Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

A Meaningful Experience

A Meaningful Experience

When you live on a farmette, out in agro-land one of the things you have to do is go to the dump every Saturday. It is a social event of sorts and you get to talk to some of your neighbors in the Township that you otherwise only see in a blue moon. Amid the dumpsters and the smell of rotting garbage and sour chemical wafting a good time is had by all. The dogs enjoy it especially in that they get to see other dogs in the cars and trucks, receive a chewy milk bone from the “Dump Man,” and get to smell the smells. (Dogs like smells we as humans don’t particularly like) Once I let them out and they took off for the next county and I spent half the day looking for them.
After that it will be off to the RC flying field and I will take my camera and get some pictures of this type of event which is not something all my readers will be familiar with.

I got two submissions for the EWW class in and will review them tonight. I like reviewing the student vignettes and never cease to be surprised at what they come up with. One student has difficulty meeting the 13 plus standard and I make him submit to me first by email. He is a bit of a dark writer (A large bit) but he comes up with some interesting material if beneath all the oppression of the world he writes about. Actually there is a sense of humor way down at the bottom of the well and I wish the other students could share it but even though the most recent vignette comes close it has some of the proscribed language.

I have another dark writer who uses the course to get feedback on material he has already written. I don’t mind this but it doesn’t meet the lesson requirements and when students use the course in this way I wish they would tell me and I could adjust the workshop to meet the specific needs of the student. What the student doesn’t realize is that I have read much of his manuscript when he posted it in other venues over the past six months.
I know I should require students to follow the syllabus but I am not the controlling sort and let the workshop expand to meet the needs of everyone who cares to participate. You really need some of this attitude given the skill levels of some who sign up and have a genuine desire to improve as writers. I had one student several classes ago who had a remedial understanding of English but a strong desire to learn. So I would pick out the three most glaring deficiencies and tell her to correct these. It was the best I could do and it seemed to work. The results were not anything to brag about but she was persistent and her writing improved.

Sometimes I think that Life sends ups people from outside our expectations and rather than walk away I try and make the interaction a meaningful experience for both of us.