On to Part Two

I got Jenny's novel in two chunks. Last night I finished chunk one. Still in familiar territory, but I'm closing fast on what I haven't seen before.

Reading the rough draft of a novel is interesting. I think I can see her writing process in respect to where she hit her stride, and now I'm looking forward to hitting the spot she did an excerpt of for her American Idol award.

Okay, I'll let Jenny be the one to say more about it, since it is her novel, not mine. In any event, tomorrow's Tuesday and I expect I can get through at least 30 more pages. I'm closing fast on the rest of the book and I can't wait to see how it all unfolds.

Not So Much Foresight

Here I decided to do NaBloPoMo this month and update this blog, my writing blog, daily. This is also the same month where I decided to step back on my writing and focus my energies on other things. You'd think I should have made the connection earlier, wouldn't you?

Let's Talk About Words

When I got home on Thursday, I found a letter from Camii in my mailbox. The arrival of these letters is always a highlight of my day. I get to catch up on all the latest news and gossip from her part of the world and doodles are often involved. It's great. Even though I've only known her in person for a few months, we've been close friends for years, almost solely through letters.

So, ladies and gents, here's my question: In this age of online dating, e-mail, and blogs, do you think that (all issues of pretending to be someone else aside) sometimes writing allows us to be more honest (whether by a little or a lot) than we are in reality?

Grad. School Field Trip: Government and Education

Last night, Conversation 2007 had a meeting on campus. The idea was to get people from the community together to talk about education, then use what came out of this "conversation" to give state legislators input on the needs of the community.

Katherine took our class to this meeting. It's the first time I've had a field trip in college, and it was very, very interesting.

I have a hard time with politics/the government/beauracracy. Last night was no exception. I think the intentions behind this shindig were good, but it was far less informative than one could hope. Less "conversation" and more "well, this is what I think" and "okay, but what category does that go into?" I can't help but feel that we accomplished very little.

In any event, a handful of teachers were there, as well as a handful of students (college) and K-12 parents. Added to the mix were a few politicians, school administrators, and higher-ups from our very own campus.

A few telling things:

• One of the greatest "needs" of educators was more money. (One of my classmates, who is also a K-12 teacher, vehemently disagreed that this was top-priority. She was more in favor of up-to-date materials and functioning classrooms, and giving teachers more authority to decide what goes on in their own classrooms.)
  
• The group had a lengthy argument to define who was an educator that needs more money: We started with "classroom teachers," then someone said, "But music/art teachers should count too" (I know, I know, not a lot of thinking it through there), and someone from the first group said, "Really, we just meant that we're not talking about administrators."
  
• The meeting was interrupted so a politician could give us all an "um" laden speech about the budget, because it's all about, um, money.
  
• While the meeting was going on, some of our educational higher-ups were actively engaged and participating in the conversation (both in the small groups we broke into, and in the overall discussion). Some were ignoring it by, in one case, humming and doodling, and in two others, having a side conversation all their own. I can't help but question their priorities and whether or not I have much/any faith in them as a person in a position of power.

If you're curious to find out more about what this is, here's the website http://www.conversation2007.org/. However, at the time of this posting, said website isn't working. Doesn't that just say it all?

No Longer the La Llarona Story

It's been interesting to see people's responses to my question on titles. For some, titles are everything, for others titles are one of the last things that come into the writing equation.

Like I mentioned, titles are a clarifying tool for me. It's like adjusting the magnification on a microscope. You're always looking at the same thing, it's just the knobs that you adjust, but all of a sudden that slide you're looking at is clear instead of fuzzy and you finally know exactly what you're looking at.

Yesterday I spent some time asking myself questions about the La Llarona story and what it was really about, what was I really getting at, who was truly my focal figure, and what exactly was I trying to say about them? At the end of these questions, I had a title: When Ben Bucater Met His First Ghost. It's not a perfect title, and I may change the wording a bit, but it's there. It says what I want it to and now I have the right magnifying lense to use when I look the story over again and do some revising.

It's a small thing for some, but a big "click" moment for me. It even makes that sound in my head, a metallic sound like the sound of switching lenses on a microscope (thus the analogy, see?).

The Race is On

I've been threatening Jenny that I'm going to read what I have of FJR as quick as I can and give her grief if she doesn't have the last chapters ready for me by the time I catch up. Admittedly, I've been saying this partly to uphold my demonic reputation.

However, it's mostly a warning instead of a threat. I don't expect it to take me long to get through the 200+ pages. Jenny's a good writer and I've got the manuscript of a novel I like. Yesterday I took the manuscript with me to the terrible class and got through page 44. Up to this point, I've read it all already, and I'm making a lot of the same notes I remember making on another copy of the manuscript she gave me a while back (no edits between the two, apparently). I expect I'll slow down a bit once I strike into the new part, but I'll certainly have it read by the next group meeting.

Now, Jenny's got those of us who volunteered to read the whole novel split into two groups - her first readers and second, post-edit, readers - in order to save some money on copies. What she doesn't know yet (but will as soon as she reads this) is that I plan to be in both groups. My campus printing account has lots and lots of pages left, so all she'll need to do is e-mail it to me. (Hint, hint, Jenny).

I suppose I'm starting to sound a bit possessive here, but I have a hard time apologizing for it. She knows that I wouldn't get possessive if I didn't like the book, and who's going to turn down a bonus (and free) extra reader/proof reader? Exactly.

The Verdict

So, as it turns out, the turn-around was very, very quick.

I'm going to be one of the T.A.s next semseter.