Honestly, the class is not very challenging. We’re covering basic-basics and had very limited “improvement” oriented feedback on our first assignment readings. I know it’s a first reading and we’re all beginners, but I dunno if anyone’s going to improve very fast until people start to suggest things to work on, things to consider changing. We’re a little too polite, too supportive. Anyway, assignment two is characterization. My job; to […]
Writing class assignment: Characterization
Setting exercise
First writing class assignment. My hands are wearing a thin layer of cold so I wrap my left around the cup as well, interlocking the fingers with the right hand and and laying my thumbs one atop the other. The cardboard sleeve protects me from getting burned but the warmth that still escapes is nice. Using both hands to lift the cup I take the first sip. A bit of […]
Writing class
First assignment from a beginners class for creative writing; describe a place using the 5 senses. Sigh. I knew it was going to be a basics class, but I wanted review of some basics. “Write about a place that you love. Describe it using the 5 senses, or as many as possible.” Then it’ll be read, and critiqued in class next week. This falls under the topic of “settings”. Even […]
Review and thoughts; Memoirs of a Geisha
I don’t read a lot of books when they first come out, I don’t see a lot of movies in theaters or even when they first arrive in DVD format. It could be that I don’t like being part of a crowd, or that I like things to stand a little test of time before I spend the money and time required, but more likely it’s just that I’m lazy […]
Review/reaction: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Haven’t seen the movie version yet, but I read a reference to the book in an issue of the New Yorker a few months ago and realized that I should read the book. I requested a copy from the library but it took so long to arrive that I forgot my request until the book arrived last week. For me it’s an odd little book, very well written, with characters […]
Reactions to watching “Brokeback Mountain”
Recently we bought a new DVD player and with it came a month of free DVD rentals. The first movie that we chose is “Brokeback Mountain”. I’m sure that everyone knows what separates this movie from all other mainstream successful movies; gay cowboys. I don’t think that I’m a prude, for the most part at least. I have gay and lesbian and bisexual friends, co-workers, associates, though no family members […]
Creative writing 101
I’ve registered for a continuing ed night school course in creative writing. The class doesn’t start until the end of September but I’m looking forward to it. I expect it to be fairly basic, but basic is what I need to learn. I haven’t done creative writing that was reviewed since, oh, 9th grade or so. Any writing for assignments since then has been either critical/analytical or research oriented during […]
An Ideal Husband
I admit to not being much of a movie watcher in the past few years, and though I’ve been involved on a board level with a small theater festival for a while it’s been years and years since I’ve seen classic theater. So the other day I was flipping through the television channels I happened across a movie that I found interesting. I didn’t know whether it was a relatively […]
Inside, outside?
I’ve read some very nice stuff from Alice Gray lately. No, that’s not quite right; it’s not stuff that came into existence lately, rather I only discovered her recently and have been reading some of her writing. Reading her writing makes me aware of the fact that I tend to write from the inside, meaning that a character will be thinking or feeling something as they do something, as opposed […]
#badkiddybooks
If you’re on Twitter you know how this works. The “#” indicates a theme that people quote if they want to participate in the discussion. In this case a literary agent, going by the username of @SlushPileHell started a contest. To enter the contest, you tweet a title using the #badkiddybooks tag. To vote, you re-tweet someone’s entry. I went there, thinking of entering, but the ones that I read […]