to me on Friday evening to see about getting a tour and, while my hotel was only two blocks away from the MAD offices, I found out the hard way that MAD is not open to the public on Saturdays. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, but that’s something I’ll be kicking myself for quite some time.
AWP and it’s big missed opportunity…
Getting panel slots at AWP is a competitive and quick prcoess: submit a proposal by May, receive notice by August, present in January. What this way of doing things doesn’t allow is for incidental moments in writing which occur in-between that time, and while there were several tribute panels and readings to long-gone writers, the passing of one great writer this year wasn’t officially mentioned even once…
For AWP to not acknowledge the loss of Kurt Vonnegut in any official way is a missed opportunity and frankly, a clear fumble. It’s my hope that as we lose great writer, space is set aside in which a panel may pay tribute. Can you imagine getting high-profile writers to do public readings of Vonnegut’s work? I’m belaboring the point, but for as much praise as I’ve heaped on AWP in this blog post, surely I can dwell on one of their greatest mistakes.
And with that, I’m on far too few hours of sleep to continue writing and shall call it a night. If you were at AWP, dear reader, I’m interested in hearing about your favorite highlights, so send us a comment or link.
-nm
Technorati Tags: AWP, AWP conference, Kurt Vonnegut, Hilton, Carolyn Forche, Kinnesaw State University, Rick Robbins, Associated Writers Programs, Jeffery Stepakoff, Frank McCourt, Billy Collins reading, gyro
I’m going to AWP tomorrow.
AWP is the short-hand name for the annual conference for the Association of Writers and Writing Program, and I leave in the morning.
At last year’s AWP conference in Atlanta, I attended quite a few excellent programs filled with information and charismatic speakers, some not-so-excellent programs in which misleading program titles covered for bad presentation and pretentious chapbook reading to sell copies, and one program where the speakers never showed up. So it was a mixed bag, programming-wise, but the experience was overall positive, giving me the opportunity to socialize with peers and professors in my MFA program in new ways (as a commuter, I’m often “out of the loop”), see my old friend Charles Jensen, meet editor Rob Spillman of Tinhouse and nab a subscription, and be in a focused environment of people excited by writing. Perhaps I’ll toss out a few Scrawlers business cards, here and there; wouldn’t it be fun to have Frank McCourt post a Scrawlers story?
Many of those positives elements are why I’m also attending this year, plus the hope to see more excellent programs and catch amazing, high-profile readings. Plus, this AWP conference is “the big one,” in that it’s in New York City - a place I’ve not ventured to since a high school band trip taken with fellow Scrawlers scribe Barry Hess in 1996. I hope to visit some great sites in NYC, while not missing out on too much great programming at AWP.
This long-winded list isn’t set in stone, but here is a title list of programs I’m looking at attend, plus my preconceptions. I know I won’t make them all, and not all will be good enough to hold my attention, and other ideas will crop up here and there, but if I can get my plan down in writing before I arrive, it may prove useful as a guiding light over a whirlwind trip. Anyway, my tentative (and optimistic) AWP schedule:
Thursday, January 31, 2008
9:00am-10:15am Shaping a Short Story Collection. I’m approximately one-third of the way through a YA short story collection, with plans laid out pretty well for how it will take shape as a whole, and I can only hope this session will be helpful in putting it together in the most successful way.
10:30am-11:45am Do You Have to be Mean to be Funny? Given my usual taste in projects, this feels like an obligatory session to attend. That said, it’s up against Russell Banks and Charles Simic, as well as a session on how editors acquire books. This is one of those sessions which will either be worth my time or be a waste of it.
12:00pm-1:15pm Blog Form and Function in Writing Communities. The Scrawl is a young blog, and I’m still learning the ropes in how to make it the most effective blog I can for my audience (hi!). That said, aforementioned partner-in-crime Barry Hess is great about giving me tips and links to insightful reading on the subject, so I may end up at the Real or Imagined: The Line Between Young Adult, Crossover, and Adult Fiction session, instead.
1:30pm-2:45pm An Alternative to Teaching: Preparing MFA Students to Work in Nonprofit Arts Agencies (A Case Study). By this time of day, I’ll be thanking myself for having a hearty breakfast (or upset that I didn’t). I’m in the job search process these days, so this is appealing. Plus, one of the panelists is the aforementioned old friend Charles Jensen. Subscribe to his blog - he’s a poet and teacher of writing who has passion for his work.
3:00pm-4:15pm A Literary Interview with Daniel Menaker, Random House Former Executive Editor. This is the only session this hour which both interests me and I’m hopeful won’t feature writers reading their work out loud to entice me to buy their book even though I don’t want it. Sorry if that’s snarky, but I don’t want your book. As for the Menaker interview, it looks to be eye-opening, and hopefully not in that “brutally cutthroat world of publishing” way.
4:30pm-6:15pm A Reading by Carolyn Forché & Ha Jin. I’ve chosen Forché’s poetry collection Blue Hour for my upcoming MFA comprehensive exam, so I would be a fool to miss her read. I keep joking with my peers I’m going to ask her what the collection is all about so I can use her first-hand testimonial in my exam, but the more I think about it the more I wonder if that isn’t such a bad idea.
8:30pm Keynote Address by John Irving. Fools will miss this presentation. Fools.
Friday, February 1, 2008
9:00am-10:15am Show and Tell: Collaborations of the Verbal and Visual. Now this sounds really interesting to me - writers involved in film, theater, novels, and cartooning. That fits me pretty well, methinks.
10:30am-11:45am Habitable Planets and Black Holes: Mapping the Expanding Cyber-Universe of the New Literary Media. Online publishing and the future of publishing overall interests me, so hopefully this program pulls through. I may take time to check out the book fair, too.
12:00pm-1:15pm
1:30pm-2:45pm Transcending Childhood Trauma Through Children’s Literature: Middle-Aged and Young Adult. I’ve been writing more and more YA in the last year, so this is another no-brainer to attend.
3:00pm-4:15pm Fraud! The Debunking of Experimental Fiction. The title is great, and too many of my peers and professors laud over Michael Martone to pass up a program which features him on the panel. I’m sure this program will have MSU folks in attendance en masse. That said, if the 100 Issues: A Celebration of One Story Magazine featuring the John Hodgman, so I may have to venture that way, instead.
4:30pm-6:15pm The Soundtrack of Fiction: Rhythm in Prose. This is a notion I’ve been trying out more and more in my own writing, to allow rhythm and flow to be yet another solid reason for language choice. That said, that’s an awfully long time for a presentation, so we’ll see.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
9:00am-10:15am What Makes a Publisher Say “Yes”? So long as the audience doesn’t decide to be a bunch of jaded unpublished whiners who spend the entire Q&A asking how to get an agent, this should prove to be a frank eye-opener. Six editors from six well-known presses will give us the scoop; hopefully, we’re up to hearing it.
10:30am-11:45am Why Ballet is Good for Football Players: How Screenwriting Informs Fiction and Poetry Writing. I narrowed my choices down for this hour to two possible programs and while the second features Charles Baxter, a program that examines the link between my primary form of writing with my secondary form of writing and a form of writing I’m only just beginning to appreciate sounds like the perfect program for me. Here’s hoping screenwriting as art gets the kudos it deserves in an academic setting.
12:00pm-1:15pm No Humor in Heaven, but Hell Can Be Hilarious: Risks and Rewards in Writing Humor. Here’s a presentation in which I wouldn’t mind hearing writers read their work, as I’d like to hear what sort of humor prose are getting published.
1:30pm-2:45pm Dramatic Writing For Stage, Screen & Digital Media: The Need for a New Kind of Interdisciplinary Writing Program. All I know is I agree with the title, so that’s that.
3:00pm-4:15pm “Glory Be”: Spirituality in Contemporary Poetry. My day job since the beginning of my MFA days has been a youth director, yet I’ve yet to explore faith in my writing. This may be an interesting introduction to the concept. On the other hand, Kitsch and Pop Culture as Social Critique is during the same hour, and I’m a pop culture freak.
4:30pm-6:15pm
So that’s it - my official list of best intentions. Of course, I also need to venture out and see a little bit of
-nm
Technorati Tags: AWP, Tinhouse, free internet hotel, charles jensen, billy collins, barry hess, blogging
What I will write in 2008.
Knowing what you want to accomplish is the first step in goal-setting. I’ve never been one who has merely one project going, preferring to journey into several directions. This approach doesn’t help me finish projects in a timely manner, but it keeps my ideas flowing and my brain busy. This year, I have projects to finish and new projects to start, and I’m setting deadlines for them, as well.
In regards to works-in-progress (five):
- Complete my thesis by March 15.
- Finish my first novel by August 1.
- Explore my second novel all year, but have a first draft completed by December 31.
- Finish the first of two unfinished screenplays by August 1.
- Finish the second of two unfinished screenplays by December 31.
In regards to new ongoing projects (five):
- Write three new Scrawlers stories a week.
- Comment on five Scrawlers stories a week.
- Begin a regular podcast by Feb. 29.
- Blog four times a week: a Monday Prompt, a Friday Something (you’ll see…), and two more posts per week. I may end up blogging only three times a week, but we’ll see.
- Keep my office clean and organized! This isn’t writing, but it will certainly help my writing.
In regards to 100% new projects (five)
- Write a procedures manual for my job by April 1.
- Write a play by April 1. Produce it by December 31.
- Explore the OHMN! project year-round.
- Start one new screenplay after August 1.
- Write something completely new!
I have a mix of MFA deadlines, self-imposed deadlines, and freedom to allow my creativity to flow. Fifteen projects stare me in the face this year, and I am determined to make them happen. Decide what you want to accomplish this year and get to work. Make a list of project goals. Break them down even further into tangible steps. Post them online or give them to someone so you’re beholden to someone. See what you can do when you dedicate yourself to something which excites you - writing.
-nm
Technorati Tags: goal setting, writing deadlines, write in 2008
Writing while on “vacation.”
This is the first week of my winter break between semesters and I’m determined to make the next four weeks as productive as possible. How? A solid handful of tangible writing goals.
1. I will have my new online hybrid section of Composition 101 completely planned out.
That’s just the way it is. I do not want to be guessing what I’ll be doing week-to-week. I do not want to have the first six weeks planned out, only to have to spend a weekend planning the next six weeks. My process involves plenty of writing, from annotating my texts to creating quizzes to writing lesson plans to finalizing the syllabus and assignment sheets. It’s all going to be ready to go.
2. I will have a polished draft of my screenplay thesis under my belt.
The thesis requires more than the creative element of the story (critical introduction, my visual presentation), but the story will be done and polished. It already has a solid draft but I know it can be tightened and tweaked, corrected and clarified. I spoke to a friend yesterday who asked me what I was working on over break and when I told him my thesis, he proceeded to recite the tagline I’d told him about this script over a year ago. It stuck in his brain that much, and that helps me believe this is a script worth pursuing.
3. I will have two, count ‘em, two polished short stories under my belt.
I’m a slow writer, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be writing. I have ideas in the bank, ready to be pulled out and exercised, and now is the time. I may or may not bring them into a workshop setting next semester, but in the meantime I want to work on improving my amount of polished writing output.
I have plenty of other projects to work on, but letting them revolve around these three tangible goals gives my work world gives me focus, allows me room to stretch my creativity in several directions, and keeps the next four weeks goal-oriented rather than haphazard.
-nm
Technorati Tags: tangible goals, polished writing, screenplay thesis, online hybrid
My five favorite preschool books.
Reading Rainbow was on the local PBS station this morning and I got excited. I remember watching this show in my preschool (yes, and beyond) days and really enjoying it, seeking out the featured books and giving them a look, though I also remember not finding many of the featured books in my local library (which either says something about the library or the show). This morning’s Reading Rainbow episode was follwed by Arthur, and that made me remember Bill Cosby read those books on Reading Rainbow when I was a kid, but that I never actually read an Arthur book. The Arthur cartoon series ran in the mid-90s and my young cousins really liked him, so here’s to longevity.
All of this culminates in a trip down nostalgia lane as I try to remember what I read in my preschool years, those first few books which got me going. I’m certainly not catching them all, but a few came to mind…
I was enamored by Richard Scarry’s books. The illustrations were detailed enough to keep me staring for hours, and the action on the pages lent themselves to letting the reader make up their own stories about fun characters like Lowly the Worm. Like Arthur, this is another series which enjoyed a second life in the mid-90s as a cartoon series relaunch. I was too old to get into it at the time, and only vaguely remember it’s existence.
Little Golden Books. A whole slew of ‘em. I had shelves full, some older and some newer, but plenty of titles to choose from; the mixture between worn, well-read titles and sturdy, glossy titles makes me wonder how many were hand-me-downs from my older cousin, Kris. Many of my Little Golden Books featured classic tales and well-aged fables, and The Little Red Hen is one I remember in particular, and I still use it’s metaphor today.
There was a forty-title series of Sweet Pickles books, but I had exactly two. The Secret Club crams most of the series characters into a small “secret” club which turns out to be not-so-secret (or fun). I was especially a fan of Some Friend, a tale featuring Walrus getting all worked up about Bear borrowing his winter hat and not returning it, though Bear has no clue he’s engendered Walrus’s anger. I think of this book when I someone work themselves up over something, not realizing whoever they’re angry with doesn’t know what’s going on. Sweet Pickles books were found mostly in the land of doctor’s waiting rooms, but I always preferred my two over any others I came across. Maybe it was me being picky, or maybe it was me dreading doctor visits. Are these books, featuring anthropomorphic animals named simply after their species, one of my inspirations for Caseous, my college newspaper comic strip, featuring characters like Frog and Bear? Hmm…
While I had a few Dr. Seuss books at home, my favorites were leftover from my father’s childhood at my Grandma and Grandpa’s farm. There was a great big pile of them, yellowing and musty from constant reading and exposure. While the more popular Seuss stories were great fun, this book, featuring three tales of Cat in the Hat relatives, was a particular favorite. Perhaps this one sticks out in my mind because of the way Grandma read it, with all the storytelling gusto of a professional. This is also the first book I remember looking at the pictures and drawing my versions, side-by-side, with any accuracy.
This was, hands-down, my favorite pre-school book. The text was simple but the illustrations were complex, filled with intricate little details of vehicle mechanics and trucker lifestyle. My father read two versions of this book to me as a little boy - the real version, and the version in which Joe was a jerk. They were both pretty good.
Five titles seems like a good place to stop. Looking over this list, I’m surprised to find three coming from series authors (Dr. Seuss, Richard Scarry, and Sweet Pickles), and the other two from publishing collections. I often look at bookstore YA shelves with disdain at how much shelf space is given to series instead of singular, solid stories. But it appears I’m more a part of the machine than I ever thought. I’m keen on doing a little research into this area. I’ll ask my parents about my other favorite books from that time in my life. There’s something about going back to my roots which appeals to me, and I think that’s worth doing for many of my creative facets of fascination: reading, writing, drawing, animation, acting, and improv. I may explore these themes in a handful of future posts.
And I am eager to learn of your favorite preschool-level books, dear reader!
-nm
Technorati Tags: Reading Rainbow, early readers, Big Joe’s Trailer Truck, Richard Scarry, Little Golden Books, Sweet Pickles, I Can Lick Thirty Tigers Today
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About
Brought together by mutual interest in creative arts and web development, Minnesota duo Barry Hess and Nathan Melcher founded Scrawlers.com in 2006. Scrawlers marries creativity with a web-based outlet for aspiring writers and The Scrawl blog seeks to add fuel your creative fire.
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