Genres and the Writing Process

When I decided to go back to school for a Masters in Professional Writing, I really wanted to do it because, although I had always wanted to be a writer, I didn't know I could do it. Oh, I knew that I had good grammar. (Thank you, Dr. Paul Stockhammer.) But writing is so much more than good grammar. And there are so many different types of writing...fiction/creative nonfiction, business writing, feature writing. I really didn't know what kind of writing I wanted to do.

I enrolled as an "applied writing" major. In a way, it was a mistake.

My path through the program at KSU has been twisty; there's not much cohesiveness to be seen in the classes I took. BUT! That is not all a bad thing. I've been able to explore a lot of different areas, and I have definitely determined what I'm NOT good at. (Being the modern writer that I am, I'm okay with the preposition at the end of the sentence. But, being the old-fashioned grammar geek that I am, I certainly notice that it's there.) And I've been able to explore fields that I never thought I would, such as memoir and personal essay writing.

Growing up, I couldn't be torn away from mysteries and thrillers. I still reread Dick Francis, Dorothy Gilman, and Helen McInnis on a regular basis. I NEVER read essays or memoirs or biographies. But through my classes at KSU, I was exposed to this writing, and now I love it. I love Roy Blount, Jr. and Calvin Trillin, and Rosemary Mahoney.

Have you pushed your boundaries lately? Are you wed to only one genre, or are you willing to go outside of your comfort zone? I recommend it.

Posting Duties and Writing Triumphs

I promised myself that I would begin posting every Monday on my blog. I skipped yesterday due to my Internet connection being lost among the stars, in the ether, whatever you want to call it. Luckily, my friend Kim fixed it for me. She's the one who had originally fixed up my wireless connection in the first place. What am I going to do when she graduates from college and moves God-only-knows-where? She will definitely be leaving Atlanta, because she is going to get married next June, to my old roommate, Jeff. Because his job possibilities are narrower--he's pretty darn specialized, so she will be following his career path...at least physically. Right now, he's at the Open University in Great Britain, on a post-doctorate research fellowship. The fellowship finishes up next fall. His future after that is kind of up in the air. But both Jeff and Kim are smart cookies and I'm sure they will be fine. I just hope they end up some place fun to visit.

My writing is going slowly, but well. I've been wrestling with how to write about Tunisia. Originally, my entire capstone project was supposed to be travel writing essays, but I don't feel like I've traveled quite enough to do what I originally intended. It's turned into more personal essays...although most of them include some sort of movement from place to place. That's travel (loosely).

About Tunisia..I decided to turn the piece into a reflection on the fact that I'm not as brave as I always wanted to be, a piece on how discombobulated I felt while I was there, but also on how I felt so well loved and taken care of while I lived with the Ben Saids. Although it is progressing slowly, more slowly than I wanted it to be, it's also going well. I'm happy.

Oh my lord! How often do I say I'm happy with how my writing is going? Not often enough. It's good that I've decided to celebrate my triumphs as well as whine about my pitfalls. That's kind of a breakthrough for me.

Women's Wildfire Rally 09

I'm a big consumer of self-help books. This week, I've been indulging in listening to a free teleseminar, the Women's Wildfire Rally 09. I was turned onto this possibility by an e-mail newsletter written by Valerie Young, of ChangingCourse.com. Valerie Young provides coaching services to people who are attempting to change careers to work at work they love. The Women's Wildfire Rally teleseminar is organized and hosted by Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive. I've really enjoyed listening to these teleseminars and learned a lot of good information to help monetize my creative efforts. You might want to see if you can sign up for the last two days of these seminars.

Do you know how a teleseminar works? All you have to do is dial in to a conference call and listen. I dial a long-distance number...but I have unlimited long-distance. I listen for an hour, but after 7 p.m., I am not burning minutes (I don't think, maybe I should double check that). Carrie Wilkerson has been speaking to 4 women entrepreneurs every evening, for only 15 minutes each. I've learned a lot from them. Some I liked better than others, but I think all of them were worth listening to for the 15 minute chat.

If , like I am, you are interested in teaching any sort of class in a continuing ed sort of context, teleseminars might be the way to go. I think it might be worthwhile exploring this concept and offering a class teaching creative non-fiction.

Broken promises to myself

I barely wrote creatively this week, so I am disappointed in myself. I've been writing in my head, but it doesn't count unless it makes it into black and white, does it?

I did fill out a job application for a communications position that I would be perfect for. Although I like the job I have now, as an adjunct professor at Chattahoochee Tech, adjuncts just don't get paid enough. I would seriously like to have more money. I am in no way a spendthrift, but there is just so much a girl can economize. In addition to having big travel cravings right now, my house is seriously in need of some repairs. I've been saving up for them, but saving to replace the broken air conditioner during 90+ degree heat has sucked! I want to replace it NOW!

So, creative efforts are going more toward dreaming up ways to add income, rather than to writing. My capstone MUST get finished this semester, however, so it is very high on my list of things to do.

Plus, I really want to start getting some of my writing published. I do believe that it is publish-worthy, if I can take the time to do the research to submit it in the right places.

In addition, I want to add "big-time travel writer" to my resume'. I have an idea for travel to Scotland that is a bit unusual. I'm hoping to go next summer...

A New Week, A New Writing Goal

I had a great weekend. My sister and niece came to visit me, which is a rare occurance. I loved spending time with them, shopping for back to school clothes for Emily. She's a good little shopper. She had a budget and stuck to it. She looked only at the sale racks when the store we were in was among the more expensive. She's also very stylish. She really knows what is cute and fits her body well. Of course, every thing fits her body well. She's only 5'2", but she's got one of those small frames, the kind they actually make all the cute clothes for. Her only problem is finding pants SMALL enough. My sister was rejoicing because now Em is in a size 1, instead of a double zero, which they could never find.

After we spent the day shopping, I dropped into my neighbor's party. I like to go over right at the beginning, before all his guests get drunk, which they tend to do at his parties. After a brief stop, since my sister didn't want to attend the party with me, since she is quite shy, I came on home and then we went up to the square in Smyrna--Beth, Emily, myself and my friend Cindy--where Smyrna was having its annual birthday party. I love fireworks! And Smyrna has a fireworks show twice a year--at New Year's and at the birthday party. Although it took some work to talk my tired sister into going, I think she was happy that she went.

Unfortunately, Emily was exceedingly tired, and she hadn't eaten much. She also had a bad allergic reaction to my kitty cat. When we got home, we ordered pizza from Dominos. Warning: if you order online from Domino's, the online pizza tracker is a COMPLETE FRAUD. In fact, I will never order from Domino's again. The online tracker said that our pizza was put in a warming bag at 10:42. When I called to check on when it would arrive at my house, which was at 11:20, the cook told me that they had just put it in the oven. I went down there to pick it up, rather than wait for delivery. Of course, by the time I got it home, it was cold. Cold, crappy pizza. What a waste of money. And, they just pissed me off, with that on-line tracker thing being a complete lie.

We all slept in on Sunday morning, although my sleep-in was interrupted by taking Patches for a short walk (just around the block, rather than the 2 mile route that I try to walk most days). I came back home and actually went back to bed. Slept until 11:00. That might be the latest I've ever slept in in my entire life. I may be an afternoon napper, but I don't sleep late very often. Even in college, when my roommates could sleep until noon or one o'clock, I couldn't.

Beth and Emily left at about 2:30 yesterday afternoon. I was supposed to grade and/or write at that point. What did I really do, though? I napped. And then my friend Lori stopped by as she drove back to the Knoxville area after a surprise early-birthday visit to her mom. That was a good time too.

But my writing output for the weekend: nil. Blah.