November 19, 2012 - packet 2 discussion

It is very confusing that I am going completely out of order!!  Oh well.  So packet two was actually a productive packet, aside from my dream dilemma.  I was still working out how to write the dream narration, but I did start a chapter where Emma goes inside Karley's house.  There was "nice pacing" according to Reiko as Emma started toward the house.  And I actually did an okay job of describing the house.  I did get stuck once Emma opened a box she found...but I picked back up in the next packet, and it was fine.  Reiko asked some questions that helped me place myself in the reader's mind (again...) so that was helpful.  All together, I wrote 14 pages of fiction for this packet.  I am going to write a post with all my critical work also...but I will do that later.  Here is a peek from this packet:

Luckily, the houses adjacent to Karley's were separated by enough space that it was unlikely anyone would notice here, even if they happen to glance outside.  Even so, she sprinted from the edge of the woods until she reached the far side of the house.  Then she waited, watching and listening for any signs that she'd been spotted.  Her heavy breathing - either from the sprinting or from her fraying nerves, she wasn't sure - competed only wiht the song of crickets in the far distance.

November 15, 2012 - notes on Packet 3

For some reason, my flashdrive does not have my creative work from packet two, so I will have to come back to that one later!  So, during this packet, I took a little break from my long critical paper because packet two was consumed with it.  Instead, I focused on my three annotations and my creative work (although this was my worst creative packet this semster!)  I completed three annotations - and it was a lot of reading!  I read The Likeness, The Gathering, and Amnesia.  Overall, I loved all three books.  It was ironic, though, because I had purchased The Gathering a few years ago, but I only read two chapters then and didn't like it.  This time, given that I HAD to read it, I started liking it the further I read.  Amnesia was cool...but I hated that it ended without any real resolution.  During this packet, all three books (not planned!) were set in Ireland.  So...I started using words like "arse" and "bugger" all the time!  Anyway, my creative packet was tough.  It had some good plot, but I had too much "authorial" nature to it...I explained too much instead of just letting it happen.  I tried a flashback...and got WAY too detailed, so I need to cut a lot of that.  But, here is a peek:

She turned the corner of the house and half-walked, half-ran to the woods.  The ground seemed to tilt beneath her feet as she stepped through the brush.  Dizziness swept through her, and she worried that she might actually pass out right there among the tree roots and crawling insects. 

            Flashes of dream penetrated her waking world like shadows of hallucinations.  She saw Karley’s closet again, the colored t-shirts taking shape before her so that she felt she could reach out and pull one from its hanger. 

            Her beacon of light spliced through the darkness.  The opening was near; she started sprinting, not caring if branches scratched her face or the forearm she used as a shield.

October 29, 2012

Wow...two nights in a row!  So, as promised, I will write tonight's blog about my first packet of this semester.  I was fairly excited about it because I decided to go back to the beginning of the novel and fill in the first few chapters.  I started with an article that was written about a missing girl.  I felt this intrigue the reader and already give some foreshadowing.  Reiko (my advisor) really liked it...so that was good.  I wrote my annotations on Rebecca (the minor character's importance), Affinity (auhor's use of senses), and Beloved (empathic character).  Reiko approved all three...and gave me some great compliments.  She said she was impressed with my annotation on Rebecca, and that my annotation on Affinity was "almost perfect."  I was really happy, considering that many students struggle to pass her annotation inspection in the first packet with her :)  For my creative work, she started her comments to me by saying, "This is very smooth and immediately engaging work, Tara."  That made me so happy!  I hope she felt the same about the ones that followed!  One suggestion she made was that she would like to get a better feel for where we are - suburb, middle of nowhere, etc.  So I do need to go back and fill in some details to help with that.  Next, she suggested that I strike a balance between what I tell the reader and what I hold back.  She said, "Tease us with some answers while you are raising more questions."  So I need to work on that, too.  The last part of our dialogue weighed heavily on the dream portion...because I was still working out how to structure that.  I was still deciding if I wanted it in first or third person...if I wanted present or past tense...etc.  So that was rocky in the first packet.  I wrote the dream, but I felt that it didn't work at all.  And she agreed...so packet two took a different direction there.  The last part of the letter discussed the long critical paper...and oh boy was that a challenge!  At the time, I was still working out what my topic should be.  I won't even go into that...or you will go as insane as I did!  So...here is a portion from packet one:

She had not realized, but it must have rained while she unpacked;  she could see the lingering moisture on the leaves as it glistened.  The overgrown thick branches and twigs that protruded from either side of the disappearing path scratched her bare legs as she waded through them.  The silence inside the green dome was almost eerie, and she felt like an intruder slicing through it.

            When she stepped out from the woods, Emma was in the backyard of a large, grey shingled house with white shutters.  The grass and weeds stood high, tickling her knees, and the length of it did not shorten as she approached the house.  She gazed up and saw that a window that was likely the eyepiece to the attic was broken.  Shards of glass decorated its frame, and Emma realized that the beautiful house must be abandoned, which was odd since it nestled in an area thick with houses.  The house seemed almost a macabre snapshot in the middle of a Monet sky.

           

Sunday, Oct 28, 2012

Well...I guess I sort of fell off the wagon this semester!  Don't worry...I still did all my packet work; I just kept forgetting (AND did not have time) to write in my blog.  I will write a series that backtrack so I get in at least one blog for each of the four packets I have already turned it.  But, for this one, I will just say how much I love my advisor this semester.  Her name is Reiko Rizzuto, and she is awesome!!!  She writes nonfiction and fiction.  She is so thorough and helpful with all her feedback.  Instead of picking apart a sentence, as my last advisor often did, she looks at the whole picture/story that I am weaving.  Her feedback is that from a reader's perspective, so I have a great idea of how a reader sees what I am presenting.  Furthermore, she does an awesome job of exlaining her reasoning of why something does or does not work.  So, not only do I know it isn't working...but I understand why.  If my writing succeeds, I owe it to her!  Okay...so I won't go on and on (although I could) about her. One more thing that I want to mention in this blog is how overwhelming this semester has been.  In order to pay my bills, I am teaching classes at both Stark State and The University of Akron.  I am teaching a total of 5 classes, so I feel a little crazy right now.  It is way too much!  I think I will have to cut back next semester if I want to keep my sanity.  Well, I will at least leave you with a small peek of my novel.  This will be from my last packet, but I will still post some from previous packets.

She rushed to the bathroom and turned on the faucet after slamming the vodka bottle on the sink counter.  She used the fingernail from her right pointer finger to dig the dirt from each nail, meticulously scraping under them one by one.  It was thick, as she imagined.  Almost completely black, like dirt from deep inside the earth, fresh and moist.  She had only finished three fingers when she moved to the toilet, lifted the lid, and vomited.  Then she went back to the sink, washed down the remnant of vomit with more vodka, and finished cleaning the rest of the nails while she watched the dirt mix with water and muddy before disappearing into the drain.

June 22, 2012

After a nice hiatus, I am back in motion.  This week, I am at Goddard again for an exciting and inspiring residency.  I am surrounded by writers, talking with writers, writing with writers.  It is such a blessing to be here.  I am proud to say that I am reading some of my fiction at two different "student readings" and moderatoring both of them (well, I am fairly verbose!)  I am so excited to share my writing with other writers.  What an amazing feeling!  So...it won't be long and I will be back to my yellow writing tablets...and posting excerpts on the blog.  Stay tuned, my faithful followers!

Tara

May 8, 2012

Wow...I just finished my final packet for this semester.  I feel so elated right now!  I am exhausted though, since it is almost 2 AM.  So, here is a piece of action:

And I know him.  He won’t leave me.  He’ll stay, no matter how miserable my misery makes him.  He will tie himself to me.  Maybe he will even use the filament that spiders make.  He will wrap it around us, over and over, so that we can never be torn apart.  But then he will drown with me.  When my tears fill the room I have locked us in, he will drown trying to save me.  I need to save him first.

May 5, 2012

So, this is my last packet.  It is due Monday, and, of course, I am behind!  For some reason, it has become harder to write the critical essays and easier to write the fiction, which is odd because it was the opposite at the beginning of the semester.  I guess I am more into my fiction now, and I get distracted by the critical writing.  I will say, however, that I did read three pretty good books for this packet.  My favorite was Her Fearful Symmetry.  It was long, but kept my interested enough to read it in two days.  So, I have a lot more fiction to write for this final packet, but here is one piece from it:

She was telling him about a disagreement she’d had with a coworker that morning, and she was talking so fast that the words were coming out of her mouth jumbled and twisted.  It was as though he were playing Boggle, and just when he thought he was putting the letters together to make words, Clare would shake the plastic box and mix them all up again.