Hey, fellow writers, here is a place for us to continue posting our writing, questions, celebrations of publication, etc. without clogging up our email inboxes. It's simple to use. My request is that we continue to give each other the quality feedback using the techniques we learned in class. I'm happy to share resources and ideas, and look forward to seeing your work here soon.
posted by Personal Best Coach at
2:34 PM
I work with individuals and organizations on getting better results and creating dynamic teams. Focus is on leadership, emotional intelligence, success with balance. I believe our careers are one piece of the pie we call our life and should fit into it, not the other way around. I especially enjoy helping people re-design their lifestyle so that it reflects all the aspects of who they are. We have more power than ever to live our lives in a way that lets us express our creativity without sacrificing anything. I'm working with corporate managers who are also great musicians, writers and artists and much happier now that their lives reflect their diverse interests.
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6 Comments:
Hi Teri -
Thanks for setting this up for us. I need you all to keep me honest.
I found that the piece I did for the class has blossomed into something larger than I thought. Halfway through class it dawned on me that I needed an outline as I was creating many characters who's lives would intertwine and affect each other, sometimes quite profoundly. I found several themes were showing up - ethics, love, dedication, commitment - and have decided that it is enough material to demand a novel length approach. At the same time I realize I need the experience of creating a single themed short story so that I might learn the craft and hopefully achieve the "life-changing" emotion I want.
My plan is to work on the outline myself while posting the short story piece for criticism.
I hope to be a faithful contributor - each week - knowing that sometimes I will fail and for this I apologize. I still am involved in a law practice but intend to retire soon and move to Mesa, AZ.
In addition to fiction writing, I will be trying my hand at travel writing from the viewpoint of a motorhomer. Thank heavens for laptops, aircards and Wi-fi.
Keep in touch.
Bob
March 17, 2008 at 6:56 PM
Jess Berger posted some ezines of short stories in class that might be of interest. I found a few others but too late to post in class.
Night Train www.nighttrainmagazine.com
Rose and Thorn
www.theroseandthornezine.com
The Writer
www.thewriterezine.com
Narrative
narrativemagazine.com
If anyone has additions to the list please share.
Thanks
Bob
March 19, 2008 at 9:17 AM
Hi Teri!
Thanks for setting this up! Will need to give your challenge some thought...
Bob, can't wait to see what you do with your piece.
--JB
March 26, 2008 at 6:58 PM
Hi Bob, I'm looking forward to seeing your short stories and travel pieces. I, too, plan a weekly submission of some kind to keep the connection and support going. Might be a comment or to solicit feedback, but writing can be lonely without some writing buddies to share with.
Jess, thanks for stopping by...I'm glad to have a spot where we can connect - Teri
March 26, 2008 at 7:48 PM
Great resource you all have started. Posted here is the Notebook week nine assignment with Michael's comments. Barthelme shows a way to punch-up our writing:
Do this: Write out a paragraph or two from this work, word for word. Let me see it. Then tell me what you learned from spending some close time with this particular passage.
The President by Donald Barthelme
I am not altogether sympathetic to the new President. He is, certainly, a strange fellow (only forty-eight inches high at the shoulder). But is strangeness alone enough? I spoke to Sylvia: “Is strangeness alone enough?” “I love you,” Sylvia said. I regarded her with my warm kind eyes. “Your thumb?” I said. One thumb was a fiasco of tiny crusted slashes. “Your thumb?” I said. “Pop-top beer cans,” she said. “He is a strange fellow, all right. He has some magic charisma which makes people—” She stopped and began again. “When the band begins to launch into his campaign song, ‘Struttin with Some Barbecue,’ I just…I can’t…”
The darkness, strangeness, and complexity of the new President have touched everyone. … … …
“The President!” I said to Sylvia in the Italian restaurant. … … …
“He thinks a great deal about death, like all people from City,” Sylvia said. “The death theme looms large in his consciousness. I’ve known a great many people from City, and these people, with no significant exceptions, are hung up on the death theme. It’s an obsession, as it were.” Other waiters carried the waiter who had fainted out into the kitchen.
Michael, a worthwhile exercise. I had read this story several times recently – about two weeks ago. The first time I read it, I found myself re-reading each paragraph two or three times, before the next paragraph, until I could begin to get my arms around it.
Then, when I wrote out the first paragraph, I began to notice a poetic cadence to the sentences. He repeats, “But, Is strangeness alone enough?” Throughout this piece of short-short fiction, people faint and what does this mean? The first sentence of the last paragraph starts:
At Town Hall I sat reading the program notes to The Gypsy Baron. Outside the building, eight mounted policeman collapsed en bloc. … … …
The last sentence of the sixth paragraph: On the other hand, the handsome meliorist who ran against him, all zest and programs, was defeated by a fantastic margin.
There is some nonsense in this piece:
I gave her water with a little brandy in it. I speculated about the President’s mother. Little is know about her. She presents herself in various guises:
A little lady, 5’ 2”, with a cane.
A big lady, 7’ 1”, with a dog.
A wonderful old lady, 4’ 3”, with an indomitable spirit.
A noxious old sack, 6’ 8”, excaudate, because of an operation.
Little is know about her. We are assured, however, that the same damnable involvements that obsess us obsess her too. Copulation. Strangeness. Applause. … … …
Manuel Gonzales, Posted: Mar. 24th
hi David. Sorry I’m so long in responding to this. I love Donald Barthelme's work, what I'm able to understand of it. if you go to the Believer website and search around for it, you can find his reading list, from when he taught at the University of Houston, the list of books he thought every writer should read. It's an exhaustive and exhausting list of books but nicely underscores the place he came from. He uses poetry and a meticulous kind of haphazardness to create his fictions. They're lovely and bizarre and grotesque. Thanks for the excerpt.
--That's all for now--David.
March 27, 2008 at 9:36 AM
Great idea, Terri and kudos for execution. I must admit, I have a bit of a hard time keeping up with blogs cause they usually are all over the place. So, I'll stick with where this all started--what's going on in my world and what might make into a story:
-dealing with the 1st anniversary of your mom's death without calling the good Doc for a valium refill.
-An argument in the middle of the night that stemmed from my lovers flatulence.
That's the highlight of my week, so far:-)
Oh yeah, started a blog that's actually a novel I've been shopping for a while. If you want to take a peak (and comment) the address is www.miisha1995@livejournal.com.
March 27, 2008 at 5:34 PM
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