How does one get back into blogging?
By doing it.
Quite the no-brainer, eh?
In April, I found myself swept up into such a busy frenzy that blogging fell so far off my radar screen it crashed to the floor like a neglected cup of cold coffee meeting with an elbow. In other words, I stopped doing it completely. I certainly meant to get back into it but as I’ve quoted Steven Pressfield writing about writing, “It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.” That’s something I wanted to do and well, dear reader, there were plenty of distractions that bogged me down (those distractions are for another post.
So despite all of that, or in direct cause of it, here I am, getting back into the swing of things. Hopefully, I still have your subscription. Looking ahead, I have plenty of news from the past few months to fill you in on plus I hope to blog during two upcoming improv performance road trips. Let’s take a journey together and see where we end up.
-nm
Technorati Tags: improv, blogging, writing habit
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
What I’m writing, how I’m writing it
I’m on the tail-end of two writing projects - a new short story for fiction workshop and my thesis. The thesis is ready to be put to bed. Actually, it’s been ready for bed for a while; it’s tired and wired and cranky and frankly it wants a drink of wah-wah and a nap. It gets “finishing touches” today, meaning I’m reading it out loud in its entirety to listen to the writing. It’s an important step in the revision process which often gets overlooked. Listen to your writing. Catch repetition in the act, capture awkward phrasing before it captures you, zero in on typing errors and blow them away.
As far as my thesis reading on Friday (which you’re invited to attend, dear reader), I’m performing the piece myself. Many screenplay readings have assigned readers for speaking roles, so I’ll be relying on my character vocal talent. Two weeks ago, peers asked me how I planned to present my thesis, I said I might read it myself - that drew enthusiasm. When posed with the same question of late, peers don’t seem as enthusiastic, but I’m doing it, anyway; we’ll find out if I made the right decision.
The new short story is a fun one to write. It’s set in Cheyenne, where I lived for three years between my undergrad and grad school days. While it’s not a nonfiction tale, it contains an incident that happened to me out west, one that represented some of the worst hours of my life. I’m trying imitation, trying to weave aspects of Stuart Dybek’s “We Didn’t” and T.C. Boyle’s “Tooth and Claw” into the story as positive craft and stylistic choices. The piece will be workshopped on April 22nd and it’s the last piece of writing that will receive peer and professor comments during my MFA.
…That effect of writing that last sentence filled me with a little more cheerless emotion than I thought it would.
-nm
Technorati Tags: thesis reading, fiction workshop, screenplay reading, read out loud
When do you write?
Over the next six Wednesdays, I’ll be posing a classic reporter’s question about the ways one approaches writing. Today we begin by asking ourselves “when”…
It’s an honest question, can you give an honest answer? I try to write in the morning, though I often fall prey to writing at night. Which is not to say, my worse writing occurs at night; writing past twilight has served me well over the years, especially in my time as an undergrad, but as I move into a more day-centric, frankly more “adult” world, I’ve tried to move my creative time to the morning. Some mornings it’s a breeze, a real treat. I get loads of writing done and have a great sense of accomplishment to kick off my day. And other mornings… Well, it doesn’t go so well. You get the picture. Still, I could have the same problem if I stuck with my night owl writing slot, yes? It’s not like any time will be the magical moment everything goes well without fail, but one can set oneself up for an acceptable success rate.
If you’re stuck on when to write, or you’re open to change, try these tips:
Try writing at different times of the day.
You should always use what works best for you, but being open to trying something new may allow you to surprise yourself. If you’re a night owl, see what happens if you try the early riser route. If your mornings are packed, see if an afternoon of writing serves you better than spoiling yourself with coveted naps. Change is never easy, but the results have the potential to take you somewhere new and exciting.
Choose a time to write and stick with it for two weeks.
Writing should be an every day activity (if you’re not doing that, better make it happen), and you won’t know if a new writing time is working for you unless you give it a chance. A few days or even a week isn’t enough time to try something new because a variety of outside factors might have an impact; for example, the week you decide to become an early riser writer is also the week you have a dentist appointment, a job interview, and your car breaks down. Two weeks is a solid time period to let you get a feel for how your new writing time works or doesn’t work.
If your writing time isn’t working, change it.
Don’t take it personally if the time you set up for yourself to write isn’t for you - that leads to depression, and there can only be so many Hemingways per century (the rule of thumb is one). Instead, acknowledge you tried a writing time and it wasn’t for you. At that point, you have two choices: give up on writing, or find a better time to write. I’m hopeful you choose the latter, dear reader, because the former represents the sort of defeatist attitude you were likely trying to stifle by switching up your writing time in the first place.
As I said before, no specific time is guaranteed to work for you all of the time, but if you can embrace that, if you can say that even if it doesn’t work for my every time it’s still the best time that works for me, then you’ve really got something. Remember that in baseball, batting .400 is considered an amazing feat. How often do you expect the time you take to sit down and write to produce a homerun?
-nm
Technorati Tags: when do you write, writing time, time to write, write, time, writing tips, baseball analogy, surprise yourself
Elmore Leonard on “said.”
The latest blog post over at ElmoreLeonard.com made by his assistant, Gregg Sutter, points readers to an audio interview with Leonard by Kendra Nordin about his Ten Rules of Writing, now in book form, plus a brief accompanying article by Elizabeth A. Brown. The article’s funny, and the interview is one of those rare instances one gets to actually hear Leonard speak. For a chance to both see and hear Elmore Leonard, check out the extras on the Out of Sight, Get Shorty (2-disc), and Jackie Brown (two-disc) DVDs.
This takes me back to my July, 2007 post, “Your words are dead to me,” I [something besides ’said’], a post I mentioned as one of my top ten favorites of 2007, in which I become a non-fan of the North Carolina educational system. They’re declaring common vocabulary to be “dead words” and that “said” is deader than dead can be. If a writer wants to use the word “awesome” instead of “wonderful,” the way to stop them isn’t to tell them not to do it. Talk to them about why word choice is one of the most important parts of writing as craft. They may be writing about a character who would only have words like “awesome” in their vocabulary. If that’s the case, then why stifle it? If it’s a matter of whether “awesome” is appropriate for an academic essay analyzing Young Goodman Brown, then it’s a matter of working with these young writers on establishing tone and voice, not editing self and vocabulary.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If a young writer desires to expand their vocabulary, they need to read more. As for “said,” I demand to know what magical word is supposed to be so much better.
-nmTechnorati Tags: Elmore Leonard, expanding vocabulary, dead words, said, North Carolina educational system
Someone already wrote the story I’m writing.
Yesterday afternoon, I did a keyword search on Amazon to find the title of a novel* I wanted to recommend to my book club. In the otherwise-innocent process, I discovered the tragic truth that someone has already written, published, and become successful with an idea I’ve recently pursued as a potential novel. Not every element is mirrored, but many of the building blocks are there, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
On one hand, I know my idea came from a place of pure white light, because the idea in-question is the epiphany-like amalgamation of two ideas I blogged about last fall. This idea is the 5,000+ words which my students workshopped. This was the first idea that popped into my head which felt like a long narrative (and with potential to boot!) in quite some time. Then I find out someone has already done it. What’s a boy to do?
Go write, young man.
I doubt I’ll read the similarly-themed novel I stumbled across today, nor attempt much more research in learning what makes it tick (or not), until I finish my own manuscript. Instead, I’ll write my story and let unintentional similarity remain just that, while staying true to the kind of story I want to write. There’s the option of putting it away, chalking up the coincidence to bad luck and moving on to something new. But that option doesn’t acknowledge the work I’ve put into this project already, in fact it negates it. If anything, I’m pushed to write my story even more, knowing with even greater certainty it’s the sort of story that can potentially find a publisher.
-nm
- The novel in question is YA treat Crank written by poet-turned-prose writer Ellen Hopkins, who crafts text formatting to tell more than one story through enjambment, stanza breaks, and other ways of breaking up sentences, paragraphs, and ideas.
Technorati Tags: story similarities, unintentional similarity, ellen hopkins
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
Dust off your unfinished, forgotten writing.
As I finished up listening to Stephen King’s On Writing, I listened to him speak about a hypothetical beginning writer and their tale of trying to get noticed in the industry. As King read his sample query letter, the title of a fake story reminded me very much of a short story I started writing back in 2005, but haven’t touched in nearly two years. It also reminded me very much that every time I’ve listened to King read his book, which is at least twice a year as a sort of pre-semester pep talk, I remember the short story and how I’ve left it behind.
I’ve resolved to pull it out of the draw, dust it off, and give this piece of unfinished, forgotten writing a little attention. I likely wouldn’t have thought of this story without King’s verbal prompt, but it makes me want to look through my hard drive for old, lost projects and writing bits that aren’t quite ready for the graveyard. In fact, that’s how I came across a story idea I’ve been writing off and on this month. That’s two signs in a row to revive past ideas, and I doubt I’ll be ignoring them. What will you find in your old hard drives or notebooks? Perhaps it’s time to find out…
-nm
Technorati Tags: unfinished writing, query letter
Poetry can be a gateway to “getting” prose.
I’m teaching a section of “Introduction to Creative Writing” at MSU this semester and was invited to speak on a panel with fellow instructors about teaching the class. The panel was in a graduate-level class full of peers learning how to teach “Intro,” and they asked a lot of good questions. One question in particular, why I structured the class the way I did, struck me in terms of how my own awareness of what is good writing has expanded in recent years.
I’m teaching this class poetry first, then fiction, and I set it up this way for a multitude of reasons. For starters, last year saw me working in poetry classes, and I saw no reason to let so many great poems and examples fresh in my brain go to waste. Second, I feel more confident in fiction and wanted to savor it in the second half of the semester rather than “get it out of the way” at the outset. But most importantly, it’s because I feel many young writers approach poetry assuming it could / does contain central images, metaphors, specific language choices, “hidden” meaning, etc. On the other hand, I feel less young writers approach prose with this idea in mind, never getting past the thought that a story is “just a story,” when really it could be so much more. By discussing poetry and its elements first, students are able to keep those skills under their belts while approaching prose.
I think what we read (and what we write) should be diverse, and there’s no reason a little poetry shouldn’t be a part of that spectrum. Knowing how to read poetry serves to open the world of prose so much beyond a notion of it’s “just a story.” If one avoids poetry because they “don’t get it,” I wonder if they consider whether they’re really depriving themselves of a possible gateway to “getting it” altogether. So don’t leave poetry out in the cold, or you may leave your ability to read / write great prose in a frozen standstill.
I’ll recommend some poems and poetry collections I enjoy in another post. In the meantime, dear reader, see what you can find on your own and give it a fresh chance. -nm
Technorati Tags: poetry and prose, teaching creative writing, language choice
November is National Novel Writing Month.
I would be remiss to mention NaNoWriMo started this week. National Novel Writing Month is a crazy-cool idea challenging young writers to create a 50,000-word novel from November 1 through November 30. They have message boards, inspirational stories and emails, and plenty of encouragement along the way. If you’ve always wanted an excuse to write a novel, try NaNoWriMo - thousands of other folks are doing it. And who says writing is a solitary process?
-nm
Technorati Tags: NaNoWriMo, writing inspiration
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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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