One of the tips that Bob Mayer gave at Write on the River when I attended was to join your local chapter of the Romance Writers of America, no matter what your genre.
Well.
Well.
Can I just tell you a little bit about how English Majors like myself are taught to think about romance novels???
*No, not that Nicholas Sparks novel. Or the movie version.
When I attended Bob Mayer’s Write on the River last spring, I took a lot of notes. In a notebook that I had grabbed at random on the way out of my classroom. Because I was driving from school to Tennessee while seven months pregnant. Because I am a genius.
Anyway, if you’re impressed by how ill-prepared I was then (at least I remembered clothes? I did forget a toothbrush, but Bob gave me one.), guess what happened next? Continue reading The Notebook*
We’re reading The Picture of Dorian Gray in Novels this semester, and since we’ve been reading about how well Basil captures Dorian’s essence in his portrait, our first creative project is to annotate selfies (or photos of ourselves, for the student who says he refuses to ever take a selfie on moral grounds) to show what our appearances reveal about our true natures*.
Portrait of the Artist as a Young (Wo)man – click to see larger!
One of the things that was mentioned in multiple MWW workshops this year was the idea that–to the dismay of Victorians–phrenology has been disproven; that is, there are much more important things about your character than details of appearance. At her MWW one-day intensive session, The Writer’s Survival Kit, Martha Brockenbrough begged us, “Please don’t start with your protagonist waking up in bed and catching sight of herself in the mirror. Isn’t there a whole lot of stuff that’s more important to know about your character than that she has green eyes?” Continue reading She Hath a Lovely Face: Characterization & Beauty
So, I am the sort of person who works best when others are around, even if I’m not talking to them. When left unsupervised, I have a tendency to procrastinate horribly unless I’m going to have to perform shortly with a hard deadline (this is why teaching works well for me–with literal bells ringing to tell me what to do next–and writing novels is a struggle, even though I really enjoy writing!).
#the struggle is real
So, to this end, I’ve set up a weekly “writing date” with a long-distance friend. Continue reading Writing Dates
It’s my tenth year teaching high school! Apparently the traditional 10th-annivesary gifts are tin.
Tin, like what Derek’s suit is made of in the photo.
Excuse me while I go make myself a fashionable tinfoil hat to celebrate. Posting might get slower while I adjust back to the flow of things. (I know this will disappoint my only reader, Mitchco.) Continue reading Tenth Anniversary
The third and final of my Lilly-grant-funded adventures this year was the Midwest Writers Workshop (#42, certainly an auspicious sign!).
This workshop was AMAZING! I got a ton out of it and it really had the most breadth in terms of a writing conference that could meet the needs of people at all levels, from novices just starting their novels to published authors looking for networking opportunities. Continue reading Midwest Writers Workshop 2015
As you may have guessed, I got busy and failed to come update this any more. My writing group was fabulous and I got a lot out of it–I really loved reading what they wrote, and found their critique helpful too! I definitely hope the rest of them will finish their books so that I can read them.
I also got to do my first public reading (!!!) at the Thursday-night “celebratory reading of works in progress,” invited by instructor Nancy to share what I came up with in our pastiche exercise. And one of my group members taped it!
So, feeling much like Michael Bluth is in the image above, I am trying to keep a lot of balls in the air right now. I’m currently hanging out in Muncie for the Midwest Writers Workshop, which is awesome. I’m working on a post about the last 2/3 of Bart IWT. I’m trying to ignore the fact that school starts next week. I’m excited that Sarge has just been upgraded from “my two-month-old” to “my three-month-old” and amused that I’m not the only person pumping milk in between conference sessions.
I’ve taken tons of notes, and I’ll have lots to say later, but right now I’m going to keep processing what I’ve learned.
In the meantime, I’ve also been twittering my heart out; I think I’m finally getting the hang of Twitter! If you’re interested, you can watch me twit or follow my twitterings here!
Well, I had a great time yesterday, despite being a complete slacker and writing zero words outside of class. Continue reading Bard IWT, Day 2
I arrived at Bard last night for the IWT, aka “teacher camp,” after a lovely two-hour drive north from NYC with my friend Marla. This is my first visit to upstate New York and it’s absolutely gorgeous; Bard’s campus is gorgeous, too.
After I got settled in in my dorm room I wandered down a forested path to the opening reception, where I chatted with some other teachers (mostly from New York, some from New Jersey, one who’s headed to a boarding school in Jordan) and ate some tasty snacks (wine, cheese, grapes). Then dining-hall dinner!
I was a bit nervous coming in that everyone else in the writing retreat would be working on Serious Writing, aka Literary Fiction, and might look down their noses at my YA scifi nonsense, and that feeling wasn’t getting any better despite a)me knowing not to mind if they did, their loss, and b)people being super nice. Super nice they may have been, but they were also all dressed like Serious People (except for one woman in an awesome leopard-print skirt and motorcycle boots, and it turned out she was an instructor!). Continue reading Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking, Day 1