Fiction: What's so great about it?

The great thing about writing fictional stories is the fact that a writer can stretch their imagination. Being able to write about whatever you want and write what may or may not be able to happen is fun and can take readers into the unexpected. When J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter, she probably had no idea what she was getting herself into, but she took her imagination farther than no other and wrote a series that will always be remembered. If I could learn to write half as well as her or any of the members of our class I would consider myself lucky.

The great thing about fiction, as Professor Quinlin said in her blog, is conflict. Being able to create a problem and take it anyway you want is pretty tricky. A problem can't be created a resolved in the matter of a page. It has to be presented and then the intensity of that problem has to grow, weaving it in and out of the characters lives. Sometimes its easier to do it when you're writing non-fiction pieces. Yes, you are writing about yourself or things that are real so its easier to understand. Writing about something that may not exist or ever happen is hard. Paying attention to detail in fiction writing is also very big. Description of the characters and the development of those characters are also very crucial.

Fiction was always kind of hard for me. Once I came up with an idea and got it flowing, it was okay. It was always just coming up with that initial thought for a story that kept me from success. Everyone in our class has extreme talent in that area. Some of the stories we work shopped last week were phenomenal. I doubt I would have ever come up with ideas like that. Every writer probably thinks that their own writing isn't as good as others. For me, its my fiction writing. It makes me feel uneasy. I'm sure I'll grow as a writer. My fiction writing will definitely flourish has an educator. I'll have to contsantly be coming up with fresh new ideas for my students and that will help my writing and them at the same time!

The World of Poetry Prompts

I think poetry prompts are rather helpful. Thinking of an idea is always hard for me, so if the idea is given to me, things are so much easier! A lot of of the prompts on the Big Window page have to do with writing a poem based on what you see in a picture. Thats a great way to write poetry I think. You're taking what you see and bringing it to a whole other level by going beyond the picture into an unknown world. Here are a few of the prompts that I find to be quite great from Big Window:

http://theothermother.typepad.com/bigwindow/2008/10/open-34.html
Writing a poem about what you're doing can take you in so many directions. It can be very descriptive as well and it will never be boring. Even if what you're doing is just sitting on the couch, a good writer will find a way of making it captivating.

http://theothermother.typepad.com/bigwindow/2008/05/open-36.html
This prompt is awesome because you have to picture what could be behind in a door of many colors and different prints of cloth. The writer has to tell what is beyond the door and the journey that they'll go on. I did something like this is Intro to Creative Writing. We were supposed to have our class in the Science building but the door to our room was locked and needed a code to be unlocked. Professor Liu asked us to write a prose piece about what could be behind the door. The things that came out of that prompt were crazy!!

http://theothermother.typepad.com/bigwindow/2007/06/furniture_poems.html
Writing about a piece of furniture can seem kind of boring to some people, but bringing that piece of furniture to life is what makes writing exciting. Putting that piece of furniture into a different setting or personifying it can make that boring piece of furniture interesting and beyond what we know as furniture.

Something Interesting I Found About James Joyce!

Now I know there are people that aren't huge fans of James Joyce. I've only read a few things of his, so I don't have a full opinion. What I have read, I really do enjoy. My first major exposure to him was in my American Literature class sophomore year of college, and now again in this course. When I was doing some research on him, I came across an interesting website. There are days during the year on which we celebrate certain things that important. In the literary world there's two weeks dedicated to James Joyce!

James Joyce actually has a summer school over in Europe. It seems to be very popular from what I read. They refer to it at "one of the foremost gatherings in the Joycean calendar". Now I think thats funny because we don't see that in a normal calendar. If I wanted to know anything about Joyce, I guess I'd have to check his calendar :-)

His summer school is opening during the first couple weeks of July. Scholars and lovers of Joyce come from all around the world just to be there during those two weeks in Dublin. They pretty much talk about and analyse his works. I'm sure they've done it many times before, but people that are huge fans of his can obviously do it over and over again. There's events every night during those two weeks, so students can get the full advantage of being in Dublin.

I'm going to leave the website on here, so if anyone is interested and loves James Joyce they can check it out. Maybe even apply if they want!

http://joycesummerschool.ie/

My Creative Websites

http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/index.asp

I'm not one for art museusms, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art is amazing! It was for my art class during practicum. I had always planned on going, but the class was the push I needed for me to actually do it. The different types of art they had were mind boggling. The one that was most interesting exhibit was the Egyptian exhibit. They had exhibits about mummification, the weapons they had, and even a temple. Everyone should go atleast once in their lifetime! This site shows most, if not all of exhibits offered.

http://www.classicalarchives.com/

There's nothing better than good music. I'm not into classical, but there are a lot of people out there that are. This website lists all of the classical music composers and there are links for each one. If you subscribe, you can hear their music. Not only can you get their tracks, but you can hear live music. There's also a discussion forum so fans of classical music can discuss whatever they want. It's a good site.

http://pottery.about.com/

The good thing about this website that it gives you a basic introduction to pottery and ceramics. It lets you know what kind of tools to buy and where you can get a kiln and what the best type of one is. There's information about glazes and also a blog about pottery. The woman, Beth, about what a good potter should be like.

http://www.broadwaynewyork.com/

New York is one of the centers of the world that is known for its mix of cultures. One of the things about NYC is that its famous for the arts. The entertainment industry is comprised of poets, broadway, etc. This website talks about all the hot new shows going on broadway and the ones that have been on for years. Not only does this site talk about broadway but it also covers the theatrical part of what goes on in NYC.

http://www.alankritha.com/artists.htm

There are so many different types of paintings and more than enough examples of each. This website talks about the different types of painting and where there are exhibitions of those types. It's interesting to look at paintings that were made a very long time ago and then looking at art from now. The difference is amazing because the point of views are also different.

Thoughts on Abstraction

Last week in class we learned about abstraction and what power it has in our writing. When we first started the exercise I thought it was kind of silly. When it was over I looked back over what I had written down and Professor Quinlin was right. There is potential for a good poem just coming from the abstractions. I'm not really a good poet, but when I do write poetry I tend to write more from the heart and what I'm feeling at the time. I definitely never thought about picturing what I see in a word and what the next picture would be after it to come up with another word.

When we were discussing the first lines of stories or poems, I really understood everything that we were discussing. It's like writing a good paper for class. If the first line is complete crap no one is going to want to read it, but if the writer knows how to write an outstanding opening line, getting the audiences attention will be no problem. I've always tried to have one of those amazing first lines, but something always tends to go wrong with it. Most of the times its very cliche. I'm going to try and avoid that this semester.

Inspiring Work

I don't read a lot because I'm very busy, but last semester I did read all seven Harry Potter books in four months. That was the first time in about year that I had a hard time putting a book down, let alone reading an entire series! I don't read fiction or poetry to often, so I can't really post about something I've never read. The last great book I read was by James Patterson called London Bridges. James Patterson has a way of slowly getting you caught up in his books, but any rising action that is in his books comes up rather quickly. Between him and J.K. Rowling, I don't know how is better. I'm more of a writer than I am a reader, hence why I'm an english/writing major instead of lit. I'm very excited to see what this class has to offer!

Here is a link to James Patterson's homepage:

http://www.jamespatterson.com/index2.html