Description Journal

For my creative writing class, we’re being asked to keep a journal of daily descriptions. These are supposed to only take ten minutes apiece, and we should be producing at least five per week. However, because I spent 20-30 minutes on each of them that I did last week, and still didn’t do as much as I should have, I’m taking it to a digital level. At least this way I can start a document and continually add to it throughout the day.

I made a separate wordpress for it here: http://descriptionjournal.wordpress.com/

I’m afraid that almost everything I describe will be related to coffee somehow.

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Workshop

There has been some mixed debate on the direction of our writing workshop. A few of the seniors spent a significant chunk of the workshop shooting our professor dirty looks, because they feel that they should start prepping their thesis projects this semester instead of being thrown back into the workshop with us underclassmen. Although, I have to voice my opinion and say that I’m very fricken excited for by the setup. Each genre is being assigned a “Best American (fill in genre here).” With nonfiction, I’ve got a book of essays to read through, and most of them I’ve either enjoyed or can at least see why they’ve impacted people to the degree they have.

We’ve got a descriptive journal assignment that feels a little juvenile, but I think it’s going to by my academic guilty pleasure. I’ve heard a lot of complaints from my classmates–saying that it’s going to make us write every day! Oh no! Writing students asked to write!?

The first book on our agenda is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. I haven’t cracked this open since my junior year of high school and told my English teacher that I thought it would be pretty cool to write. If I had only one book on writing to recommend, this would be it. Not just because of emotional attachment to it, but this gives readers a grounded read into the world of writing with a delightful twist of humor and cynicism.

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Shitty Prompts?

The underclassmen here at SVC are hosting a creative writing contest. Last night I was with some friends in the graduating class this year, and one of the things we were discussing was the content of the freshmen’s prompts. The general consensus was that people thought they were a little ridiculous, and nobody wanted to participate. As a response, one of the professors made it mandatory for them. I can see why you might not want to make time in your busy schedule to write a story based on, “you find a dead body in your room.” However, we were all freshmen at one point, writing terrible prompts that got little participation. Maybe it’s time to pay some dues? Either way, it’s an excuse to write a story.

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Workshop Anxiety

I just submitted a new piece for a creative writing workshop class. It’s bad. I’ll work on something for days and this piece specifically it was weeks, but now that it’s out of my hands I feel embarrassed about it. It’s a nonfiction piece about not letting your surroundings define who you are, but as I read it now, the piece is just a bunch of vague comparisons. Ever since I’ve read Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the fact that my workplace puts Andy on my name tags instead of Andrew has always irked me. I compared this to a moment in my life where I was using an extra copy of short story to light a wood stove at my parents house, and at the top I saw my full name on the story. I want to do something with it, but this anxiety is killing me. I just wish I could go back in time and take out all the details about me eating too much, and how awesome my sister’s cat is. As cool as those things are to write about, they didn’t really help the focus.

Right now I’m reading Thorton Wilder’s Heaven’s My Destination. It’s about this character George Brush who lives a devoutly faithful life, and unfortunately is surrounded by a world of sin. It’s only over a hundred pages, but definitely a good read.

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