In a previous post and notes we started a list of workshop words. You know, the things that get said often in workshop, sometimes as cliches and sometimes as nice ways of saying harsher things. There are some good ones on that list, and here are two more I've encountered (over and over) lately.
Anyone got things to add?
"There is a lot of potential here": As in, "This could be a good story (but it's not)." A cousin of "I'm not sure if I buy it. / It is hard to believe that..." Occasionally I think these things are said genuinely, but they also stand in as fall-backs when it seems like an author hasn't yet done all the work that needs to be done.
"This is just a rough draft": This one is generally heard as people are passing out their stories for the next workshop. Not everyone says it, and sometimes people will go overboard, confessing to every sin imaginable that might excuse a poorly written story. "I've been sick this week and I started writing something else and then I found myself writing this and at the last minute I changed from third person to first person..."
Throw out yours in the comments!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The Cat Photos Have Moved...
...here.
A little while ago I registered my real, full name as a domain name. This in anticipation that someday someone will read something I've written and will Google me. Also, so no one else could take it.
But I didn't like just leaving it there, doing nothing. So I added some things, including a sad empty section called "Writing" where I have yet to add anything. And a blog section. Because why have one blog that you can neglect when you can have two!? It makes perfect sense.
I started Dazed Starling when I was leaving for San Francisco and to start the MFA, with the intention that it would be a chronicle of the experience and I'd make some internet blog friends. Both of which have worked out and been a lot of fun. Still, this blog has been easy to ignore or forget and I never could quite decide how "anonymous" I wanted to be. Instead of being either totally anonymous or totally out there, I feel like I ended up being vague. (Which is typical because I struggle with this in fiction all the time. I don't want to tell you too much, but I end up telling just enough to piss off my readers that I'm not telling everything. "Why are you withholding this?" they ask, and who knows? Bad habit?)
I'm not leaving this blog. I still like it and I really like everyone who reads it. But I'm also going to be writing stuff at my personal website, though much of it won't be about writing. It'll be more random and will include the non-writing stuff that has ended up here (like photos of Loki and occasional funny youtube videos). Check it out, if you want. I recently discovered National Blog Posting Month (which is a blatant rip-off of NaNoWriMo) and since I went down in flames last November trying to write a novel, I think I will try NaBloPoMo this year. This is an attempt to make my site interesting and to help me really get in the habit of writing every day, without trying to hit a word count and to do writing that won't interfere with the other fiction I'm writing and projects I need to commit to.
thanks, as always, for reading. :)
A little while ago I registered my real, full name as a domain name. This in anticipation that someday someone will read something I've written and will Google me. Also, so no one else could take it.
But I didn't like just leaving it there, doing nothing. So I added some things, including a sad empty section called "Writing" where I have yet to add anything. And a blog section. Because why have one blog that you can neglect when you can have two!? It makes perfect sense.
I started Dazed Starling when I was leaving for San Francisco and to start the MFA, with the intention that it would be a chronicle of the experience and I'd make some internet blog friends. Both of which have worked out and been a lot of fun. Still, this blog has been easy to ignore or forget and I never could quite decide how "anonymous" I wanted to be. Instead of being either totally anonymous or totally out there, I feel like I ended up being vague. (Which is typical because I struggle with this in fiction all the time. I don't want to tell you too much, but I end up telling just enough to piss off my readers that I'm not telling everything. "Why are you withholding this?" they ask, and who knows? Bad habit?)
I'm not leaving this blog. I still like it and I really like everyone who reads it. But I'm also going to be writing stuff at my personal website, though much of it won't be about writing. It'll be more random and will include the non-writing stuff that has ended up here (like photos of Loki and occasional funny youtube videos). Check it out, if you want. I recently discovered National Blog Posting Month (which is a blatant rip-off of NaNoWriMo) and since I went down in flames last November trying to write a novel, I think I will try NaBloPoMo this year. This is an attempt to make my site interesting and to help me really get in the habit of writing every day, without trying to hit a word count and to do writing that won't interfere with the other fiction I'm writing and projects I need to commit to.
thanks, as always, for reading. :)
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
I even hope writing this post will get me writing what I should be writing
I am trying to write a story I am not inspired to write. This isn't all that unusual, I guess. I often start stories with a character, or scene or theme in mind and quickly move from the exciting potential point to the point where I feel stuck in the mud of actually writing. This time it is especially hard because it is a story that I'm supposed to be writing in order to fit it into a larger collected work for one of my classes.
I flipped through the writers notebook I started last year, where I write down ideas I have for stories, or copy down bits of writing I like and find inspiring and occasionally where I write in large capital letters WHAT AM I DOING!? as a kind of cathartic release. I was hoping that I could fit in an old idea with this new story. But what I was mostly struck with was how much time I've spent on ideas or words that I might never end up using. There is a lot of stuff in those notebooks, including a whole project, that I've started with enthusiasm, but haven't been able to move past the mud stage. Some of those things probably aren't worth pursuing, but some of them might be, and it is frustrating to feel like I have so many beginnings with no ends.
Even after my first major project summer I still feel like I'm starting, not moving confidently towards a completion of my thesis. I do feel a lot more confident, and I count that as a victory. Apparently that hasn't done much to propel me out of my "am I making any progress?" existential funk.
My brother is writing a TV show. Or, so he mentioned to me on the phone the other day. I think there might be something screwy in our genes, as my brother is the king of starting things and seizing onto ideas that fizzle out. We talked about writing for a few minutes and I admitted that I thought it was crazy how people came into the MFA program with whole novels they wanted to write. It is a craziness I sort of envy, a level of obsession I lack. My brother laughed, as I was preaching to the choir.
But someday all those words have to turn into something, right? Even if I never use them, consciously, maybe I had to write them to get what to what I'm writing now, what I will write next. God, I hope that's not just my delusional optimism talking.
I flipped through the writers notebook I started last year, where I write down ideas I have for stories, or copy down bits of writing I like and find inspiring and occasionally where I write in large capital letters WHAT AM I DOING!? as a kind of cathartic release. I was hoping that I could fit in an old idea with this new story. But what I was mostly struck with was how much time I've spent on ideas or words that I might never end up using. There is a lot of stuff in those notebooks, including a whole project, that I've started with enthusiasm, but haven't been able to move past the mud stage. Some of those things probably aren't worth pursuing, but some of them might be, and it is frustrating to feel like I have so many beginnings with no ends.
Even after my first major project summer I still feel like I'm starting, not moving confidently towards a completion of my thesis. I do feel a lot more confident, and I count that as a victory. Apparently that hasn't done much to propel me out of my "am I making any progress?" existential funk.
My brother is writing a TV show. Or, so he mentioned to me on the phone the other day. I think there might be something screwy in our genes, as my brother is the king of starting things and seizing onto ideas that fizzle out. We talked about writing for a few minutes and I admitted that I thought it was crazy how people came into the MFA program with whole novels they wanted to write. It is a craziness I sort of envy, a level of obsession I lack. My brother laughed, as I was preaching to the choir.
But someday all those words have to turn into something, right? Even if I never use them, consciously, maybe I had to write them to get what to what I'm writing now, what I will write next. God, I hope that's not just my delusional optimism talking.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Books I Did Not Buy
...at the Friends of the SF Public Library Annual Big Book Sale.
People buy into this crap?
(Sadly, yes.)
People buy into this crap?(Sadly, yes.)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Help a Writer Out
Eileen, at Speak Coffee to Me, one my favorite MFA bloggers, is looking for some help with a writing project that is connected to the ever-popular Postsecret.
Go to her blog and give her some help, if you can.
Go to her blog and give her some help, if you can.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Warm and Fuzzy
This week has been a bit of a rough one in my relationship with San Francisco. In fact, for most of Labor Day Weekend I sort of hated San Francisco. And though I am sure I could write a whole post on the way I was feeling (broke and convinced I have no friends, mostly), it is probably enough to just say that I was really looking forward to class this week.
Part of class this week was a reading, last night. My program recently hired a new full time faculty member and as an introduction to our reading series this year he was invited to share his work. The reading itself was fun and left me hoping that I'll get the chance to work with him, next semester. Afterward a few of us duck into the bathroom before we head off to get a drink. We were kind of chatting and washing our hands when another girl says, "Oh hey, are you guys in the MFA program?" And we tell her we are and she smiles and says that she is thinking of applying to MFA programs and came to the reading to sort of check it out. "Oh, great!" we all say. She asks if we like the program and if all the readings are kind of like the one tonight and without fail the three of us assure her that we all love the program, that it is just the best thing ever and complaints? No, we don't have any complaints except that the food at the social receptions generally leave a little to be desired. But writing wise? We're happy as clams. Professors? They are all pretty awesome. Classmates? Generally amazing. It was like a mini MFA cheerleading section right there in front of the sinks.
It was a good moment. And though I still have some issues with San Francisco itself (like, god, am I ever going to not cringe when I write my rent check!?), I really do love the reason I'm here. (And ok, I love the city, too. I guess no relationship is perfect all the time.)
Part of class this week was a reading, last night. My program recently hired a new full time faculty member and as an introduction to our reading series this year he was invited to share his work. The reading itself was fun and left me hoping that I'll get the chance to work with him, next semester. Afterward a few of us duck into the bathroom before we head off to get a drink. We were kind of chatting and washing our hands when another girl says, "Oh hey, are you guys in the MFA program?" And we tell her we are and she smiles and says that she is thinking of applying to MFA programs and came to the reading to sort of check it out. "Oh, great!" we all say. She asks if we like the program and if all the readings are kind of like the one tonight and without fail the three of us assure her that we all love the program, that it is just the best thing ever and complaints? No, we don't have any complaints except that the food at the social receptions generally leave a little to be desired. But writing wise? We're happy as clams. Professors? They are all pretty awesome. Classmates? Generally amazing. It was like a mini MFA cheerleading section right there in front of the sinks.
It was a good moment. And though I still have some issues with San Francisco itself (like, god, am I ever going to not cringe when I write my rent check!?), I really do love the reason I'm here. (And ok, I love the city, too. I guess no relationship is perfect all the time.)
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