Week 13 (4/9-4/15)

            This week we read more from Goldberg that was assigned online.  This was a good change of pace from the books that we have been reading for the last month or so.  Wreckage of Reason is funny to me, but it was starting to get a little weird the last couple of weeks.  I can only take so much abstract writing before it starts to drive me a little crazy.  Goldberg is totally different then these stories, and is also different then Bird by Bird is.  I enjoyed the reading that we had to do for this week, it was a good way to shake things up a little.

            The first section in this weeks reading by Goldberg is called, "Use Lonliness", and I thought that it was a really cool piece of writing that I totally agree with.  She talks about how rough it is to be a writer on a daily basis, which is totally true.  It is really hard to push through writing block and everyday problems that you run into when you are writing.  It is totally on yourself to try and push through problems that you have, you cant rely on others to help you through them.  Writing for a living, being a writer seems to be really depressing.  It is a job that never really ends, because you can always change or correct something to make it better.

            I also enjoyed the "Claim Your Writing" section of Goldbergs writing.  In my opinion, I think that Goldberg was trying to express that even though not all of the writing that you have done over time might not be that good, you still have to live up to what you wrote.  No one else is to blame or to be credited for what you put down on paper.  You should be proud of what you have created, and what you have spent a ton of time to express.  Not many people in this world these days own up to what they have done, and this is a weakness in society right now.  This is part of being a writer, you are going to write things for other peoples enjoyment and when you do something great, you should be credited for it, and when you write things that are not good, you should own up to it and stand by it.

            Lamott also came across to me as super depressing.  I actually enjoy writing everyday, and when I read what Lamott has to say, I feel like eventually I am going to become a crazy drug addict if I continue to write.  This kind of freaks me out a little.  When I get stuck when I'm writing, I find a productive way to work my way through it.  It might make me a little anxious or hyper trying to work on it, but I always get through it without using drugs or pulling my hair out.  I am going to search and try to find a writier that doesn't want to kill themselves or hasn't been drivin crazy from writing for a living.

Week 12 (4/2-4/8)

            This week I decided that I would post my terms online.  I figured this would help my fellow classmates, along with changing things up from the everyweek blog that I have been writing.

AMBIGUITY:  Doubtfulness or uncertainty of meaning or intention.
AMBIVALENCE:  Uncertainty or fluctuation which is caused by inability to choose or by a simultaneous desire to say or do two opposite or conflicting things.
CONNOTATIVE:  Implying a secondary meaning to a word in addition to the primary meaning.
SUBJECTIVE:  Existing in the mind, also the characteristics of an individual.
OBJECTIVE:  Ones actions of efforts towards accomplishing a goal or target.
HYPERBOLE:  Intentional exaggeration of a statement.  Not to be taken literally.
IRONY:  Using words to convey a meaning that is opposite of its actual meaning. 
SYNTAX:  The study of the rules for the formation of grammatical sentences in a language.
SIGNIFIED:  Concept or thing denoted by a sign.
SIGNIFIER:  configuration of sound elements or other linguistic symbols representing a word or other unit in a language.
METAPHOR:  Figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a similarity.
SIMILE:  Comparing two things that are normally not alike by using the words like or as.
OBJECTIVE CORRELATIVE:  A depicted situation or chain of events that objectifies a particular emotion in a way to produce emotion in the reader.
METONOMY:  Figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for relating it to another.
MEMESIS:  Imitation or reproduction of the supposed words of another.
PERFORMATIVE:  Performing an act by the very fact of uttering.  I play, performs the act of playing.
PARADOX:  A statement that seems self-contradicting or absurd, but in reality, represent a truth.
JUXTAPOSITION:  Placing close together or side by side in order to compare or contrast.
COLLAGE:  The art form of pasting together random things that are normally not associated with each other.  Can be used for presentations or other things.
MONTAGE:  Technique of making a composition of pictorial elements from various sources, as either to give the illusion that the elements belonged together originally.
FRAGMENTATION:  The collapse or breakdown of norms of thoughts or behavior.
SATIRE:  Literary composition, in verse in which human folly and vice are held up to ridicule.
PARODY:  A humorous or funny imitation of a serious form of literature or writing.
FARCE:  A foolish show, mockery, or ridiculous sham.
CONSTRAINT:  Limitation or restriction, also the suppression of impulses.
FORM:  External appearance, or shape of thing or person.
GENRE:  The class or category of an artistic endeavor, having a specific form, shape or technique.
NEW GENRE: Recent forms of genre to immerge in society.
SUB-GENRE:  A class or category within a genre.
HYBRID-GENRE:  A mix of numerous genre’s or numerous types of genre’s.
STYLE:  A particular kind, sort, or type with reference to form appearance and character.
AVANT-GARDE:  Advance group in the visual, literary, or musical arts fields, whose works are characterized by weird and experimental methods.
POSTMODERNISM:  Number of trends or movements in the arts and literature developing in the 1970s in reaction to or rejection of practices of modernism.
SURREALISM:  Style of art and literature developed principally in the 20th century, stressing the subconscious or non-rational significance of imagery.
REALISM:  Interest or concern for real things, actual things, and just the real in general.
METAFICTION:  Fiction that analyzes or describes a work of fiction or the conventions of fiction.
PLOT:  The storyline, scheme, main story, or plan in a piece of literary work.
NARRATIVE:  Story or account of events or experiences, whether true or fictitious.
STORY:  A narrative, either true or fictitious, designed to entertain and please the reader.

NONNARRATIVE:  A reading that isn’t a story or account of events.

ANTI-NARRATIVE:  The opposite of a narrative in all ways.

POINT OF VIEW:  An opinion, attitude or judgment, also the way a book is written.

PERSONA:  A person's perceived or evident personality.

LYRIC:  Having the form and musical quality of a song.  One word within a song.

RHYTHM:  movement with uniform or patterned recurrence of a beat, accent, or the like.

FOOT:  Bottom part of the leg that we stand on when walking.

METER:  Unit of measurement that is equal to about three feet.

RHYME:  A word agreeing with another in terms of its sound.
STANZA:  Arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually four or more, sometimes having a fixed length, meter, or rhyme scheme, that form a division of a poem.

Other Related Terms you may wish to include (OPTIONAL)

APORIA:  The expression of doubt, as about where to begin or what to do or say.
ARS POETICA:  A treatise on the art of poetry or poetics.
BILDUNGSROMAN:  A type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.
CONCEPTUAL ART:  Art that emphasis is placed on the means and processes of producing art objects rather than on the objects themselves and in which the various tools and techniques, as photographs, photocopies, video records, and the construction of environments and earthworks, are used to convey the message to the spectator.
CONCEPTUAL WRITING:  Writing that emphasizes the process of creating literature rather than the objects themselves.
DISCOURSE:  Communication of thoughts through words, talk and conversation.
DEFAMILIARIZATION:  Forgetting what you already are familiar with.
FORMALISM:  Strict staying to, or observance of, traditional forms in music, poetry, and art.
IMPROVISATION:  Doing a performance off the top of one’s head.  To have to practice before performing.
STRUCTURED IMPROVISATION:  Performing with no practice and on the spot, while still having some guidelines to the performance.
INTERTEXTUALITY:  The network of relations, conventions, and expectations by which the text is defined; relationship between texts.
MODERNISM:  A modern usage or characteristic.
REFERENT:  The object or event to which a term or symbol refers.
REPRESENTATION:  Action or speech on behalf of a person, group or representative.
RHETORIC:  The use of exaggeration or display; bombast.
SIMULTANEITY:  Existing, occurring, or operating at the same time.
SYNECDOCHE:  Figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part.  Ex. Ten sails for ten ships.

Week 11 (3/26-4/1)

Bird by Bird

            This week we move back to learning how to improve our writing skills through the readings of Bird by Bird.  I really enjoy reading this book because it has taught me a lot about how to get over problems that writing presents on an everyday basis.  She focuses more on what a writer goes through everyday, and what to do with what problems you are presented, and less on what problems you face as a published author.  This makes me think that she understands that many of the people that are going to read her book aren't published authors. 

            During this weeks reading I found a couple different sections that I found interesting.  The first section that I really liked was "Jealousy".  She writes, "Of all the voices you hear, the most difficult to subdue is Jealousy".  She says that adding Jealousy to your story can be extremely difficult, and for me this is really true.  I have a really hard time with adding things like Jealousy to my writing.  Jealousy is a very strong emotion and can add much to a story when it is added correctly.  This section gave me some great ideas for how to ad jealousy the right way to my pieces of writing and taught me how by adding it can really help my story. 

            The next section of Bird by Bird that I found very interesting was called, "The Moral Point of View".  This section was really cool because it gave you ideas without telling you that you needed them in your writing.  As she writes, "If you have a message, send a telegram".  I understood this as, if you have a moral for the story then make sure you include it in a big way.  On the other hand, I also thought that it was saying that if you don't have a big moral or if your story isn't based around a moral, that is alright.  She also showed us how to add the moral of the story to our writing.  This helped me clearly make my stories better and more clear as to what they are emphasizing.  She was clear that the stories that we are writing don't have to be morally correct or right, but if they are already headed in that direction then why not run with it.  I thought this section was very helpful to the stories that I have written so far.

Week 10 (3/19-3/25)

Wreckage of Reason

            This week we again shifted focus from Bird by Bird, back to Wreckage of Reason.  While I enjoy reading Bird by Bird more than Wreckage of Reason, mainly because you are learning how to write from a published author, I always tend to have fun reading Wreckage of Reason because how different some of the stories are.  Reading all these different short stories, that have so many different writing styles, and different forms of writing, really helps give me some ideas for when I hit a writer’s block.  Some of the stories in this book are so bazaar and different that I would have never even thought to have wrote it that way.  It makes me wonder how there authors come up with these weird formats and writing styles.  I really enjoyed reading what was assigned this week.

            One of the eight short stories that we read that I really enjoyed was on page 191, and is called, The Woman, by: Nina Shope.  I really didn’t overly enjoy this piece of writing in terms of the content but I thought it was very interesting in how it was written.  The grammar was very strange because sometimes it was right and sometimes it was wrong.  Sometimes there are periods at the end of sentences and sometimes they are placed at the end of fragments.  She used the word “we” at the beginning of most of the sentences.  The entire story is just the author, Nina, writing about things that she did with this “woman”.  She wrote about the time they spend together, and about how she felt about her.  It is like she is documenting her time with this woman and how she made her feel.  I personally didn’t like the style that she wrote this in because it is far to centered around one person.  I also thought that it got a little boring because of how repetitive she was when using the word “we.  It was definitely a funny read, and a different perspective on writing.

            The next story that I found interesting was called, A You War Story.  It is written by Summer Brenner and is located on page 258.  The first thing that I liked about this story was how short it was.  It got right to the point and told how the author was feeling.  She states right away that her lover just went away, and started to write about him.  This turns into a form of a love letter or sob letter about the person that left her.  Also it could be interpreted as someone just complaining about how they were treated by their significant other.  It seems like she was upset about her lover leaving her and so she decided, as a form of stress relief, to just write down all the things that are going through your head at that moment.  She also talked about all the great times that they had together over time and how he left her because he got bored with her.  She states, “But things can only please a person for so long”, I guess her time just ran up and it was her time to go. 

            Finally the last short story that I really wanted to talk about was Ten Birds.  This is located on page 277, and was written by Karen Brennan.  This was another story that attracted me because of how different it was.  The story wasn’t written in your typical story form, instead it was written in sections that were numbered all the way from one to ten, instead of written in your typical paragraph format.  It isn’t the way that I would have written a story but that’s what makes what we read this week so much fun, it really is so different from your typical writing format.  The reading from this week along with the first half of Wreckage of Reason from three weeks ago has really taught me a lot about writing how I want to and how to be creative when picking your format to write in.

Week 9 (3/12-3/18)

            This week we shifted from Wreckage of Reason back to Bird by Bird.  This is great because while Wreckage of Reason is great for learning about different ways and forms in which to write fiction, I feel like a really learn a lot from reading what Anne Lamott has to say about writing, the writing process and how to write in general.  I really like how she tell the writers in her class that getting published isn't the greatest or best thing about writing a book, rather the real joy is the struggle through writing the book and through the writing process.  She seems to have a much different outlook to writing and the process of writing a book then others.  I believe this comes from her own personal experiences writing, along with her experiences from her childhood of watching her father as an author and writer.

            In this section of the reading, pages 33-94, I found a couple different sections very interesting and very intriguing.  The very first section in the reading this week is called "School Lunches".  I thought this was a great outlook at writing because I would never actually think to equate writing to school lunches.  In the reading, Anne asked her students to write about their experience at school lunches.  She sat down with them and wrote how lunch was really about, "Opening our insides in front of everyone.  Just Like writing is.  Some bag lunches, like some people, were Okay, and some weren't.  There was a code, a right and acceptable way.  It was that simple."  This is a great way to show how something so simple, as just thinking about a school lunch, is so much like writing.  Opening up and sharing everything that you have written is like showing what your parents packed you for lunch.  She also talks about how these are both also like taking a shower at school in front of everyone.  To get clean and not smell bad, you have to get naked in front of everyone, even when you know that everyone is looking or judging you.  She states that writing is similar to this because you have to show everyone what you are writing, even though you know that everyone is looking at it and judging it.  This really helped me when writing my own fiction stories because when I had a hard time thinking of things to write, I simple thought of this exercise and it gave me ideas, which helped me press on with my writing and get through writers block.

            The next part of the reading that I enjoyed and thought was interesting was called "Dialogue", and is on page 64.  This section really appealed to me because personally, I have a really hard time with adding dialogue to my stories and many times, I simply don't add dialogue because I don't feel like I Mix it into the writing correctly.  In this section she really opened my eyes to how important dialogue can be to a piece of writing.  A narration can tell you exactly what is happening from an outside view, but when you add dialogue, it makes you feel as if you are part of the story, or that you are actually there.  It can really help the reader get a feel for what kind of person the narrator or person telling the story is, along with giving a better view of what the character that is doing the speaking is actually like.  She says, "Remember that you should be able to identify each character by what he or she says.  Each one must sound different from the others."  This is an excellent point because if the dialogue of one person doesn't differ from that of another then the reader can get confused as to who is actually speaking.  Once your reader is confused, they will become uninterested, and this is what you really want to avoid.  This section really gave me some good ideas of how to add dialogue to my stories.  It also showed me how adding dialogue correctly can really help paint a picture for the reader of what is happening in the story and really help the reader understand the characters.  On the other hand it also showed me how adding dialogue the wrong way can be a total disaster.

            Finally, I thought the section called, "Set Design", was great as well.  I really try hard to paint a picture for the reader of what the scene should look like, and to really give the reader a sense of where the story takes place and what is happening around the characters.  With this being said, I really did learn a lot from how Anne talks about set design.  In this section she uses a garden as an example, which I think is a great example because if when described correctly, a garden can seem beautiful, colorful, and alive, but described poorly can make a reader think of a black and grey dead plants.  She states, "Characters prepare for their roles, improvising dialogue, while you set the stage for their appearance.", and she nailed it dead on with this statement.  Characters can only do so much in a story or piece of writing, the scene and surroundings around the characters really make the story whole.  This section helped teach me how to describe the surroundings in a story better, and how to set the scene for the characters in a story more accurately.  The reading this week was an easy and helpful read.  With our portfolios due in a few weeks, the reading really helped me with some of the problems that I was running into while writing.  I enjoyed the reading and can't wait to finish reading what Anne Lamott has to say about writing.

Week 8 (3/5-3/11)

Reading these fiction packets has been a fun experience the last couple of weeks but I think it is about that time to switch gears and get back into an actual book. While it is much more reading than the packets, it all flows together much better than skipping from packet to packet. So this week we shall turn out attention to The Wreckage of Reason.

After reading the first eight stories that were assigned for this week, I found that a couple stuck out to me as ones that I not only enjoyed reading, but that I also learned a few things from. The first one is called Word, by Cynthia Reeves. I believe this is about words that she has in her head. She thinks about the word, "word", and how by adding the letter, "L", she can make the word, "world". She then talks about how the letter, "L", makes her think of tongue. This is weird because there is no letter "L" in the world tongue. She then continues to analyze a few other words in her head and also talks about the alphabet a little. I found that this story was great because it is so different. The first thing I thought was, "what is this lady talking about?". Who thinks of stuff like this, and better yet, who actually goes on to write a short story about it? After reading the whole thing I realized that this is what makes it unique. I also enjoyed this story because of its length. It showed me that the story doesn't have to be long in order for it to be good. This one is only a page and a half and it was quite a fun and funny read.

Next, I would like to talk about a story written by Karen Lillis. The story is called, New York/LA Whirlwind Romance. The first part is about all the things that the character, which I think is a female, was told by a person, who I think is a male, before they had ever met. This seemed really weird because there are quite a few intimate and sexual things that she were being said to her and they had never even met before. The second section is about things that the guy told the girl once she arrived in LA. This section seemed to be even weirder because I couldn't pin point how these two knew each other in the first place. This is a really weird short story not only because the story is very strange, but also because the way that it is written. The person the story is about, which is a girl I believe, doesn't say anything the entire story. The whole thing is written in quotes that a person, who I think is a guy, says to her, either in person, or over the phone. I found this story interesting because I have never seen a story written in this way. It used only quotes, from only one person, to tell a story. I personally thought it was rather humorous, but in terms writing style and getting the meaning and message across to the reader, I thought I was not effective.

Lastly, I want to talk about the story on page 134 called, Until the Reparations. It is written by Roni Natov, and is written in the eyes of a woman who is married to a man named Jim and has a son named Jay. The story seems to be written about how she passes this corner all the time and there is always a homeless man sitting or wandering on this corner begging for food or money all the time. I thought this was unique because I have never seen a story about how a homeless guy on a corner acts. I didn't think it was the most interesting thing to write about but I did think it was unique. I did like the way it was written, which is over a course of time. The first section takes place in March, the second in December, the third in the following March, and the last one takes place in her dream. I thought this was a cool way to write because it gives a timeline and paints a picture of what the person who is being observed is doing. I think this is a way of writing that I will be trying to use in the future. Overall, I thought the reading for this week was pretty good. It got a little confusing at times, but the unique way that the stories were written kept me interested and opened my eyes to different ways to write a story. I am excited to see what ideas the rest of the stories in this book will give me.

Week 7 (2/27-3/4)

Spring Break Week

            Since we didn't have a blog due during break I figured I would just write a short post about some of the stuff we have been learning over the last couple of weeks.  In my opinion fiction is the greatest type of story writing ever created.  What you are writing or reading in the world of fiction could literally be about anything.  It opens up the mind and imagination to endlessness.  Any person can create any kind of situation that they want.  It could make absolutely no sense in real life, but in the world of fiction it is totally normal.  Great examples of this are books and movies such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones. Lord of the Ring's takes place in an imaginary world that doesn't exist, and is filled with races and species that are completely made up.  Some people may think this is totally rediculous, but others may think that it is great.  It is a chance for people to go outside the box and immerse themselves in a world other than the one they live in, a chance to get away and put all worries aside, even if it is just for a small portion of time.  I think it is great that we are learning about fiction in class, and I must say that I enjoy it much more than learning about poetry that I have a hard time understanding.

Week 6 (2/20-2/26)

Short Story

I apologize that this is a bit late, I was sick the last time we had class and I was sick all of break!

It was a red house more beautiful than he had ever seen. Beautiful red brick, amazing large trees swaying, and green grass as far as the eye could see. It was the house that he had always dreamed of while growing up in the slums of Detroit. A garage filled with sports cars and motorcycles. If only the people from his old neighborhood could see him now, they would never believe it.

He is a simple man, a hard worker from a small one parent home. He was beaten as a child and hated both of his parents. To get away from the place that he was born into has been his goal since the first time his dad struck his mother. He tried with all his strength to stop his father from hitting his mom, but he was just too weak. His youth was his worst enemy. When he was young his mother was murdered, right in front of his very eyes. This was a moment that scared Ryan for life. He was never the same man after the loss. When he was eighteen he left the bowels of Detroit and moved to this new house that he has finally built. 

He enters the house after staring at it for about an hour. He then realized that he was looking straight at a ghost. Freaked out immediately, he took off running and didn’t stop until he got to the door. He then realizes that there is an aura about the house that he had sensed before. It was a comforting voice from his childhood that he hadn’t heard in a very long time. He turned his head and standing in the dark doorway was his mother. (Her ghost) She smiled at him and softly said, “I’m so proud of you my son”. He was frozen is total shock, not able to mumble a word except, “I love you”. She disappeared and he finally realized that the last part of Detroit and his childhood was finally behind him. A year after his high school sweet heart moved in with him they decided to make things official and get married. They had two children named Mike and Mark. They then lived happily ever after.

The reading for this week was another fun week in the world of fiction. It seems that there is never really an end to the different ways you can structure and write a fiction story. Another great example of this is in our second fiction packet. The first story in it is called, Internal, and is written by Brian Evenson. While this story isn’t super unique in the way that it is written, it is still different then some of the stories that we have read so far. I actually enjoyed this story because it had good structure to it. It has a title, followed by a section that contains chapters in it. Each chapter or section is about a different part of him. For example some of the parts were his internship, instructions, record and journey, apartment, technique, furnishings, etc. Each chapter, within a section, tells another part of his journey. This may seem relatively boring because most books are written in this form, but it is actually nice to read a story with some structure to it. Maybe in the next few weeks we will see some more stories written like this, instead of so many that are written in an odd format like some of the weird ones in these packets that we keep reading.

Week 5 (2/13-2/19)

            Sorry this post is coming semi late due to the fact that we didnt have class last week.  I continued working on reading Bird by Bird.  This book has been an awesome change from poetry.  I learned a lot from all the poetry packets and books that we were reading for the first four or five weeks.  Poetry is just not my favorite thing to write about.  I have a really hard time not just analyzing the poems that I had to read, but I also had a hard time trying to express what i wanted to write in poetry form.  So while i did learn a lot from the poetry section, I am happy that we have finally moved on.

            Bird by Bird i think has been a great read for me and for everyone else in this class.  It not only shows us tips and pointers on writing and the writing process, but it also shows us what is wrong with people in writing today.  No one wants to take the time to earn how to do all of the necessary things to make sure there work is right.  People just want to skip all the hard stuff and get there things published.  The class that she is teaching in this book is unbelievable.  I get that some of these people think that they are accomplished writers and dont need any help, they just want to find an agent.  but when a published writter is explaining that you have work to do and trying to teach you what she knows, I think it would be wise to listen.  This book has taught me a lot and im really happy that we got the chance to read it in this class.

            I also got started on reading the first fiction packet.  This was definately a good change from learning how to write, like we did when reading Bird by Bird.  The first fiction packet had a couple of things in it that I enjoyed reading and that I found rather interesting.  A section called, Mystery Stories, written by Sharon Krinsky, stuck out to me.  I enjoyed reading these because they are example, in my opinion, of the shortest a story can really be but still went into a decent amount of detail in what they were describing.  Some of the small sotries names were, The Indian, The Talking Cat, The Red Coat, and poetry, just to name a few.  All this page was filled with the titles of the story and four to five lines under it to explain the title.  in my opinion, this isn't a very good way to write stories or descriptions because they are simply to short.  Even though it isn't the best way to write short stories, in my opinion, it deffinately is a unique way to write them. 

            Another story that I liked from the first fiction packet was called, Ungulated, by Walter Bargen.  This is another story that isn't very long.  It is only half a page long but is a great short story.  It is about a woman named Stella who has a garden.  The garden is great but some deer decide to eat the peas and other things in the garden.  To solve this problem Stella decides to drive some posts in the ground around the garden and wrap some wire fense around the posts, this way deer can't get in her garden anymore.  This is a great example of a short story that has a main character, a problem involving that character, and a solution.  It isn't very complexed or special but it is a great format to writing a story.  I also enjoyed the way that this story was written because in the short amount of writing that the author used, he went into extreme detail about what was going on and about the surrounding.  It is almost like he paints a picture in your head with the words that he uses.  It was a fun short story to read.  Fiction is a great way to explore many different types of writing and I look forward to learning more as we press on into other different types of readings and stories.

Week 4 (2/6-2/12)

Bird by Bird

                This week I was extremely happy to shift gears away from poetry and get to read and write about a book that is about writing and life.  While reading poetry and writing my own poetry has been extremely enlightening, it feels good to change pace and read something different.  I was going to touch on the packets that we also read this week, but I decided it was better to just stick to one main topic.  With this said, we will stick with writing about the novel we read called Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott.  It is a book that is mainly about instructions on writing and on life.  After reading the first half of the book, I have learned a great deal.  I find myself very enlightened about the everyday thoughts and actions of a writer.  The reading really opened my eyes to the struggles of being a full time author/writer, and writing novels for a living.

                I found that the Introduction at the beginning of the book was very important and a great way to start the book.  Anne Lamott essentially describes her entire childhood all the way up to writing this book.  She writes about the struggles that her father had as a writer, along with the struggles that she faced.  She also writes about the successes they had writing and publishing their own books.  I thought this was excellent.  Not only did this section make Anne Lamott seem much more human, but seeing the struggles she faced and overcame makes her seem that much more credible.  How in depth she was in the introduction about her own life was very enlightening as well.  She spoke about how all her dad’s friends were also writers and they would all do heroin and smoke weed all the time.  Then a couple pages later she discusses how all her dad’s friends that were writers ended up committing suicide.  I also learned that many writers face these problems.  I got the impression that writing for a living drives people crazy.  I also enjoyed when she talked about how publishing a book won’t make a writer happy, that it is the process of writing the book that makes a writer feel like he or she is living up to something.  Writing and working on a book makes the writer feel better and more alive than anything else.

                A little deeper into the story in the section called short assignments, she talks about one of her favorite quotes.  On page 18, she quotes, “Writing a novel is like driving your car at night.  You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”  She then says you don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way.  You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.  She then says that this is some of the best advice about writing or life that she has ever received.  I couldn’t agree with her more.  This is a great quote and excellent advice.  A little later in the book she talks about perfectionism.  On page 32 she writes, “Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friend.”  I totally agree with this statement.  Being a perfectionist will only lead to being very lonely.  If you expect everything and everyone to be perfect then you and others will never meet your expectations.  Nothing will ever be complete or good enough.  The world is filled with imperfection.  So even if a perfectionist was given the entire world, it wouldn’t be enough. 

                Finally, I found another section of the book hit home with me.  It is on page 93 and is called, “How Do I Know When I’m Done”.  This section appealed to me because I find myself asking this same question when I write.  The section is only two pages long but gives a lot of insight into when to call it quits.  On page 93, Anne Lamott writes, “I don’t quite know how to answer it”.  It shows us that even published writers are never done correcting their work.  She goes on to write, “There will always be more you can do, but you have to remind yourself that perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor”.  I also have this problem when writing.  I’m not a perfectionist and am normally happy with my writing in the end, but I always think there is something more I can correct or fix.  This section, while short, has shown me that you have to finish things and move on to the next part.  If you stay stuck on one section you will never get anything done.  Reading the first half of Bird by Bird has taught me a lot about writing and how to help myself write better.  Hopefully the second half is as insightful as the first half.

Week 3 (1/30-2/5)

City Eclogue

This week was even harder for me then previous weeks.  Not in terms of writing my own poems, but trying to understand the poems that others write.  I got used to one type of poetry from Shakespeare and other sonnet poem writers, but when I had to read City Eclogue I had to get used to reading and understanding a totally different type of poetry all together.  The way that Ed Roberson, who is the writer of City Eclogue, writes his poetry is something that you have to get used to when reading.  The way that he writes is very unique in that he puts large spaces and gaps between words that sometimes make it hard to understand where the pauses are.  Also he seems to hide the real meaning behind what he writes.  This leaves room for different interpretations, depending on the person reading it. 

What you may think the writer means from initially reading it may not be what he or she really wants to convey.  Reading the poems two or three times and also really thinking about what the meaning behind the words are before guessing at what the poet is trying to convey.  This proved very hard for me at trying to paint a picture of what the poet wants me to see.  City Eclogue opened a new view of poetry for me that I didn’t understand and had never really worked with before.  A great example of this is on page 76.  The poem is called Engine.  It is fairly short so it doesn’t drag out.  It wastes no time getting to the point and has strong meaning behind the words that are written.  For example, “You can experience the need to leave     as noise in an otherwise harmonious system     the blues     the leaving and not sets up     as a physical chatter tear you apart”.  This line/section not only started the poem, but it also had a strong message behind it.  I think this is because it taps into the mind of a person and kind of shows how broken or in pieces it is.  While I think that the spaces in lines and sections are to try and make you pause and slow down what you are reading, I also think it adds to the drama behind what he is writing.

One of the poems in City Eclogue that I found really interesting was The Open.  The way that it is written can be very confusing at first, but once you read a few of the poems that he writes, you start to understand why he writes the poems the way that he does.  With these things being said, I found that Roberson used very strong words that helped get the meaning of his writing across.  For example, in the poem, The Open, he used words like strangled, lynched, impossible, segregation and unremittingly to help the reader understand the picture that he is trying to paint with his poem.  Some quotes that I really liked were, “as if it were the strangled neck      of the hourglass that was going up”, and also “God’s strange rope spinning things open out of sky,   up in smoke     our tornado     our lynched black pillar of light.”  I thought that this was referring to Civil Rights or The Civil Rights Movement, along with a lot of the rest of the book.  It is also extremely graphic when you think about it.  I believe he wants you to picture the black pillar being lynched.  This could refer to the death of either Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr.  These topics really hit a soft spot with most people and because so, it helps the reader understand what the writer is trying to say.

After reading the entire book two times and some poems three times, you finally start to understand why the poet writes the way that he does.  I believe that Roberson writes a little cryptic because he wants you to think about what the meaning is behind his words.  I also have realized that the large spaces that he puts in the middle of sections, sentences and thoughts are to try and make us pause for a short time to take in what he is saying.  I also think it was to try and add a dramatic effect to what is about to be said in the next line or next section.  At first I didn’t find this technique effective, but after analyzing his writing it actually makes a lot of sense as to why he wrote the poems the way that he did.  I have learned a lot from reading Ed Roberson’s, City Eclogue.  I will take what I have learned from this reading and use it when reading and trying to understand future poetry.

Week 2 (1/22-1/25)

This week was definately a long a long one for me personally.  While I enjoy the art and emotion behind poetry, I personally get very aggrevated with trying to figure out exactly what the writer means all the time.  Also what he or she is thinking when writing the poem, and is the poem actually what they mean or is it just one big metaphore.  It was definately a learning experience from the readings this week.

The sonnet poems in our packet were a very interesting read.  I enjoy how there isn't very many rules or guidelines with them.  This makes every poets different styles very noticeable when reading but also makes the meanings of what the poet is writing about hard to discover.  For example with Shakespeare, you might think he is writing about how his wife is not making him happy, when he is actually writing a love poem.  For example, number 130 on page 189 of the packet.  He says, "No such roses see I in her cheeks".  This seemed like he was being mean or negetive about his wife, yet some people in class thought it was a love poem.  The crazy part is that it could be either.  You can guess at the meaning behind the words of a poem, but only the poet really knows what it really means.  After writing two myself, i realized that i actually kind of liked expressing myself through a sonnet.  I still don't really like reading them all that much, because they are hard tpo understand sometimes, but writing a few definately helped me understand them better.

Later in the readings from the packet there are a couple of poems writen by Susan Howe, from Singularities.  It really caught my interest because of how it is writen.  It describes what the poet is feeling or writing about with absolutely no order.  There are a few sentences, some phrases and sometimes just words.  Also there is no order to where on the page and which direction the writing is in.  Some words, phrases, sentences are upside down, some are diagonal, and some have no starting or ending point.  It looks like a word bank only with all the words every where  and going in any direction.  It reminds me of raw emotion, feelings and thought. They are not organized and sometimes don't make any sense.  When writing a poem or even, or even sometimes just living life in general, this is exactly how i feel.  My thoughts, feelings and emotions are everywhere.  Then sometimes i got everything together, like the complete sentences in the middle of the page.  It starts to make sense, then gets crazy again.  It lets the reader into the mind of the writer, without structure or and order.  This was the first time i have seen a poem or anything writen like this and I think it is really unique.

Finally, I liked reading some of the poems by Langston Hughes.  One in particular that I really like is one called Preference on page 225.  I liked this poem for one becuase it is short and not to complicated.  He writes how he want a women that is older.  Young women are always asking for things all the time.  They never ask you if you need something.  Older women are the opposite, they ask if you ever need any thing.  They take care of you, instead of you always having to take care of them.  I thought this was hilarious because my mom is always asking me if I ever need anything, or if she can make me some food, or help me with something and I love it.  My last girlfriend didn't do this at all.  It was always, Jason help me with this, or Jason do that.  It was always about her.  Nothing is worse then someone that is selfish.  Expecially when you are so selfless.  As it says, "when she converstations you ain't forever, Gimme".  This type of poem is the kind that I like to read.  There is no mystery surrounding it.  The meaning is very clear, it is short and to the point, and makes me want to read another one.  The rest of the readings were alright.  I had to read everything twice to get an idea of what the poet means.  While i don't enjoy it, I didn't mind it all that much either.  I learned a great deal from this weeks readings and I hope we move onto something besides poetry very soon!

Creative Writing 201 Introduction

My name is Jason O'Guinn and this is my blog for our creative writing 201 class.  I am a junior here at Eastern Michigan, along with being a communications major and having a minor in business.  I am from Plymouth Michigan and i went to Plymouth High School.  I spent a year and a half at Eastern, then another year and a half at Central Michigan.  I moved back home and took a year off school for some family issues going on.  Once these issues were taken care of i decided to try and finish my schooling.  Thats how i ended up here.  I restarted school this semester and am taking this class partially because i want to, and partially because i need to for my communications major.  I'm looking to get a new prospective of writing out of this class, along with maybe learning a few things, and making a few new friends.