What's Up Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

What I'm Reading
My GoodReads "Currently Reading" shelf is quite cluttered at the moment. I just finished rereading MOCKINGJAY (I liked it a lot more this time. I think I finally "got it," which feels good.) and immediately afterward started HOW TO LOVE by Katie Cotugno, which I've heard nothing but good things about. I'm also reading two books for school right now: GOOD FAITH by Jane Smiley (so far it's earned a "meh" rating from me) and THE GIRL IN THE FLAMMABLE SKIRT, Aimee Bender's first short story collection (which I'm LOVING).

What I'm Writing
My short story professor is having us bring in five new pages of something each week for small group workshops, so I've started a new story through that. It's pretty different from my normal style, much more sensory detail than I usually include. The idea came from an in-class excercise about sensory detail, so I guess that makes sense. I'm the first to go up for full class workshops in February (guess who the sign-up sheet reached last?) so I'm looking forward to getting that over and done with!

What Inspires Me Right Now
Both this semester and last semester I've responded really well to in-class writing exercises. Normally I hate them and spend ten minutes staring at a blank piece of paper and get absolutely nothing from the prompts, but something is different at Chatham. I don't know what it is, but I've gotten multiple stories from in-class prompts.

What Else I've Been Up To

Afghan I made.

I celebrated my birthday last Wednesday! My first birthday away from my family EVER. Not gonna lie, it was rough. But I spent the night at a friend's house (another girl in my MFA program) and we watched tons of movies and ate pizza, so it was a really great end to the day.

My school colors!

I'm trying not to fall behind on my reading for the semester. As far as my job goes, I don't have much going on yet, but I know I'll be busy in March/April, so I'm trying to stay on top of my schoolwork as much as possible (getting my workshops out of the way early, etc) to try and lighten the load for the second half of the semester. Hopefully I don't fall behind!
Crocheting EVERYTHING. I finished an afghan that I'd started during winter break and then made some granny squares to eventually include in a blanket and then made a cozy for my coffee cup. It's an ADDICTION!

Hope everyone is having a good week so far!

One month into MFA: Still afloat!

5 weeks of classes down, 10 to go. It's crazy how time flies when you read books all the time!

Here's the past month in a nutshell:
-8 books read so far
-4 workshops (Each person reads 3-5 pages of their story aloud in class and is workshopped on the spot. So we're all workshopped each week in class)
-An A- on my first story (My professor said she didn't give out anything higher than that) and the name of a literary magazine to submit it to once it's revised
-2 presentations
-1 visiting writer (Wiley Cash...he's hilarious and his book is AMAZING!)

And that's just class. I'm also working as a grad assistant in the Student Activities office, helping plan the campus traditional events (Battle of the Classes, Halloween Dinner, Thanksgiving Dinner, Holiday Ball). Tomorrow is the campus talent show, so I'll be up at 9am, supervising rehearsals. Setup/prep starts at 5pm and I work straight through until the end of the show, probably around 10:30. Going to be INSANE.

Spent some time reading outside today because the weather was so nice. Enjoying it while I can!

What's Up Wednesday? It's been a while...

I'm finally falling into my routines here at Chatham, so hopefully I can start working blogging back into my life! One step at a time, here's what's been up with me in the past month!

What I'm Reading
Grad school has made my GoodReads shelves go CRAZY! In 4 weeks (I'm in the middle of week 5 right now), I've read six books and am currently working through three more. AAHHHHH. Right now I'm reading Alice Munro's short story collection, HATESHIP, FRIENDSHIP, COURTSHIP, LOVESHIP, MARRIAGE, for my Readings in Fiction class. I'm also two-thirds of the way through David Foster Wallace's collection, GIRL WITH CURIOUS HAIR. For YA Lit, I'm finishing up THE CHOCOLATE WAR. I kept up a good reading pace for the first three weeks or so, but I slipped last week because I had two presentations and a story due. [This genius accidentally scheduled everything for the same week...oops.] Here's hoping I can catch up!

What I'm Writing
In one sense, I'm taking a break from my WIP to write short stories. BUT these stories just happen to have the same cast of characters and some of the same scenes as my WIP. ;) I wasn't ready to put these characters on hold, and I already know them so well, it made sense to write some new adventures for them that I can use in my novel. I've already turned in one short story and am conferencing with my professor this afternoon.

What Inspires Me Right Now
The other people in my MFA program. We've all gotten to know each other pretty well already because we have two of our three classes together and are reading each other's work every week. I love hearing what everyone else is writing about, and it inspires me to work harder in my own writing.

What Else Is New?
I'm running! I run around the indoor track at the gym 3-4 times a week using the Couch to 5K iPhone app. It's been really helpful and now I can run for five straight minutes without stopping, which I've never been able to do before in my life.
I'm also crocheting again. This was prompted by my apartment's sudden temperature plunge. The university hasn't turned the heat on yet, and for some reason my apartment is colder than the weather outside...? Just gotta bundle up and tough it out until the heat comes on!
Lastly, we had our first visiting writer come to campus a week or so ago.  His name is Wiley Cash and I'm OBSESSED with his book, A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME. It's southern, dramatic, and so well written (it reminds me of Tom Bailey, my favorite professor from Susquehanna, and his writing style). He read an excerpt from his new book that's coming out in January. I can't wait that long, I want it now!



So what's up with everybody else this Wednesday? What sorts of things have I missed in the past month? FILL ME IN, FOLKS! :)

My semester so far and goals for the future

I’m halfway through fall semester, and so far I have:

-Written, workshopped, and revised one short story (about a girl who works for a hot air balloon crew)

-Written and workshopped my South Africa travel essay (I have a lot of revisions to do on this one)

-Written a partial draft of a second short story (about a girl who tries to convince her ten-year-old neighbor that she can hear ghosts speaking through her car radio)
-Written my midterm essay for Grammar about the Appalachian English dialect (I got to talk about moonshine and clan wars, it was awesome!)
-Gotten As on all my Living Writers essay quizzes so far, including the one I wrote about Tom Bailey’s short story, “Snow Dreams”
-Started a creative nonfiction piece about bride kidnapping
-House-sat for Tom Bailey (SO MUCH FUN, even though their water shut off halfway through the weekend and I thought I broke their house)

 

I’m also keeping busy with events for Zeta Tau Alpha, my sorority, and hanging out with my friends. This is absolutely my favorite semester so far, I can’t believe it’s halfway over already!

My goals for the second half of the semester are:

-Apply for grad schools (I need to get recommendations from professors, write my personal statement, and figure out what stories to put in my portfolio)

-Edit my South Africa travel essay
-Finish writing my second Advanced Fiction story and put it up for workshop
-Figure out what I’m doing for my Scholars House project (I’m thinking a portfolio of essays/stories about travel and my South Africa trip)
-Come up with an idea for my third Advanced Fiction short story
-Read a book for pleasure and not because I’m required to for school

 

Hope everybody’s autumn is going well so far. I’ve bought two pairs of boots in the past week and drinking pumpkin-flavored beverages!

Clearly I have two stories due tomorrow

I think I need a bigger desk.

Quick update!

I'm so sorry I haven't been around much lately or responded to emails (for those of you who've sent me messages). Life has been so crazy since moving back to school! I just wanted to update you guys on my classes since this is a writing blog and ALL MY CLASSES are writing/English.

English Grammar and the Writing Process: Okay, so I know grammar sounds horrible, but it's actually going to be a pretty fun class, I think. My professor is super enthusiastic and knows that grammar itself isn't the most interesting thing in the world, so he tries to make it exciting. And we're not just learning rules of grammar. We're going to be working with dialects, debating about profanity, and other things besides learning the difference between there/they're/their.

Advanced Short Story: This class is going to raise my stress level, I know it. But it's so misleading because the classroom setting is so relaxed, just 14 of us and Gary Fincke (the head of the department) chatting about stories we've read. But we're each writing three stories this semester (a step up from the usual two), and I really want to impress Gary. Since it's advanced fiction, I'm putting pressure on myself to take my writing to the next level.

Living Writers: This is SU's contemporary writers class. We're reading pieces from pretty much every writing professor at SU, the visiting writers who will be here throughout the semester, and a couple others. The professors will come into class (Gary already visited yesterday to talk about his poetry) and we can ask them questions. It's pretty cool. There are a lot of quizzes, but we're allowed to use our books, which is nice. We're reading Tom Bailey's book of short stories next, so I'm really excited since I've read most of it before.

Travel Writing in South Africa: This is my Africa follow-up course. I'm nervous about writing my travel essay because everyone who's going to be reading it was on the trip with me (and is possibly a part of my essay). PRESSURE. I have to have a draft done by September 10, when I conference with Glen, but my workshop isn't until October 8, so I'll have some time to tweak it. All we're doing in class is workshopping everyone's stories, so that part shouldn't be too bad.

Senior Portfolio, my capstone course, won't start until the second half of the semester, so I'll tell you about that when it starts!

Just to remind you guys, I'm on a hiatus from blogging as of now. I might do the occasional update, but as you can see, I have a lot of schoolwork to focus on right now. Thanks for understanding!