Monday, November 19, 2007
Back in the Submitting Game
Now I remember why I stopped sending stories out. You know, besides staggering under the barrage of constant rejection. It is so time consuming. There are five 9" x 12" envelopes sitting on my desk, addressed to the editors of some very prestigious journals (may as well aim high). I've easily put in seven hours to get to this point and they aren't even mailed yet. But really, seven hours. Between researching which journals are accepting stories at this time and making sure I am within their word count and writing the cover letters and addressing envelopes and getting the stories copied. Well, yes, seven hours sounds about right. And I even had my daughter re-type my cover letters after they sat on my desk and their dates were almost a month earlier than the post date would be and we can't have these editors thinking that I am a procrastinator or anything and then I couldn't find the letters on the computer. I didn't save them? Seriously? So my daughter typed them in and I can imagine a time when I will happily surrender to the services of an assistant of some kind who will handle all this business side of the craft.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
A Change of Scenery
I've changed projects. The story I meant to have ready for workshop this Sunday just didn't come together. At all. In fact, I'm not even sure there is a story in there. At all. So I began digging through all the binders and folders in my closet and came across the novel I wrote in thirty days last September. I read the first chapter and I fell in love with the characters all over again. I felt that if I browsed that chapter on-line or in a bookstore I would want to buy the book. And isn't that the kind of book I should write? The kind I want to read?
I'm feeling some guilt over letting my other project go for a while. Especially since my writing goals for the year revolved around this novel-in-stories, revising each one month by month until I had a finished draft ready to submit to an agent by the end of the year. Well. It is almost the end of the year. I've made a lot of progress but it is not done. And I felt totally stuck. So I am giving myself some space. That's always a hard call. Is this the time I should dig in and just write it through no matter what? Am I just being lazy? Afraid? Or am I intuiting the need for some distance from this project? Distance that will hopefully provide some much needed perspective. I'm going to give myself the benefit of the doubt- for once- and go with the latter.
It's kind of like a clean break-up. We can still be friends. We still are friends. I just need to widen my circle a bit. For now.
I'm feeling some guilt over letting my other project go for a while. Especially since my writing goals for the year revolved around this novel-in-stories, revising each one month by month until I had a finished draft ready to submit to an agent by the end of the year. Well. It is almost the end of the year. I've made a lot of progress but it is not done. And I felt totally stuck. So I am giving myself some space. That's always a hard call. Is this the time I should dig in and just write it through no matter what? Am I just being lazy? Afraid? Or am I intuiting the need for some distance from this project? Distance that will hopefully provide some much needed perspective. I'm going to give myself the benefit of the doubt- for once- and go with the latter.
It's kind of like a clean break-up. We can still be friends. We still are friends. I just need to widen my circle a bit. For now.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Writing Sparks
If you're ever looking for something to spark your writing day or character or story you might want to check out these two websites:
www.postsecret.blogspot.com
www.foundmagazine.com
They are also available as books.
www.postsecret.blogspot.com
www.foundmagazine.com
They are also available as books.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
No Flinching Zone
The "no flinching zone"- that is where Miranda July creates. I finished her book of short stories last night and will need to read them again in the future. She has this way of looking at her characters in all their beautiful flaws and not judging them. She lets them run around her stories emotionally naked, these complex mixtures of memories and thoughts, flesh and bones. Some moments are disturbing and you read it like you're watching a train wreck, not quite able to look away. But she stays in that moment, and writes her way through it, without flinching.
Then this morning I watched the movie that she starred in, directed and wrote. Yes. She's amazing. The movie was just like her stories. These complex characters bumping into each other emotionally and physically. Some of the lines are laugh out loud funny. A guy just gave his neighbor the family discount on shoes. He says he's working on his karma. "You know what karma is don't you? It means she owes me now." Just as in the book, some moments were just so uncomfortable so I did the movie equivalent of skimming- I fast-forwarded through a couple of scenes.
Besides being a writer (of books and movies), director and actor she is also a performance artist. I am in awe of her creativity. It seems to spill out of her. And she just lets it spill, without ever flinching.
Then this morning I watched the movie that she starred in, directed and wrote. Yes. She's amazing. The movie was just like her stories. These complex characters bumping into each other emotionally and physically. Some of the lines are laugh out loud funny. A guy just gave his neighbor the family discount on shoes. He says he's working on his karma. "You know what karma is don't you? It means she owes me now." Just as in the book, some moments were just so uncomfortable so I did the movie equivalent of skimming- I fast-forwarded through a couple of scenes.
Besides being a writer (of books and movies), director and actor she is also a performance artist. I am in awe of her creativity. It seems to spill out of her. And she just lets it spill, without ever flinching.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
To Buy Books or Not to Buy Books
I really am making a conscious effort not to buy books. Well, not many books. Not as many as I usually do. Mostly I am not buying fiction. But I did buy some design and creativity books tonight:
1. "Design Basics" by Jim Krause
2. "Creative Sparks" by Jim Krause (whoa- I just realized they are both by the same guy.)
3. "Thinking Creatively- New Ways to Unlock your Visual Imagination" by Robin Landa
1. "Design Basics" by Jim Krause
2. "Creative Sparks" by Jim Krause (whoa- I just realized they are both by the same guy.)
3. "Thinking Creatively- New Ways to Unlock your Visual Imagination" by Robin Landa
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Upcoming Projects
Things to Create
1. First draft of story for Sunday
2. Collage for Christmas cards
3. A low stress, fun holiday
4. A mixed media piece on the old screen door I bought in Arizona
5. A series of mini collages of the nine Muses
6. More visual journaling in my journal
7. A deck of cards with visual and written prompts for creative writing
8. A box for the family to put in what we're thankful for, what we wish for and what our goals are for the coming year
9. A book of collage and stories I wrote that are like modern fairy tales for my daughters
10. A website
1. First draft of story for Sunday
2. Collage for Christmas cards
3. A low stress, fun holiday
4. A mixed media piece on the old screen door I bought in Arizona
5. A series of mini collages of the nine Muses
6. More visual journaling in my journal
7. A deck of cards with visual and written prompts for creative writing
8. A box for the family to put in what we're thankful for, what we wish for and what our goals are for the coming year
9. A book of collage and stories I wrote that are like modern fairy tales for my daughters
10. A website
Monday, November 12, 2007
Learning the Craft
Here's a writing practice I did last year but it feels relevant even now.
Writing classes are a way to learn craft. At first I agreed with this. It seems obvious. You take a fiction class and learn the craft. But really it isn't the class that teaches you craft or even the teacher. It is through writing story after story that you learn craft. A class may set up the right parameters for you to produce these stories but you teach yourself craft through each finished story.
Ron Carlson says that your first twenty stories are your apprenticeship. I think he even added your first twenty stories that aren't written for a class. Stories that you write on your own because you need to, not because a teacher is expecting it from you. That is one of the hardest things to learn. Nobody really cares if I write another word ever again. Oh, maybe my best friend who dreams of going on a book tour with me as my manager. But really, nobody really cares. So I have to care. I have to care enough to write a story for myself. not for a teacher. Not for a class. Not for a grade but because I can't not write this story. Then I need to do it again. And again.
Classes are good for company. For companionship on this lonely road we've chosen. But you don't need them to teach you craft. I've often toyed with the idea of entering a low residency MFA program. But I need to use that money for my daughters' college, not for me. And I don't need a degree to write. I don't need a group of twenty somethings picking apart my work until it becomes a bland piece of tofu mfa workshopped story. That's harsh. Not all mfa programs do that. But that is the downside. That is the risk.
All I need to learn the craft of writing is to write and all of the teachers I need are on my bookshelves and the shelves of libraries and bookstores. Writing and reading. Reading and writing. That's the master class we all need. Even an mfa program ends eventually and then you are out there, all alone, once again nobody caring if you write another word and it's all up to you. You do it because you have to. I do it because I have to. I try to do it everyday. It's easier to keep a rocket up in space than it is to relaunch it over and over again. Too much wasted energy. And not only do I have to write but I have to finish what I write. Finish what I start. A bunch of half-assed, half- finished stories won't teach me much of anything. I need to see the completed arc of the story. Or see that there is no arc to my story. I need to write it through to the end to see what I have. To learn what I don't have. To learn what I need. To learn the craft.
Writing classes are a way to learn craft. At first I agreed with this. It seems obvious. You take a fiction class and learn the craft. But really it isn't the class that teaches you craft or even the teacher. It is through writing story after story that you learn craft. A class may set up the right parameters for you to produce these stories but you teach yourself craft through each finished story.
Ron Carlson says that your first twenty stories are your apprenticeship. I think he even added your first twenty stories that aren't written for a class. Stories that you write on your own because you need to, not because a teacher is expecting it from you. That is one of the hardest things to learn. Nobody really cares if I write another word ever again. Oh, maybe my best friend who dreams of going on a book tour with me as my manager. But really, nobody really cares. So I have to care. I have to care enough to write a story for myself. not for a teacher. Not for a class. Not for a grade but because I can't not write this story. Then I need to do it again. And again.
Classes are good for company. For companionship on this lonely road we've chosen. But you don't need them to teach you craft. I've often toyed with the idea of entering a low residency MFA program. But I need to use that money for my daughters' college, not for me. And I don't need a degree to write. I don't need a group of twenty somethings picking apart my work until it becomes a bland piece of tofu mfa workshopped story. That's harsh. Not all mfa programs do that. But that is the downside. That is the risk.
All I need to learn the craft of writing is to write and all of the teachers I need are on my bookshelves and the shelves of libraries and bookstores. Writing and reading. Reading and writing. That's the master class we all need. Even an mfa program ends eventually and then you are out there, all alone, once again nobody caring if you write another word and it's all up to you. You do it because you have to. I do it because I have to. I try to do it everyday. It's easier to keep a rocket up in space than it is to relaunch it over and over again. Too much wasted energy. And not only do I have to write but I have to finish what I write. Finish what I start. A bunch of half-assed, half- finished stories won't teach me much of anything. I need to see the completed arc of the story. Or see that there is no arc to my story. I need to write it through to the end to see what I have. To learn what I don't have. To learn what I need. To learn the craft.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Cleansing the (Book) Palate
I just finished reading "Love in the Time of Cholera", not because it is an Oprah pick since I have had the book on my shelf for many years, but because I want to read the book before I see the movie that comes out this week. I woke up at 9:30 this morning and did one of my favorite things- rolled over and grabbed my glasses, snuggled back under the covers and read for an hour.
Now the last book I read was "The Big Girls" by Susanna Moore. These two books could not be more opposite. THB is set in modern time at a woman's prison in Mew Jersey close to Manahattan and in Hollywood. It covers perhaps the span of a year or so. It is written without chapters, just space breaks. Each space break marks the beginning of new voice narrating his or her story. The prose is bare bones. Brittle but full of life.
LITTOC is set in the Caribbean in the nineteenth century. The book is broken into extremely long chapters and covers over fifty years. The language is lush and told from an omniscient narrator. It was interesting to see how he moved between characters and how he manipulated time. You had to read closely for fear of losing the thread of character and/or time. Even the covers couldn't be more different. TBG is black and white, mirror images of a photo of a key, sans serif type. LITTOC, on the copy I have, is a painting of a nude woman reclined on purple divan, flowers covering her in strategic places, lush foliage surrounding her, warm, bright colors, serif type.
"The Kite Runner" is next on my list but I find I can't rush into another novel. So I am reading "No One Belongs Here More than You" by Miranda July and will watch her movie this weekend. Again, the voice and tone is so opposite of LITTOC, it is like cleansing my palate between books.
Now the last book I read was "The Big Girls" by Susanna Moore. These two books could not be more opposite. THB is set in modern time at a woman's prison in Mew Jersey close to Manahattan and in Hollywood. It covers perhaps the span of a year or so. It is written without chapters, just space breaks. Each space break marks the beginning of new voice narrating his or her story. The prose is bare bones. Brittle but full of life.
LITTOC is set in the Caribbean in the nineteenth century. The book is broken into extremely long chapters and covers over fifty years. The language is lush and told from an omniscient narrator. It was interesting to see how he moved between characters and how he manipulated time. You had to read closely for fear of losing the thread of character and/or time. Even the covers couldn't be more different. TBG is black and white, mirror images of a photo of a key, sans serif type. LITTOC, on the copy I have, is a painting of a nude woman reclined on purple divan, flowers covering her in strategic places, lush foliage surrounding her, warm, bright colors, serif type.
"The Kite Runner" is next on my list but I find I can't rush into another novel. So I am reading "No One Belongs Here More than You" by Miranda July and will watch her movie this weekend. Again, the voice and tone is so opposite of LITTOC, it is like cleansing my palate between books.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Tuned In
So I woke up this morning after five hours of sleep (I'm a eight-nine hours a night gal) with the first sentence of this story in my head. This story that I have been stuck on. So I lay there thinking I've only had five hours of sleep. I need to go back to sleep. But once I got the first sentence then came the first paragraph. Well. I can't just ignore this little gift, can I? So I hauled myself out of bed, down to my computer and wrote for an hour. Yay me!
I'm not the kind of person who needs the ultimate perfect first sentence before I can proceed with a piece. But I do need a first sentence that propels me into the voice, character and story. I now have that. Before she was in a grocery store and had to get to the airport. Most of the current story takes place at the airport bar so I just plopped her right at the airport bar, right off the bat.
This creativity buzz I have going on must be a direct result of blogging everyday this month. Whatever you turn your attention to, increases. I have tuned into my creative process and it is rewarding me with this renewed energy and focus.
Oh, and I did crawl back into bed and sleep for another two hours this morning. Now I get to go watch my daughter shop with all her birthday money and gift cards.
I'm not the kind of person who needs the ultimate perfect first sentence before I can proceed with a piece. But I do need a first sentence that propels me into the voice, character and story. I now have that. Before she was in a grocery store and had to get to the airport. Most of the current story takes place at the airport bar so I just plopped her right at the airport bar, right off the bat.
This creativity buzz I have going on must be a direct result of blogging everyday this month. Whatever you turn your attention to, increases. I have tuned into my creative process and it is rewarding me with this renewed energy and focus.
Oh, and I did crawl back into bed and sleep for another two hours this morning. Now I get to go watch my daughter shop with all her birthday money and gift cards.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Creative Homework
First things First
Happy Birthday to my daughter. She is fourteen today. As I type this ten girls are down in the basement singing "Breakaway" on the Play Station version of American Idol. She made a nine layer, three tier cake- all by herself, covered in fondant. It's a work of art. One of her friends commented that it looks like it belongs in a Dr. Seuss book- it's fun and whimsical, just like Katie.
And here's the card I made her...
Something in the Air
There's this creative energy pulsing all around me today. Everywhere I turn there's something I see or read that sparks something in me. I read the latest issue of "Somerset Studio." I love getting a peek into the creative process of all artists, not just writers. Sometimes especially not writers since it gives me a glimpse into a way of seeing that I don't normally get. The featured artist taught herself to draw the human figure by taking life drawing classes. She now draws on her own everyday from a pile of magazines, giving herself 6o seconds each to draw all the figures in each issue. I loved doing those kinds of gesture drawings in art school. I loved the looseness. How you weren't expected to create a photo image likeness- just the gesture of the pose. I think of writing practice like that. I choose a topic and write on it for three pages. No wrong way to do it. Just a way to see how my mind works. See the gesture of my mind in a particular moment.
I'm so impressed by her dedication. She is anxious to get to her studio. She tries to carve out two 12 hour days a week. She is in love with the process. I think I have lost that feeling lately. I've been so focused on showing up to my story and writing something, anything, just to keep the thread of it going but is merely showing up enough? I thought it was. Maybe it was enough at some point but not any longer. Now I am longing for something more intimate than just putting in my time. I need to find some practices that make me yearn to get to my studio or desk. I need to make it fun again.
I am reading to the latest issue of "O" and found this website by Miranda July (I also rented her movie tonight before I found this website- it must be a Miranda July weekend- I can read her book of stories that I bought earlier in the summer too). It's filled with creative assignments like draw Raymond Carver's cathedral or photograph a scar and write about it or spend time with a dying person. I love the idea of creative assignments. I once created a calendar that was filled with them based on different themes for each month. I need to make a list of creative homework again- not just for writing. That will be a post for this month. Stay tuned...
When I heard Janet Fitch read in Ann Arbor a couple of weeks ago she told us of a rejection she received that said something like "good enough story but what's unique about your sentences?" This sent her into a fierce study of poetry and of loving language. I went through a period of reading a poem a day out loud and I think that is something I need to get back to. Here is one by Mary Oliver:
A Dream of Trees
There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,
A quiet house, some green and modest acres
A little way from every troubling town,
A little way from factories, schools, laments.
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,
With only streams and birds for company.
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.
And then it came to me, that so was death,
A little way away from everywhere.
There is a thing in me still dreams of trees,
But let it go. Homesick for moderation,
Half the world’s artists shrink or fall away.
If any find solution, let him tell it.
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation
Where, as the times implore our true involvement,
The blades of every crisis point the way.
I would it were not so, but so it is.
Who ever made music of a mild day?
Mary Oliver
Happy Birthday to my daughter. She is fourteen today. As I type this ten girls are down in the basement singing "Breakaway" on the Play Station version of American Idol. She made a nine layer, three tier cake- all by herself, covered in fondant. It's a work of art. One of her friends commented that it looks like it belongs in a Dr. Seuss book- it's fun and whimsical, just like Katie.
And here's the card I made her...
Something in the Air
There's this creative energy pulsing all around me today. Everywhere I turn there's something I see or read that sparks something in me. I read the latest issue of "Somerset Studio." I love getting a peek into the creative process of all artists, not just writers. Sometimes especially not writers since it gives me a glimpse into a way of seeing that I don't normally get. The featured artist taught herself to draw the human figure by taking life drawing classes. She now draws on her own everyday from a pile of magazines, giving herself 6o seconds each to draw all the figures in each issue. I loved doing those kinds of gesture drawings in art school. I loved the looseness. How you weren't expected to create a photo image likeness- just the gesture of the pose. I think of writing practice like that. I choose a topic and write on it for three pages. No wrong way to do it. Just a way to see how my mind works. See the gesture of my mind in a particular moment.
I'm so impressed by her dedication. She is anxious to get to her studio. She tries to carve out two 12 hour days a week. She is in love with the process. I think I have lost that feeling lately. I've been so focused on showing up to my story and writing something, anything, just to keep the thread of it going but is merely showing up enough? I thought it was. Maybe it was enough at some point but not any longer. Now I am longing for something more intimate than just putting in my time. I need to find some practices that make me yearn to get to my studio or desk. I need to make it fun again.
I am reading to the latest issue of "O" and found this website by Miranda July (I also rented her movie tonight before I found this website- it must be a Miranda July weekend- I can read her book of stories that I bought earlier in the summer too). It's filled with creative assignments like draw Raymond Carver's cathedral or photograph a scar and write about it or spend time with a dying person. I love the idea of creative assignments. I once created a calendar that was filled with them based on different themes for each month. I need to make a list of creative homework again- not just for writing. That will be a post for this month. Stay tuned...
When I heard Janet Fitch read in Ann Arbor a couple of weeks ago she told us of a rejection she received that said something like "good enough story but what's unique about your sentences?" This sent her into a fierce study of poetry and of loving language. I went through a period of reading a poem a day out loud and I think that is something I need to get back to. Here is one by Mary Oliver:
A Dream of Trees
There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,
A quiet house, some green and modest acres
A little way from every troubling town,
A little way from factories, schools, laments.
I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,
With only streams and birds for company.
To build out of my life a few wild stanzas.
And then it came to me, that so was death,
A little way away from everywhere.
There is a thing in me still dreams of trees,
But let it go. Homesick for moderation,
Half the world’s artists shrink or fall away.
If any find solution, let him tell it.
Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation
Where, as the times implore our true involvement,
The blades of every crisis point the way.
I would it were not so, but so it is.
Who ever made music of a mild day?
Mary Oliver
Thursday, November 08, 2007
A Day
My Day
1. Car sputtered backing out of driveway. Check engine light came on.
2. It never went off.
3. Took husband in for a medical procedure.
4. Sat in waiting room, well, waiting for it to be over.
5. Incredibly grateful that it was just a routine procedure and he is fine.
6. Shopped for daughter's fourteenth birthday.
7. Preparing for sleepover tomorrow night hosting ten teenagers and two tweens.
8. Bought the latest issue of "Somerset Studio." Can't wait to get in my jammies and let all that creativity wash over me...while I watch Grey's Anatomy. (Unless it's pre-empted by the writer's strike. Go writers!!)
9. Remembered I had to blog today since I signed up to post everyday this month.
10. So here's my post.
1. Car sputtered backing out of driveway. Check engine light came on.
2. It never went off.
3. Took husband in for a medical procedure.
4. Sat in waiting room, well, waiting for it to be over.
5. Incredibly grateful that it was just a routine procedure and he is fine.
6. Shopped for daughter's fourteenth birthday.
7. Preparing for sleepover tomorrow night hosting ten teenagers and two tweens.
8. Bought the latest issue of "Somerset Studio." Can't wait to get in my jammies and let all that creativity wash over me...while I watch Grey's Anatomy. (Unless it's pre-empted by the writer's strike. Go writers!!)
9. Remembered I had to blog today since I signed up to post everyday this month.
10. So here's my post.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Wa-a-a-ay too Tired to Blog
Who: Me as as overnight chaperon
Where: 5th grade camp
What: 3 hours of sleep at the most
Need I say more?
I will.
Tomorrow.
Where: 5th grade camp
What: 3 hours of sleep at the most
Need I say more?
I will.
Tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
A Creative Jolt
I'm off to chaperon fifth grade camp overnight in a few hours so here's a quick post.
A few books that never fail to inspire me:
- Anything by Sark
- The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
- Spilling Open and anything else by Sabrina Ward Harrison
- If you Want to Write by Brenda Ueland
- The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor by Gail McMeekin
- Artist's Journals and Sketchbooks by Lynn Perella
A few books that never fail to inspire me:
- Anything by Sark
- The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
- Spilling Open and anything else by Sabrina Ward Harrison
- If you Want to Write by Brenda Ueland
- The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor by Gail McMeekin
- Artist's Journals and Sketchbooks by Lynn Perella
Monday, November 05, 2007
No Wrong Way to Do It
Graphic Design
I didn't realize how much I missed doing graphic design until I got some freelance work again. I am having so much fun. I even splurged on a bunch of new software so that I can finally learn web design. I've been wanting to create a website for my writing, collage/mixed media and graphic design for a couple of years now. This blog was going to serve as a temporary base for all of that. Right now I'm visiting lots of websites to get an idea of what I like and what really annoys me as I navigate my way through all of them. It's all quite exciting.
Writing
I procrastinated with the best of them this morning but I finally managed to sit down and get 551 words written on the next story that I promised to have ready for workshop in two weeks.It will be the proverbial shitty first draft as Anne Lamott says but at least it's something. I can revise something. I can't revise a blank sheet of paper. This stage should be freeing. There's no wrong way to do it. I have half a notebook filled with bits and pieces of scenes and dialogue and description. Now it's time to pour it into some kind of structure. Just do it already.
I didn't realize how much I missed doing graphic design until I got some freelance work again. I am having so much fun. I even splurged on a bunch of new software so that I can finally learn web design. I've been wanting to create a website for my writing, collage/mixed media and graphic design for a couple of years now. This blog was going to serve as a temporary base for all of that. Right now I'm visiting lots of websites to get an idea of what I like and what really annoys me as I navigate my way through all of them. It's all quite exciting.
Writing
I procrastinated with the best of them this morning but I finally managed to sit down and get 551 words written on the next story that I promised to have ready for workshop in two weeks.It will be the proverbial shitty first draft as Anne Lamott says but at least it's something. I can revise something. I can't revise a blank sheet of paper. This stage should be freeing. There's no wrong way to do it. I have half a notebook filled with bits and pieces of scenes and dialogue and description. Now it's time to pour it into some kind of structure. Just do it already.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Books and Movies, Movies and Books
I love books. Seriously. It might even bypass love and venture into stalker territory. I've always loved to read. All of my report cards state something to that effect- that I am always reading, always have my nose in a book.And now that I am a writer too, I read in an almost cannibal like way- digesting everything about a story that I like, everything that I am trying to learn.
I also love movies. I go to the movies during the day by myself. The first movie I went to alone was "Pretty in Pink" at a theater on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia that is now in ruins. I had been out late with friends and was walking to the train station to head back home but the thought of getting jostled on a smelly train made me nauseous so I ducked into the theater. It's such an easy escape. It's dark. No need to interact with anyone. When the kids were little and I had one of those stressful mommy days my husband would walk in the door, take one look at me and send me to the movies.
So it wouldn't seem that great a stretch for me to love movies that come from books. Well. That depends. I always read the book first. It's just one of those random rules that I hold myself to. Movies can often be much worse than the book but rarely better so I don't want my experience tainted by an adaptation. While I enjoy the movies adapted from books or stories the usual praise I dole out is that they didn't totally ruin it. The written word allows the reader to experience so many layers of a story, of a character. Movies are pretty one dimensional and too many voice overs gets annoying.
Recently viewed movies adapted from books:
"Feast of Love" by Charles Baxter- loved the book, hated the movie which I kind anticipated going into it.
"Away from Her" based on the Alice Munro short story "The Bear came over the Mountain"- Loved both. It was interesting to see what changes they made to make it work as a movie- and they did work. They didn't suck the life and layers out of the story.
"The Jane Austen Book Club"- I think I enjoyed the movie a bit more. I know I read the book but it doesn't stand out for me in any way.
There is a feast of movies-made-from-books coming out soon and I am on a reading rampage to finish them all:
"The Kite Runner"
"Love in the Time of Cholera"
"Reservation Road"- I read the entire book picturing Mark Ruffalo as Ethan and Joaquin Phoenix as Dwight and now I find out that it is the exact opposite. That will be a little disconcerting when I finally see the movie.
"Atonement"
So many books, so many movies, so little time...
I also love movies. I go to the movies during the day by myself. The first movie I went to alone was "Pretty in Pink" at a theater on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia that is now in ruins. I had been out late with friends and was walking to the train station to head back home but the thought of getting jostled on a smelly train made me nauseous so I ducked into the theater. It's such an easy escape. It's dark. No need to interact with anyone. When the kids were little and I had one of those stressful mommy days my husband would walk in the door, take one look at me and send me to the movies.
So it wouldn't seem that great a stretch for me to love movies that come from books. Well. That depends. I always read the book first. It's just one of those random rules that I hold myself to. Movies can often be much worse than the book but rarely better so I don't want my experience tainted by an adaptation. While I enjoy the movies adapted from books or stories the usual praise I dole out is that they didn't totally ruin it. The written word allows the reader to experience so many layers of a story, of a character. Movies are pretty one dimensional and too many voice overs gets annoying.
Recently viewed movies adapted from books:
"Feast of Love" by Charles Baxter- loved the book, hated the movie which I kind anticipated going into it.
"Away from Her" based on the Alice Munro short story "The Bear came over the Mountain"- Loved both. It was interesting to see what changes they made to make it work as a movie- and they did work. They didn't suck the life and layers out of the story.
"The Jane Austen Book Club"- I think I enjoyed the movie a bit more. I know I read the book but it doesn't stand out for me in any way.
There is a feast of movies-made-from-books coming out soon and I am on a reading rampage to finish them all:
"The Kite Runner"
"Love in the Time of Cholera"
"Reservation Road"- I read the entire book picturing Mark Ruffalo as Ethan and Joaquin Phoenix as Dwight and now I find out that it is the exact opposite. That will be a little disconcerting when I finally see the movie.
"Atonement"
So many books, so many movies, so little time...
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Creative Cooking
I don't remember learning how to cook. Sure, I took home-ec- with the meanest teacher ever. I dissolved into tears during the entire sewing lesson. I don't know what it was but I became completely dyslexic when it came to threading that machine. It just never made sense. I like the idea of sewing. The idea of creating my own clothes is quite appealing. In fact I signed up for a sewing class as an adult. My goal was to make some curtains to replace the duck themed ones in the camper we had just bought. Simple enough, yes? Well. I found some excuse and ended up dropping it after one, maybe two classes. Me and sewing are just not meant to be. My dad ended up sewing most of my home ec project in seventh grade- a pillow. A rectangular pillow. Four perfectly straight edges. Even now my husband or daughter sew any buttons that have fallen off. I have many talents but apparently sewing is not one of them.
But cooking is. I love to cook. My secret is adding copped nuts or seeds to many dishes- it makes them seem more exotic than they are. My mom is amazed when she comes to visit at how I can whip things together the way I do. I sometimes try recipes from cookbooks but that doesn't last long. I prefer to make up my own. My new thing is letting the cupboards and freezer get down to the bare bones and still creating something appetizing for my family. I didn't make it to the grocery store today and I really needed to. Desperately. But, we are still eating well. It's a vegetarian appetizer night: vegetable gyoza, vegetarian chicken tenders, spinach florentine bites and carrot and celery sticks. All served with a glass of red wine and that is a perfectly acceptable dinner, considering it looks as though we have nothing. The fruit bin is empty. Ditto the veggie bin except for one carrot and three stalks of celery. There is just something so satisfying in creating something from apparently nothing. Not to mention the hundred bucks we saved by not going out to eat.
But cooking is. I love to cook. My secret is adding copped nuts or seeds to many dishes- it makes them seem more exotic than they are. My mom is amazed when she comes to visit at how I can whip things together the way I do. I sometimes try recipes from cookbooks but that doesn't last long. I prefer to make up my own. My new thing is letting the cupboards and freezer get down to the bare bones and still creating something appetizing for my family. I didn't make it to the grocery store today and I really needed to. Desperately. But, we are still eating well. It's a vegetarian appetizer night: vegetable gyoza, vegetarian chicken tenders, spinach florentine bites and carrot and celery sticks. All served with a glass of red wine and that is a perfectly acceptable dinner, considering it looks as though we have nothing. The fruit bin is empty. Ditto the veggie bin except for one carrot and three stalks of celery. There is just something so satisfying in creating something from apparently nothing. Not to mention the hundred bucks we saved by not going out to eat.
Friday, November 02, 2007
A Day Spent De-cluttering
Spent much of the day de-cluttering the house.I love that feeling. It's like making way for something new. Went through all the old coats, boots and other winter-wear. Went through my youngest daughter's closet and two dressers and all the little nooks and crannies where she had stashed bags inside of inside of bags filled with her treasures. Lots and lots of treasures.She even has a drawer that she forbade me from discarding any of the contents. And she means it. She wants her children to go through that drawer someday and be able to see the kind of things she was interested in when she was a kid herself. Her daddy has the same kind of drawer back at his mom's house.
Two days ago I went on this organizing-my-books rampage and if you know me at all that is not an easy or simple undertaking. Especially since I started it after dinner on a weeknight. I was done by 11:00-ish. I had stacks of books all over the house as I categorized them by books read and unread, fiction vs. non, and I even alphabetized them. That ended up being quite interesting as I noticed which writers I had many books by: Antonya Nelson, Ron Carlson, Carol Shields to name a few. There's a bookshelf in my office that is filled with writing books that I divided into categories such as: writers on writing, women writers, prompts and exercises, the craft of fiction, motivation, inspiration, creativity and fiction that I read over and over to learn to write like they do.
Now I gaze at my bookshelves all so neat and organized and I feel this immense satisfaction and this warmth of being surrounded by old friends. And also this: this creeping sense of guilt that I really, really (and I mean seriously) have no business buying anymore books until I read the over four hundred that now line my tidy little bookshelves unread.
Two days ago I went on this organizing-my-books rampage and if you know me at all that is not an easy or simple undertaking. Especially since I started it after dinner on a weeknight. I was done by 11:00-ish. I had stacks of books all over the house as I categorized them by books read and unread, fiction vs. non, and I even alphabetized them. That ended up being quite interesting as I noticed which writers I had many books by: Antonya Nelson, Ron Carlson, Carol Shields to name a few. There's a bookshelf in my office that is filled with writing books that I divided into categories such as: writers on writing, women writers, prompts and exercises, the craft of fiction, motivation, inspiration, creativity and fiction that I read over and over to learn to write like they do.
Now I gaze at my bookshelves all so neat and organized and I feel this immense satisfaction and this warmth of being surrounded by old friends. And also this: this creeping sense of guilt that I really, really (and I mean seriously) have no business buying anymore books until I read the over four hundred that now line my tidy little bookshelves unread.
Thursday, November 01, 2007
NaBloPoMo
I've always done well with assignments.I remember asking for homework in third grade. Doing book reports for extra credit. Last year I did the NaNoWriMo challenge on my own in September. That's what started this blog. It became a place to hold myself accountable. I place where I announced that I intended to write 50,000 words in thirty days and therefore had to do it so as not to look foolish to myself or friends and family and whoever else might stumble across my blog. Which actually doesn't help with the whole trying not to care what everyone thinks of me thing but that's a whole other post on a whole other kind of blog. This blog is about the creative process. The ups and downs, ins and outs. The ways it eludes us, the ways we woo it. It's about what happens when we show up and what's happening when we don't. I imagine that I have a good ten days worth of topics to cover on creativity and my process but after that... who knows. That's when it will get fun. That's when I'll start looking for creativity in unusual places. When I'll look past my own writing, collage and graphic design processes. I will start posting more photos of...whatever... my artwork, moments from my days as I start mining them for material, the debris and ephemera that cross my path that suddenly become something worth documenting just because I am paying attention in a new way.
Here's an artist who finds art everywhere! www.kerismith.com
Here's an artist who finds art everywhere! www.kerismith.com
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
On Keeping Notebooks
Let's talk about notebooks. I love notebooks. I love back-to-school time because I can buy ten for a dollar. One of my favorite books as a kid was "Harriet the Spy." And now, as a writer, I keep many many notebooks.
I recently read Joan Didion's essay "On Keeping a Notebook." She says, "Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss." I've kept diaries and journals since I was eight years old. Pages are filled with hearts with my name and some boy linked together as if I had access to secret powers to make those liaisons a reality. I still have pages scrawled from high school and art school and I cringe at the what I read sometimes, at who I used to be. But as Didion says, "I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends." I will never not have a record of who I used to be- for better or worse.
Currently I keep close to a dozen on-going notebooks:
1. Writng Process: I've been keeping this since 1998. I track the process of my writing in general. Writing goals. What I accomplished on a particular day. What I hope to accomplish the next. Entries explaining months long gaps in the notebook. I see patterns in the ebb and flwo of the process so when I am ebbing I can look back and see that this to will pass. That it's all part of the process.
2. Writing Practice: I have close to 40 of these filled. They are based on the Natalie Goldberg method of freewriting on a topic for a set amount of time and just filling pages. Seeing how your mind works. This is what started me on the writing path so many years ago.
3. Story Notebooks: Now I keep a notebook for each story. I do writing practice aimed at the story or from a certain character's POV. I keep notes from workshop in there. Ideas for upcoming scenes. Questions I have about the story. What if questions that may take it in a new direction. I'll play with POV and monologues trying to get a handle on the characters. I'd like to start adding visual elements.
4. Morning pages: After Julia Cameron. These notebooks are the big blank artist sketchbooks from Borders. Blank pages. Some months I write in them religiously, three pages every morning then I wake up and am tired of my own voice. Tired of the whining. Now I'm looking for ways to add more visuals to the pages. Make it more messy. More layered. I am convinced that if I can let go in one art form it will inform the other.
5. Visual Journal: This is strictly art. I play with collage, try new techniques. It's for fun. I'd like to try a collage on one page and a free-write or found poem on the other then tie them together visually somehow.
6. Books to Read: A list of books to be read divided into categories: short stories, novels, memoir, writing craft, science, classics. It's never-ending.
7. New Words: A notebook of words new to me and their definitions. Words I just like the sounds of like tabernacle, obsidian, confetti, zigzag, throttle.
8. MFA Notebook: Currently I am working with 3 texts as part of my self-guided MFA program: "The Making of a Story" by Alice LaPlante, "Master Class in Fiction Writing" by Adam Sexton and "Deepening Fiction" by Sarah Stone & Ron Nyren. I write out answers to the questions posed in each book, trying to deepen my understanding of the craft.
9. Observations: This is new. As a writing group we decided to write 2-3 observations a day in hopes of becoming "one of those people on whom nothing is lost" as Henry James said. I actually got the idea from a reading at the Kenyon conference this summer. A poet read some of her observations and they were beautiful little jewels. Small moments of being awake. It's a great habit to get into. I can already feel a difference. I am noticing and on the look out for small momets and then I am required to paint that moment in words.
There are several others that I have started and stopped such as one that was going to document my reading for a year. That would've been a full time project in itself. But the nine decribed above are notebooks that I work in on a fairly regular basis. They each help me to ""write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear," to once again quote Joan Didion.
I recently read Joan Didion's essay "On Keeping a Notebook." She says, "Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss." I've kept diaries and journals since I was eight years old. Pages are filled with hearts with my name and some boy linked together as if I had access to secret powers to make those liaisons a reality. I still have pages scrawled from high school and art school and I cringe at the what I read sometimes, at who I used to be. But as Didion says, "I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends." I will never not have a record of who I used to be- for better or worse.
Currently I keep close to a dozen on-going notebooks:
1. Writng Process: I've been keeping this since 1998. I track the process of my writing in general. Writing goals. What I accomplished on a particular day. What I hope to accomplish the next. Entries explaining months long gaps in the notebook. I see patterns in the ebb and flwo of the process so when I am ebbing I can look back and see that this to will pass. That it's all part of the process.
2. Writing Practice: I have close to 40 of these filled. They are based on the Natalie Goldberg method of freewriting on a topic for a set amount of time and just filling pages. Seeing how your mind works. This is what started me on the writing path so many years ago.
3. Story Notebooks: Now I keep a notebook for each story. I do writing practice aimed at the story or from a certain character's POV. I keep notes from workshop in there. Ideas for upcoming scenes. Questions I have about the story. What if questions that may take it in a new direction. I'll play with POV and monologues trying to get a handle on the characters. I'd like to start adding visual elements.
4. Morning pages: After Julia Cameron. These notebooks are the big blank artist sketchbooks from Borders. Blank pages. Some months I write in them religiously, three pages every morning then I wake up and am tired of my own voice. Tired of the whining. Now I'm looking for ways to add more visuals to the pages. Make it more messy. More layered. I am convinced that if I can let go in one art form it will inform the other.
5. Visual Journal: This is strictly art. I play with collage, try new techniques. It's for fun. I'd like to try a collage on one page and a free-write or found poem on the other then tie them together visually somehow.
6. Books to Read: A list of books to be read divided into categories: short stories, novels, memoir, writing craft, science, classics. It's never-ending.
7. New Words: A notebook of words new to me and their definitions. Words I just like the sounds of like tabernacle, obsidian, confetti, zigzag, throttle.
8. MFA Notebook: Currently I am working with 3 texts as part of my self-guided MFA program: "The Making of a Story" by Alice LaPlante, "Master Class in Fiction Writing" by Adam Sexton and "Deepening Fiction" by Sarah Stone & Ron Nyren. I write out answers to the questions posed in each book, trying to deepen my understanding of the craft.
9. Observations: This is new. As a writing group we decided to write 2-3 observations a day in hopes of becoming "one of those people on whom nothing is lost" as Henry James said. I actually got the idea from a reading at the Kenyon conference this summer. A poet read some of her observations and they were beautiful little jewels. Small moments of being awake. It's a great habit to get into. I can already feel a difference. I am noticing and on the look out for small momets and then I am required to paint that moment in words.
There are several others that I have started and stopped such as one that was going to document my reading for a year. That would've been a full time project in itself. But the nine decribed above are notebooks that I work in on a fairly regular basis. They each help me to ""write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear," to once again quote Joan Didion.
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