I finished my two intro writing classes tonight--and I've come away with several insights:
1) I'm a better writer than I thought. yay. And being surrounded by other good writers only heightens my lust for authoring something great and lovable.
2) I'm a slow writer. I'm okay with that. Slowness can be a strength, said the tortoise.
3) I need to be more aggressive and really PUSH myself. The vision is there--but I hold back. Must be less lazy and more confident!
4) Knowing the plot is the easy part--character development is where it gets complicated. Making readers like your protagonist--and pull for him/her is a toughie.
5) NYC is full of lonely, batty people--and some of them take writing classes solely for human contact. On the elevator ride up to Creative Writing, some guy spilled his purpose for taking a Non-Fiction class all over me. He's writing a self-help book, and this was his 2nd non-fiction writing class b/c he was trying to decide which instructor he prefered, blah blah blah, and he's taking Non-fiction because it's hard to fit self-help into one particular writing genre. hmmm. All that from floors 1 to 4, and I can't say I really cared to know any of it. But, I'm polite (or naive, as my friend Peter would say), so I said "Oh. Ahh ha. Well, good luck." And I meant it.
6) If you can help it, do not sign up for a writing class where the instructor talks more about herself and her "commitment-phobic boyfriend" than the actual writing process. While her life might be an interesting one--I don't want to pay $425 to hear about it--I could pay $13.95 and just read her memoir.
p.s. Noooooooooooooooooo!
p.p.s. i just re-read this post, and it's really self-centered. forgive me...
Thursday, January 15, 2009
i'm going to bore you now.
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4 comments:
i don't think this is in direct reply to your post, but this is one of my favorite poems by frank o'hara
I will always love you
though I have never loved you
a boy smelling faintly of leather
looking up at your window
the passion that enlightens
and stills and cultivates, gone
while I thought your face
to be familiar in the blueness
or to follow your sharp whistle
around a corner into my light
That was love growing fainter
each time you failed to appear
I repent my whole life searching
love, which I thought was you
it was mine so very briefly
and I never knew it, or you went
I thought it was outside disappearing
but it is disappearing in my heart
like snow blown in a window
to be gone from the world
I will always love you.
hannah--that was sad.
i realize there were some mistakes in the poem above...i pasted it from this girl's blog...and she got some of the words wrong...i should have read it before...and because it's bugging me...like the word 'repent' doesn't belong there...
do you not think it's beautiful? but, yes, i know it's sad...frank o'hara wrote it for his friend, franz kline whose wife was mentally ill...she was a british ballet dancer
"I will always love you
though I have never loved you
a boy smelling faintly of leather
looking up at your window
the passion that enlightens
and stills and cultivates, gone
while I sought your face
to be familiar in the blueness
or to follow your sharp whistle
around a corner into my light
That was love growing fainter
each time you failed to appear
I spent my whole life searching
love, which I thought was you
it was mine so very briefly
and I never knew it, or you went
I thought it was outside disappearing
but it is disappearing in my heart
like snow blown in a window
to be gone from the world
I will always love you."
This is your blog, it can be as self-centered as you want it to be. My blog is built around that concept. And NYC doesn't have the market cornered on lonely, batty people my friend. I know lots of GREAT writers who fit that exact description. present company excluded
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