Yesterday my PIC emailed me:
So, I have an idea about the morning after chapter, but I know you have an idea about it too. Can I just write my version and then you tell me what you think?
I replied:
Sure-- we'll compare versions and likely wind up taking the best of both and combining them.
Little did I know that when I opened the attachment and read her pages this afternoon, I'd come to find out that our ideas were almost identical. We differed in execution, but that's about it. How awesome is that. We're not only in synch w/ each other's styles, but also w/ our ideas. Brilliant!We're about 100 pages into it now, and after reading the last 70 pages, it keeps getting better. Even I find myself wondering how it's gonna all turn out.
How I wish I could start querying agents for it now!
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
oh, and btw...
Not that this has anything to do w/ writing, but everyone at the party loved my shoes -- pointed toe, ankle-slingback, Nine West 3 1/2" heels in taupe. Totally uncomfortable, but totally worth it -- they were freakin' hot. Not to mention that I had it goin' on w/ my hair, too. I just I hope I look that good for the QRB panel next week -- no rain, please!
end-of-the-semester fun
I just got back from an end-of-the-semester/TA graduation party for the first-year writing faculty. I miss having these kinds of get-togethers --we had a smaller dept at UMass-Dartmouth, thus almost everybody knew each other and often got together. In fact, for awhile I got a gang together and we met at Mirasol's Cafe (formerly known as Uncle Jon's) every other week for venting and fun. (Sigh, I just had a moment of homesickness and longing for those days...) Here, just our writing program alone is big enough that you can always meet someone new at these shindigs, and it's the first one since I've attended since I've been here (the dept gathering last fall was *too* big for me). It was great to not only talk teaching (although, admittedly, we talked *very* little teaching outside of the context of "I'm DONE!"), but also talk writing.
Like me, many of our composition faculty have creative writing interests. Stacey and I talked about next week's panel as well as our own ventures. I also got into a conversation about my current novel w/ two others and they, like my teen writers group, were very interested in the collaborative process. We especially talked stylistics. A note to aspiring writers: if you're going to take any kind of writing course, take a course in Stylistics. It's probably the one graduate course I use every day (along w/ my teaching theory and practice course). One of my good friends is no longer in academia (in fact, she's in parish ministry, and that story is for another blog) also brags about how she applies stylistics in her reading and writing-related work.
I'm looking forward to next week's panel w/ both excitement and a little bit of nervousness. But I know Stacey -- he'll go out of his way to make sure I'm comfortable, and he's not going to ask questions that are going to throw me for a loop. In fact, I'm guessing it's going to be a lot of fun.
Remember, that's May 17th at Quail Ridge Books, folks. And to my out-of-town readers, I hope to be getting you a video of it soon afterwards (or, possibly, a podcast?).
Like me, many of our composition faculty have creative writing interests. Stacey and I talked about next week's panel as well as our own ventures. I also got into a conversation about my current novel w/ two others and they, like my teen writers group, were very interested in the collaborative process. We especially talked stylistics. A note to aspiring writers: if you're going to take any kind of writing course, take a course in Stylistics. It's probably the one graduate course I use every day (along w/ my teaching theory and practice course). One of my good friends is no longer in academia (in fact, she's in parish ministry, and that story is for another blog) also brags about how she applies stylistics in her reading and writing-related work.
I'm looking forward to next week's panel w/ both excitement and a little bit of nervousness. But I know Stacey -- he'll go out of his way to make sure I'm comfortable, and he's not going to ask questions that are going to throw me for a loop. In fact, I'm guessing it's going to be a lot of fun.
Remember, that's May 17th at Quail Ridge Books, folks. And to my out-of-town readers, I hope to be getting you a video of it soon afterwards (or, possibly, a podcast?).
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
the lusty month of May
May in North Carolina is magical.
Maybe it's because my semester ends so early and I actually get to enjoy the month. Maybe it's because the weather is so stunningly beautiful here in May -- in Massachusetts, one still needs a light jacket. Maybe it's because the birds singing are heavenly. Maybe it's because I've been writing nonstop.
In any case, May in North Carolina is magical, and I've been on a high for the last seven days.
My friend sarah sent me this -- it's Julie Andrews singing "The Lusty Month of May" from Camelot. As I told her after viewing it, how can anything be so sexy and corny at the same time?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg4YrOlAkds
I met with my teen writers group tonight -- they're pretty bogged down with finals, so we mostly talked, the topics ranging from swashbuckler films to Robin Hood stories to collaborating (I told them about my latest novel project -- they were quite intrigued by the process). These students are so talented, smart, and well-read -- much more so than I was at their age. At the rate they're going, they'll be published before I am.
sarah and I have completed at least fifty pages between the two of us -- we're both impressed and pleased. She resumed a new trimester today and is already missing the back-n-forth emails, the drafting, etc. I miss it too, and her. But, we're both so excited about this novel, about our collaboration, about knowing we've got a great novel and a great idea, messy draft and all. On top of that, my nonfiction book is underway -- the writing is not as smooth in draft, but right now I'm just spilling it out and will go back and revise at least two chapters, then get to work on a proposal to send out to agents. That's the good thing about non-fiction: you can getaway with not having the manuscript finished. I wish I could start querying agents for our work of fiction (forgive me for my secrecy of the title -- I'm superstitious!).
At any rate, I am loving life, loving writing and the writing process, loving writers, and loving the lusty month of May.
Maybe it's because my semester ends so early and I actually get to enjoy the month. Maybe it's because the weather is so stunningly beautiful here in May -- in Massachusetts, one still needs a light jacket. Maybe it's because the birds singing are heavenly. Maybe it's because I've been writing nonstop.
In any case, May in North Carolina is magical, and I've been on a high for the last seven days.
My friend sarah sent me this -- it's Julie Andrews singing "The Lusty Month of May" from Camelot. As I told her after viewing it, how can anything be so sexy and corny at the same time?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg4YrOlAkds
I met with my teen writers group tonight -- they're pretty bogged down with finals, so we mostly talked, the topics ranging from swashbuckler films to Robin Hood stories to collaborating (I told them about my latest novel project -- they were quite intrigued by the process). These students are so talented, smart, and well-read -- much more so than I was at their age. At the rate they're going, they'll be published before I am.
sarah and I have completed at least fifty pages between the two of us -- we're both impressed and pleased. She resumed a new trimester today and is already missing the back-n-forth emails, the drafting, etc. I miss it too, and her. But, we're both so excited about this novel, about our collaboration, about knowing we've got a great novel and a great idea, messy draft and all. On top of that, my nonfiction book is underway -- the writing is not as smooth in draft, but right now I'm just spilling it out and will go back and revise at least two chapters, then get to work on a proposal to send out to agents. That's the good thing about non-fiction: you can getaway with not having the manuscript finished. I wish I could start querying agents for our work of fiction (forgive me for my secrecy of the title -- I'm superstitious!).
At any rate, I am loving life, loving writing and the writing process, loving writers, and loving the lusty month of May.
Monday, May 5, 2008
less is more: a lesson for the verbose (like me)
I met w/ two of my colleagues this morning to finish drafting and submitting a proposal to the Conference of College Composition and Communication (say that one ten times fast) regarding the use of the personal in academic writing. We three have formed a panel--I'm listed as "Speaker 3" and my paper deals with revisiting the role of narrative in an academic writing class.
We critiqued and edited each other's drafts, then combined them all into one proposal. We'd missed the snail mail deadline, thus we sent it via email. Doing so required us to do a copy-n-paste rather than submit as an attachment. When we did, we were informed that our proposal could be no more than 5000 characters -- not words, characters. We checked and discovered that we were about 2500 characters over, thus we needed to start cutting (and we'd already done quite a bit of trimming).
So, line by line, we cut every extraneous (is that even the right word? am I using that correctly?) word, words, and/or sentence. It's really something when you see what you can do w/out. It's an exercise that I must try w/ my students sometime. I mean, even that sentence: It's really something when you see what you can do w/out... look at what I can cut from there!
Afterwards, I went to Caribou to meet susan and got more grading done (I am so close to being finished!), not to mention a little "communal writing" -- she's in the process of copyediting her textbook, while I wrote a new scene for the novel.in my cafe notebook In between all this, we talked about movies, looked for similes to characterize an unromantic person, and she gave me a tour of Facebook. All in all, I spent about 2 1/2 hours there (Caribou, not Facebook), until I rushed out to make it home in time for Gilmore Girls (again, I say don't ask).
Tomorrow: primary day! I can't remember ever being this excited to vote!
We critiqued and edited each other's drafts, then combined them all into one proposal. We'd missed the snail mail deadline, thus we sent it via email. Doing so required us to do a copy-n-paste rather than submit as an attachment. When we did, we were informed that our proposal could be no more than 5000 characters -- not words, characters. We checked and discovered that we were about 2500 characters over, thus we needed to start cutting (and we'd already done quite a bit of trimming).
So, line by line, we cut every extraneous (is that even the right word? am I using that correctly?) word, words, and/or sentence. It's really something when you see what you can do w/out. It's an exercise that I must try w/ my students sometime. I mean, even that sentence: It's really something when you see what you can do w/out... look at what I can cut from there!
Afterwards, I went to Caribou to meet susan and got more grading done (I am so close to being finished!), not to mention a little "communal writing" -- she's in the process of copyediting her textbook, while I wrote a new scene for the novel.in my cafe notebook In between all this, we talked about movies, looked for similes to characterize an unromantic person, and she gave me a tour of Facebook. All in all, I spent about 2 1/2 hours there (Caribou, not Facebook), until I rushed out to make it home in time for Gilmore Girls (again, I say don't ask).
Tomorrow: primary day! I can't remember ever being this excited to vote!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
these go to eleven
I've been on a high the past couple of days: the weather, the end of classes, grading papers and discovering that my students "got it" -- that right there always brings a smile to my face. Better still, it's not only that they got it, but also that they appreciate it as well.
I've also done a ton of writing in a short amount of time. Yesterday morning I began the nonfiction book I've been wanting to do for about four years (and finally figured out how to do it in a way that's not been done before -- mum's the word on subject) and sent it to sarah, my Intended Reader, just to make sure I was on the right track.
And man, she was thorough. And critical. I was expecting (and asking for) a lot less. But she was the right reader because she hates the genre. So it was good to see what she didn't like about it, plus she honed in on what I always instinctively knew was going to be the strength, which was the narrative aspect (ok, I'll give you a hint -- you'd most likely find it in the self-help section. I know, I know; first chick-lit and now this? It's a good idea, though -- trust me). What helped me most was that she sort of set the bar for me in terms of audience and purpose. If I can get a reader like her to not only read it but like it and learn something, then hurrah! I'm not showing her anymore of it until I finish the entire first draft and start in on revisions, though.
And, as for our novel, I happily informed her last night that we are 20,000 words in -- not bad for having started two months ago and considering the obstacles. And that's not even including the snippets of scenes and dialogue and blogposts that we haven't even gotten to yet. But we've got a *story* now, and that's always fun. Plus, we're starting to share a brain, which is a little scary... we've had more contact in the last two days than I've had w/ my mom in the last two weeks!
And speaking of blogs, Stacey is doing a great job of getting the word out about the QRB panel discussion on May 17. Two of the panelists even put together a little pod commericial, which you can listen to here: http://www.pgholyfield.com/podcasts/Mur_PG_Promo_shorter_1min42.mp3
They even pronounced my name correctly!
I admit that I'm starting to get nervous about it already. I just hope I don't, you know, suck, or that attendees are expecting me to be some blogging expert. I can picture someone like Comic Book Boy from The Simpsons getting up and leaving, saying (in CBB voice), "Worst panelist ever." I'll be happy if I can aptly explain to them what kairos means...
I've also done a ton of writing in a short amount of time. Yesterday morning I began the nonfiction book I've been wanting to do for about four years (and finally figured out how to do it in a way that's not been done before -- mum's the word on subject) and sent it to sarah, my Intended Reader, just to make sure I was on the right track.
And man, she was thorough. And critical. I was expecting (and asking for) a lot less. But she was the right reader because she hates the genre. So it was good to see what she didn't like about it, plus she honed in on what I always instinctively knew was going to be the strength, which was the narrative aspect (ok, I'll give you a hint -- you'd most likely find it in the self-help section. I know, I know; first chick-lit and now this? It's a good idea, though -- trust me). What helped me most was that she sort of set the bar for me in terms of audience and purpose. If I can get a reader like her to not only read it but like it and learn something, then hurrah! I'm not showing her anymore of it until I finish the entire first draft and start in on revisions, though.
And, as for our novel, I happily informed her last night that we are 20,000 words in -- not bad for having started two months ago and considering the obstacles. And that's not even including the snippets of scenes and dialogue and blogposts that we haven't even gotten to yet. But we've got a *story* now, and that's always fun. Plus, we're starting to share a brain, which is a little scary... we've had more contact in the last two days than I've had w/ my mom in the last two weeks!
And speaking of blogs, Stacey is doing a great job of getting the word out about the QRB panel discussion on May 17. Two of the panelists even put together a little pod commericial, which you can listen to here: http://www.pgholyfield.com/podcasts/Mur_PG_Promo_shorter_1min42.mp3
They even pronounced my name correctly!
I admit that I'm starting to get nervous about it already. I just hope I don't, you know, suck, or that attendees are expecting me to be some blogging expert. I can picture someone like Comic Book Boy from The Simpsons getting up and leaving, saying (in CBB voice), "Worst panelist ever." I'll be happy if I can aptly explain to them what kairos means...
Thursday, May 1, 2008
art imitating life; life inspiring art
I've just spent roughly two-and-a-half hours (save a short dinner break and an hour to watch Gilmore Girls -- don't ask) on a chapter for the novel that is supposed to be a blogpost.
It's a helluva long blogpost, I'll tell ya that much.
It came out to about ten pages (double-spaced, 11pt-courier -- all the blogposts are written in courier) and my original intention was to sort of mimic Bridget Jones's Diary in regards to this one particular scene where the protagonist is recounting a night of speed dating. I'm not sure I succeeded, however. I am eagerly waiting for my PIC to respond to it.
And although this has nothing to do w/ writing, I need to comment about how beautiful springtime in North Carolina is. This is only my second springtime here. At this time of year in southeastern Massachusetts, springtime is nice -- really nice. I miss the open water and brisk spring air at the beach. But it is neither as warm nor as lush. In fact, for the last few years that I lived in New England, save an occasional 70-degree day, I pretty much wore my leather jacket until June. But unless you have allergies, you can't not enjoy a day like today in NC. And perhaps I'm feeling more euphoric because my semester is almost over. Papers await grading. But really, how can you grade papers on a day like today? A day like today is inspirational. Really, it inspires. All I thought about today were my own writing projects. It was awesome.
Man, I love my job. Both gigs -- teacher and writer.
It's a helluva long blogpost, I'll tell ya that much.
It came out to about ten pages (double-spaced, 11pt-courier -- all the blogposts are written in courier) and my original intention was to sort of mimic Bridget Jones's Diary in regards to this one particular scene where the protagonist is recounting a night of speed dating. I'm not sure I succeeded, however. I am eagerly waiting for my PIC to respond to it.
And although this has nothing to do w/ writing, I need to comment about how beautiful springtime in North Carolina is. This is only my second springtime here. At this time of year in southeastern Massachusetts, springtime is nice -- really nice. I miss the open water and brisk spring air at the beach. But it is neither as warm nor as lush. In fact, for the last few years that I lived in New England, save an occasional 70-degree day, I pretty much wore my leather jacket until June. But unless you have allergies, you can't not enjoy a day like today in NC. And perhaps I'm feeling more euphoric because my semester is almost over. Papers await grading. But really, how can you grade papers on a day like today? A day like today is inspirational. Really, it inspires. All I thought about today were my own writing projects. It was awesome.
Man, I love my job. Both gigs -- teacher and writer.
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