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My thoughts on writing and other random things as they come up. |
| This is a blog where I keep my thoughts and daily comments about writing and WDC. |
Yesterday's cramp inspired me to write something. It was an unlikely prompt for what came out of it. It's not based on any kind of personal experience, and not written to make a political or moral statement, it's simply written to describe a scene. It took a lot of courage to write, and I'm pretty sure that I'll get lots of negative feedback. I was most iffy on the content rating, but I searched WDC for the word 'abortion' and found a lot of 13+ ratings, so I think I'm ok. I guess we'll see what happens. |
I'm thinking about doing this to get my writing engine going again: http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/2012-november-pad-chapbo... Some friends and I did a poem a day challenge earlier in the year (it was actually 30 poems in 30 days). This kind of looks like fun. Anybody else want to join? C |
Today's lesson on cousera was on John Ashbery's poetry. They did a close reading of "Some Trees"  and a discussion on "Hard Times." I didn't understand Some Trees on first reading. I greatly enjoyed the close reading the group did of that particular work. It felt like someone was slowly unwrapping a present for me. I can't believe the way this class is opening my eyes. The next poem, I first studied on my own, and tried to do a close reading myself. The results were fairly close to what was discussed in the next video. Thank you for Coursera for the multitude of gifts. It makes me sad to think that without this class, many facets of poetry might have remained undiscovered, and many poets, overlooked. Best, C |
| Two Entries today. I saw this and just had to share! http://www.tinhouse.com/blog/18730/poetry-by-mail.html |
| I'm watching this great video and falling a little more in love with Philip Levine. He's funny, and he's a wonderful reader. As he reads his poetry on this video - I feel like he is reading just to me, and I sort of feel like I'm in church. I can't wait to listen to him this weekend. I think I'm becoming a poetry groupie! Best, Sil |
| Apparently I'm on a bit of a reading kick. This is one of my favorite avoidance tactics. This week I've read: The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (2011 Edgar Award Winner) (Fiction/Action/Adventure)Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton (Fiction/Action/Mystery)Wild A memoir by Cheryl Strayed.I strongly recommend the Lock Artist. I somewhat recommend Misery Bay, and I recommend but with reservations Wild. Wild made me uncomfortable. I think one reason might be because I felt it addressed serious moral issues in a very casual way. I'm going to have to read it again and see what else bothered me about the book. I *think* I might have read it too fast, but right now I feel like she didn't really let us in. I'm going to have to think about it in comparison to Angela's Ashes. In that work, there were moral issues, significant ones, but I felt differently about how they were portrayed. I don't know if it was because Angela's Ashes happened so long ago, or if the voice was a child/male, or what it was. I'm still working on reading Philip Levine's memoir for Saturday. It's very interesting. In parts - it's almost like a history lesson, and it's opening my eyes to new things. It's a book I can't read very much of before I have to put it down and think about things. The book kind of describes his poetry lineage. I'm really interested in it because it's easy for me to tie into where we are in my Coursera class with some of the poets and issues he discusses.His poetry book What work is reminds me of the feel of Jeanetta's book, Work is Love Made Visible. I'm greatly enjoying it.Happy Tuesday. Sil |
Yesterday I went to a meeting of the Stillwater Writers group. They had a special get, Oklahoma Poet Laureate Eddie Wilcoxen. .My favorite part of his message was that he believes poetry should be from and "of" everyday people. I enjoyed that. I will be going to see former US Poet Laureate Philip Levine next Saturday. I'm researching and reading up on Philip. I'm enjoying his memoir and his poetry. What a busy week. I haven't written anything for memoir tomorrow. Oops. :) Happy Sunday. Sil |
| Anybody have a good working definition of a high concept story? Would you agree with this one? .I'm kicking around something that I think might be high concept, but the term seems to be a bit subjective, so I thought I would ask those in the know. :) |
My horoscope today said to write a romance novel or a love letter. Hm. |
I'm working on my second story for memoir II and it's all tell and (to me) it is not very interesting. But at least I'm getting it out - and writing something, right? I'm going to be hard pressed to have 6-7 chapters by the end of this week. Fiction is SO much easier! Best, C |
I'm really appreciating my Cousera class on modern poetry. I really feel like it's deepening my understanding of poetry, as well as opening avenues of artistic possibilities. One of the best things about the class is the charismatic instructor. He's a very passionate teacher, and that makes things so fascinating. Today I'm playing catch up - and reviewing some discussions and poetry from last week. In one video, the students were discussing Gertrude Stein, and the difficulty one might encounter with her poetry, as well as the context of the impressionistic times. (Tender buttons, Raining Water, Malachite). The instructor talked about how groups that do close reading opens poetry up and allows for a communal meaning. "There is a wisdom in the crowd." (to quote Al). It made me think that I'm only getting tiny sides of poetry when I read poems and keep them to myself. I am only seeing one facet of the art. The full depth of and meaning of poetry can be MORE when it is shared and discussed with others. This 'crowd' makes a poem not something static, but truly evolutionary. How incredibly cool is that! |
I spend a lot of time thinking about the craftsmanship of language, and the artistic struggle to convey meaning using language as the medium. Sometimes I try to take an image, and the resulting emotion, and convey it only with words. This is what is poetry to me. To me this feels a lot like painting or sculpting. A means of shaping with my hands, my brain, and my mouth and my ears. What does writing feel like to you? Best. C. |
| Things are still really hectic for me so just a quick post today: I found this writing contest link (at the bottom of this post) via Patrick Rothfuss's blog. You don't have to be a resident of Wisconsin to enter. Enjoy! Flash Fiction Ghost Story Contest. |
I can't really talk about what is going on in my life right now, so I thought I'd distance myself a bit and talk about how much I am enjoying my Coursera poetry course. This week we are focusing on William Carlos Williams, and some of the post modern imagist poets. I've greatly enjoyed the poems, but the best part has been the video discussions on the poems. I have learned so much! It's added a new depth to poetry. Today we worked on "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams. I listened to several different readings that had been recorded by the poet, and watched an taped 'close reading' broken down by the instructor and the teaching assistants for the course. It was fascinating! I can't wait to get to the discussion forums. Thank you Coursera, this class is amazing. C |
I'm trying to recharge my creative batteries by doing a lot of reading. Last night I finished Odd Hours by Dean Koontz. I just picked up Odd Apocalypse (another by Koontz) at the Library. I do find I am a more demanding reader now that I am "a writer." I like Koontz's character development, but in the beginning of Odd Hours, I was like, just get to it already. I don't need to know the structural design of the underside of the pier, not really! I also am (still) reading Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn. It's a very good story but not very filling, not yet anyway. Memoir II starts Monday. yeah, I'm overloaded. :) C |
I spent the last several days working a conference, and had a family day yesterday. As the evening wore on, I needed to just 'veg out.' So I rented the movie "Being Flynn." It's a movie about a writer. It was not appropriate for family (rated R) and I didn't really enjoy it. Too much drugs/sex/violence, not enough about the writing. I don't recommend that one. In other news - I'm trying to get caught up on my Coursera class. I'm learning a lot and enjoying the instructor, but WOW do they over think some of this stuff...hehe. Haven't written in a couple weeks. Hope all is well with you. Sil |
Free today: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007YJEIAS/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk I have liked what I have read so far. |
| I have tried to make this post 3 times and each time the window has closed on me. I'm getting very frustrated. I am back from the Rose State College Writer's Short Course. It was great! My favorite speakers were Phillip Margolin , Lauren Zuniga, and Chris Kepner .I learned the most from the hard facts seminar "What an Agent Wants" by Chris Kepner. Chris is with the Victoria Sanders agency in New York City, and he provided a great example of what first time authors can expect with a book deal. I'll share it with you below:"Say for instance a new author gets a first time book deal for a $100,000 advance (which is on the high end for book advances for first books). The distribution of that advance breaks down something like this, in Pre-Tax dollars: 25,000 on signing (You get this 1-3 months after you have actually sold your book to a publisher). 25,000 once all edits are completed (varies, 9-24 months after your signing). 25,000 once your book goes hardback (about a year after edits) 25,000 once your book goes to paperback (about another year after paperback). So as you can see, that advance breaks down to about 25k a year, which in post tax terms depending on your tax bracket, comes out to be 18k. That's not enough to live off of. Don't quit your day job, even after you sell your first book." Chris's information was not meant to be discouraging, but instead, educational. Everyone at the conference was very nice, and extremely approachable. I enjoyed visiting the Rose State campus and am very thankful for the opportunity. I will have to see what I can do about putting on something similar right here in my home town. Best wishes, C |
| Most of you know I've been raving about a new author, Nathan Poole. Here is link to one of my favorite short stories written by Nathan. I've been sending links to his stories, and starting discussions about them. Thanks for being patient with me about it. I just wish I were an agent, I'd so sign him. Anyway - I found him thanks to Mystic's referral to Narrative. I wrote him to tell him how much I appreciated his story, and he wrote back some words of encouragement and mentioned that he's a fan of William Gay. I appreciated the referral, thought you might too: I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down. .Hmmmmmmm. Hope you enjoy the referrals. Best, Sil |
Sometimes, I start down to write a poem and it wants to be a story. Sometimes I write a story and it wants to be a poem. Sometimes, things simmer for ages before deciding what form they want to take. They just troll around in the back of my mind. Sometimes things form when I'm researching *other* things. Have you ever written something and gone back to it later and said "This wants to be a poem." Or vice versa? How did it turn out? |
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