Writing Fiction

The Burroway piece doesn't really say anything that I didn't already know, but the examples really helped. The negative example “Terry Landon, a handsome young man of twenty-two,was six foot four and broad shouldered. He had medium-length thick blond hair and a natural tan, which set off the blue of his intense and friendly long-lashed eyes” reminded me of how I've started off countless stories. I thought I was showing, not telling, like you've been telling us, but this made me rethink that. It made me rewrite the beginning to two of my stories that I've already written for this class.

I love when she said “The purpose of all the arts, including literature, is to quell boredom.” I think that is so true. Not only is is exciting for the patron, the reader, it's also fun for the writer. I get lost in my writing. Most times when I sit down to write, especially if I start at night, someone has to physically interrupt me for me to stop. I'll write all through the night I'm so enthralled.

The whole thing on the active voice is funny to me. In French, verbs conjugated in the passive voice can only be used in literature, and it is use extensively by French authors, whilst active verb tenses are reserved for speech. I knew it that verb tenses are different, but I didn't know it was that extensive. I adore the comparison of “The river moved slowly. It seemed sluggish. The surface lay flat. Birds circled lazily over head. Jon's boat slipped forward.” to “The surface lay flat on the sluggish,slow-moving river, and the birds circled lazily overhead as Jon's boat slipped forward.” Whilst reading the first line I didn't see much wrong with it, but the second one blows it out of the water (no pun intended!)

I'm always finding mistakes in books. The Twilight series had so many.

Bisou, ciao, tschüss, じゃあ & TTFN,

~se(an)drew~

To After That by Renee Gladmad is an odd book. It's almost like watching a show on the Food Network. You have an intimate view of an author (like a chef) showing you a step-by-step proses of creating their masterpiece, a novella (a meal) and giving you hints and tips along the way. She's totally breaking the forth wall talking directly to you, which is different form most book I read. I do feel like it was a bit of overkill though, she repeats herself and adds a lot of information that has nothing to do with anything. When you're reading a long novel repetition and inane information can sometimes be good to remind the reader and give them a break, and throw them off, if its a mystery; but in such a short novella it's somewhat infuriating. And then when we get to actually explains parts of her novella I feel lost. Why is the waffle iron important? Who's making the waffles, Charlotte or R? If she thought getting you to read this book would get you to read her other book, she was wrong.

I feel like I can some what relate to this book. When I tried to write a book, I did similar things. It took me a while to get started, but when I did it became an obsession. I did the whole napkin thing. I slept with a notepad next to my bed to write down ideas. The reason I stopped writing the book was because I lost my idea notebook. I had passages written, sketches and story webs in there.

Bisou, ciao, tschüss, じゃあ & TTFN,

~se(an)drew~

Blood Dazzler response

Reading the book “Blood Dazzler” by Patricia Smith was very emotional. I know no one from New Orleans nor have I a connection to the city in any way, but by reading these poems I felt like I was there, like I had lost some one, my home, my everything. Up until now, the book that made me feel the most like I was some place and made me feel what the character were going through was “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. I think “Blood Dazzler” surpassed it ten fold. I'd be willing to say it is one of the most powerful books I've ever read. I think that the fact that it used poetry made it convey the emotion and feeling more then prose ever could.

The poem “34” was one that I felt particularly touching. It starts out like a news report, reporting that 34 people had died, with no emotion, much how I felt about Hurricane Katrina before I read this book. It then goes and gives each of the dead a voice, about what they were thinking just before they died. The third one, where it says “Before the rain stung me like silver, I had forgotten me,” really felt almost like me, and kind of scared me. Twenty-Four was almost humorous “God, we just need your glitter, you know those miracles you do for no reason at all.” And then 34 “The under Earth turns its face to us. Leave them.” It leaves a haunting image in your head.

I thought the poem “George” was very funny. It was totally about George W. Bush. I always love when people and shows make fun of him, and make him act so stupid. I mean the man can't be that dumb if he was elected president,right? It was like he was in Air Force One looking down at the aftermath and thinking it wasn't that bad, and him be very narcissistic. But my favorite line is the last one where he says “I understand that somewhere, it has rained?”

And I know we read it in class, but the Tanka made me tear up when I read it at first. The part about only having two arms, but three children just made me think of Sophie's Choice and how utterly devastating that whole movie was. Her, I'm tearing up just thinking about this poem.

They should really put poems with news reports to show people the gravity of the situations. They should also do more poetry like this in grade school to make people not loath it. So, to sum up, it was the most emotional book I've ever read

Bisou, ciao, tschüss, じゃあ & TTFN,

~se(an)drew~

Response for September 30th

I thought A pause, a rose, something on paper by Lyn Hejinian was at some times hard to understand, but I connected with it at parts.  "I was shy of my aunt's deafness...who had years earlier fallen into the habit of nodding, agreeably...It was a tic, she had the habit, and now she bobbed like my toy plastic bird on the edge of its glass, dipping into and recoiling from the water."  This reminds me so much of my best friend's mother, who is going deaf.  I don't really like to talk to her because most of the time she just nods and agrees even if it isn't a yes/no question or a statement she could agree with.  And the action is capture so exactly by using a water bird toy.
Also in this poem she writes, "In every country is a word which attempts the sound of cats, to match an inisolable portrait in the clouds to a din in the air."  In French III my teacher decided to teach us the sounds for animals; everyone in class had just assumed they were universal, mais au contraire.  In Japanese the teacher thought it was important enough to go over in Japanese I.  Cats maiou in French whilst they ニャー (nyaa) in Japanese.  My family and I are very much cat people and even we try to capture our cats' individual cries for a multitude of things, yet one cannot have the true sense of it unless they hear it in person.

My second comment is on The plot against the Giant by ¿Wallace Stevens?.  "With a cautious puffing.  He will bend his ear then. I shall whisper Heavenly labials in a world of gutturals.  It will undo him." It causes me to wounder how a girl would be able to do this.  I think she would need two sets of vocal tracts.  A guttural is formed at the throat, like a frog croak, and a labial at the lips, like when one is humming.  The thought of such a sound blows my mind, therefore I can totally believe, if she can produce such sounds, she would "undo" the giant.

The Goldberg chapter Original Detail really resonated with me.  I always feel like I’m stuck when transplanting real-world detail into a story or poem, but this chapter told me that I could move it and play with it.  I had an Idea for a book, and started writing it a few years about WWII in an alternate reality.  I’m not a history buff or into war stuff but wanted to write from a German citizen’s point of view, with a struggle between saving themselves and supporting and engaging in the war or go with their conscience and oppose it.  I stopped writing it because I felt like I didn’t have enough background to realistically write it, but now, because of reading this I think I have the confidence to start writing it again.

Bisou, ciao, tschüss, じゃあ & TTFN,

~se(an)drew~

One of Shakespeare's Sonnets Rewritten

Sonnet number 116 Remix

Soul Mates should mingle,
Why would some hinder?
If they make each other tingle,
Why do some wish their relationship to be cinder?
Like a mouse searching for its cheese,
Guarded by a cat, yet never wavered,
His appetite he will appease,
Nothing more he need to have savored,
If love were a glass vase,
It would never be shattered,
Their hearts always apace,
Their hearts always pattered,
If I’m wrong then my heart must defy,
If his does not, then I hope to die.

My premier post

I wanted to post this so my log wasn't empty. I had the urge to start it off with "Stardate 296.3" but decided against it, not because I'm afraid that people would think I'm a nerd (because I really am) but because I don't actually know what the stardate is or how to figure it out. (I looked it up and it's just a made up number that in later episodes corresponded to the season and episode number.)  I'm having a really hard time writing this for two reasons: a. I want to use all the little shortcuts and abriviations I use on a daily basis on Facebook and via text. b. I'm in a French mood right now so I really wanted to start off by saying "Date stellaire deux-cent-quatre-vignt-six virgule trois." Well,...

Bisou, ciao, tschüss, じゃあ & TTFN,

~se(an)drew~