Clue me in

Still don't have much time to squeeze in writing. Although I am considering dropping one of my classes because the teacher is nuts. I do all the reading and take extensive notes during her crazy lectures yet I get low test scores. Why? Because the questions on the test are not covered in the reading or the lectures. Of course I probably won't drop because it's a waste of money and it's just one more class I need to take to get my degree.

I'm trying to get my 5-7 pages that I alone need to have for my professor by tomorrow. This is part of my procrastination prevention plan that he has developed. Guess what? Haven't started. Nothing less is to be expected of me. I do think I'm going to write the vampire story I thought up a long while ago. I think I even promised to post it on this very blog if it didn't get published. For now I would just like to finish or start rather.
To "give me ideas" I started reading 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. Ever since finishing his Gunslinger series this summer I have been meaning to start reading all the books connected to it. Those were most of the Stephen King books that I hadn't read. I know, it's horrible, I should be reading small, up and coming writers or those who didn't "sell out" but the reason all the well known authors are commonly read is because their stuff is good. Mostly.

I've been doing extensive research on marketing due to the fact that some companies ask for a marketing plan for your book. I'm confused. Do they mean I have to go to stores and ask them to carry the book or do they want me to suggest places I think would sell it? Does anything I'm asking about have to do with marketing? Is there anyone out there with a clue?

Faaa-talllll Ammonia and Rejection. They both Suck!

One employee is on vacation for two months, another quit, then one goes into the hospital. Needless to say I was at work a bit more than expected this week.
Yesterday was my one day off from school and work this week. It was my day to do all my writing.
My dad asked me to go to the doctor with him. The rather dramatic physician, who kept saying
"this could be faaa-talllll", sent him to the emergency room. A few weeks ago he fell and hurt his ribs really bad and now that he couldn't breathe he decided to go to the hospital. After a long and rather unpleasant stay that included nine hours without being offered food, a bed in the hall and my mom threatening to use the stamp in her purse for an angry letter as she insisted my dad had "ammonia?", he was sent home. He's doing well.
The down side is that I got no writing done but I did do a lot of reading!
I still have to work on the start of my story to turn into my professor on Tuesday.
Not to mention I am really trying to make some kind of progress on the book my friend and I are working on. I would like it to be a co-project. She's incredibly busy and I feel like I'm sticking her with all the work. Although I did get research done on publishing companies to submit to.
Today I got another rejection notice for a short story. It wasn't as nice as the last one. In fact I couldn't really read the editor's writing but I think they were suggesting I buy their magazine to get a better feel for what to send as my next story. As if I write stories for the lone purpose of getting published in their magazine. Of course I could have their intentions wrong since I couldn't read the flipping note. Their letter head was pleasant though. It read "Rejection Sucks".

Another workshop over

Another workshop over.
The class didn't have anything particularly good to say but I expected and deserved a lot worse. I did get a chance to talk to my professor about my class worries. I explained that I feel rushed to create a story that is a certain length. I also put things off to the last minute. I don't find writing for the class particularly fun, mostly because I feel my work is forced. It all goes in circles really.
My professor had some good ideas to help me. He is also going to give me special deadlines and told me to stop worrying about writing for the class. I pushed my self through this story because everyone was wondering how the last one would end. I feel like I let people down. I think the talk was good and I'm no longer pondering the idea of dropping the class.

Crazy little fact: I misspelled the word writing by switching the ng to gn (writign) and the only alternative the spell check came up with was 'artisan'. Pretty close, huh?

Mad writer

Okay, I'm putting off my homework once again. I have to have my half-finished story finished by tomorrow.
Once again I'm nervous about workshop. I really rushed and stressed to finish it so I wouldn't be the only one with a 4 page-incomplete story and sure enough the longest story of my fellow classmates is six pages. I'm not sure if they are finished since I've put off reading those as well. I don't know why I'm nervous about workshop. I've been through so many and no one has ever yelled "your work sucks, quit writing!" (although they should). Everyone usually has helpful and nice things to say. They are probably just as nervous as I am. If I ever have a successful writing project, and I have to face critiques and the fact that at least one person in the world isn't going to like it, I'll flip out. I need writer's therapy. Well I need some kind of help anyway.

Speaking of my mad writing skills, I'm taking mythology which counts as a humanities class, for my global views requirements. Today our professor gave us a mid-term and we had an essay question. We had to fill three pages and I had no idea what to write but I filled the pages by repeating this sentence in various forms. The model of a mythological hero is a child born with divine heritage, but is not a god themselves, who goes on an adventurous journey to perform heroic acts in hopes of becoming immortal. In other words I failed that portion of the test.

Today into the mail I got a rejection letter but it was very nice. The editor wrote a long reply, in hand writing I could barley read. It said that the story was good but not what they were looking for. Then the editor went into writing about things it made him think of about his life. He also gave me suggestions of where to send it and how to make it better. I actually liked getting a rejection letter for a change.

Our crazy book about selling shoes is underway. My partner (Jenni) in crime, writing the shoe story and in assistant managing a shoe store has been hard at work. I've been slacking off per usual. But we've got a good start and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Memoirs of the Man Sandal

Once again I wrote my workshop story last minute. It wasn't even finished by five. It was late. And once I again I rushed it. It made no sense. The plot was weak and the title was stupid. I learned my lesson. I'm starting my next workshop story as soon as I get done with my assignment one story that is due Tuesday.

My friend and I have started working on a novel based on our shoe store experiences. Why would anyone want to read a stupid book about a shoe store? Because it's funny. We don't just say we sold a pair of shoes. We wait on rude customers who want you to open the store early or stay open late for them. Then there's the sales associate who steals shopping carts. Not to mention the joy of selling the men's leather dress sandal (The Man Sandal!). And we don't just sell shoes. We go "Office Space" on our broken vacuum in the parking lot and do dramatic reenactments of our bosses most stupid moments. This description is not doing it justice but I'm excited.

Due dates, and the true cost of submissions.

I'm not feeling so hot this week. Not that I'm ill. I just feel like all things writing are not great, but not bad either.
The first thing is I had creative writing again tonight. I have to finish my story I started for the last workshop. Plus make major edits from the revisions. I'm also up for workshop again next week which means another story by 5:00 p.m. Friday. The good news is I work better under pressure and it is practice for meeting deadlines. I think I can!
On Friday I got a sad letter saying I did not in fact place in the state finals of the LAND writing contest but "can be proud that my story was chosen to be one of two in my category to represent my school".
For brighter news I sent out a bunch of submission letters yesterday. The not so bright part of that news is directed at publications.
I get that you want people to buy your sample copies before submitting. It gets people to buy your stuff and hopefully gives you less junk submissions to look through when writers realize you're a children's magazine and they pen erotica. I also understand that each company is particular about submission guidelines such as margins, font, overly detailed or one line cover letters and so forth. Whatever makes it easy for you. What I don't understand is why they can't take e-mail submissions. Actually I do understand that it would probably flood their mail box and if their computer is anything like mine it would probably just stop working. It probably even makes some seem more professional and serious if they are willing to go through the whole mailing process. I just think it is such a waste of paper. I honestly feel guilty doing it and often struggle with sending out the things. Not to mention the ink, stamps, paper and other mailing materials get to be expensive for poor writers.

They didn't hate it(I think).

Okay I'm all right. My class didn't hate the story. They were all debating whether or not the character is crazy or has an incredibly cool power. They wanted me to tell them, but I'm not even sure yet. That's what happens when you don't finish a story. Maybe I can find some way to make it both or to leave it for the reader to interpret and debate. Either way the class not absolutely ripping the story apart was a bit reassuring. I was a little worried at first when the professor asked what people liked about it and no one said anything. Then someone yelled out that they needed time to switch from the last story to the current one. So there was no need for me to pass out. Generally it went well. Of course my professor is always looking for the deeper meaning of things and it's crazy but it's interesting. Sometimes I have no idea what he is talking about and I think he can tell that. Now all I have to do is finish it and edit what I already have.
The other thing is that there might soon be some news about my comic book. Don't worry it's not a huge deal but for me even small progress is exciting. I'm just that easy to please.

More boring stuff.

I'm preparing for class and having to face my stupid story that I don't like.
Now I actually have to get some work done. Hopefully I'll have an important update soon. I don't mean to keep posting boring stuff all the time.

It's just not good.

Today was the first day I worked on the story for my creative writing class. I had the idea and a few notes down, but today was the first day I actually wrote any of it. I worked on it all day. I hate it! But I couldn't think of anything else to send to my classmates and I barley made the deadline.
I really liked the idea. It sounded great to me. But once I started writing it, I just couldn't make it work. I'm not just saying this because it's not a genre my deep, thoughtful classmates don't usually enjoy. I have had lots of stories that I have had doubts about other people liking but I loved them. I enjoyed writing them. I was excited about them. I really just don't like this story. Maybe it's because I didn't have enough time to go over it over and over again. Maybe I felt pressured into writing it. I'm not sure but I really don't like it. I didn't even finish it. It has no ending. I barley finished the first part. Who knows maybe as I finish it I'll find a way to like it. I know it sounds weird but I would not read this story. It's a really frustrating feeling to have. I often wonder how I could possibly not like something I wrote.

Poetry Rant

As I sit here procrastinating from writing my story for class, I am annoyed. Not because I can't figure out how to start my story or because I have this urge to clean my office and can't because I must finish this. The reason I am so annoyed is that I think there is something unfair about writing. I looked at my fellow students posting to see if I was the only one who had waited until the last minute, I wasn't. There was one posting though and it was by one of the students who had chosen to do poetry. He wrote two poems that together barley make a page. I on the other hand have to write in the area of 10 pages. I checked the paper that told us what we must have by the end of the semester. I must have over 40 pages of short fiction, poets on the other hand must have 8-10 poems. Now I know poems aren't always as short as the ones posted but still they are generally under a page. Also I'm not criticizing poetry but they don't have to have a plot, characters or dialogue. They can just write whatever and even if it doesn't make sense it's called interpretive or experimental.
Maybe I should switch to poetry so I can do less work. Of course the class wouldn't benefit me then because I don't really have an interest in it.
Okay I'm done complaining. Now I have to get back to work.

*This is not me bashing poetry. I like poetry. There are many pieces that I love. I'm just not good at writing it.

Boring!

I haven't gotten a lot of work done lately. I feel like class work has taken over my spare time.
Last week our homework for creative writing was to read three short stories and answer a series of questions, read three poems and write observations, write a story using a metaphor about how I feel about writing, write four poems where every line of the poem ends in a word that can be spelled using the letters in the one word title, read two fellow students works and make comments, and read 48 pages of the intro to our text. I did all of this and I guess I should have taken in to account what the professor had said last week. That the text and assignments didn't matter, the class is about writing and getting feedback. We didn't discuss any of the work and we didn't have to turn any of it in.
Once again I find myself in the situation where I will be required to participate in class. I have been holding back and then regretting not speaking up because I had the right answer. Yesterday I asserted myself and answered the question. Guess who was completely wrong? ME! Err.. No wonder I never say anything.
I have to have a rough draft of a short story posted on line for my class by 5:00 p.m. Friday. I have an idea. Once again I'm not sure my untraditional, sci-fi/fantasy style will be appreciated by these deep, thoughtful writers that search for the inner meaning of everything.
Aside from class my time this week was consumed by a consequence of my stupidity. I wrote a story a while back and saved it only in e-mail and on disk. My disk drive is shot. Then I saved my e-mail to my computer. When I erased AOL from my computer, my e-mail was saved into a file that has crazy symbols and I can't find a program anywhere in the world to open it in English. So I had to scan in a rough draft of the story. With all the marks and highlighting on the pages it didn't scan too well. The margins were off, nothing was spelt right and so many other problems. With all the editing I had to do I might as well have just retyped it.
I started another sonnet but have yet to finish and am still reading novels for research on the new novel. So far though nothing important has been accomplished.
Wasn't this the most interesting and entertaining post you have ever read?

Bye bye structure. Hello creativity

I wrote this all earlier and then my internet service decided not to work. So this is copy is probably missing some of the enthusiasm the first one did.
Today was the first day of classes for me this semester. I had Creative Writing II. I was worried that it would be exactly the same as CW I but I figured I would try it for the first week. If it didn't work out I could still get my money back.
This class is so different. I didn't like how CW I was just a bunch of rules about how to be creative which defeats the purpose of being creative. Also you got graded on whether or not the teacher liked your work so you were writing for them. Not to mention I had to write poetry.
In this class there is no structure. There are no due dates for your assignments. There is little to no text reading. There is no topic you have to write on or point of view or tense or must be realistic or sci-fi guidelines. You can do poetry or prose for each of the four assignments. He doesn't grade, collect or even check to see if in class assignments are done. The main focus of the class is to write and get feedback from everybody. That's it. You bring in your work and everyone discusses it.
It's different for sure. Of course I usually do well in classes because I follow the assignment guidelines exactly and always turn things in on time. So I'll actually have to do more in this class. That is a good thing. The only other thing is that this class is pretty much like a writing group except instead of being free I have to pay tuition. Hmm....

BTW: I finally learned how to put links in my post without writing out the whole long and ugly web address. I also learned how to add things to my sidebar. I put links to my live journal which is my life outside of writing. The other links are to Pandora's Gate archives, which has some of my work published. The next thing I hope to add is other blogs to my side bar. I'll work on it.

Dear Wizard

I finally finished "And the Band Played On". It's a book that I had been reading not only for enjoyment but as research for my next novel. I never thought I would finish. It was over 600 pages long and the pages were huge with the tiniest print. I read at least an hour a day and it took me 13 days to finish. It was worth it though. And yes I know I could have just watched the movie but I don't like doing that. It's not the same.
I have a basic plan for the novel but I still need some more statistics and such. It will be a while before I'm ready to roll.
Today I finished another sonnet. That's number four. It's about Daredevil. I also started the fifth.
Over the weekend I busted open my new Writer's Market 2006 and started finding places to send stories. I sent out submissions for "Sworn" which is the final story for my creative writing class last semester. It's the one that I was so worried about. I'm not sure there is really a market for it, just like I was unsure my class would like it. The problem is that it's a fantasy story written from the point-of-view of a high school girl trying to impress the guy she likes. It's not necessarily going to appeal to typical fantasy readers because it's from a young and female perspective. That would make it to appeal to young females but they don't generally read fantasy. I think it could be a good way to reach two different audiences. I just don't know of a publication that is trying to do that. They usually stick with one crowd. It would make sense to try to appeal to more people but then the current readers might not like it.
Anyway as far as other submissions go, I'm having a little trouble placing short short's. They probably work best in contest but I hate paying to enter. I don't have the money and you never know when it's a scam.

Now onto the exciting stuff!

In case no one's been reading the comments, I am writing a letter to Wizard magazine about the lack of females in their publication. This idea was not mine. It was D.B.Echo who commented and gave me the idea.Thanks!
Now I'm going to post my letter here and send it to Wizard. I'm also going to put the e-mail address to Wizard and encourage others to write similar letters as well. A word of caution for those of you unfamiliar with Wizard magazine. They are not a magazine with a conservative and formal style. When they answer letters to the editor they make fun of the writer so make sure that your letter is not something they can rip apart. I would hate to see a letter, promoting women, being made fun. Not only do I not want anyone's feelings hurt but it wouldn't really look good for what we are trying to accomplish.

Dear Wizard,

As a long time reader I have always noticed the lack of females in your publication. When women are featured in your publication they usually have nothing to do with comics except that they are starring in a comic book movie.
I realize there are very few women creators that work for the major comic book publishing companies, but why not give some space to up and coming female artist and writers? It might give them the recognition they need to reach the major publishers. Or you could devote some pages to fan girls. After all, in an anniversary issue the magazine mentioned once having "Look Familiar?", a section dedicated to readers pets. So why not give a page to female readers? Featuring fan girls would only give hope to your male readers that they could marry a woman who wouldn't make them throw out their comic collections.
Maybe more women would read Wizard if they thought they weren't being left out.


I think this letter doesn't provoke any rude comments or sarcastic remarks. I could be wrong. If anyone else wants to send a letter write to magicwords@wizarduniverse.com . If somebody else writes it might not make it seem like I'm only suggesting this to get myself in the magazine. And it will help get the point across. Please write!

Being Committed?

It's happened. I woke up in the middle of the night. The clock read 4:33. I think the reason I woke up was mostly panic that I was going to sleep through my alarm and miss jury duty. Then of course, I would get arrested or fined, so I kept waking up periodically. Just as I was about to fall back asleep, I realized that I had a really good idea for a story. Forgetting about leaving the comfort and warmth of my bed, and that I was incredibly tired and needed to be up rather early, I headed to my desk. I jotted it all down and actually got on quite a role. I was just so worried, if I didn't get out of bed to write it down, I would forget it and it could have been the best story ever. Looking at the great idea now it doesn't seem that great. Then today I went out to lunch and I couldn't help it. I started writing again on my placemat, because I didn't have enough paper in my little notebook. The point is that I have become slightly obsessed. It's okay though, at least to me. It just makes me feel committed to my love of writing.

The only other thing to say is that I have completed sonnet three and started sonnet four. I have to admit I started cheating and bought a rhyming dictionary. It's tough. Do you know how many heroes end with woman/man? I didn't want to write the same thing every time.

Edit first!

My goal for today was to write a query letter and send some submissions to agents. Of course they want a synopsis of the book you are trying to get them to read. It makes sense to me so this is not a complaint. My trouble is that I realize I should edit the book first. I guess I should have figured that in the first place. Now I'll just have to send out different submissions for a while. I'm thinking my final story for creative writing.
Also, I'm a little sad I just found out they were raising postage and I have a lot of stamps that I have previously purchased. Now I have to get those crazy 2 cent stamps.
For the record, in case there is anyone but probably not, my blog is not blocked from anonymous comments. If you are not a member of blogspot you can still tell me I suck by clicking on 'comment'. Of course I'm being presumptuous that someone actually reads this. I'd make the joke "that someone other than my mom might actually reads this", but she doesn't either. That's how bad my writing is.

NOT another bill!

Now that the Christmas season is over I no longer run to the mailbox when I hear the carrier drop off my mail. Since there are no more cards coming there is no reason to get excited. Bills are not exciting. They are quite the opposite. So today when I heard the clank of the mailbox I took a nap.
When I finally decided I should get the mail I was not disappointed. There was the telephone bill, the garbage bill and a Lansing community College envelope. Since I'm behind on paying tuition, I was quite certain it was just to yell "YOU OWE MONEY!", or perhaps to even tell me I had been dropped from the class. All in all, the mail wasn't happy! Boo!
I threw it on my desk and eventually opened it later in the day. SURPRISE!
I won second place for short fiction in the LCC portion of the L.A.N.D. writing contest!
I don't know how many people entered so it could be that I was one of two people who submitted, but I don't care. I'm excited. I've never won anything in my life. It's so cool. I'm sure it's not that big of a deal but oh well.
The story I won with is called "Papa's Little Angel". It's a story I wrote for a writing sample when I first started my attempt to find an artist to collaborate with. I didn't really think it would win but it was one of two stories I had that met length requirements so I sent it along. It's a story about a young girl who can teleport and her troubled life after she teleports her dad out of prison. That's probably not a good description. I'd post the story but it had to be unpublished and I'm not certain if posting it here disqualifies it from the state portion of the contest that all 1st and 2nd place winners are entered in. Seeing as how I'm pretty new to the publishing rights and stuff, I'll leave it off for now but once the state part is over I'll post it.

In other news I wrote another sonnet. I"m not going to post it until I decide what my true intentions are for my superhero sonnets. Sorry I keep teasing but never posting.
I also started research for my next novel. I don't want to give too much away but it's a fictional book that revolves around the AIDS pandemic. I'm really excited about this idea, I just hope I can write it well.
The other thing is I got my Writer's Market 2006 today. Now I can start my new submissions for the year. Then the mail will get interesting again as I wait for not only bills but rejection notices.

IT"S DONE!

Well just in time to put on my list of writing accomplishments for 2005, I have completed the rough draft of my first novel. After pushing myself to finish it for NaNoWriMo and failing, I decided to push myself to finish it by the end of the year. Today I got up and struggled through the last chapters. Now keep in mind it's not really finished. I'll put it aside and read it later. I already have notes on things I should check for. So to give you a lot of info would be a bad idea, seeing as how I'll probably tear it apart considering how I feel about my work(I never think it's good). I will tell you this, right now it stands 22 chapters long.

To wrap up my New Year's Eve post I wanted to say how excited I am that in this year I got my first fiction story published and had an ashcan made for my first comic book(hopefully to come in 2006) . There were many other things to be proud of. Out of all the submissions I sent out I received 22 rejection notices. That means 22 people may have taken the time to read my work! I also have wonderful people reading my blog that I started this year, thanks everyone! It's a lot to be happy about.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Just a little list.

Now that the Christmas chaos is over and I am on vacation, there should be a big list of things I've gotten done this week. Well there isn't.
I'm trying to finish my novel so I can put it on my things accomplished list for the year 2005 .

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope that Christmas has gone well for everyone. Mine has been great! I thought long and hard about what to get my faithful readers for Christmas. I gave my live journal readers fabulous holiday photos, but what about my blog readers? Since this is about my journey in writing, I should post some work. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten anything new done in a while, but I did come up with a good idea. Here is the link to the second story I had published in Pandora's Gate. I promised it a while ago and finally searched for it today, just for you.
http://paperdragonink.com/november_issues.htm. Click on the issue with my name in the credits to read "Double Take 2: Sophomore Year", or don't , whatever. Sorry it isn't better but it's creative and free. What do you expect from a struggling writer? Maybe I'll post some new work for a belated gift if I get as much work done in my week off as I plan to.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Bragging rights?

I got a pretty awesome grade in my class. I hate posting my good grades, because it feels like bragging, so I'm not going to. I know this whole blog is pretty much bragging about things, but I don't feel you really can call it bragging when you get published in the community college newspaper. Who's going to be envious of that? Pretty much anyone can do it, they just have the sense not to.

I haven't accomplished much on anything lately. I'll make a poor excuse and say I'm preoccupied with the hustle and bustle of Christmas. I do go on vacation next week and with school out as well, I should just crank out the work. Who knows what I'll get accomplished? Don't get your hopes up, you know how it goes when you plan on getting things done. It doesn't happen.

Feeling better

I'm feeling better. Classes are over. I don't know what I got yet but in creative writing I got a very good grade on my portfolio. HURRAY!
I'm also feeling pretty good because after my sadness caused by the book I was reading, I discovered something. The guy who wrote Eragon, his parents own the company that published it. I could have a New York Times bestseller saved on a disk but my parents aren't going to publish it for me. So at least I can believe that to feel better.
It is a little annoying that I have to spend a good portion of my time trying to get published. It's not fun but the writing is. Although I suppose I could just write and not try to get it published. I must admit that trying to get published has its good points. It's challenging, productive, humbling and occasionally rewarding.

22, sad, and no bestseller :(

Since I have a love for magical book series, particularly in the children's section, a friend recommended the Inheritance trilogy to me. It's written by Christopher Paolini. The first book is Eragon and the second, Elder, just recently came out. I have been reading it and enjoying it but I must say it has managed to make me sad. I'm not finished yet but I glimpsed at the back page to read about the author. He's 21(at least he was when Eragon came out) and he already has a New York Times Bestseller.
It's rather depressing to think about the fact that I am past 21 and do not have a best seller. I know I should not compare myself to others but it's rather hard not to sometimes.

Crazy Idea #1

Just wanted to say that I talked to Jenni about the crazy work e-mail novel idea and she likes it. I'll keep updating on it.

As for the other ideas, nothing yet. I'm slacking

CRAZY IDEAS!

Okay, so lately I have some weird ideas for writing projects. I felt like sharing them with you.

1. I write a small novel every time I e-mail my friend Jenni. Usually they are pretty interesting. Often they are about crazy people at work. I am going to start saving them to a file and create a memoirs book out of them. All the e-mails are rather interesting really. While most of it may be things you can read on my livejournal or hers, I still think they are fabulous. Maybe I'll save reply e-mails and have a co-author. Who knows?

2.I know I said that poetry wasn't my thing but I have to say I loved my sonnet. I know it was the farthest thing from the best literature ever, but it was fun. Writing it was fun and I loved peoples reaction to it. Sure they thought it was silly but I'm cool with that. So here's my crazy idea. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets (I think?). I'm going to do the same. However, they will not be about love, emotion, time, and seasons. Oh no folks I'm going to write each of my sonnets about a different comic book superhero. If I run out of hero's I'm heading to villains. Then I'll make a book out of them. That's my crazy idea. Hopefully, nobody steals it.

3. My novel is near finished probably by the end of the week. What then you ask? I need an agent. I'm going to do it folks, I'm writing query letters and I'm looking for an agent. I don't know if I have enough publishing credits or talent but I'm gonna give it a whirl.

4. I have a short-short that I would never have considered anything. I wrote it for class as my in class writing assignment. My teacher suggested putting it into a contest. I really didn't understand why but I'm giving it a shot.

I'll keep you posted on all of the above. I know it's crazy but one of them just might work!

Shaffierean Sonnet #1

As mentioned in the previous post, today in my creative writing class we tackled rhyme and meter poetry. I am not a fan of poetry and had a rough time with the free verse and prose poems we had done through out the semester. So to focus on syllables and iambic pentameter, not to mention rhyming lines in a pattern, well lets just say I was more than excited. Our professor did not have us use this type of poetry through out the year unless we wanted to, because she did not want to limit our creativity. Today however, she wanted us to give it a try.
During class, particularly when discussing the difference between prose poetry and short-shorts, it was determined that poetry tends to have less of a tale to tell or someplace it's going, but rather expresses emotions and ideas. So when we set forth today we looked into some of the most famous rhyme and meter poetry of all time, Shakespearean sonnets.
For those of you unfamiliar with them they are often about seasons, time, love, emotion. Basically everything you would expect from poetry. Our teacher said we could really do any form but sonnets would probably be easiest. Well I figured William had really set the bar high for serious sonnets so I was going to go all out crazy. The professor tried to inspire us with two words, 'strange exhilaration'. This made me think of flying, which lead to superhero's, which lead to my sonnet. You're probably thinking, "she's teasing us by writing all this and now we'll never get to see it". You're wrong! Since I have absolutely no idea who would publish this, I will publish it here, for my faithful fan(s). Don't worry for those of you who don't get it I will explain at the end. Hopefully you like it, when I read it aloud in class people actually laughed! Here it is the first of my many sonnets.

He lands in the street, dropping from the sky.
Swears to protect, always ready to fight.
He is and is not a regular guy.
Crime fighting the job, they call him Dark Knight.

The Penguin, the Joker, and Ras al Ghul,
He is strong enough to stop them. Pow! Wham!
They use their power and evil to rule,
But he is just too fast for them. Bang! Bam!

Jumping from roof to roof over Gotham,
No resting when catching the enemy.
Sending some to jail and others to Arkham,
And he will return when they are set free.

They try to get by him but no one can.
He stands over watching, he is Batman.

For reference:(Batman is often referred to as the Dark Knight. The Penguin, the Joker and Ras al Ghul are all Batman villains. In the old comics and 60's T.V. series, in fight scenes they would use sound bubbles with words such as "Bam!" when hitting and such. Gotham City is Batman's hometown. Arkham is the insane asylum where the bad guys go.)

I would also like to express how excited I am that I figured out how to make line breaks. It took me nearly two hours of frustration as my sonnet kept coming out in a paragraph, but I figured out it was a format setting.

It's been awhile.

I know it's been nearly two weeks since I posted. I'll keep my explanation short by saying AOL sucks and I'm working on getting a cable modem (for further details visit www.livejournal.com/users/ashlucsha ). With that out of the way let me tell everyone what's up.

Sadly, I did not finish my NaNoWriMo novel. I do intend to but it did not get finished in the month of November. I failed this year but all is not lost because I still have a near finished novel. FYI, since I did not get the opportunity to update the NaNoWriMo website, my final word count for the month of November was 41610.

On the much brighter side I mentioned a bit ago that I wrote a sequel to "Double Take" my superhero duo story that was published in Pandora's Gate, a Paper Dragon Ink production. I sent the sequel off to them and it got published last week. Hurray! I'm having trouble locating it on the web thanks to my current old school access. When I get it I'll post it or you can go to www.paperdragonink.com and search around.

My final project for class is due next week. It's a portfolio that must include one short story, one scene, a short-short, 2 free verse poems, a prose poem and a reflective essay. I guess we know what I'll be doing all week. When we go to turn them in we have to stay and practice rhyme and meter poetry. I'll try to contain my excitement.

I lived through workshop!

Even though I started my class reviews for workshop a week early, I still found myself struggling to think of things to improve on while staying up until four in the morning the night before class. Apparently, everyone else had trouble but they did not struggle through for comments. They just didn't give any. So I'm sure I look like I think I'm better than everyone because I put bad things but I was grasping. I was also the only one who typed up comment sheets and the only one who did a review of everybody's paper. If they didn't get someone's, they didn't ask for it they just didn't review it. Do I have issues? I must.
Anyway everyone had nice comments about my story. They thought it was funny. The females in the class particularly liked the teenage girls inner monologue as she struggles to fight evil as well as impress the guy she likes. I also got lots of compliments on my dialogue. So over all it went okay.

Reviewing peers

My novel progress has unfortunately slowed. I am no longer on track because I should be half way done by tomorrow. I am not. I'm close but not quite. I have been working on a few other things so I've been a little sidetracked.

The first thing that I've been working on is my class reviews. I have to read nine short stories that are written by my peers and review them. It is tough. I see things that I would change but I don't know how to word it. I don't want to offend anyone. I have a tough time reviewing famous literature. It's ten times more tough when you have to present it to the writer personally. This is something I know shouldn't bother me but I just don't like doing it.

Another thing I have been working on is entries for a writing contest. It's an LCC contest and whoever wins go to a state competition. There is no entry fee. You do have to get a teacher to sign off on the entry and submit it for you. The deadline is next Friday but since I won't see my creative writing professor next week due to the holiday I have to have them ready before Thursday. I'm submitting two of the stories I have been sending out to companies, but I want to give them a good revision. After all they didn't get picked up by anyone so maybe they could use some extra work.

I try getting to my novel when I can but it's been a busy week. Hopefully, I can make it.

Sharing your imagination

Another comic book show today and I couldn't stand to be there. No, I'm not getting tired of comic book shows or comic books. I'm getting tired of not being there to promote my own comic book. All I do is sell and by other stuff and it makes me feel gloomy. It's not that I want to make money, I have no expectation of making the big bucks or the small bucks for that matter, I just want to see my work done. I want to see my accomplishment. I want to see other people enjoying my work.
I've been thinking about my writing a lot this week. With the new Harry Potter movie drawing near it makes me think. This happens often when something I really enjoy comes into the spotlight. I get envious. Not because J.K. Rowling is rolling in piles of cash or bombarded with fan mail. I'm sure those things are great but I think about how much I love her books. When I come home from work or have stressful moments I jump into these things and I feel better. I leave the world and life I am tired of and enter these amazing places and become these amazing people. I have always had the imagination to create these places for myself but it's wonderful seeing others. Sometimes you get bored or in a mental block and you can't carry yourself away. That is when you engross yourself in someone else's imagination and you experience things and learn things. It's when you get the chance to experience happy times that you don't have in your own life right now, you get to see horrible things that make you realize your life isn't that bad, or you get to see that their are other people who face the same things you do. That is how I feel about the things I read and watch. I don't know if it is the same for everyone, maybe I over think things or don't think enough. Perhaps I am even bordering on insanity. All I know is that if there is one person or everyone in the world that feels the same way I do, I want to share my imagination with them for the times when they need help breaking away.

It's not that I write only for other people, I write for myself. If you told me no one would ever read my work, I'd still write everyday. I have so many thoughts in my head and I'm so afraid one day I'll forget them. I have to put them down. I don't need to be rich or famous, I've never had either and I have had a great life this far. Yet when I did have tough times I always had somewhere to go. Whether it was in my own head or in a book, when my parents yelled, the kids teased, or my heart was broken I didn't sit around and focus on how much I hated things. I ran away to a place that let me be free from troubles. Then things were good. It's those good things that give you the strength to face the bad things, because you know the good things will come again eventually. I want to give the good things.
That is why I write. I'm just getting anxious because I really want to share it with as many people as possible, if they want to read it. I think about how much I enjoy diving into worlds created by others when I need a break from my imagination as well as my life. If no one else wants to see it that's okay because I have it for myself. That is how it started and I still love it.

Short-short prose poem

Today I sat in class and after spending nearly half an hour making sure everyone received each others papers via e-mail, we got to the really fun discussion. The next two and a half hours went to figuring out the difference between short-shorts (very short stories) and prose poetry (poetry written in paragraph form). Once we read a few of each we discussed the differences, then wrote a paper on the differences. Our next assignment will be to write one of each by focusing on the characteristics that we used to define what made them different. Oh how exciting!