30Jan16 updates

Still surviving...

That panic over school is finally dying down. I just had to remember it's a step on he path. I read the material, try to understand, and show the same in class.

I'm still surprised by the overlap I find. Elements of the Aesthetics class frequently turn up in the teaching course which all come together in ceative writing. The concepts involved in teaching composition so interesting!  This from a man with no real desire to teach. 

Learning different Ways to nurture young, curious minds makes me mourn the loss of my youth. I want to take each kid and find then nurture the artist in them, whatever form it takes. If that kind of detail and encouragement had been offered to me I'd have been much better off.

My personal stories are still on hold while I produce work for the creative writing class. I've just about finished the first concerning a woman comtemplating killing her husband. Thinking hard about linking it to the follow up tale; sort of a trilogy. 

I've read and critiqued four of my fellow students works so far; all bright young minds finding their voices and farther along than I was at their age. The material covers a wide range. Ghost stories, Vietnam, even a little league player. I am forced to examine topics I would've avoided on my own and find it challenging to review work on its craftsmanship alone. But that's always the mission eh? We do it with everything in life.

My short story "Priest Drifting." on wattpad got a read and one star last week from someone called turquoisey. 

I wanted to send money, send flowers, to cry at his or her feet "thank you!"

People don't realize how good it feels to just have someone read your story if you're a writer. We spend hours toiling over sentence flow and paragraph structure, on how to better convey the thing they want you to feel, only to find they are their only audience. 

Thank you turquoisey for seeing me.

Almost Mardi Gras and the electricity is in the air. My neighbors house has visitors coming and going all hours putting finishing touches on their parade gear. I'll post some pics when they finish.

Gotta love this city. Even with high crime, crushing proverty and a shit education system the people are ever optimistic. Mardi Gras will pass, but it's spirit sustains the city over the year, holding people above the dispair and killings. It reminds us how special we are...and how lucky to live here.

14Jan16

Finishing up the first wk of grad school.

It doesn't feel real, like I shouldn't be here.

Everyone here is so highfalutin lol. I feel like a commoner who

Stumbled into the grand ballroom and is now tryin to play it off. 

Three classes. Ascetics, mainly covering the artist prior to and after the Victorian era.

Talk about over my head! But it's my favorite. When he discuses how they all connect and the deeper meanings in the works I feel the lights come on.

Am also taking a course on teaching composition. This is as dry as I feared but necessary because let's face it, teaching is a viable option.  I'm sure I'll get good things out of it.

The last is a fiction writing workshop,

We've only reviewed one story so far. It's like I expected with observational fiction that reflects real life.

I write to escape that. As far as I'm concerned there's too much reality in reality.

Was informed by the instructor that si fi/ fantasy would be acceptable but would be judged by the same standards as fiction. To me this means they will want explinations on how a warp drive works or why a Dwarf might use a shotgun instead of an ax. 

I choose not to have to explain these things to people who will just nitpick. Instead I will give them the fiction they want. It's still writing after all and offers new challenges.

I felt like the faceless man on campus. At sixty you don't feel old, which has nothing to do with others perception of you.

They are overly polite and deferential. They rush to be away from you. Too close to death I guess lol

I know, my perception and probably bullshit.

It's still good to be out though, among the living lol.

08Jan16 next steps

Been a few days, here's the updates.

Looks like the school thing is going ahead, all thanks to God.

I admit to being a little upset at not having a true writing class available due to my registering late. 

I was stuck with three courses all read/ write heavy: African fiction, eighteenth century Brit lit, and the origins of the novel as a form of fiction. I've just spent the last six or so years studying this, writing term papers on the same and believe me, it's as dry as it sounds.

I thought finally, finally I'm in grad school. I can read and study what I want! Fiction but my kind: detectives, private eyes, mercs, science fiction ectera. how it's done, how to do it better. Doesn't look like it but more on that later.

The God part comes in because I got accepted into the writing program I thought I had no chance of getting, at least into one of their classes. I submitted a sample of my work; my science fiction themed story about a retired space medic doing a friend a favor.

It was promptly rejected. "Too long and we don't do genre work. Got any real fiction?"

Had to go back to a previous piece I did about a kids experience during the civil rights movement.

They liked it enough to let me in (smile)

Cool right? But then it dawns on me that I won't be writing what I want. I'll be writing what THEY want.

That shit should've crossed my mind. I'm an idiot.

I only had si fi fantasy ideas; no rough drafts or prompts for fiction. Now I have to produce at least three such pieces this semester and had no idea what to write about.

I spent the day panicking before one came to me. Then two.

I remember writing is writing and all of it makes you better so....I write.

I'll post them as I finish them along with the critiques in general I get from classmates.

Tons of school shit to do this wknd and I'm glad. A busy mind is a happy one but I worry about my other projects. Don't want the. Lying fallow.i guess even if I chip at them it'll be better than stopping. That's the plan anyway. Classes start Monday night 6-930. Ouch!