Advise to Revise.

I love revising my work. For me, the hardest part about writing is getting all of my ideas  down into some sort of cohesive plot.  Granted, like all writers, I can get too attached to a phrase or scene which make it hard to edit. That is why I make a new save file for every time I edit something. It is easier for me to cut things out as long as I know they aren't gone permanently. Writer's Digest has a good article about revision. However, the thing that helps me the most is when I take a step back from it. I have to be able to see my work from an objective point of view. However, if I wait too long, I have a tendency to lose my enthusiasm for the piece and then I give up on it altogether.

Blog With a Blog

I like blogging, but I don't actually putting my fiction on it. I'm very self conscious about my work. The only time I  share anything with anyone is when I am in a class and I am forced to. I prefer to use blogging in a more abstract way. This blog is obviously for class, but on my personal blog, I tend to ramble about random things.

Although I don't use it for such, I can see the benefits of using a blog to get work out there. I just don't think that I am quite ready to have an uncontrolled audience see my work. I think that is also the reason why I haven't seriously sent out my work to get published. In the words of Marty McFly, "I don't think I could handle that kind of rejection." Well, not yet, at least.

You begin to read an awesome blog post.

Although I have never tried my hand at it, I think that the most interesting point of view to write in is second person. I feel that there is a level of intimacy involved that no other point of view can quite grasp. With the second person, you are transported into the story. The author tells you what you are doing and there is nothing you can do about it but stop reading. If you continue to read, you are at the mercy of the writer. They say "You walk down the street," and you are walking down that street whether you want to or not. You are forced to think "I don't want to do that" rather than just "Oh, I wish the character wouldn't do that."

When the story is written in first person, you join the main character in their story. When the story is written in second person, you are the story.

***

You slump back in your chair, feeling disappointed. That wasn't awesome. That was barely even a post. Way too short, first of all. Second person points of view are dumb, you think to yourself. There is no level of intimacy. There is no way that she could tell what you are thinking. Whatever, you think to yourself, that's what I get for reading dumb college blogs anway. 

Any Creative Title Would Be Too Mean: My Post About The Pink Institution

I have a complicated relationship with The Pink Institution. The best way I can describe it is that I became begrudgingly invested in the story. I didn't really like the content at all, but I needed to know what happened next. If I don't watch myself, this post is going to turn into a hatefest and I don't want that. The book was definitely thought provoking, but the way the way it was written was off-putting to me.
       On page 58 was where I became interested in the plot. Saterstrom used the same vocabulary describing Azalea's actions to Aza as she did with Willie's mother's actions to Azalea herself. The use of cyclical action intrigued me. I also ended up having to make a family tree because I kept forgetting who people were.
      The book that this most reminded me of was the Crank series. I tried reading it, but it was also using poetic style to write a novel and that just isn't something I enjoy.

Show Me The Millions

Literary websites come in a variety of flavors. Some you can post your own work and some are just about the world of literature in general. One of my favorite sites is The Millions. It is the perfect mishmosh of essays, reviews, and other aspects pertaining to literature. With the popularity of sites such as Buzzfeed, it would be understandable for a site such as The Millions to fall to the wayside. It is over ten years old, after all. However, it has successfully kept up with the times and includes more hip aspects, such as lists like this one where the writer discusses five crime novels that have female detectives. The Millions has proved that it is flexible enough to continue to be relevant in an age where there is little to no attention span on the internet. If it continues on its path, I believe it will make it past its 20th birthday and then some.

It's Hard Out Here for a B****

Lust is a story by Susan Minot. It is fascinating because it looks at sexual relationships from the point of view of a "loose" girl. Some would even call her a slut. This story has effective storytelling techniques because it chooses to be from the point of view of a character that might have been an antagonist in a different story. Girls that have a lot of sex are normally vilified for some reason, both in society and in media. Minot manages to show a girl that would have been looked down upon and makes her extremely sympathetic.

***

"What are you complaining about?" says Jill to me when we talk about [boy] problems." 

"Yeah," says Giddy. "You always have a boyfriend." 

I look at them and think, As if.

This passage is great because the reader is given insight into the character without her having to really say anything. From that one thought, we know that the narrator feels that she has boy problems, but she doesn't feel comfortable with revealing that to the rest of the girls. It is worth noting that the narrator never names herself. A possible tactic that Minot could be using for that is that the narrator doesn't feel that she is worth naming. Throughout the story she drops hints that she is disappearing and feels invisible. One way of disappearing and going unnoticed is to be unnamed.

 

 

Just Keep Swimming!

The hardest thing about writing is actually writing. As odd as that might sound, if you are a writer, you know that it's true. You just have to sit down and make yourself do it. You might need to give yourself deadlines or you might need to set aside a little time each day to just write. If you can do that, you will have passed the biggest hurdle there is as a writer. And once you get into a groove, you won't be able to stop! Just start writing, and see what happens. I am sure that you'll be pleased with the result. :)