Sestinas...

Reading breaks are fabulous... I should really be doing more reading...

I actually only have three days off this reading break, because I was working on Monday, and I work Friday and Saturday... And I kind of wasted those three days off. I did do homework. I'm working on my poems, and all but one are coming along very well. I really hate sestinas. I really, really do. I just cannot get a nice flowing poem when I'm forced to reuse words. I cannot get a narrative without it sounding choppy and repetitive. And I'm having a lot of trouble just fitting imagery in, though the form isn't completely to blame for that.

And I still have an essay to write. I'm struggling over that even more. Poem has too much structure and form, but English doesn't have enough. The guidelines for the essay is to write an essay on a poem we've talked about. I know this is fairly normal for higher level courses, so be able to see a theme and write an essay around it. But we're not supposed to use outside sources, and I'm assuming it has to be on one poem, not a poet or a collection of poems. Ugh. Poetry. It'll be the death of me.

So I'll try and get at least the sestina done by Tuesday. What I have so far is already better than my previous one, but I know it's just going to crumble as I struggle to come up with new things to say... I never thought I would miss free verse so much.

Time to be Productive!

It's reading break! And I actually have some reading to do... Well, writing, but close enough. I get three days off of work and school, in which time I have to write an essay and a poem, along with some editing and compiling. I guess it's a good thing that my school decide to have its reading week two weeks after almost every other school. All my friends are back in school right now, so I won't get as distracted.

On another note, I applied for a job at Chapters! It's a three month contract job, so I was kind of iffy about actually applying for it. If I got the job, I'm not sure when I would actually start. The application is open until April, so I assume after that is when the job would start. That would be perfect, because it would give me time to finish school, and for us to train a new person at work, since my co-worker is leaving. I'm not sure if I would actually leave Starbucks, but at least being out of school will allow me to work more than a couple days at each location. So wish me luck with that. I like to think that my updated resume is pretty good, now that I can say I've been an assistant manager somewhere.

I guess I should also get onto submitting some writing to magazines too. I saw a few from some class presentations that might accept my work, so I'll check them out.

Internet...

Ugh, I might just have to smash my router. That way my parents might actually do something about it. So once again, I'm blaming my lack of posts on my internet. I swear! I tried to post on Tuesday, but my internet kept crashing. Let's see if I can actually get this post out tonight.

So it's a Thursday, so that means I had my Business of Writing class. Last week we actually got the day off to go off and do stuff. I accompanied my boyfriend to his school, because they have a massive library that I wanted to check out. I tried to find the periodical section... and failed. That place is massive. I did, however, find this interesting little display case that had the journals, notes and books of authors. I suppose they are probably authors that graduated from the school.

This week we talked about publication. It was... eye opening. We looked at journals to submit to though, and I feel a little more confident that I can actually get into some. My writing is mostly speculative fiction, so that really limits who will take my work. Most places like the down to earth, family friendly stuff. I like to write about the apocalypse, or other worlds. But that's not considered literature, so is rarely accepted into literary magazines. But that's okay, because I've become aware of the limited magazines that will accept them. I'll have to revise my stories and check up these magazines soon.

The prospect of getting paid to let someone have movie rights to my book is awesome though... I'm still going to keep dreaming.

Goodbye, Monty

2015 is starting off with a bleak beginning. I would take last year's start over this years, and least year I had the flu twice within the first two months. Near the beginning of January, my grandma passed away. Now the nerd community has been dealt a blow with the sudden death of Monty Oum.

He was the head animator for RWBY, a unique and unequaled small animated show. It took the overused and cliche idea of fairy tale characters, and wove it into a story that has never been told before. With the death of Monty Oum, it's hard to say if it will finish being told. 

Just a quick post today, to pay tribute to a fabulous man that was taken far before any of us were ready.

Word Rampage

I came up with a brilliant new way so say rant! Word rampage is my new saying whenever I start to complain. So look forward to that in the future, if I remember it.

Lots going on at school today. The writer-in-residence, Sheri-D Wilson, was there from Tuesday to Thursday, and I managed to go to every single event. Pretty impressive, for me. I was just lucky that I was at school all those days.

First off was her doing a public reading. It took place in the library, and I feel kind of bad for anyone that was actually trying to study, because damn, she is loud. In a good way, of course. I don't think the reading would have been the same if she had an indoor voice, and especially not with a library voice. So at this reading I realized that I loved her poetry style, and not just because of how she read it. It was real, and understandable. It wasn't trying to be mysterious, or to tie the reader's minds in knots. It was what it was, and it was beautiful.

The next day I sacrificed sleep to be at school by ten. That doesn't sound very early, but bear in mind that it takes me about two hours to get to school, and I like another two hours before I leave. So I was up at six o'clock... But I was at school for the workshop she was holding, and I'm really glad I decided to go. I thought it would be about writing poetry, and some tips and hints. However, this was all on spoken word, and how to read your poems properly. I am horrible at reading in front of people. I've gotten better in the last few years, because for some reason my ego has inflated ten fold (I have no idea why...) I can read loud and project my voice, and I can strut up to the podium or front of the class as if I own the place, but I still talk to fast. At the workshop, Sheri-D taught us all when to pause, and when to give emphasis on words. So now I at least know how to read my poems. Actually reading them, in front of people, is something else entirely. It's like knowing exactly what you'll write for an essay, or knowing all the formulas on a math test, but then you go and write it, and everything has just drifted away.

Today I had a one-on-one with her, which is one of the scariest things I've ever done (somewhere between going into a haunted house, and my first day of college). However, I found it was more the wait until that point that scared me the most. Once I was in there and couldn't back out, I really relaxed. Well, ten minutes in I relaxed. I had read a poem yesterday that she really liked, and we went over it in detail today, picking at every line. I definitely think it's a poem I can make longer and work on. At the moment, it's composed of beautiful lines, but no story. When I was writing it, I didn't really think story, I just thought theme. Now though, I see that there is a bit of a story to it, and I really want to continue with it.
We did a few other poems, but none of them were as in-depth, though she did comment on how she liked them all.I definitely need to keep working on them all, especially on length, but I'm still very proud. I still don't believe that poetry is one of my strong points, but I guess by thinking that, I will only get better.

And finally after class today there was a talk on the writing craft. It was mostly anecdotes and a few tips about Spoken Word, but it was still great. It's a shame that she's not a professor at my school. It would have been great to have a whole class with her.

So Many Books

I'm finally getting onto the list of things I have to do for my Business of Writing class! I think I explained it earlier. I have to do fifty things to get full marks, and some things can be done multiple times to earn more points. So on Sunday I dragged my boyfriend downtown to visit bookstores!

We didn't get to all of them, because there were two groups fairly far apart, and near the end we were just too tired from walking. But we managed to visit three, and tried to find a forth but figured it had closed down. I bought some graphic novels too! I was trying to find a copy of the 1818 edition of Frankenstein for my Romantic Poetry class, but couldn't see any. I guess I'll have to visit Chapters soon.

And on that note, I'm still trying to get a job at Chapters. Or anywhere... My mom still thinks I should stay at Starbucks, if only because of my pay. Once I go anywhere else, I'll be back down to minimum wage. I think it's worth it.

I'm also pretty far behind on this list. I need to go back downtown to go to the library, and maybe visit some more bookstore. I really need to go to some readings or other events, but it seems like they all happen on Wednesdays. When I'm in school... I was expecting they would be happening on weekends, when people are actually free to go to them... But I'm still trying to get weekends off so I can do some of these tasks. But unless I deliberately change the schedule so that I'm not working on Saturday, then I'm still working. In fact, in a couple weeks I'll be working Friday to Monday. And I would try to do some things from home, but it seems that every time I try and actually be productive, my internet crashes.

So that's my rant of the day...

Business of Writing

Alright, so this whole page thing didn't work out. Apparently Blogger is different from Wordpress... So, I'll just continue to keep posting my class updates as regular posts. Bear in mind, this post below was actually posted on Tuesday:

I'm going to start up something new! For one of my classes, Business of Writing, we need to keep some sort of learning journal. This can be on paper, online, a continuous Word document, pretty much any way we can think of that will actually convey our thoughts and what we are learning.

Since I'm already writing a blog, I figured this will be the easiest for me.

Well, as long as my internet decides to work long enough for me to actually get each of the posts up... We'll see how this works out.

But since my class is on Thursday, I will be more diligent about getting up a post on Thursdays. And Tuesday, of course. My current excuse is that my internet is utterly useless at this point. But I'll try not to complain.

So this page (as long as it works as a separate page), will contain posts (which should be different from pages...) that relate directly to my class. So if you're a regular reader that's not interested, I'm sorry, my interesting posts will be cut down to just Tuesdays... Or whenever I get them out.

If you are interested in reading more, I guess I should explain what you will be reading about. This class is meant to teach me how to earn money through writing. It'll show me how to submit work to publishers and magazines, how to protect my work, and how to get into the writing community. This latter one is what I will probably be focusing on a lot, since there is so much to say about it.

We were given a list of stuff to do, and we have to finish at least fifty things. Some things can be done multiple times to earn points, while other things are worth multiple points. It's not as hard as it sounds. Some things are nearly impossible, such as getting a job at a bookstore (though I'm really working on it!), while others are very simple and rather enjoyable, such as going to a bookstore. I've already looked up independent bookstores in near by cities, and I just need a day to go out and visit them, preferably a day when I can go with someone (I don't want to get lost alone...)

I would have started this list a couple Sundays ago, and even had plans to go out and get it started. Unfortunately, my grandma passed away the Saturday before, so I wasn't quite in the mood to be gallivanting around the city between bookstores. This Sunday though! I am determined to get some tasks done!