Cop-Out

I take full responsibility for this, but creatively dry, running low on time, and overall angry with my ACW class I wrote a quasi poem about cancer. (Dad died of cancer 9/15/10. I don't want to go there.) I did it because when you write about "person" topics people leave you alone, and that week I wanted to be left alone. I didn't want to hear about "solid" imagery vs. "squishy" imagery, I didn't want people to argue about subject matter and I wanted to sit in the hot seat for as short a period as possible.

It worked. Famously.

But it really got me thinking about my goals as a writer and if poetry is even worth my time. It's not my passion. It's not what I want to spend the bulk of my time with. It's not anything I feel has any worth coming out of my head. (And then this professor tells me my poetry is better than my fiction. Good joke, guy. Good joke.)

So writing world, sorry for copping out, but I wanted to be ignored for a little while.

I'm Not Really Old.

Mirrors tarnish on the wall,

Times will change,

And leaves will fall.

Dust will fade away the seasons,

Faults of age brought up for treason

Steals the fire from the embers,

As summers pass into Septembers.

Chimes from final fatal clocks,

Claim your youth

And turn the locks. 

I'm turning 20 this week. That's completely unrelated to this poem but I thought it was ironic in a I-pulled-this-out-of-my-binder-at-the-last-minute sort of way. 

Bulk Writing & Other Poor Decision Making Skills

When you're working on something larger there's always that moment when you think, "I'm going to write the WHOLE THING tonight!"... You'll later live to regret those words.

Don't get me wrong--I'm all about lofty goals and sleep deprivation. I understand. I've been there. 3am and I are old friends. But there has never been a time where productivity didn't screech to a halt because it had been days since last I slept and my writing is starting to get rambley and vague and it's still STILL not done.

Please take my advise: put it away. Put it away right now and come back to it. Finishing it in one night doesn't make it better, it could actually make it worse. I'm a huge fan of NanoWrimo (nanowrimo.org). I've done six years of Nano, I was a founding donor of Camp Nano, and participated in the first two camp sessions last year. I get the bulk writing mind set. But bulk writing leads to bulk editing. Some people are just not ready for that sort of overhaul. It's brutal. When you hit a block you actually feel like there's something wrong with you.

And this leads me to my next point.

When writing a story you have an A and a B. The problem a lot of writers face is how to get from A to B. Bridge Scenes or Bridging is a highly important skill. How do I bridge? I stalk around my house a lot on the phone with my editor/best friend, I eat things I don't really want to eat, and I mutter to myself a lot. And then I put. it. down. And eventually.... and you can believe this or not... it will come to you.

And THAT is a moment worth waiting for.

For Someone Who Doesn't Write Poetry I Write A Lot of Poetry

Out Like A Lion

There’s a silence in the storm

A faceless reflection in the bitter cold

The human condition, retreated into and away

Where is the Spring to wipe away the frost

The winter that’s covered our windows

Blinded our days?

There’s breakthrough at hand

A sliver of sunlight fighting for control

The grey and colorless, one last fall from the sky

There’s life at a distance. There’s color coming.

Hummings of our return to life

Spring is near.

Poetic Sampletry

Boundless

My greatest fear is that I'll leave this world

And the dust will cover my name.

I'll be blotted out from memory

Passed over like the fallen in the autumn.

Am I instructed or inspired?

You can instruct people.

Instructed people do ordinary things.

Or you can inspire people.

Inspired people do extraordinary things.

Poetic Irony

So, as an author I have a distinct disability. I'm a poetic failure. But, in a class of young adult fiction haters [though I'm starting to see a little more support as we get used to each other] I've decided poetry....regrettably or not, is my best option. Samples to follow.

Moving Day

The walls are blank and white-washed

We're staring at the paint

Both afraid to start with color,

To change the old house ways.

The old wood floors are lovely

But the plain walls have to go

We'll need to start with something, though

To make this old house grow.

So let's pick up the brushes

And paint away our day,

We'll streak the walls in memories

And mark the doorframes in dates.

We'll make this old house echo joy

Louder than before

We'll start with these white walls tonight

And tomorrow we'll do some more.

--Emily Laesser

Serious Business

Writing is writing is writing. If you're putting pen to paper, or fingers to keys, you're writing. It has come to my attention recently that there are people in this world, and members of this craft, who think that pieces that are happy are somehow inferior. And those people are the bane of my existence in the writing sphere.

I write young adult fiction-- there, I said it. I love a good romantic comedy and there are jokes amongst my inner circle about the amount of romance novels that may or may not (are) gracing the top shelves of my bookcase. Why do you get to say my writing is less valuable because it doesn't make grown men want eat their feelings? You don't. Good writing elicits emotion. It makes the reader feel something. If that something just happens to be joy, why doesn't that count?

It does. There is merit in all kinds of writing. While I may not like the doom and gloom, I would never look down my nose at the types who live for it. And you, if it's you I'm talking to, should do me the professional courtesy of appreciating the fact that while I might not write dark and stormy nights and I can still make a reader fall in love with my characters.

Writing, people. Live with it.

Trades and Trade-Ups

I'm an author by design, and if that's not impractical enough for you, I also want to be a teacher. I love to learn, I'll never get enough. I want to learn my entire life, and I can't wait for the day that I have my own classroom and get to pass on that knowledge to other people.

That being said, I'm an author by design. I write everyday and it is more than an aspiration. It's apart of who I am--my very essence. There's tricks to every trade, but my favorite is Elements of Style.

 

This is the 4th edition, my preferred edition, but I know they've updated since.