New Stories!!!

I am excited to share two new stories with you all!

 

1:1000 is a fantastic online journal with the premise of turning a picture into a thousand words.  They provide a gallery of images to choose from.  You claim a photo and then submit a story that uses the photo as its inspiration.  A friend suggested the website as a place to send a story that I've been having trouble placing.  I decided instead to follow their creative model and write a story specifically from the photo I selected.

Uncle Pug is inspired by my real life uncle whose name was Pug.  He was also an amputee and had a thing for Blanche Devereaux.  Everything else in the story really just came to me from the image I selected, this wonderful shot of an old house taken by Garrett Carroll.  

The entire process with the editorial team at 1:1000 was so much fun.  They work almost like a workshop where each editor comments on the story's strengths and revision opportunities and then, if accepted, the writer has an opportunity to review those comments and edit the final draft.  I found the experience to be more than just helpful for this piece, but it illuminated "ticks" of mine that I need to pay attention to in all of my stories.  Overall, fantastic experience, fun editors, and, in submitting to them, I didn't break any of my submission rules (although they do not pay, they do not charge a fee either).

I am also blessed to have a short piece in the current issue of Tahoma Literary Review.  I am full of emotion when it comes to this piece.  Going through the experience of having this story published made me feel like a professional writer for the first time.

I say that for a number of reasons.  First, there is nothing more professional than seeing your name in print, on REAL paper.  Don't get me wrong, a byline is a byline and online is where its at.  But, there is something tangible about a story on paper.  I can touch it, hold it, press it against my face, smell the pages.  Its special and the reason why I know physical books will never become extinct.

Secondly, I got paid.  TLR is one of the few journals that strives to pay their contributors and remain transparent when it comes to their compensation practices.  I didn't have to search Duotrope to find out whether or not they pay contributors.  The editors have it all laid out in black and white on their website.  I respect that so much.  To me, it is an expression of how much they value their contributors AND those who submit to their journal.

Third, I felt like my piece was in great hands with the editors of TLR.  They were pleasant yet professional.  I also feel like they have done a marvelous job at promoting my work on social media and their website.  I penned a blog post for them as well provided audio for my piece.  They are the reason why I decided to finally get with it and join Twitter (yes, I am old).  In fact, my experience with TLR has actually made me really consider what it means to be a professional writer, whether part-time or full-time (maybe, hopefully, one day).

All in all, I feel blessed to have been a part of these two wonderful magazines.  Now, I back to pretending to work on my thesis.
 

News and Links

I'm all over the interwebz and thought I would post a few links to indulge my braggadocios tendencies.

First, thank you to Jacqueline Bach for profiling me on her blog series, The Process Project!  The interview was fun and really made me consider just how I go about putting my thoughts together when I write.  I love this series.  Writers always want to know what other writers do and how they create, hence the popularity of books on craft or The Paris Review's "The Art of Fiction" series.  But it is nice to see a project that embraces beginning writers, like myself, along with more established folks to show how we all do what we can to make our dreams happen.  What a fantastic idea!

So to Jacqueline,


Second, a small personal essay I wrote for the online magazine mater mea went live today.  mater mea "is a website that tells the stories of women at the intersection of motherhood and career. Launched in 2012, the site offers a more realistic depiction of black women in the many spaces they occupy: as mothers, daughters, employees and employers, lovers, and friends." 

It is one of a few essays I've written about my twins' difficult birth and the lessons I've learned trying to navigate my feelings around it.  A larger essay will be in Quaint Magazine's next issue, but I am not certain when that issue will be available.  I am currently working on another short essay related to parenting, covering a topic that also deals with my sons' prematurity. 

For some reason other than the obvious reasons, I feel inspired lately when I think about them, and I am writing about them more.  Maybe because it has been two years since their birth, and now I finally feel able to discuss that event without breaking down in self-shattering guilt and panic.  Maybe it is because I am entering a new phase of parenting, the toddler phase (aka, "my kid is an asshole" phase), and I have more to learn and therefore more to write about.  I have a feeling that I will continue to write about my kids for a long time to come, even when they are bigger than me and have moved out of the house.  But, for right now, I am trying to deal with the fact that others will soon know how I went into early labor, and it freaks me out a little.  This first foray in autobiography has been positive though, so I will lean on that for a little while longer.

So for me and my self-promoting, no humility having ass...
 

My Personal Rules for Submitting to Lit Mags

Every one and their mama has written a blog post about submitting to literary magazines.  When I see one of these posts, I typically devour them, reading them closely, memorizing the sacred text so that I can increase my chance of obtaining the impossible "Yes!"

But, just practicing the dance of publishing lets you figure out which moves are graceful and which will leave you flat on your face (or back given my luck, damn sciatica). 

These would definitely get you kicked off of Dancing with the Stars, the fiction edition: 

1. Not proofreading your draft with so much vigor it is like you are searching for a small pebble in sand;
2. Revising after its been submitted (one sure way to drive yourself mad);
3. (In relation to #2) Not submitting the final final final draft.  Meaning that its been workshopped (if that is what you do) or that you have let at least one person read it before you submit it and then completed edits accordingly, read it out loud, and you've done all that you can to make it work;
4. Submitting to magazines that DO NOT publish what you write, regardless of how good it is;
5. Not submitting at all;
6. Getting butt-hurt and/or depressed over rejections so that you stop submitting;
7.  Becoming a know-it-all when you do get published (i.e what I'm doing now in writing this, I suppose one could argue...);
8. Not researching the magazine you are submitting to, especially when simultaneously submitting;
9. If simultaneously submitting, not making sure that all the mags/journals in each round of submissions are on the same level with one another (i.e. sending a story to an esteemed journal like the Paris Review and a virtually unheard of journal like the Po-dunk Review at the same time.  Although slim, what if the Paris Review does accept your piece and you don't find out until you withdraw because Po-dunk accepted it first?  Moral code says you have to go with Po-dunk and you will be kicking yourself forever because of that.), and
10. Not sending your best work (whatever that means).

Outside of these moves, which I'm sure is the standard for most writers stuck inside the crab bucket like I am, I have come up with my own personal rules that I follow in addition to those above:

1.  My submission fee cut off is $5 for a non-contest submission and $10 for a contest submission.  Paying a fee to be published goes against every single principal of common sense I have.  Ideally, I want to be the one who gets paid from this situation.  I give you my hard work, in return, you pay me.  It is generally the way of the world.  However, I am no one special.  I am not famous (yet) and I know absolutely no one in the publishing world.  So, I cannot make a grand statement that I will never pay a submission fee.  Maybe one day, God-willing, I will be able to live a life where I actually make a profit from selling stories.  Until then, I am going to have to pay to get my name out there.  But, I will not be taken advantage of. 
2. If I pay a submission fee, it will be for a journal/mag that pays its contributors.  I don't care if the pay it $100 or $10, its the principal of the thing for me.  If your model is to make people pay to be published and then you pocket said funds and not pay those on whose backs you stand, then you are running a scam in my opinion. 
3. Barely, if ever, submitting to contests.  I blame this rule on my mother.  She plays the lottery religiously.  Sometimes she wins, but most often, she does not.  And at the end of the a non-winning week, who is receiving the benefits of her lotto playing habit?  The State lotto commission, not her.  I understand contests are designed to help keep underfunded, barely read journals and magazines afloat, allowing them to generate large sums of money in a short amount of time.  And, it would be AWESOME if I won first place and received thousands of dollars and the recognition that comes along with an esteemed prize.  But, like the lotto, my chances of winning is probably something like 1 in 8 million thousand six-hunnet forty two.  Therefore, I limit contests to a very minimum. (wow, these first three rules make me sound really cheap...)
4. Always having at least one piece out at any given time.  This is my way of gauging my work output.  At my day job, we have certain performance measures and goals.  Our promotions, salary increases, etc are based on meeting these measurements and performing at or above the required standard.  Right now, I am still figuring out how to monitor my "performance" for my writing job.  If I ever want this to become more than just a part-time hobby, I need to create concrete goals for myself.  Since I am still in school, I don't think it is reasonable to expect anything more of myself than making sure there is at least one piece out always.  Also, I am a slow writer and could probably go months, even years between projects if I let myself go.  This is my way to make sure I am constantly creating and revising.

So, now that I've laid out my rules for publishing, I guess I should go ahead and write something...

 

Say What! I'm in HuffPost Ya'll!

Today is a fantastic day!  Despite the snow on the first day of Spring, today is a good day!  I feel like homegirl from the Sound of Music, and if I were on a green hill in Europe (I think its Germany, but I don't know where they filmed that scene...), then I would be swinging my arms in the air and twirling around. 

Because today, THIS happened!

And of course, this was me!

They Like Me!

Today, my flash prose piece is LIVE at [PANK] Magazine Online!  I've been published before (only twice), but I am especially proud of this little ditty and that it found a fantastic home!  They even included an audio of my reading the piece.  So you all can listen to my terribly embarrassing tone of voice.


Also, just for measure, here is a link to my piece at The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review.  


Although I received a rejection this morning, this is totally how I am feeling about my little victory today!

What's Going On

It's been some time since I've actually written about my own writing.   

I am in my last workshop before thesis, and I'm pretty much freaking out about what is going to happen after thesis is over, but that is a post and/or topic for another day.  I've only been writing and submitting stories for a short amount of time, but I have two publications and a pending third under my belt so far.

A colleague from my program has made a goal of 100 rejections in 2015, obviously with the hopes of at least getting some of her stories accepted in the process.  I've decided to join her on her quest (whether she knows that or not).

Right now, I have two stories out for submission at twelve different journals.  One story has been with two journals for 190 days.  I sent a query to find out the status, no response.  However, if they think I am going to give up and withdraw, they are mistaken.  I will let it stay pending until it gets picked up by another market.  I think it is rude to just never respond to someone who is a fan of your publication and would like to be a part of it.  So, until they say "no," I am keeping my Pomeranian in the fight. 

I have a flash piece out at ten different journals.  It is a long shot, but I love it, and I am hopeful that some sentimental editor will love it as well.  I am keeping my fingers crossed, my hopes up, etc, etc, etc.

My plan is to carefully evaluate the responses I receive.  Being realistic, if the story is rejected, I at least hope to get a personal rejection so that I may consider how to revise the work.  Those are long shots, but it does feel much better to get a personal rejection than a form rejection.  The last rejection I received said, "We’re sorry to say that we have decided against taking... The best way to know what we are publishing is of course to read the magazine, which we hope you will continue to do."  YIKES!

This is my 2015 year to date stats (not including responses received in 2015 from 2014 submissions):
Stories/Essays: 2
Submissions: 28
Acceptances: 1
Rejections: 1 (personal)
Withdrawals: 17
Pending:10

My stats are only in consideration of stories submitted this year.  So far, 2015 is going pretty well as far as publishing is concerned.  Now, I just need to continue writing, revising, and really working on my craft.  I am not a fast producer (as some of you can tell by how long it takes for me to update this blog).  But, I am working on finding more time to write, especially this semester since I have only one class.

Let's hope this isn't me when it's all said and done!

Black Female Writers I Want to Be When I Grow Up

I started writing this post sometime after Maya Angelou passed.  It took putting my thoughts down to realize just how important she was to me.  I read I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings as an early teen.  My memories are unreliable and I cannot remember why I read it, but I know I wasn't supposed to, but I did anyway.  It would be an understatement to say it changed me.  There were parts of that book that affected me on a personal level -- aspects of a young Maya I recognized in myself, and not only with some of the subject matter, but in the fact that Maya was a young black woman just trying to make a way out of no way.  I have to say, in some ways, her memoirs were what inspired me to write...as cliché as that may sound.

Actually, when I was a child, I read a lot of books I wasn't supposed to read.  My mother was, and still is, an avid reader.  She often had popular paperbacks lying around the house.  I did not get I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings from my mother, but I am certain I read of it in one of the novels she had.  I do know I read every Terry McMillian novel published through the mid-1990s -- books I had no business reading because of their "adult themes."  My mother's favorite genre is "African American Urban Fiction"... or what you would find in the bookstore under the category "African American Fiction," regardless of content.  In fact, as a young person, I could probably list off every famous and popular black writer there was at the time, but if you ask me about Walt Whitman or Margaret Atwood, I would have no clue.  What I read exclusively until I was a freshman in college were books written by, for, and about Black women.

Recently, I've been inspired by the work of many other Black female writers (BFWs for short).  Even now that I do know who Walt Whitman and Margaret Atwood are, and have done much to study literature that goes beyond the inadequately termed label of "African American Fiction," I am still finding that I am most inspired by those in whose faces I see traces of myself.

Below are four BFWs giving me chills of inspiration (and envy) right now...or rather, "women I want to be when I am no longer a baby writer and I finally grow up."

1. ZZ Packer
I was introduced to ZZ Packer and her writing with the short story Brownies.  In fact, after I read Brownies, I immediately ordered "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere."  Brownies took me back to my childhood, to growing up in the south, to feeling swept up in something bigger than myself and realizing there is evil in everyone, even if its just a little.  As Julie Meyerson of The Guardian writes, "Something about Packer - her lack of pretension, her shy wit and spark - is infectious. You finish the book with a mad sense that, in writing, anything is possible. Dangerous, of course, because, like all great writers, Packer makes it look easy."

2. Danielle Evans
I randomly came across Danielle Evans while internet stalking Junot Diaz.  I wasn't really internet stalking him so much as I was researching ways of connecting with writers like him and came across links to a workshop he is associated with for writers of color.  Danielle Evans was listed as one of the authors who was participating in that workshop at the time, so I decided to start internet stalking her.  I am glad I did.  My favorite short story from her collection, "Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self" is Virgins.  I cannot express how much I love and, again, found myself in her characters.  As The New York Times says, “The most vivid characters in Danielle Evans’s story collection are in-betweeners: between girlhood and womanhood; between the black middle class and Ivy League privilege; between iffy boyfriends and those even less reliable; between an extended family and living on your own. To say they’re caught between worlds isn’t quite accurate, though; they tend to be hard-headed, sadder but wiser and, most of all, funny.”

3. Roxane Gay
To say this woman isn't a superstar is to deny that the sky is blue.  If you have not heard her name in the past year than you have been living on another planet, and even then I am sure inter-galactic communication has found traces of her name via some form of space Morse Code.  I literally read An Untamed State in twenty-four hours.  I came across this book while internet stalking John Green (I do a lot of internet stalking, don't judge) and met her via her Tumblr feed before ever reading any of her fiction or non-fiction.  I was so impressed by her as a human-being, I knew I would enjoy her writing.  I am part way through Bad Feminist and Ayiti, a collection of short stories.  I recommend all of it!

4. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My short story instructor paired Chimamnda Ngozi Adichie's short story Jumping Monkey Hill with Donald Barthelme's Glass Mountain as examples of post-modern metafiction.  Since then, I have been slowly reading through other examples of her work, but as you can see from the link to her website, she is a busy woman and it is taking me some time.  I recently ordered Americanah and am looking forward to reading what the New York Times says is "witheringly trenchant and hugely empathetic, both worldly and geographically precise, a novel that holds the discomfiting realities of our times fearlessly before us. It never feels false."


I hope this post inspires you to pick up a story written by one of these talented women or any woman of color.  Diversity in literature matters.

 

How to Make My (Pregnancy?) Dreams Come True

Me, dreaming about...

There are several aspects of being pregnant that I was completely unprepared for.  For example:



These...mmm...

1. The fact that your nipples become saucer shaped torpedos that double in size every month;
2.  The parasites in your uterus will suck  everything in your belly out so that you are forced to eat like a ravenous animal every hour on the hour;
3. Something affectionately referred to as "snail tail" (which is way too gross for me to describe here);
4. The fact that you will be so exhausted that keeping your eyes open will become physically demanding and
5. Sleeping (or not sleeping) will become very interesting.

I never really had a problem with sleeping before.  But, now, in between getting up every 20 minutes to pee and my crazy screwball dreams, I think I may get a good two hours of sleep each night.  I had no idea that increasing levels of hCG has the same hallucinogenic effect as taking mushrooms.  I don't even have to be in a deep sleep either.  I could be halfway awake, yet still dreaming about my husband fussing at me because he caught me walking into a bathroom occupied by my ex and several naked women (last night's dream...a very interesting one...).
 
The only good thing is that some of my dreams involve my writing.  Specifically, I have been having this reoccuring dream about starting a new project with a very specific plot.  The funny thing is that I am not dreaming of the plot itself, meaning the action in my dreams do not revolve around these new characters, bur rather me writing about the new characters.  I've had dreams about dialogue, how to begin the story or what to write first in order to develop the plot.  I've even dreamed that I woke up from dreaming about this idea and wrote down my ideas and then went back to sleep!  I mean, can I at least have Leonardo DiCaprio there when I create my own Inception.  Weird...

So, this is my dilema...what do I do with this idea?  I believe it is an awesome idea and I want to write it.  But, what do I do about my current WiP?  Do I put that down and start on this new one?  Do I jot my ideas down somewhere and then return to it when I'm done with my WiP?  Do I work on the both of them at the same time (which seems impossible considering my level of exhaustion these days)?

I need some advice from my fellow artists.  How do you process new ideas while in the midst of a another project?  What do you do to keep track of your ideas and how do you know its time to put pen to paper?

The Only Reason Why I Would Stop Writing...

I found out in September that I was... 

Yup, that's right, I'm pregnant Beyonce'!

HA!  I wish.  

No, I'm just plain old pregnant!

Immediately after finding out I was pregnant, I started to feel pregnant:  tired, nauseated, bloated, uncomfortable, unfocused, unmotivated, hungry... and writing was pushed to the background while I battled first trimester foolishness.  The past 13 weeks have been incredibly eventful, yet, quite uneventful (lots of laying in the bed and watching HGTV).  I had an emergency pregnancy scare (which I will write about in my next post, stay tuned folks).  I have had to mentally get my mind around the fact that I indeed could have children and that nothing bad was going to happen to me.  And, I also had to figure out how to handle working, school, family and friends while trying to keep my dinner down and take the horse pills they call "prenatal vitamins."  Basically, although I haven't been blogging, I have been trying to find that space in between feeling pregnant and feeling normal so that I can actually want to write again.  I think now, I have reached that point (thank God)!

It's not like I didn't have time to prepare for what was coming.  If you talk to DH about it, it happened like this...

 

But, in actuality, we had been trying to conceive for almost a year.  I struggle with a condition called Polyscystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and had convinced myself early in my 20's that getting pregnant was not going to happen for me.  When DH and I decided that we wanted to at least try to have a baby, we attempted it the natural way (i.e. no medical intervention) but that didn't work.  It has taken time and some serious drugs to get us here and we are beyond thankful.  But, no matter how much I thought I was ready, I still had no idea how to handle actually being pregnant, mentally and physically.

But, today I am making a commitment to come back to writing, to make time for it just like any other priority in my life, so that when this nine month journey is over and the real adventure starts, I am able to incorporate time for it organically in my new life.  And, although I have been trying to keep this blog more about writing and reading in general, I think you all might be hearing a bit more about my personal life in the future.  I promise not to drift too far from my subtitle of "a writer's blog," but one thing I know about writing and being a writer is that our life experiences always find a way into our work.  I am very curious to see how this part of my life gets played out on pen and paper and I am glad I can share with you all!

Why So Tense?

Taken From Salon

I've been struggling in my manuscript over whether to write in present or past tense.  I'm a flip flopper.  I started writing certain parts of the story in past tense and then re-wrote the whole thing in present tense and now I am thinking about going back to past tense.  This may seem like a ridiculous back and forth with no meaning, but it actually changes EVERYTHING about my book and I can't make up my mind!

So, I decided to research what it actually means, in a literary sense, to write in present or past tense.  What the technique of present tense implies and vice versa with the past tense.  I am hoping that, as with everything in my life, writing it out and analyzing my choice will help me come up with a final decision.

According to The Editor's Blog one of the first things a writer should do is "decide the when of the story."  I think I'm getting hung up at this basic and fundamental step.  I can't decide the "when" of my story.  My story covers several years...over a decade and a half, really, and part of me feels that it lends itself naturally to the use of past tense because of that aspect only. 

But another part of me feels as though using the "simple past" tense is too easy and, for a story about young people, removes the immediacy of the action, emotion, and conflict between the characters.  Or rather, using the present tense intensifies the immediacy.  But, is that really true?

This is a highly contested debate within the literary world.  Philip Hensher believes the use of present tense has become cliche'.  In an opinion piece for the Telegraph, he wrote, "Where has it come from? In some cases, such as Helen Dunmore, from lyric poetry – English poetry has always been written in the present tense (“A drowsy numbness pains/ My sense…”). In others, perhaps from reading too many celebrity interviews. (“John Travolta opens the door of his Malibu home himself. He is really quite short.”) Probably the most prevalent influence is that of the film treatment, which is always written thus. Some novelists, evidently, like to meet Hollywood halfway."

Maybe that's why so many young adult novels are written in the present tense.  Because young people are a part of this highly fashionable "now now now" world of instant gratification and the present tense is a metaphor for their lives.  I agree, I do not believe I have read any recent YA fiction that is not in first person present tense.  The best example is obviously The Hunger Games.  In The HGs, the use of present tense is used to underscore the "reality tv" aspect of the plot/theme.  The use of present tense is a necessary literary device that furthers the theme of the entire story.  So it totally makes sense for Suzanne Collins to have used present tense in writing The HGs, but does that mean I need to use it too?

I appreciate the way Deirdre Baker at the Horn Book examined the debate.  She writes that using the past tense implies that the story has already been developed, therefore offering authority and "responsibility for the way the story is told" and that the narrator has examined why the events happened as they did.  In contrast, she writes, "the present tense is reportage or live drama: every present tense verb is a step into nothing, into a tale that must make itself up from moment to moment. A Tweet, perhaps. A Facebook comment. Or even reality TV—happening right before your very eyes."

And that may be the difference between contemporary/commercial fiction, where the intent is immediate gratification -- and literary fiction which attempts to be timeless.

Hmm...tick tock...what to do?

I think I have figured out my conundrum, but I won't say what my final answer is for sure.  Hopefully, one day you all will find out when you read the book.  But no matter which tense I choose, it will no doubt be a deliberate and intentional choice.

Tick Tock...Finding Time for Everything

To say that I am "busy" is a massive understatement.  Below is a typical Thursday for me:

• 4:45-5:45am:   wake and let dog out (or rather open the door, watch the dog stand on the porch looking for something to bark at, beg the dog to "go pee pee" and then trick her back into the house with a piece of banana)
• 5:45-6:45am:   bootcamp workout in the dark with twelve other crazy people
• 6:45am-7:45am:   contemplate calling out of work...when I realize I don't have any more leave, peel myself off the edge of the bed, shower, get dressed, go to work.
• 7:45am-4 or 5ish pm:    work...
• 5-6pm:   be entertained by all the crazies on the metro as I travel to class
• 6:15-8:45pm:   class
• 8:45-9:30pm:   more entertainment on the metro, but less amused because I want to be home already...
• 10pm:   maybe eat something or down a bottle of wine...and then PASS The EFF OUT!

Me when I get home...(if you can't tell by now, I LOVE gifs)

Now...in the middle of that full day do you see any time allotted for "writing?"  I don't.  Maybe if I put my nose to the screen, squinted my eyes, or got out some binoculars I can find it somewhere in between the lines.  *Looking...looking...*  Sigh, it ain't there. 

I will admit, not every day of the week is like this.  Thursdays suck a major one.  Some evenings I am at home, so I try to write then or on the weekends.  Although, I can't say I write something or work on my WiP everyday, which I read somewhere is what successful authors do.   Apparently, I'm doomed as a writer.  In fact, Steven King, who people seem to poo poo, but makes bank nonetheless, says in his book On Writing, that a writer should produce at least 1000 words a day on his/her project and that he writes every single day, even holidays.  Yeah, that's pretty much impossible for me and I don't even have kids to blame it on.

So, what do I do?  Well, I write in between work projects, on my lunch break, doodle plot outlines during meetings, and I don't watch TV anymore.  I lock myself in my office and try not to think about what's happening on Louie and write as much as I can before I fall asleep in my chair.  If I'm in the bathroom or on the train, I am reading or editing something.  Basically, I try to use any extra minute I have to write.  Right now, I'm 60,000 words in (since July)!

So how do you guys do it?  How do you find the time to do what it is that you enjoy, to work on projects, to finish that novel or short story, to eat, to rest?  How do you make it happen?

Back to School

Last Thursday was my first day back in school.  I was super excited and nervous at the same time because I didn't know what to expect.

My experience with post graduate education is an arduous and trying journey.  I went to law school part time for four years, working eight hours during the day and then driving an hour to Baltimore for school until well after 9pm and then drove another hour back home.  I took multiple classes, usually at least three or four in one semester.  And if anyone knows anything about the Socratic method, you have to stay on top of your reading or face the embarrassment of being called on and not knowing anything.  And trust me, that is a terrible feeling.

The thing is, law school was ran by and filled by people who are very much like me: type A, organized, extroverts who are highly competitive.  I expected to know how my grades would be calculated, what assignments or cases were to be done by what date, and that, generally, there would be no surprises.  But, that was law school.

Getting a masters is apparently very different.  Getting a masters in a creative field is even more different.

My professor handed out a syllabus and promptly said that it was a basic idea...that it was probably going to change.  Huh?  I searched the document for how my grade would be calculated and only saw what grades were possible.  Wha...?  Apparently our assignments consist of writing reports on what we think about something we have read and not based on research or some other factual information.  Hmm...

I sat there wondering if my brain was going to explode.  I am not used to loosy goosy learning.  At least, not anymore.  Its been a little while since undergrad.  I was an English major, so I guess I should know a little about how creative people learn and what it means to teach the craft of writing.  But...the uncertainty is a bit scary.

But, then my professor said something that totally made me chill out.  He said that his goal is to teach us how to read like writers...to take out the methods in our brain that lead to studying text in the same way an English student would (in the same way a law student would)...because at the end of this, we will be writing what it is those people study.

 So, I relaxed.  We shall see how long I can go with the flow.

But for right now...

New Ideas and New Orleans

Damn You soon-to-be hurricane Issac! *Fist Shaking to the Heavens!* 

For several months my girlfriends and I have been planning a bachelorette weekend in the Big Easy as one last hurrah before my good friend enters the solemn state of matrimony and we have no more excuses to flash people, drink like we are still 20 and pretend we can handle it the next morning, celebrate until the next one gets married (or until we go to Miami in March..., Yes?).  We are supposed to leave this Friday and Al Rooker had me throwing shoes at the TV this morning because Issac is supposed to touch down in New Orleans Wednesday some time (AAARRRGGHHH!!!!).  

Nonetheless, I am really excited because I've never been to New Orleans.  I don't know about you, but when I think of the city several things come to mind (admittedly, most have nothing to do with New Orleans, but I do not attest to making sense with my associations):

 

Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise (Interview with the Vampire...obviously my association goes right there first because...well, why not?).

True Blood (again, no actual relation to New Orleans, but vampire related, so therefore I think of New Orleans and then Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise all over again...mmm...Alex Skarsgard...)

The real cast of the Real World New Orleans and this:

 

Food because I'm going to do a lot of eating down there if its going to be raining.  A lot of drinking too, so add booze to this list.

And voodoo...which gets to the real reason for this post.  I have been interested in an idea for a story involving voodoo and a modern teenage girl that comes from another time, but I know nothing about New Orleans or voodoo which makes me feel very inadequate in my abilities to write about it although the idea (in my opinion) is brilliant.  So, my plan is to do a little research while I am down there and document my impressions of the city so that I can recreate something reasonably authentic when I draft my little diddy.  "They" say that you should write what you know, but what's the fun in that?  And what would writing fiction be if you can't use your imagination?  So, I have developed a research plan that includes making time to visit the burial site of a well known voodoo queen, reading books on the subject, and, as I mentioned, throughly documenting my time in New Orleans.  Hopefully, when I am ready to write the story, I will at least have a basic understanding and can build from there.

If you are in the same place with your WiP or have ideas and are a bit skiddish about research or writing about something that you don't know, here are a few links that I found helpful:

TOR.com: Writing What You Don't Know

Writer's Digest: How to Research Your Novel

Sally Thacker: Researching the Historical Novel

Mary Carroll Moore: Researching Your Book -- How to Do It, When to Stop and Get to Writing

So with that, please pray that we make it there, that Issac takes his butt somewhere else, and that I am not hungover focused enough to execute my plan when I do get there!

Character Analysis and Our Significant Others

Last night, Dear Husband and I had a tiff.

I asked him one of those dreaded questions that significant others who are bound to creative thinkers...artists, musicians, writers, tax attorneys...always are asked at some point when it comes to whatever project said thinker is working on.  "So, what you do think...?"  followed by a long, drawn out explanation that covers the entire combination of chosen colors, score, plots and tax code regulations attempting to be circumvented.

I love Dear Husband.  DH is what I call him.

DH, unlike many other times, decided to indulge my inquiries last night.  I don't know why.  He had to have known it would lead to no good.  Or maybe, since he is also a creative thinker, he knew how good it would lead (okay, that didn't work, but...you get what I'm saying).  

My question:  "So, what do you think if my character asks the protagonist for help?"  DH picked up the thinking stick in response, a rolled up pole of wrapping paper leaning against the wall in my office.  He swung it around for a bit, used it as a light saber, tossed it around his head, pretended it was an extension of a particular body part that shall not be named and said, "I don't think your character would do that"  in so many words.  

I was like
 


Please... who asked you anyway?

He continued..."I know this person, the kind of guy you are writing about.  He's a dick right?  This guy would think all of that, what you are writing about, is beneath him.  He wouldn't ask for help because he wouldn't think he needed it.  He wouldn't see how wrong he is because he is privileged."

Hmm...DH was on to something.  The more I thought about it and let his comment stew, the more I realized that he was actually right.  That my character was privileged and had no idea that he should ask for help.  But, the entirety of my plot depended on his getting this help.  So, what could I do?  What should I do?  The only thing I could do.  I got to know my character.  Or rather, I started to get to know him better.  Because I had an idea of who he was.  I had an idea of who I wanted him to be in the end.  But, I didn't know him well enough to allow him to take me there.

So the word of the day is "character."  No plotting, no story, no further...not until I know exactly who I am dealing with.  Thank you DH and all the other significant others out there for putting up with our random questions and actually indulging us with coherent and meaningful responses.  You many not think you help, but you really do.