Ignoring Deb, U-Turns, and A Need for Titles

I managed to get everything done that I needed to yesterday, plus a quick shopping trip for new jeans, and wound up at the coffee shop plenty early. Latte in hand, I snagged the comfy seats by the fire, scooted the table up, and got to writing.

About a page later, I was at a climax point, where I had originally planned to wrap up the La Llarona story. The ghost has a hold of the boy, he's struggling to get away... and then he does. That was not my plan. Every writer talks about times when the story gets away from them and all of a sudden the writer realizes that they're not driving any more. In my case, I realized there were about three more pages to the story (if not more when I start to revise).

Before I could finish, Deb walked in with her laptop and said she was going to ignore me for a while to do some writing of her own. So, there we sat, ignoring each other for a while until the rest of the gang started to wander in. I finished my rough draft, finally, and resigned myself to the fact that this story is going to be more work than I originally planned it to be. I'll tell you right now, this rough draft is one of the roughest I've ever produced. Usually, I'm more of a writer who does mental pre-writing and then when I get to physical writing, I've got a pretty good idea of what's going on. Not this time. Not by a long shot.

I'm beginning to sense a pattern, as well. Right now I've got two stories I keep calling The __ Story and both have proven to be very problematic. I think the lack of clear title and the lack of clear vision go hand-in-hand. When I think of titles, I think of distilling the essence of what the story is all about and pasting a few words to that effect at the top. I can't help but think that once I get the perfect title for these problem stories, the rest of the difficulties I'm having with them will fix themselves. Focus, right? Clarity of vision.

So tell me, what's your title philosophy? Does having a strong title make it easier for you to writ the story that goes with it? Or, do titles come last in your writing process?

It's Done

Submit a poem, submit a TA application, it's all the same. Acceptance? Rejection? Who knows!

Well, I finally finished the teeth-pulling that was my application letter. Katherine suggested I keep most of the stuff from the last one, then add a "since my last application, here's what I've done" part. That part was easy, the first part (since I no longer have my last letter) was far more difficult. I've mentioned before that I hate writing sales pitches for myself, and nothing's changed since then: "I'm Super!" just isn't something I say often, because it's weird to do it unless one is an egomaniac, or Jenny (though they're not so mutually-exclusive). Just kidding, Jenny. Mostly. But hey, a bit more egomaniac in most of us wouldn't hurt, would it? Especially not in these circumstances.

So, the "I'm great" letter is done, and I think it came out pretty well. Of course, as they say with the proof and pudding, I won't know until we get the announcement of who got it. At least the turn-around should be quick, and it'll certainly be before Thanksgiving break.

Here's hoping for a quick verdict.

The Day of Much Accomplishing

Today is do or die day. The TA application materials are due. Here, I thought I had a copy of the last letter I wrote saved on the school computers (I deleted it from my home computer, 'cause that ship had sailed, right?). Turns out the file marked "TA Application Letter" is all of two sentences. No help there. Well, in any event, the supplementary stuff (letters of rec., mainly) is already taken care of, so it's just all on me. Super.

Let me explain something briefly: Mondays for me are like Sundays for everyone else. They are day two of my weekend, thanks to usually working at the bar on Saturdays. I like Mondays because I get to goof off and watch DVDs, etc. Mondays are beautiful.

No day off for me today, however. I've got to write my TA letter, do a couple hours on campus (to make up for what I missed last week for the craft show), get some things together for a major project due in Katherine's class soon, and take care of some Hungry Eye business. Then, there are a couple of personal errands I have to run and the Rogues' meeting happens later tonight, which I plan to be early for so I can sit in the coffee shop and finally finish the rough draft of the La Llarona story.

I'm not even supposed to have had breakfast yet on Mondays, and here I am, already on campus.

I just keep telling myself, "You just hafta make it to Thanksgiving break. A whole week of no school. You can make it..." It's kind of working.

More on People Who Influence Others

"...That's why it was no surprise that Cho Seung-Hui, the murderer of 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech, was an English Major"
-Phyllis Schlafly

Speaking of antagonizing, I've been meaning to talk about an article I read recently, and now seems like the perfect time to do it.

The article in question appeared in a local paper at the beginning of October. I just Googled it to find a link for you all, and realized that this same article has appeared across the country. Just think of all the people who have read it. Now, read it yourself: http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2007/10/advice-to-colle.html

Another classic example of canonical elitism, and did you catch the racist overtones? Yeesh. I like that her writing is illogical and often makes no sense, too: "Current works promoting multiculturalism written by women and minorities replaced the classics of Western civilization written by the DWEMS, Dead White European Males." Even though it may look like she's making fun of the DWEMS, she's really defending them. So, why the satirical acronym? Beats me.

I took Shakespeare, so by definition, I'm no fraud. However, I considered it then, and consider it now, one of the least useful classes I took as an undergrad. Funnily enough, one of the most useful was one of those "worthless courses," Ethnic Literature. Worse yet, most of the authors we read were *gasp* still living!

Why is Shakespeare so important to these people? I can give credit for the fact that he influenced a lot of what came after him, and that he had some nice complex plots and characters. Fine. But, think about it. People have been studying him for so long that the proverbial Shakespeare well is pretty dry. You want to learn more about homoerotic themes in Hamlet? There are plenty of articles already written about the topic.

But, when you get to the living authors, authors whose book was just published last year, and you want to dive deeper, well, you've got to do it all by yourself. Isn't that more of a challenge than just searching for what other people already said about it? Isn't that where true scholarship lies?

So, let's ask the question, shall we? What's the point of an English degree? An also-important question: On the list of "worthless courses" she gives, how many would you like to take?

Reading for Fun

Something I haven't done for a couple of months now, with the semester in full-swing, is pick up a novel that has nothing to do with either of my classes, and read it. I'm now sixty or so pages into Making Money and boy was it ever nice to sit on my porch and be entertained. I even found a new featured quote for the blog.

I never did make the pie, but I just got back from the store a bit ago and now have pie fixin's for tomorrow. In fact, I've now got fixin's for all kinds of fun food, like egg rolls. I feel a cooking binge coming along with the reading binge.

The Schizophrenic Blog and ROF

Here we are, day two of November and I already had a blanking moment on what to write. Lately, all my energy has been directed into non-writing things, and this is a writing blog, ergo my difficulty. So, instead of focusing on new posts, I've been spending entirely too much time on new looks. Over the past week, I've gone through a significant number of them. The good news is, I've finally decided to settle on one. I hope you like it.

Now, for a word about book type things - I'm one story into the latest issue of ROF and it's about a character who I've seen before in another issue. Every now and again they'll sneak these stories in. If you're a regular reader, you'll catch it. If you're not, they can stand alone. It's fun. They also went on a Halloween kick, it seems. This story has zombies and it looks like the next one takes place in hell. Good times.

Impending Terry Pratchett Binge

Today, in the midst of dashing madly about trying to get ready for the craft show tomorrow, I hit the library to pick up two Terry Pratchett books: Wintersmith and Making Money. Though I have yet to get a chance to open either, I'm pleased that they're in my grubby little hands and that I've read neither. New Pratchett!

Tomorrow is chaos and exhaustion. Friday is much the same. Saturday I have off. I have grand plans for Saturday, which include sleeping a lot, watching Scrubs and The X-Files, and possibly making a pumpkin pie.

That leaves me with Sunday wide open. I'm thinking it'll be the perfect time to ignore everything, settle into a chair, and see if I can read one of these books in a day. I should really try to get that pie made, because I think it'd go excellent well with a Terry Pratchett book. Mmm... Pratchett book...