As some of my readers know I am in grad school for library sciences. But only my spouse knows that I have brought my love of Genre to my classes. For example in one of my classes (collection development) I build a Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Steampunk collection for my final project. I had a wonderful time and now I know that I only need about 20,000 dollars to build an excellent personal collection (like I am ever going to have 20,000 dollars I'm in Library School). This is not the first class that I have bought my love genre into. In fact in every term I have done it. For my computer programing class the last project I did on game and how to work them. In my spring term I did my big presentation on female superheroes and I wrote a 15 page paper on them. In summer I created a guide to all the genre publishers with history of them, contact info, and more.
It has not been easy and I have had some flak for being so genre but that is how it is. In my final paper for collection development I am writing about how important Science Fiction is to Society. Notice the capitals. When in class talking about it I have had to deal with people just ignoring me to out and out saying that it is not important it is just a cheap way to tell story. I respectfully disagree with that. Science Fiction and Fantasy are the ways that we as a culture talk about hard and scary things. When we need to talk about inequality it is much easier for us to that when we put it in a non-real way. I do not understand why that is so magical but it is. The only real problem I am having with that paper is that I feel that I have said everything I need to about the subject but I'm a little short on the pages. So hopefully I will add pages when I started the editing like later today.
On the up note I will have more time starting on Tuesday. I will have time to write, read, and God willing get a job. I am not asking for anything great or huge but I would like a job where I answer phones or something like it. Nothing really hard because grad school has shown me that I am not that smart. So starting next week I am going to hitting the pavement job hunting. Not the best time I know but what else can I do? Thanks for reading and see you next week!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Writer's Block
After this week's post on inspiration I thought that I would talk about Writer's Block. All of my writing teachers told me that writer's block does not exist and I agree. If I really wanted to I would be sitting down and writing whether I 'felt' like it or not. No I am not talking about being run down from life and just not having the energy to write. Or having to do life so that you have not time. I am talking about the people who can only write when they 'feel' like it. I am not one of those. I know that last week's post sounds like it but I know that if I really wanted to I would be writing more than just this blog, my book review blog and whatever grad school needs. For me it is a matter of discipline. It is very annoying for me because I want to have more discipline and I just have no idea about how I get it.
Writer's block is for what people use when they just do not want to write or they want to do something else more. There is nothing wrong with that but do not claim that the words are just not flowing. Be honest that you just do not want to write at the moment; there is nothing wrong with not wanting to write. But do not lie to others and yourself. Lying never helps anything, just in case you did not know that already. Now about handling just not feeling like writing. This does work for me but think about what could work for you. When I know that I need to sit down and write I make myself a chart. On it will have all the things that I need to get done that day or week. I look at the time that I have free and I pick whatever time I think would work best for writing. Then I sit down and make myself write. That could be anything from outlining future projects, editing, writing the novels or short stories or rereading what I have written. I do separate editing and rereading because I think that you should just read what you have written. Decide if you like it or not. Remember not to be too hard on yourself, let the story stand on its own. One really good thing about doing things on a schedule it that you will wire your brain to think about writing when the time comes around. We are creatures of habit so use that to your advantage.
See you next week and happy writing!
Writer's block is for what people use when they just do not want to write or they want to do something else more. There is nothing wrong with that but do not claim that the words are just not flowing. Be honest that you just do not want to write at the moment; there is nothing wrong with not wanting to write. But do not lie to others and yourself. Lying never helps anything, just in case you did not know that already. Now about handling just not feeling like writing. This does work for me but think about what could work for you. When I know that I need to sit down and write I make myself a chart. On it will have all the things that I need to get done that day or week. I look at the time that I have free and I pick whatever time I think would work best for writing. Then I sit down and make myself write. That could be anything from outlining future projects, editing, writing the novels or short stories or rereading what I have written. I do separate editing and rereading because I think that you should just read what you have written. Decide if you like it or not. Remember not to be too hard on yourself, let the story stand on its own. One really good thing about doing things on a schedule it that you will wire your brain to think about writing when the time comes around. We are creatures of habit so use that to your advantage.
See you next week and happy writing!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Inspiration
Well I have not written anything other stuff for class, this blog, and my book review blog, all term. Part of the problem is lack of time. What with grad school, the internship, job hunting(because I do not have one), and dealing with lupus, real life is a little busy. But I think that the bigger issue is that I have not been inspired to write in so long. It makes me feel so bad because I think that 'real' artists or writers or whatever you want to call them do not need to have outside inspiration. Now I say that but every artist I know does work better with inspiration. But I have a voice in the back of my head that says if I was a 'real' writer(whatever that is) I would not need to be inspired to write. I could just sat at the my keyboard and go. What makes this worse for me is that I do not think this about other people. When the other artists in my life feel like that they are uninspired I do not think less of them. I think that they are just having a hard time of it. I would like to know it is a big deal for me but not for others.
Now for what inspires me. I think that I am like all other artists in that everything inspires me. Art, other writing, tv shows, music, and just about everything else in the world. I have watched the sunset and had a beautiful story born in my mind. The strongest inspiration for me is emotions. This week had some bad news, nothing that is going to end my life but bad nonetheless, and suddenly I had so much to write about. I had words and feelings and plot coming out of my ears. I had forgotten what it felt like to be inspired. I missed that feeling. Because of life I was not able to write at that time. I am okay with that because I want to try an experiment. I want to see if I can pull up my inspiration by thinking about those feelings later. But not anytime soon. I have three major projects that I need to finish first. So much work and never enough time.
Now for what inspires me. I think that I am like all other artists in that everything inspires me. Art, other writing, tv shows, music, and just about everything else in the world. I have watched the sunset and had a beautiful story born in my mind. The strongest inspiration for me is emotions. This week had some bad news, nothing that is going to end my life but bad nonetheless, and suddenly I had so much to write about. I had words and feelings and plot coming out of my ears. I had forgotten what it felt like to be inspired. I missed that feeling. Because of life I was not able to write at that time. I am okay with that because I want to try an experiment. I want to see if I can pull up my inspiration by thinking about those feelings later. But not anytime soon. I have three major projects that I need to finish first. So much work and never enough time.
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