New River Anthology-- you will submit your work!

Remember: I expect each one of you to submit at least one writing piece to the New River Anthology. Keep an eye out in late January for posters with details on submissions.

If you are not on campus in the spring semester, I still expect you to submit. Email me at my Coastal account in late January and I can tell you how to email your submission.

No excuses! Don’t make me get the stick!

The Happiness Project

Have you heard of The Happiness Project?
It's a book-blog-website by Gretchen Rubin. The book has been a best seller & Rubin has appeared on the Today Show.

This link shows how she collaborated with talented people she knew to make a 30 second TV spot for her book. Doing a TV commerical used to be difficult, but with today's technology, it can be a lot easier. Maybe you'll be making a commercial for your book?

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2010/04/unbelievable-my-book-is-being-advertised-on-television.html

I seem to be on a book & DVD promotion kick...

I could not watch this film all in one sitting.
It was too emotional for me-- the writers could easily be my students.
The film is broken into chapters, so that made it easier for me to watch in bits. But not easier to watch.
I like that the chapters are told in different ways. One chapter was animated. Another chapter was told (somewhat) humorously. The film starts out with "Here, Bullet" read by Brian Turner.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WOSB0U/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1400065623&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1B0PHG85HAWX5VCHYFCN

Sounds like just another Creative Writing workshop day...

http://www.planetpeschel.com/index?/writers_gone_wild/index/

Cool book. Adaptations: From Short Story to Big Screen

Coastal's library has this book-- or they will when I return the copy I borrowed. It includes copies of the stories that were made into movies.
It is only $11.53 on amazon.com and would make a holiday nice gift to yourself!

the Oscar website screenwriter interviews

I'm becoming obsessed with this site. It's a treasure trove.

Here's a link to a series of interviews about Film Noir. The interviews are with Oscar-nominated or Oscar-winning screenwriters.

http://www.oscars.org/video/watch/ev_noir_interview_03_frank.html

John Patrick Shanley, author of Doubt

Here's an interview with John Patrick Shanley at the New School in New York. Fascinating!

http://fora.tv/2007/01/23/John_Patrick_Shanley

week 14... already?

Journal: consider “the virtues.”

There are many different lists of virtues from ancient times through Ben Franklin to the various world religions and more. Is there a virtue you think is not currently valued?

Give an real or fictional anecdote to illustrate your view. Try telling the story as a fable or with dialogue between characters.

Chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, humility are one list.

Here’s Ben Franklin’s list of virtues:

1. Temperance: Eat not to Dullness. Drink not to Elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling Conversation.
3. Order: Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality: Make no Expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e. Waste nothing.
6. Industry: Lose no Time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary Actions.
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful Deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice: Wrong none, by doing Injuries or omitting the Benefits that are your Duty.
9. Moderation: Avoid Extremes. Forbear resenting Injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body, Clothes or Habitation.
11. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at Accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity: Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring; Never to Dullness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another's Peace or Reputation.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Then, in a sentence or two, how might you include your views in your writing without getting preachy?

so you want to write a screenplay...

Check out the Oscar website. Tremendous! Take a look at the PDF of a sample screenplay.

http://www.oscars.org/awards/nicholl/resources.html

your writing voice

Here's a quote I want to share with you from the Writer's Idea Book, p. 250:

Some writers have said they found their natural voice when they found the material they most wanted to explore. If you find that your voice rings false, that the voice on the page is not the one you hear in your head, maybe the problem lies in the material. When I was in college, I enjoyed F. Scott Fitzgerald's wonderfully lyriacan voice--its elegance and sharp sense of profundity. I tried desperately to imitate it. Not a bad model to take for a twenty-year-old apprentice. Unfortunately, I also wrote about the same subjects Fitzgerald wrote about in his work, and I didn't know beans about life on the Riviera or in 1930s Hollywood. When I began writing about the world I knew, one that connected with me on a variety of levels, things fell into place.

I find this to be so true!

Dave Barry, humor writer

http://www.davebarry.com/gg/misccol.htm


According to Wikipedia (n.d.), Barry has defined a sense of humor as "a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason. Laughter is how we express the anxiety we feel at this knowledge."

photo: Google images

Charlie may have to move

http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/11/04/1792144/tame-gator-and-girthy-girlfriend.html#storylink=omni_popular

journal for Thursday, Nov. 4

Journal: Choose one of the following.

1.       Write about a serious subject in a humorous way, dipping occasionally into seriousness as a contrast. If you’re feeling bold, push the tone to the extreme; risk offending the reader with your humorous treatment of a serious subject. (page 248 in The Writer’s Idea Book by Jack Heffron)

2.       Give a character an object that she carries everywhere with her, or perhaps, something she always wears. Try to suggest through this object something important about the character. If the character wears a locket containing a picture of her family, what does this say about her? If the character keeps a picture in his wallet of a woman who left him long ago, what does this say about him? If a character always has a pocket knife with him, what does this say about him? If a person always has a bottle of Tylenol? (p. 240)

journal for Tuesday, Nov. 2

Write about the best place you’ve ever been. “Best” can have a few meanings: most exciting, most fulfilling, most interesting. It could mean the place where you felt most in sync with the world, where you had the keenest sense of belonging, coming home to a place you never been. Or it could mean the most exciting place, or the one where you had a great time. You choose. Take time to describe it in detail, beginning with those details that first come to mind. Avoid, at first, explaining why you liked the place. Just describe it. After you have a few paragraphs of description, you can begin to explain and speculate upon why this place had such a profound impact on you.

From The Writer's Idea Book, page 75, by Jack Heffron, Writer's Digest, 2000.

American Lit and American History class

If you are interested in learning about the historical context of American literature, these may be the classes for you in the spring of 2011!

This will be a "cohort" class with sections of History 131 and English 231. To register, students need to sign up for both of the classes, and they need to have already taken Eng 112, 113, or 114. The instructors are Mr. Eatmon and Ms. Fickling.

The last time Coastal offered this option, it was popular and students really enjoyed it!

Do you like limericks?

The Washington Post limerick contest

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/22/AR2010102203147.html

choice of journal prompts and link to Gerard article

The Fact Behind the Facts by Philip Gerard. In our Creative Writer's Handbook on p. 252+.

http://www.creativenonfiction.org/brevity/craft/craft_gerard_26.html

1. Write about meeting a famous person. Even if it was only a handshake in a crowd, put the event on the page. Freewrite or cluster to stir your memory of the meeting. Tell it as a narrative, step by step, including as many details as you can recall. If you want, take time to do a little research on the famous person. Expand your piece by adding this information to it. What did this meeting mean to you, if anything? How did the person measure up to your expectations?

2. I once dated someone whose brother told me, "Friends are just people who borrow things." I remember thinking how incredibly lonely the guy must feel or how friends in his past must have disappointed him. Begin a piece of writing with a sweeping assertion about the nature of friendship, then develop your statement or refute it or just go where it leads you.

The above prompts are from The Writer's Idea Book by Jack Heffron, Writer's Digest Books, 2000.

today's journal prompt Tuesday Oct. 26

From The Writer's Idea Book, page 48, by Jack Heffron, Writer's Digest, 2000.

Mona Simpson begins her story "Lawns" with the sentence "I steal."

Begin a journal entry with the line "I ________________." Push forward from there.
If you can think of an action that speaks to who you are, what would it be?
Write at least a few paragraphs.
Try this experiment at a later date with different actions.

check out a Wilmington-based humor writer, Celia Rivenbark

Warning: Celia Rivenbark can be politically incorrect!

http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/10/17/1752258/waiting-for-my-wake-up-call.html

http://www.thesunnews.com/2007/01/21/35655/theres-no-test-for-southern-vocabulary.html

Her books include:
Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank
Bless Your Heart, Tramp
We're Just Like You, Only Prettier

Indian Pulp Fiction

I know you would never be interested in murder, sex, and love stories. And cobras. So whatever you do, don't check out this link about new translations of Indian pulp fiction.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130332973

Campus Event: New Moon in our Book-to-Film series Tuesday Oct. 19

In BT 101 on Tuesday, Oct. 19th from 2:00-5:00, we will discuss both the book and show the film of New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer. The film starts at 3:00. Join us!

typo cops

Check out this video about the typo police or TSI -- Typo Scene Investigators.


http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6944729n&tag=cbsnewsVideoArea;cbsnewsVideoArea.0

They corrected a typo on a sign in Grand Canyon National Park that got the feds knocking on their doors.

potentially offensive material-- you must be over 18!

But interesting.
Have you heard of the post secret project?
People write one of their secrets that will fit on one side of a post card and mail it anonymously to the post secret guy, Frank Warren. He writes books from all the mail he gets. Lots of mail.
He sells out multimedia lectures now too.
He's giving one at the other Coastal, Coastal Carolina University in Conway, SC on Nov. 3.

http://www.postsecret.com/

image courtesy postsecret blog by Frank Warren

your character's name

How do we know what name to give a character? What is the meaning or derivation of a name?

My first name, Melanie, means "dark lady." Even though I was not named for the character in Gone With the Wind, my name is almost always associated with that movie and book. Whether I like it or not!

We should carefully consider the naming of our characters.

How different would some of our favorite stories have been if the character had a different name?

Do you know/remember some of these characters? Can you imagine them having another name?

Willy Loman
Celie
Luke Skywalker
Scarlett
Romeo
Nick Adams
Tea Cake
Ophelia
Oliver Twist
Daisy Buchanan
Simon Legree
Harry Potter
Sookie Stackhouse


Does your first name have a long-standing meaning, or did your parents create a unique name for you? You can check on this website.

http://www.behindthename.com/

image courtesy google images

You know I have a thing about Hemingway...

Well, so does Kenny Chesney, country singer. His new CD is called Hemingway's Whiskey. Check out the NPR article:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130104926

Here, Bullet

Brian Turner is the author of Here, Bullet, a collection of poetry from his time in Iraq. I'm so glad Ms. Cannon, our guest speaker on Thursday, chose to share him with us!

http://www.amazon.com/Here-Bullet-Brian-Turner/dp/1882295552

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

"My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mid, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals."

I find this quote from Dorian Gray to be both insulting and amusing, which I think is a very important in good writing. It's about pushing the envelope and stepping on toes to make a point, or get your ideas out there. Oscar Wilde always was a little bit on the abnormal side but he does a pretty good job at this whole writing thing.

- Brittany

I love my Kindle, but this is wrong!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNk0d7XVsrI

The Poet Speaks of Art

A BIG THANK YOU to Sandra Effinger who maintains this web page. A wealth of information on poems about paintings, with links to the poems and thumbnails of the paintings!

http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/assignments/paintings&poems/titlepage.html

Starry, starry night by Don McLean with Van Gogh paintings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dipFMJckZOM

Prepare to be wowed!

Banned Books Week -- American Library Assoc. Sept. 25-Oct. 2

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

Here's to the crazy ones.

The misfits. The rebels.

The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes - the ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules and

they have no respect for

the status quo. You can praise

them, disagree with them,

quote them, disbelieve them,

glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing that you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

- Jack Kerouac

Beware the goblin shark...

 

lions and tigers and goblin sharks, oh my! (Google images photo credit)

Be specific! Don't give me no stinking trees and flowers-- I want to know it was a hickory tree and a zinnia! Here are some specifics we found in class the other day.

ghost crab, spider crab, long-horn skeleton shrimp, skud (shrimp), strawberry anemone, feather duster, yellow sea whip (sea creatures), goblin shark, nervous shark, bulldog cat shark, bareskin dogfish, sharptooth lemon shark.

wisteria, yucca, candytuft, bleeding heart, lady in the bath, bear's breeches, trumpet vine, african violet, handsome harry, tiny bluet, bloodroot, shadow witch, ladies' tresses, toothache grass, dawnflower, butterwort, clasping milkweed.

destroying angel, meadow puffball, magpie inky cap, freckle-gilled gym, onion-bagel pholiota, dry scaly pholiota, bell morel, bloody tooth, antler jelly, crested coral, lawn mower's mushroom, luscious lactarius, cinnabar chanterelle, gypsy rozites.

lightning whelk, sunray venus, buttercup lucine, half-naked penshell, florida pricklycockle, lettered olive, brown baby-ear, miniature moonsnail, coffeebean trivia, calico clam, true tulip, harlequin miter, Caribbean helmet, eastern mudsnail.

ringed turtle-dove, peach-faced lovebird, sulfur-crested cockatoo, rose-ringed parakeet, piping plover, bushtit, mute swan, laughing gull, yellow-legged gull, cave swallow, ovenbird, rufous hummingbird, snowy owl, rough-legged hawk, magnolia warbler.

we are wordy!

word shack, ba --bee!

Keats, butterflies, and my front yard full of yellow cloudless sulphurs

"I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain."


— John Keats (Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne)
-- cloudless sulphur butterfly photo from http://www.floridahorsebacktrailrides.com/Butterflies.htm

YouTube - Bright Star - A Room Of Butterflies

YouTube - Bright Star - A Room Of Butterflies

This film is about British poet John Keats.

List of banned books that may surprise you

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin made the banned books list. As I mentioned, I'm re-reading that book now. I must not have reached the good parts yet! :) How can someone ban a founding father?

http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/books/info-08-2010/banned__.html

Walking Weevils by Christopher Marley, Salem Oregon

time for some "light" verse

Be Careful

I'm careful of the words I say,
To keep them soft and sweet,
I never know from day to day
Which ones I'll have to eat.

Anonymous

From The Norton Book of Light Verse, Russell Baker, ed., 1986



Intimates

Don't you care for my love? she said bitterly.

I handed her the mirror, and said:
Please address these questions to the proper person!
Please make all requests to head-quarters!
In all matters of emotional importance
please approach the supreme authority direct!--
So I handed her the mirror.
And she would have broken it over my head,
but she caught sight of her own reflection
and that held her spellbound for two seconds
while I fled.

D. H. Lawrence

from The Norton Book of Light Verse.

a poem by Rochelle Kraut

My Makeup

on my cheeks I wear
the flush of two beers

on my eyes I use
the dark circles of sleepless nights
to great advantage

for lipstick
I wear my lips

from Break, Blow, Burn by Camille Paglia, Pantheon Books, 2005.

you may get tired of this fish

So in "The Fish," by Elizabeth Bishop, that we looked at in class today, I wanted to also point out how specific she is in her images. She doesn't say flower. She says rose, or peony. We want to be specific in our poetry, too.

She counts the number of hooks in the fish's lip. She doesn't say "he had a few old hooks in his lip." She mentions five hooks, counting the wire leader and the swivel. It was a moment frozen in time while she and the fish looked each other over.

But why doesn't she name the variety of fish? Why does she let the fish go?

Does anyone remember the alligator that got hit on Hwy. 17 in front of Dixon High School a few years ago? I'll tell you the story sometime. They estimated that alligator was maybe 80 years old. Why does the fish poem remind me of him?

Good poetry can make us draw associations to events and feelings in our own lives. Even when the poetry is about a very strange fish.

The H-man and more

So many good quotes from Hemingway on writing. Here are two:

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."

And,

"Develop a built-in b.s. detector."

Not that I want our blog to be entirely quotes about writing!

Has anyone read Judith Ortiz Cofer's memoir, Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood? I like the format. She writes a chapter of memoir, then follows each chapter with one of her own poems.

Billy Collins on the end of a poem

Billy Collins is an American poet born in 1941.  He says:

"By the end of a poem, the reader should be in a different place from where he started. I would like him to be slightly disoriented at the end, like I drove him outside of town at night and dropped him off in a cornfield."

This is taken from Garrison Keillor's anthology, Good Poems, 2002, New York: Viking Penguin.

I like this collection of poems by Keillor, but my collection would be different. I'd include Rita Dove!

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

I'm re-reading Ben Franklin's autobiography. If you have never read it, I highly recommend it. What an individual he was.

Here's an amusing quote from him:

"Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterwards."

Good writers usually read widely!

All aboard

Who knows where this journey will take us? Let's be brave and move forward.

I've been working on what I think may turn into a book about students. Or not. I have written 10 pages about a former student and events related to him NOT becoming a teacher. He got so close, but it took a turn.

I'm keeping a journal. Sometimes only through talking with other people can I figure out what needs to go in the journal. Or maybe through writing about an event, I realize that there's something important that I forgot to put in the journal.

For example, I was listing character traits to put in a poem. I realized that I forgot to put this in my journal at the time that it happened:

A male student who was working his way through a rough case of PTSD brought me an object one day. It was a nasty jagged heavy piece of metal. It was a part of the IED that had lodged in the side of his vehicle the day he was wounded. He keeps it on his bedside table as a good luck charm.

How could I forget to put that in my journal?