Just a quick note - I'm in San Francisco. Joe's running his half-marathon on Sunday and we came out a few days early to enjoy the cooler weather.
Six Word Saturday will happen tomorrow as usual. Email responses and visits will be late (as usual?).
Friday, July 29, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Swear Jar
I've decided it's time to clean up my act regarding the curse words. Finally, you're thinking, a post NOT about writing!
WRONG!!!
If I'm going to take this writing thing seriously, I need to broaden my vocabulary. This first occurred to me while watching a recent episode of Food Network Star. Tyler Florence took one of the contestants aside and advised her very seriously that she needed to "develop a rolodex of good adjectives to describe things". Oh, come on, tell me you see the funny in that? Also, most people store their words somewhere other than a rolodex. Even more people no longer use a rolodex for anything. The point was driven home when watching some Gordon Ramsay show with a lot of bleeping. I don't want to risk the bleeping once I'm famous and on television.
I'm sharing this for two reasons:
WRONG!!!
If I'm going to take this writing thing seriously, I need to broaden my vocabulary. This first occurred to me while watching a recent episode of Food Network Star. Tyler Florence took one of the contestants aside and advised her very seriously that she needed to "develop a rolodex of good adjectives to describe things". Oh, come on, tell me you see the funny in that? Also, most people store their words somewhere other than a rolodex. Even more people no longer use a rolodex for anything. The point was driven home when watching some Gordon Ramsay show with a lot of bleeping. I don't want to risk the bleeping once I'm famous and on television.
I'm sharing this for two reasons:
- I need your suggestions for colorful words I can use instead. And I don't mean words like "fudge" and "crumb" - not swear-substitutions but more powerful words altogether.
- I'm keeping track of my swears and plan to donate $1 for each word I use that I've defined as off-limits. For the record, these words start with s and f. I want your suggestions for where I should donate that money to at the end of some time period I've yet to determine. No cause to great or too small.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Six Word Saturday
melting under the relentless summer sun
Want to play along? All that's necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. I love seeing what everyone does with their entries.
Each week (probably on Sunday or Monday), I use random.org to select a bunch of entries to visit. Or I visit everyone. Or even numbered entries. Or odd numbered entries. Or multiples of three. Depends on what's going on that week. In addition, please visit the person ahead of you on the list (or visit everyone if you like!). That way everyone receives at least one visit!
If you play along in your blog, please add a link to the Mr. Linky. I appreciate a link back (shiny code below if you like!). Otherwise, you're welcome to leave your six words in this post as a comment.Please be sure to link either to your main page or (preferably) directly to the 6WS post. Links to blogs that do not contain a 6WS entry will be removed (sorry, just the button in the sidebar doesn't count as participating).
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Being Funny is No Joke
Yep, I'm writing about writing. Again. Because that's my thing right now.
This humor writing class is tricky. I love that the instructor is giving very specific and thorough feedback, but we have a bit of a disagreement in stylistic tastes. He's into stand-up and I'm into dramadies. He wants the funny to be slathered on generously and I'm more of a sprinkler of the funny.
And that's okay, because the point of this class is to learn how to bring out the humor. This means it's his job to point out every possible place we could potentially milk a story for more humor. It's like going to the batting cages, I suppose. You don't really spend all of your time playing baseball just batting (do you? I honestly know nothing about baseball), just like you don't spend all of your time writing focused on humor. Still, it's good to immerse yourself in the practice so you can call up the skill when you need it.
By contrast, I expect to submit the same work to my memoir writing class and have them find it hilarious but not quite as contemplative or personal as desired.
All this to say that I'm receiving positive feedback, both from the instructor on my assignments and from my classmates on my booth submission. But I'm feeling like I'm not funny enough. Or not as funny as I thought I might be.
On today's agenda: rewrite my post on celery migraines in a way that shows instead of tells about one of the stupidest moments I've experienced. Not that there's any shortage of those to choose from!
Update: There's a Groupon available today for $129 for a 6-wk Gotham course. Usually, these classes are $320 for six weeks. I'm assuming this doesn't include the $25 registration fee. Still, it's an amazing deal. It appears it can only be used on Nonfiction 101 and Creative Writing 101 - I've taken both and they're both really good, especially the Nonfiction course. I'm trying to see if I can use the Groupon for Business Writing since I've taken the other two but no answer so far.
This is not a sponsored post. Unless you count my usual sponsor, Joe.
This humor writing class is tricky. I love that the instructor is giving very specific and thorough feedback, but we have a bit of a disagreement in stylistic tastes. He's into stand-up and I'm into dramadies. He wants the funny to be slathered on generously and I'm more of a sprinkler of the funny.
And that's okay, because the point of this class is to learn how to bring out the humor. This means it's his job to point out every possible place we could potentially milk a story for more humor. It's like going to the batting cages, I suppose. You don't really spend all of your time playing baseball just batting (do you? I honestly know nothing about baseball), just like you don't spend all of your time writing focused on humor. Still, it's good to immerse yourself in the practice so you can call up the skill when you need it.
By contrast, I expect to submit the same work to my memoir writing class and have them find it hilarious but not quite as contemplative or personal as desired.
All this to say that I'm receiving positive feedback, both from the instructor on my assignments and from my classmates on my booth submission. But I'm feeling like I'm not funny enough. Or not as funny as I thought I might be.
On today's agenda: rewrite my post on celery migraines in a way that shows instead of tells about one of the stupidest moments I've experienced. Not that there's any shortage of those to choose from!
Update: There's a Groupon available today for $129 for a 6-wk Gotham course. Usually, these classes are $320 for six weeks. I'm assuming this doesn't include the $25 registration fee. Still, it's an amazing deal. It appears it can only be used on Nonfiction 101 and Creative Writing 101 - I've taken both and they're both really good, especially the Nonfiction course. I'm trying to see if I can use the Groupon for Business Writing since I've taken the other two but no answer so far.
This is not a sponsored post. Unless you count my usual sponsor, Joe.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Refresh - Refresh - Refresh
Overnight, my first submission to the writing booth went live. The booth is where class participants post their work for classmates to critique.
When I've taken these writing classes in the past, I've always submitted an older piece that I've been working on for awhile. It's usually already heavily revised and edited with feedback from several friends. This time, I'm taking a different approach, submitting pieces that are part of my larger work-in-progress.
The submission that went live last night is the introduction to my book, which I wrote just this past Sunday. I submitted it yesterday, meaning it was only 24-hours old when I released it into the wild. Sure, I made some revisions in that amount of time. But that's quite "new" to be sending off into the world.
Since I woke up this morning, about ninety minutes ago, I've refreshed my booth page at least half a dozen times, waiting for the first comment. I'm feeling a ridiculous amount of anxiety over it and hoping it's well-received. I'm hoping the comments provide some great feedback regarding changes I can make to strengthen the piece. I'm also crossing my fingers that I don't regret submitting something this fresh and dear.
Time to go refresh the page some more.
When I've taken these writing classes in the past, I've always submitted an older piece that I've been working on for awhile. It's usually already heavily revised and edited with feedback from several friends. This time, I'm taking a different approach, submitting pieces that are part of my larger work-in-progress.
The submission that went live last night is the introduction to my book, which I wrote just this past Sunday. I submitted it yesterday, meaning it was only 24-hours old when I released it into the wild. Sure, I made some revisions in that amount of time. But that's quite "new" to be sending off into the world.
Since I woke up this morning, about ninety minutes ago, I've refreshed my booth page at least half a dozen times, waiting for the first comment. I'm feeling a ridiculous amount of anxiety over it and hoping it's well-received. I'm hoping the comments provide some great feedback regarding changes I can make to strengthen the piece. I'm also crossing my fingers that I don't regret submitting something this fresh and dear.
Time to go refresh the page some more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
