Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Sketching

When I read Cameron and how she sketches her work out, it seems really true to me. It all makes sense. I know I get to the point she does where she doesn't know how to keep going and writers block starts to set in. I usually get to that point even before I start writing. I always have a hard time trying to figure out what to write whereas, Cameron says to just start writing things down. I like the part where she said, "Early on in the letters, a 'bug project' showed up. Obediently, I wrote it down. Thinking, a 'bug project'?" (pg. 71). I have never been that good at writing where I could just write down something that has come to me and incorporate that in the story somehow. Usually, I have to know where the story is and where it is going in order to start writing. I understand that there are a whole lot of different techniques but none of them really seemed like they would work for me.

Some of the other options for how to start writing where things like: researching their topics in depth and doing their themselves, planning each scene carefully and then letting them fall into place, and making outlines. I feel like some of these may help me if I put enough effort into them but some of them are just not possible like the researching in depth. I cannot go to Paris and study everything there just to write a story right now. Making outlines and planning out scenes are much more logical options for me. But even if I do start with one of these options to get me going, there will come another point during the story that will give me a stopping point.

"Now that 'I' know what 'I'am doing, I begin to worry that 'I' may not be able to pull it off. In other words, my ego wakes up" (page 74). This quote is awesome to me because I feel like my ego is awake the entire time. I respect Cameron because she can put her ego to sleep and her imagination goes wild. However, I cannot get to that point. I feel like this may be why my stories are so short and not at all that creative and thought out. I try my hardest, but I always keep erasing and rewriting. It is not the easiest thing to spit out topics either. I started just looking around me and picked something or a thought and just started making a story behind it. This has loosened my imagination up a bit but here always comes that thought that it is stupid or I should rewrite it. At that point, I just say no.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Vacuums


Vacuums

            Marsha went to the most epic vacuum store she could find. See, her cat had made a hideous mess out of his kitty litter in the middle of the newly carpeted living room. He seemed to have dragged it all the way form the kitchen. He must have had some kind of motive. Maybe his food wasn’t enough or it wasn’t his favorite kind. Anywho, the salesman brings Marsha back to reality.
            “Now this right here is the best in the business”.
            “Ill take it!” exclaims Marsha without hesitation.
            “You don’t want to hear anything else about it? I have the whole informational speech down pat’ he says.
            “Nope, that’s all I needed to hear” Marsha is impatient. She pays for it and proudly shows it off to her husband once she got home. She just cannot wait to tackle that kitty mess on the carpet. She plugs it in around the corner in the kitchen and goes to turn it on. All excited, she hits the ON button and…nothing. She keeps on trying.
            “Agghhh!” Marsha exclaims.
            “Just keep trying, sweetheart,” says her husband. So she kept on trying. She checked all the cords and the outlet and everything seemed to be working. She finally decided that was it and she was taking it back. As she rounds the corner to unplug and wind up the cord, her husband sits there giggling like a little school girl holding the cord in his hand. 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Fiction Packet 3

These are all very interesting stories. Very different than what I am used to. It seemed that a lot of them were maybe written in a  different language and then translated. So they are not American stories.

The first story, When It Rains, It Rains a River, was very repetitive. It used the words, "brother", "mud", and " girl" a lot. The sentences were also repetitive, for example, "we fish, when it rains, and us brothers, in the rain, fishing like this, this makes the earth turn t mud". the story seems to take awhile to move on because it does repeat a lot of words and phrases. However, because it does repeat, it was difficult for me to focus on the content and I'm not even sure what the story was about. I know there was a girl that the boys made and there things they did like when she turned into a "cave"and they made her all muddy. The Singing Fish was another part of the story and that one was even more confusing because it started talking about words and then about talking fish. It was definitely different.

I liked the The Falling Girl most of all because the language was a little easier to understand, however, the content made you think a little harder. My thought was that the girl was committing suicide and she was jus seeing what she was missing out on either in her past or her future. I thought it was interesting and different twist that she was an older woman at the bottom floors but only in a matter of one night. The time was a really difficult thing to understand because it was only one night and she was just trying to make it to the party at the bottom on time. At the end, the older man even says you can't hear her thud so it makes you wonder if she actually fell or if she stopped herself and took someones help.

The story, August 25, 1983, was very interesting. the man was seeing himself as an older man who was dying because he committed suicide. The old man told the young version of himself all about their life but told him they wouldn't remember it because it was all a dream. My question is if he really was dreaming because he never really wakes up. I thought maybe he really is dying and the old man is hallucinating. There are so many ways you can interpret the story though.

The last story was also very interesting. I didn't quite get it. I did not understand why there were different titles that had different stories behind them. It got very repetitive o it was not a story I necessarily enjoyed. The language was very different, however and I kind of liked that aspect. One part that stuck out to me was when she said, "in my craving to encounter the statues which my perspiring night has erected". She uses language that has multiple meanings and it makes you read twice.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Wreckage of Reason

All of the stories were so interesting, but these seemed to stick out the most to me.

The first story was called, The Blue Girl by Laurie Foos. This was a very interesting story to me because it wasn't happy or funny, but more dark and serious. The beginning of the story slightly confused me and so did the whole story in a way. There is a lot of metaphorical talk in this story. Some examples would be the blue girl herself (is she literally blue?), the moon pies that are full of the women's secrets, and when the blue girl licked the woman's hand clean. My idea about the moon pies is that the women use marshmallows to represent all of their secrets that they keep. When the last woman went into the girls bedroom, she fed her the whole pie which I see as giving her secrets away to the blue girl and the girl took them all and cleaned her hands of them, literally and metaphorically. I think this story leaves a lot to the imagination because it sure did for me. I needed the story with a lot of questions.

The second story was called New York/LA Whirlwind Romance by Karen Lilis. This was an interesting way of writing a story. It was not a narrative where there are two people talking and someone else telling the story about the background of everything. This is just phrases that someone has said. The first part is mostly lovey dovey and portrays a positive person, but once we actually meet the person, their language changes and they become selfish and rude. This is what can happens when you talk on the phone, you can hang up and be done with a conversation but when it is face to face, there is so much more involved in the conversation. I enjoyed this story even more because at the end, Karen said that these are just lines that she has heard people say as they were passing by on their phones. To be able to compile all of them and make a story out of them was a really cool aspect.

The third story that I read was called, More Than Winter or Spring by Jessica Treat. This was styled as a traditional story I would say. There was a little bit of a twist in the story however. In the beginning where the two people are sitting and talking, Jenny was asking her friend how much her friend liked her but we did not know if her friend was a boy or girl. I automatically assumed that it was a boy because it seemed like they were flirty with each other. It seemed apparent that they were younger in age because of their actions and language. We find out later that it is a little girl when her mother is giving her a bath and calls her a 'silly girl'. It was a sweet story of friendship between two young girls but I can see where it can get offensive at the end when they are cursing at God and nothing happens. Overall, it was a good story that was fun to read and kept my interest the whole time.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Fiction Packet 2

I would definitely have to say that I liked fiction packet 2 much better. The stories in this packet were much longer then the other one but that is not the reason why I didn't like it as much. I didn't think the stories were very interesting. It was very difficult for me to pay attention to them.

The first story that was called Contagion, was a very detailed story. I think it's funny that the story is so detailed considering the main character had to be very detailed in his writing for his boss. I did like how the story was broken up into different sections like, "My Instructions" and "My Record and Journey". That made me interested in what was to follow in the paragraph,  wanted to learn about his journey and records. Some parts, though, were quite dull. The parts where they were going over the Rauchian theory and all the interns learnings, were very boring to me. I wasn't sure if it was important for us to know to understand the story, but I did not rain anything from it at all.

I believe the next story was called "Point and Line". This story was very frustrating for me. It seemed to jump around a lot and it was hard to follow. I couldn't really get the just of the story except for the fact about a little girl in the marketplace and about a cat. I wasn't sure how they went together and it didn't make much sense. I like when stories go in order and it tells a story in chronological order. It is more intriguing to me to read a story I want to read and can understand.

The last story that I read was called "People in Hell just Want a Drink of Water". This story was actually pretty good to me. I thought it was the perfect amount of details, just enough so that you can understand them and put it all together. I really enjoyed reading about the Tinsleys on page 103 of the story. It was very descriptive and I was able to get a picture in my head which makes the story more enjoyable because I can paint even more of a picture as the story goes along. Overall, the stories were ok. I think there is a lot that can make or break a short story. The amount of detail and the order of the story have seemed to be the two that bothers me the most.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Readings

So the first packet I read was the Attack of the Difficult Poems, and it was definitely an interesting one. I wasn't very fond of the how the writer wrote. However, it did have some good insight on how to read those difficult poems like the ones we read in the beginning of the semester. Especially in City Eclogue.  There was some language in here  that I was confused about but I still got the main points.

I thought the first two reasons she used when she was talking about hard poems were kind go cheesy and I don't necessarily think I have ever really thought those things to myself, the "why me" and self-blame. I realized that maybe those thoughts were directed towards writers possibly? I did like the point she made about how hard poems are normal and not abnormal. " 'Difficult' is very different from abnormal", that was a statement that made sense to me and I believe it is true! "Difficult poems are hard to read" is a very true statement and probably one of my favorites because I can relate. "Difficult poems are not popular" is also a statement I believe true, however I may be biased.

When she was talking about innovation, I thought where it said, "form follows not function but failure" is really cool. I think much more interesting content comes out of failures instead of trying to be perfect. Charles had a good point about how even though something looks minor on the outside of poetry, it is something major on the inside. And sometimes major things are just small and tedious. These are the points that stuck out to me the most because the made sense to me and I could relate to.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the fiction packet with all the short stories. I really enjoy short stories because they can keep my attention. There were some styles that I like more than others, however. I think my favorite short story was 'Wallet' by Allen Woodman. It is what made the most sense to me and was a true short story in my eyes. It made me laugh which is important to me.

There were a few that I was not that interested in, however. Some were the 'Mystery Stories' by Sharon Krinsky. I know there is no such thing as a short story that is too short but these were just too short for my liking. I just didn't see the point in writing a few sentences and calling it a short story. Another one that I wasn't very fond of was 'The Letter From Home' by Jamaica Kincaid. It was almost like a list of everything she came in contact with or did, which can be a cool way of telling a story, but it just didn't click with me. The rest of the stories however were very good and kept me attention which is what I need.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Poems


These Feelings

Before I used to think you were a curse,
Placed in my life to bring me suffering.
A bittersweet gift that made my life worse.
It was because you were so amazing
Now I realize you are my life's blessing
I wanted to be with you for so long
And now I love you more than anything
I have feelings for you that are so strong.
I will never hurt you or do you wrong.
I am no longer afraid to love you.
We are so perfect, I know we belong.
I'll love you forever, I swear it's true.
You are my life, my world, my everything.
I promise forever, my love I'll bring.


Waiting

I plan on making your life better
I plan on going through times of hard
I will never play role of debtor
If given your heart I will stand guard
Because once wronged ones heart is left charred
I would’ve waited forever only for you
Holding you in my highest regard
But by Gods will the waiting I don’t have to do
Unleashing my vengeance of captive love once barred


Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Blood Dazzler

I really enjoyed reading Blood Dazzler. I think it was easier to understand what I was reading because it is something we have heard about over and over again. It was also something we already knew so much about and we have all had our own feelings and emotions over it. Whether we knew someone involved, helped clean up, or donated money, we were all connected to the victims somehow.

I really like the style of this book even though it is still poems all the way through. There are poems that are supposed to be by other hurricanes like "Siblings" and poems that were said about voodoo. Some of the topics of the poems were repeated like the dog Luther. Some of them had some improper language but I think it was important to have that language because that is how the people down south talk. The language really captured the victims and what they had been through.

The poems were mostly in normal stanzas with no special forms. The only forms that were a little different from the rest were Tankas and the poem about Katrina hitting landfall on page 5. Even though they were in strange formations, they were a lot easier to read and focus on than the poems in City Eclogue.

My favorite poem was the one called "Only Everything I Own". I went to New Orleans on a mission trip after the storm and we helped clean up what still needed fixing. We would pass the houses that had the spray paint on it with the number of deaths or evacuated. Just to think, in that house was everything that person possessed. All of their memories and belongings were washed away in the floods. My favorite part about the whole book though is how the poems were coming from certain people or things. Also, just the way I can read the book and really understand and envision what is going on.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

City Eclogue

Reading the book City Eclogue really frustrated me. I don't enjoy reading things if I don't understand what they are saying. These poems just seemed like they had random words put together. At least that is what it seems like to the reader. The poems were also difficult to read based on the fact that some were spread out on the pages. Some sentences ended where they didn't sound right or there were some words that were not even complete. I know we weren't supposed to analyze each poem and really understand what they were trying to say but it is really frustrating to keep reading what seems like just random words to me. Some of the poems I was able to understand a little about what it was saying based on the title. Sometimes, I did not even know where one poem started and where the other ended.

The language and the usage  of the language is what I looked at most because I couldn't pay attention to the meaning. My favorite usage of language is personification. Making an object come to life with human qualities. In the poem "Urban Nature", the line that says "the bus stop posture in the interval" is a personification in that they are putting posture with a bus stop. How does a bus stop have a posture? Posture is something very human-like and the bus stop is just a bus stop.

There are some poems that have very positive images and I even saw that while skimming through the poem. Using words suck as 'lovely', 'butterflies', 'blossoms', and 'sweetness' such as "Painting from Science for Hui Ka-Kwong" used, just puts good images in your head. Even though I cannot understand what is going on in the poem, I can assume that it is something good and not something negative. Other poems are the exact opposite, you can just tell that they will be negative according to their language used. In "Height and Deep Song", there is language such as 'disaster', 'ledge', 'crying', and 'screaming' which may indicate that something bad or negative is happening here.

The poem "Idyll" is a good example of how the poem is spread out on the page and sometimes very difficult to read and understand that way. I feel that I may miss a line or a word because my eyes are not trained to read that way. I think it was kind of fun though to try and read like that but I focused more on trying to read in order then actually focusing on what the poem was saying or any of the language. The phrases are all different lengths as well so I feel like it does not flow as nicely as the others. Also in "Idyll" the first line has two words and then there are three lines together after that and then two words again and then just on line. I didn't know where to take a breath or pause because there really isn't a whole lot of punctuation in the poem.

This kind of poetry may be for some people, but I'm thinking it may not be for me.


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

I really enjoyed reading Goldburg's articles. I really like her style of writing and it was fun to read! It is very hard for me to just sit down and write like some people can do. I am good at sitting down to write research papers and details that I can build off of, but to just sit and write is awful. Goldburg talks about caring about your work and then it will take care of itself and some people may like it and others may not. As long as you are satisfied with your work then that is enough. I wish I could be satisfied with my work all the time but there are times when I just cannot think of what to do to make it better. A perfect example of not being satisfied is when my thoughts are racing through my head and I cannot get them all out on paper in time. I will skip over things and forget to put them back in. I love how Goldburg wrote about getting a good pen to write with, I never thought that would make such a big difference in someone's writing and the timing of writing. I guess there are a lot of aspects to writing than I thought!

I loved reading about obsessions. I can relate so much to Goldburg. I also love to talk and brag about my family all the time. I think it is true that our obsessions have power because that is one topic that i can sit down and start writing about in an instant. It may not be interesting to some people but it excited me and gets my hand moving. Talking about places I have been or the other people that surround me is another thing that can get me to enjoy writing. If the topic I am supposed to write about does not interest me, then it is pure torture to sit and write about it and I am pretty sure the people who would be reading my writing would not be interested either. Goldburg says, "the act of repressing it seems to repress everything else too". I agree with this statement 100 percent. I can even see it. My writing is so much more interesting when I am interested in what I am writing. Having the freedom to write whatever I want is a very liberating feeling.

Another topic Goldburg talked about was using original detail. I have a problem with detail. Sometimes I use too much detail and sometimes I don't use enough. Very rarely do I do a good job using the right amount. I really liked how she said that our details are important. It is a good thing to hear from another person. Once I start talking about something important to me, I feel like other people don't find anything I am writing half as interesting as I do. Adding our emotions to our words is another thing that frustrates me in my writing. I am a very straight forward person who has a problem with looking deeper within things. I guess every person has some things to work on, I just have more in my writing.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

I have never blogged before so hopefully I did this right!