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Blog Post 10

Submitting work is work. It is like applying for a job! The dreaded cover letter is back.

In any case, I am interested in submitting my short story. It would be a cool accomplishment.

The advice given in the module is to do the shotgun approach, but I do not see how this is possible with the amount of things each magazine asks you to do. I think my approach would be to research to find one journal a day that seems like a good fit.

Today, I looked at 7 magazines, and only one seemed like a good fit for my story. Most of the magazines had a strict word limit, or readers had to pay to read or I had to pay to submit. I do not want people to have to pay to read my story or pay to apply to a magazine. The one that was a good fit is called Apple Valley Review. My story matches the requirements and seems like it would fit in well. It requires a cover letter and bio, but these are things that I can make once and just make slight adaptations to when I apply to other magazines. The weird part about this is that the editor does not want it in an attachment. They will not open attachments. They want everything copied and pasted in an email and do not care about formatting errors. I think this is odd.

It looks like I have a lot of work to do!

P.S. Bye, everyone! It has been such an amazing time learning alongside all of you. I will keep my Tumblr alive in case anyone would like my support. :)

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Blog Post 9

Edits! Revisions!

I had to revise a lot of my story.

I cut out an entire page of it, as it only reiterated a point that I already made earlier, and I was over my page limit, so this page had to go. RIP

I also added some new things. Something that my story was an appearance description of the protagonist, so I included it in.

Another thing I added was some explanation. In peer editing, it became clear that unless you are me with the characters in my head, you would not be able to tell why a character would react a certain way. I made it to where it would be more clear. 

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Blog Post 8

Plot, Conflict, and Climax

After reviewing the checklist and exercises on chapter 6, I realized I needed to make some changes to my story.

My original plan was for this to be a slice of life story about someone unsatisfied with her job. The plan was for it to have The Office-esque inspired shenanigans but in a dead coffee shop. My issue was that I didn’t have any scenes in mind to build up to an actual climax. In my head were just all of these funny scenarios with wacky characters struggling through life together.

Now, I have a climax in mind. 

My climax will be a mental breakdown from our main character. It will take place in the shop as she is serving customers.

This climax will make Morgan realize that she needs to do something to change the trajectory of her life. I will still keep in the office-style scenarios, but I will inject small hints throughout that Morgan is not doing okay until the climax comes.

I’m excited to see how this story turns out.

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Blog Post 7: More Research

As I have said before, my protagonist’s conflict is inspired by me once having the same exact conflict: trying to break into written journalism with no luck. Because I had such a great resume with relevant experience, a killer portfolio, and total dedication to the job hunt, I assumed that the only reason I wasn’t having any luck was because written journalism is dying. I had received only 2 offers from newspapers, and they were for nearly minimum wage with no benefits. My best friend who had an even more impressive resume than me worked for a newspaper for that same rate until she eventually quit and switched over to marketing. For this assignment, I decided to research if my assumption about the industry was correct or if I was just bitter.

As it turns out, I am correct.

I’m also a little bitter.

During my research, I stumbled upon many articles talking about how the written journalism field is dying. It is no longer profitable. The industry has fallen by 3 billion dollars.

Melissa Fleming wrote a great post about this on her blog.

According to the Colombia Journalism Review, employment for the written journalism field has fallen 50%.

It is sad to see, because journalists are very important to our culture. Without them, the people in power can get away with anything.

Unfortunately for my protagonist, she won’t be able to help in that way. Maybe like me, she will find another way to help instead.

In any case, I am glad to know that I am writing a story based on facts and not an assumption. I’m an ex journalist. The least I can do is research.

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Blog 6: POV and Perspective

Tandolfo the Great is a really interesting short story that utilizes the 3rd person omniscient POV from mainly Tandolfo’s perspective, as the name would suggest. This choice gives us an idea of what the characters around Tandolfo are thinking and feeling while at the same time giving priority to Tandolfo. He is Tandolfo the Great, after all.

And by Tandolfo the Great, I mean Rodney the unhinged magician that was pushed a bit too far.

The POV and perspective for this story made sense and made it easy to connect with Rodney and his sad situation.

My story will be in the 1st person POV and be from my main character’s perspective. Her name is Morgan and she is stuck in a dead end part time job after graduating college years ago. I think this is the best POV and perspective for this story, as what is happening will mostly be internal. It makes sense for this to be a 1st person POV because the story is mostly her internal thoughts. 1st person is the most straight-forward way to do the story. It is from her perspective as the story is all about her. Other characters only matter so much as Morgan cares about them.

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Blog Post 5: Halfway there!

Guys, it’s blog post 5 out of 10!

I hope someone gets the Big Time Rush reference. ^.^

I am happy to say that I completed the first page of my story. Now that I got started, I am excited to continue the story!

In our first page, it was vital that we established the setting. My setting is a dead coffee shop. In the first page, I was able to dedicate a decent amount of real estate for setting. My focus was 70% characters and 30% setting, as the cafe is almost a character itself. I talked about how the cafe has not been updated since the 2010′s, so Tuscan design is everywhere (including the dreaded roosters-- no offense to Tuscan rooster fans). I also mentioned that the lighting is made up of a hodge-podge of lamps that don’t match. There is even a “Live Laugh Love” sign.

The appearance of the setting is important because it helps the reader understand one theory as to why the cafe might be dead. It also gives the main character a chance to show her funny/cynical personality as she comments on the scenery. It also shows the reader a lot about the owner before we even get a chance to meet him. I learned from this that setting is an important element and that it can even be used to showcase other story elements.

I think that the cafe is the only setting that my story will feature, but I think that it is a really strong one that can carry my story.

I am excited to learn about everyone else’s settings as well. :)

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Blog Post 4: Research!

I am very excited (and nervous) to begin writing my story.

I have been having a lot of fun with the research process, though. My main character is a barista, so I have been scouring barista and Starbucks subReddits. There are some really funny stories there that are inspiring me about how I want my story to feel. My fiance used to be a barista as well, and I interviewed him about his experiences. He even helped me brainstorm some interesting customer characters for the story! I have been taking notes about all of these things in my notes app.

I am basing this story in the Atlanta area, as it is what I am most familiar with. I am using a dead tea shop I frequent for inspiration. I have been taking notes about how the employees interact with customers as well as each other (in the least creepy way possible I hope). 

My main character’s conflict is one that I have experienced myself, which is having a degree that doesn’t have a lot of job demand in our modern times. I am planning to tap into my own experience for inspiration, but I also plan to talk to others I know who are dealing with this same issue as well as look into more subreddits that will help. I solved my conflict by reinventing myself and changing my direction in my career, but I am not sure if I want Morgan’s conflict solved by the end of the story. I need to think more about this.

That is where I am at in my process so far. Let me know if you have any other leads I can research!

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I tried to make a Valentine’s Day cake for my fiancé. The middle stuck to the pan and got messed up. I tried to make the best of it.

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Blog Post 3

Characters.

I recently decided to change my short story idea, and this decision was guided 100% by character choices.

I will no longer be writing about a girl who turns into a cat one day. I became inspired while completing assignments for this class at a dead cafe at night. My fiance and I come here a lot to work, and the same two workers are usually there, and they always laugh and have a great time because after they give us our bubble teas, they have no one else to worry about. I decided last night that I wanted to write about a girl who works at a dead coffee shop instead and felt really excited about writing the story. I completed the character sheet again, but this time, for my new character. I found that she seemed much more real and relatable than the one I made previously for the cat story.

Again I’m so so so excited to get started!

Yearning is a really important part of a character. What they yearn for gives us, the reader, something to root for. For example, in Waves, our main character is yearning to move on from something traumatic. The entire time I was reading, I was able to connect with this character because I understood who she was and what she needed. I put myself in her shoes and thought about how difficult this goal would be. I wondered if I would be able to do it. It made me empathize with her rather than sympathize. The story wasn’t just about her going through something terrible and and being sad about it. It was about her overcoming the worst time of her life and moving on. We saw her become herself again. She was able to turn her experience into something meaningful. Without yearning, their would only be sadness with no hint of light at the end of the tunnel.

My character’s name is Morgan, and her yearning is to find a job in the journalism field. She is starting to give up hope, as she graduated from college with her journalism degree over 4 years ago with no livable job offers. The story will focus on her days spend working at a dead coffee shop with her younger more optimistic coworker, Jimmy, who is attending a nearby college for something STEM related. There will be funny conversations as well as a few interesting customers who come by.

This yearning makes my character more than just a girl who works in a dead coffee shop. This yearning shows us her passion, ambition, hopes, dreams, and conflict. Hopefully, it will make the reader want to empathize and root for Morgan. :)

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Blog Post 2

After reading all of the module 2 prescriptions, I have much to think about regarding my story.

By looking at how other short story authors start their stories, I noticed that there are two main camps: Starting by giving a brief character description (such as in An Appropriation of Cultures) or by dropping us right into the story and subtly dropping the reader character traits throughout (such as in Magic Words). I think that for my particular story to work, I will want to hint at my character’s traits rather than state them outright.

Reading chapter 3 has helped me think more about how I want to begin my story. I think I want to start it in media res, revealing the most interesting information. This also works, because it will contain the most unbelievable information as well, so putting that in the beginning of the story will force the reader to be on board with the premise of a girl turning into a cat rather than becoming attached to the human character thinking it would be a normal slice of life story only to learn that the story has magic and transformation. I need to open my story similarly to Kafka’s Metamorphosis.

Ultimately, I am very excited to let the reader play my game and learn the rules as they go. I’m sure that I will be learning some rules as I go while writing, too.

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Blog 1: The Beginning of the End (of the semester)

Howdy! My name is Liz.

I am so ready to be done with grad school and earn that shiny degree. That being said, I am extremely happy to be enrolled in this class, and I am looking forward to indulging my creative spirit. I am also excited to read everyone else’s work while learning and growing as a class.

I have never written a short story before. In middle school, I attempted writing a knock-off Clique Girls novel on a chunky computer monitor, but unfortunately it got struck by lightning and all data was wiped. I guess it was never meant to be. RIP to Turk, Amber, and Beth, characters only known by my mother and middle school bestie. Maybe it was for the best, but it was a month’s worth of content destroyed.

I also wrote long magazine/news stories and personality profiles for my college magazine/newspaper during undergrad, but they were not works of fiction.

As for my future short story, I am looking forward to the experience of writing it. I’m thinking I might write about a girl who turns into a cat one day and everyone thinks the girl has gone missing. Being a cat will show the girl how the people in her life behave when they think no one is watching and will also give her insight into how they really feel about her. I like cats. Who knows, though. Maybe I should instead write about something gritty and sad with themes about capitalism. Honestly, after these past few rough years, I may prefer writing the cat story.

Here is a picture of me. Bye!

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Blog Post 10

I can’t believe we are already on the last assignment of the semester! I feel like I have learned and grown a LOT as a writer since the beginning of this class. Thank you all for workshopping with me and providing me with vital feedback that has informed my growth. :)

This semester had me reading and writing more poetry than ever before. I had never even read a poetry book before this class, and now I have read two. I have maybe written a handful of poems before this class, and since I started here I have doubled that. I feel like a more cultured/enriched person than I was at the start, and I would like to further continue finding more contemporary poets and writing poetry of my own.

Because of this class, I learned about Eduardo C. Corral and Jericho Brown. These are two amazing contemporary poets and I am so happy to have read them. They both find really interesting ways to talk about difficult topics. Brown focuses on the art and aesthetic and is able to deliver difficult subjects with beauty and grace. Corral embraces the darkness and is not afraid to make his audience feel uncomfortable when talking about difficult subjects, not shying away from the cruel and the ugly. I developed an appreciation for both poets, and reading them helped me to learn that everyone has their own unique style and voice.

We have written many different types of poems, but my favorite one to write was the ekphratic. I ended up writing my favorite poem of the semester with this one, and I like the idea of giving a backstory to an already created image. This seems like a really good exercise that I can utilize for my students.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time here, and it’s a little bittersweet saying goodbye. I will be on here periodically to see if anyone is still writing poetry. :)

Cheers!

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Blog Post 9

I now understand how to submit poetry to journals after familiarizing myself with Submittable and the materials provided in this module. I am not sure if I personally have the stomach to handle constant rejection, so I am not sure if publishing is for me. I am also still so new that I don’t think that I really have a chance, so I think I will pass on this.

In order to publish poetry, you need to have lots of patience and no fear of rejection. You also have to dedicate lots of time to researching reputable journals, writing numerous cover letters, and workshopping/organizing/constantly writing poems. I personally have too much on my plate for this lifestyle right now, and I also need to work through some fears/skills before I attempt to jump into it.

In order to submit good poetry, you need to be an avid reader of others’ poetry. This is the part that I think I can handle. I have grown a new love for consuming poetry, and honestly, I think I am okay with having this to take away from this class. I don’t think that I gained the ability to write amazing poems and will go on to be a successful published poet, but I did gain a new understanding of poetry, and I also feel like I am in a better position to teach poetry to my students. I would still like to write for fun in my free time. Who knows? Maybe I will “publish” my poems here on Tumblr!! In the end, I am happy for everyone who is ready to publish, but I think I will stay a casual poetry fan. Thanks everyone for all of your help and support, and I hope to see you in some journals soon. :)

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Blog Post 8

Okay I change my mind. The sonnet was the hardest poem so far!!

I really struggled to fit in my syllables and rhyme scheme into my idea that I wanted, but in the end, I turned out happy with my poem. I am not a fan of the sing-songy rhythm and rhyme, but I still had fun writing this poem. I felt a little bit cheesy at times, but I came up with a line that I really liked, when I compared someone to a “tequila-shot lime.” I wouldn’t have come up with that line unless I needed a word to rhyme with “time.” So, that was interesting.

I had a fun time with the haiku. Shorter lines in poetry come more naturally to me. I’m not sure why this is, because my essay writing style is loooong sentences. I liked evoking the imagery of a spring day and a cherry blossom. I also liked giving it a darker meaning underneath. I really like haikus!!

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Blog Post 7

I know I said this last time, but this poem was the hardest one for me yet. I am not used to thinking in terms of lists at all. I never write lists. Even my grocery “lists” are chaotic and unorganized. Sometimes I write things on them that makes sense at the time but then when I’m at the store, I have no idea what was going on.

Anyways, despite my loooong start (staring at the screen for 20 minutes), I tried out many different list poems and I hated them all. In the end, I decided to lean in to the inspiration from Ander Monson’s poem on page 201 about a past lover. I ended up really liking my own poem that I came up with, even though I was worried that I wouldn’t be satisfied with anything. In the end, I really liked my poem, and I can’t wait to edit it and make it better after utilizing my peer feedback. :)

Me trying to start this poem lol

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Blog Post 6

This last poem we wrote has to be the hardest one for me so far, and I think it was because I wasn’t writing about myself. I am very comfortable with talking about myself, but to pretend to be someone else, that is kind of difficult!

I wrote a persona poem about Harriet Tubman. I learned recently that there was even more to her than I was taught about in school, and I found out that A LOT of people are unaware of her true story. This made me upset, so I wanted to reflect this tone in the poem while I highlighted aspects of her character that aren’t usually talked about.

In this poem, I decided to spotlight her flexibility and strength. Harriet Tubman was the first female soldier EVER, and no one talks about this! She was also a clever spy and gunslinger. These all seem like very important details that our curriculum fails to mention, so I thought that I would. I also alluded to her childhood trauma as well, which is what motivated her to help people later in life.

There were even more amazing facts about Harriet, but I decided for the sake of the poem to only focus on those few aspects. I hope that my poem makes someone want to learn more about her, though.

My question is, how important is accuracy of tone in terms of persona poems? I had to sacrifice this for mine, as Harriet Tubman wasn’t the type to talk about herself in this sort of fashion, but I did this for the sake of the message I wanted to convey.

(Photo by Kirt Morris @trinipeng on Unsplash)

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Blog Post 5

Last blog post, I discussed my nervousness about trying to include music and rhythm into my poem. After actually writing my poem, I found that the rhythm actually did come somewhat natural to me after all. I had to make a few edits here and there, but in the end, I was able to just read my poem out loud and feel for where the line breaks, commas, and repetition needed to be. 

This is the beginning of my poem. As you may be able to tell, I was very inspired by Kirby’s work. I created a sense of movement with the plastic bubble with where I put the space in between “from place-- to place.” This creates a sort of bouncing rhythm. Some lines only have one word to make the reader have abrupt pauses that slow them down to understand the gravity of the situation. I also repeat the word anxiety to add to the rhythm as well.

More repetition here with the idea of being popped and anxiety. “I danced-- I laughed” are also repetitive due to parallelism.

The end of the poem references what happens in the beginning, ending the poem where it started.

A good question about this unit would be:

Are there any tried and true strategies for making poems more rhythmic?

This was me after I figured out my rhythm for the ekphrastic poem:  

(Photo taken by me of Kiki, my babygirl)