Reflection Journal #1 / Week 1
Posted by kscott on January 25, 2007
For the next class, please journal about what you believe to be your strengths and weaknesses regarding work/writing. Below are a list of questions to help you get started, but feel free to diverge if I’m missing anything. Also, feel free to write in whatever form/tone you like (humor, sarcasm, seriousness, etc.). Feel free to imagine your responses in story form, if you like, as long as you address the basic ideas inherent in the questions below:
- Working independently: what strengths and weaknesses do you possess when it comes to working independently? Are you good at creating your own tasks? setting deadlines? meeting those deadlines without someone pushing you (or without having someone to answer to)? are you motivated to constantly seek new opportunities?
- Working with and under others: do you need structure in your work environment? do you work better if someone else is setting deadlines for you? Do you prefer to work with people (or by yourself)? when working with other people, do you tend to lead or follow? what are some of your pet peeves, when it comes to working with a group of people and/or under someone else?
- Writing flexibility: do you mostly write within one genre? or do you believe you have skills that enable you to cross over to a number of different genres? what are your writing strengths? weaknesses? Think about the various kinds of writing we’ve discussed in class and think about whether you would be successful at those differents kinds of writing.
- Atmosphere: what kind of atmosphere do you need to be in to write successfully and enjoy your work? Do you need complete silence and the ability to be alone? Are you able to write in areas that are busy and teeming with people? What kind of people do you like working with? People who are laid back, funny, intellectual, etc.?
- Financial goals: we would all like to make millions of dollars, but what would be the absolute least you’d settle for (and you don’t have to put an actual amount – but rather speak in terms of what you’d be happy with in terms of goals . . . i.e., “enough to rent a small apartment and have a few perks every now and then” or “I would have to make enough money to buy a house and travel”).
- Time: what amount of time do you need to dedicate to the writing that you MOST want to do?
- Interests: what do you like to do when you are not writing? movies? sports? comics? playing video games? hanging out with friends? Make up a list of activities that you most enjoy and be specific.
THEN, in list form, write out some of the potential jobs and/or freelance gigs you could imagine getting paid for (and being happy about), while pursuing your ultimate writing goals. Also, reflect on the kinds of jobs and/or freelance opportunities you absolutely are NOT interested in.
January 26th, 2007 at 1:24 am
This is a test, this is only a test. If this were an actual emergency you would be instructed where to turn to contact your cival emergency authorities
January 26th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Friday, 1:30 PM, Central
So, if you’re getting your feet wet, trying this thing out, note that there is no spell check feature (see my last post, above).
Anyway, where are you all? I thought that there would be tons of input by now. So, anyway, I’ll dive in first. I’m at the airport in Sarasota, where it’s 68 degrees and sunny. Not quite Florida balmy but better than Chicago. I hate winter. Not the snow – the cold and gray. I’m over it. My ride gets here, I’m going out to the beach for lunch and a beer.
Anyway, writing. It’s a job, if you want it to be, or want to use it as one. And if you do, you need to treat it that way. I like the fact that I can go over to the Michigan house, hole up and not have to leave to go to work, but if I loll around in my PJ’s all day, I get nothing accomplished. I have to take a shower, shave, dress. All the stuff I’d do if I was going to go out to work. I’ve got a great office set up and I treat it like an office. Then it feels like the day really has started.
I don’t have a problem working on my own. I haven’t had a real job in more than fifteen years, and I’d be a damn poor employee were I to have to find one. So working on my own isn’t a problem. Working with others, however, is not my cup of tea. Working with a group, like on a construction project or a movie or something like that is fine: Everyone is a professional and we all pull together with our different strengths to achieve a goal. But working where I’m not the boss, or an equal among equals is not going to work. I’ve got to have control of what’s going on, be leading the team. Simply because I don’t suffer idiots or red tape well. And because, truth be told, I think that I’m usually right. Thankfully, in Chicago, I’ve learned to purchase the right alderman and city officials to get things done, but when I go elsewhere, I’m a major pain in the ass.
I can write anywhere. As long as people leave me alone. It can be crowded or quiet; just give me a computer and a fast internet link for reasearch and I’ll type. What I hate is when I’m interrupted. When whatever girlfriend of the moment sees the need to wander in when I’m working and wonder what I’m doing, wants to chat or give me a hug, I know that her bags are half packed, even if she doesn’t. Go shopping or to work or whatever; when I come out of my office we’ll talk and I’ll probably even buy you a fabulous dinner and be a great date, but until then – out! Plucky Purcell, Tom Robbin’s character in “Another Roadside Attraction” said it best: “There are certain times, mainly those hours between midnight and noon, when a gentleman should not be disturbed. Exactly.
I don’t need to write for income; I do okay as things are. But I want it to be my profession. I want to write to join that fraternity of minds that I admire and from whom I want to gain admiration. I had dinner with John Irving a few years ago. What a great night. We drank three bottles of wine and a half a bottle of brandy. We were supposed to meet for an hour and it turned into six. That’s the idea. I want to talk to those kind of people everyday. I want to be able to call them on the phone. I want them to call me up. The kinds of people I talk to everyday in my bars suggests to me the practical benifits of selective breeding. Fucking Darwin was an optimist.
So I’ve made writing a business. I’m writing with the intent to craft cinematic vechicles that will be made into film. Why? Because that’s where the money is. I was in LA last October for a few months. That’s a town full of people without a novel idea searching desperatly for one. I’ll provide if they pay. That’s what I’m working on. Once I’ve got that under my belt and publishers will call me back, then I’ll work on the Great American Novel. Until then, it’s getting my foot in the door any way possible.
And yeah, money counts. I’ve been really poor and I’m okay now and let me tell you, okay is much better. Having other people take care of the bullshit so that I can do what I want is better than doing it myself. It’s not elitist, it’s just how it is.
I like to sail and dive and read and eat great food and travel to cool places and stay at nice properties and so money makes a difference. If I have to acknowledge the realities of the marketplace in order to make money from writing, so be it.
I’m serious about this, I wouldn’t mind teaching part time, but I don’t want to be part of the political bullshit of most teaching institutions. Don Snyder taught Novel Writing a year or so ago. We’re still good friends and I loved that class (except for the idiots who shouldn’t have been there) that’s the kind of teaching I could live with.
So, yes, I’m kind of an asshole at times, but I’ve learned that unless you’re an asshole once in a while, you get shafted up the ass. And that I’m NOT into. I’m a writer and I thank God and Columbia for holding classes like this one where we learn to make this craft an actual profession. I know how to string sentences together, what I don’t know is how to get paid for it. And if I’m getting paid, I want to get Joe Esterhauz paid. On to week two.
January 28th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Another thought, since I seem to be the guinea pig here; don’t post too quickly without proofing. This is a public exposition and you run the risk of posting sub-par material. To wit: There are far too many “Anyway’s” in the above post that I would have reworked had I taken the time to re-read. And where are you all, anyway?
January 29th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Um, okay. This seems like a lot to handle, but one foot in front of the other gets you where you’re going, as they say.
My Strengths: I love deadlines. Deadlines let me know how much time I wasted and how little I have remaining before I am expected to have a job complete. I’m a hard and dependable worker at all other times, though prefer to work alone or independently from others. “Does not play well with others” pretty much covers it. I would go absolutely insane without interacting with my fellow human beings, but I would prefer contact with other humans at my discretion. I can set deadlines for myself, but it becomes hard to stick to them without satisfying results of some type. I prefer outside deadlines to personal ones. If I had the uninterrupted time and stable enough income to work on a novel, I think it would be fairly smooth running, actually. I wrote two short stories on Christmas break, so I’m not completely without hope.
Weaknesses: (See above.) I am easily distracted when I sit down to get the writing done: the dog needs a walk, the trash needs to go out, the phone is ringing, I’m hungry, I gotta’ take a shit, whatever…things just, well, seem to come up. I have a hard time making a schedule that I stick to. Things change and I never seem to get on track. The writing gets done, regardless of the disaster, but I wish it was on my timeline and not at the last minute…always.
My writing: I write what I want to read, though as far as my military non-fiction goes, I write what needs to be written (even though I’d rather put it off until I was dead or later). I write short stories, long stories and I’m working on 2 or 3 novels. One is a high fantasy (myth and magic kinda’ stuff), one is my Gulf War experiences, and one is a thriller I cooked up in Popular Fiction class. All of them have potential, I think, and keep me interested enough to work on them still, but my girlfriend really wants me to do the military one first. Can’t fight the power. The strength of my writing lies in the details and the characters. I have a good grasp of dialogue and character development. My weakness often lies in spelling and the correct use of the ‘;’. I handle the use of forms fairly well and can shift times and places without too much of a shock on the reader. I think my writing is entertaining and that is very important to me.
Atmosphere: I prefer silence to music and television noise. I work best when uninterrupted for long periods of time. I appreciate a window to glance out when collecting thoughts and need a Dr.Pepper and an ashtray close at hand. I have a computer desk which is cluttered with papers but it’s mine. I prefer to write on my laptop…it just feels ‘writerly’ and I get more done on it. (It has access to the internet wirelessly, which isn’t a problem, but it doesn’t have any games on it which helps to keep me from being distracted. See ‘Hobbies/Interests’ below.)
Financial Goals: I want to wake up when I feel like it and sit down to work in my underwear. I have a girlfriend that I want to buy things for but all she really wants from me is a ring. I miss traveling and enjoy dinners out but I have no problem cooking every night (which is good because my gf doesn’t cook). I’d like enough to take vacations once a year, do book research in exotic locations so I could realistically write about them and collect as many new hobbies as the income would allow. Then again, I’ll do what it takes to do what I love and scrape by if I have to, as long as I’m not putting my woman through hell to do it.
Time: I’m not really sure what this question is asking. I want to start writing what I want to write as soon as possible. I’ll take a bullshit job, even though I left the blue-collar world for college, just to be able to do just that as soon as I can. College loans not withstanding.
Hobbies/Interests: When I used to be able to afford it, I used to paintball all the time. I have two ‘guns’ worth about $2000 and all my own equipment, but a lot of it is out of date and I need to buy upgrades that I can no longer afford. Paintball is way more expensive than golf for an ‘outting.’ Speaking of which, I love to golf. I have my own clubs but need to buy new balls every time I go out. Someone steals them, I guess. My biggest love is video games. I’m a World of Warcraft junkie and play whenever school/work/home doesn’t interfere. My girlfriend and I play online together. I originally wanted to take Fiction Writing at Columbia to write stories for video games. It was too new of a field of study so I wanted to be there ‘first’ when the market broke. I gradually gave up on it over time to pursue a BFA to write novel length fiction and non-fiction. I’m open to suggestion, however.
Jobs I WILL Do in Pursuit of my Career Goals: Magazine articles, short fiction contests and submissions, novel excerpt submissions, readings, writing for video games, driving a fork-lift, sweeping floors.
Jobs I Will NOT Do for my Writing Career Goals: Work a cash register (anywhere, ever), writing technical manuals except video game user’s guides, pimping myself out as a ‘professional’ jack-of-all-trades writer, writing for advertising, legal writing to make lawyers look like anything other than unfeeling social vampires, selling shoes.
I guess that pretty much covers it. I’m a Pisces and enjoy long walks on the beach at sunset. Guess I’ll see y’all in class.
JGMarceau
January 30th, 2007 at 11:46 am
I hate dealing with customers. I remember: my boss would talk about our clients complaining, and I would tell him, “they key is managing their expectations.” One of the reasons I’ve been a bike messenger/carpenter for the last 5 years is that there is very little interaction with customers.
Anyhow, as a writer I have to look forward to paying $400/month in Federal and private loan payments, so with rent, food, the gas bill, power, and miscellaneous things, I need to make at least $1500 a month when I get out of school. Since it takes about 2 months for a rejection letter to come back, I’ll have plenty of time to work for money in the meantime. Obviously, being a bike messenger is always an option (full time, I can make $2000 a month), but let me tell you, having worked 4 winters in Chicago, this is not an appealing option. Besides, I’d rather be making $3000 a month, writing.
I’ve already worked as an intern (for no credit!), for a small company called Chicago Agent Publishing. The editor and assistant editor were both less experienced than me (younger), but they both had Journalism degrees, and as such they could blow right through my drafts with their keen sense of MLA – showing me what’s up. I ended up writing quite a few pieces for them, and came in to work 16-20 hours a week. The two owners of the magazine both seemed to like me pretty well, and gave me a nice gift ($250) when I ended my internship. It was a small shop, so the only people in the office were the two owners, two editors, two salespeople (who were always coming and going), two graphic designers, and the one office manager. It was laid back, with plenty of breaks and goofing off.
What was I writing about? Real estate, actually. The company put out two magazines: Chicago Agent, targeted at Realtors (R), and Chicagoland Avenues, aimed at higher-income home buyers. I wrote articles about neighborhoods, mansions, suburbs, and even random products. I called plenty of people, interviewing them over the phone, and generally had a good time writing about stuff I knew nothing about.
After this long anecdote, I finally arrive at my first strength: adaptability. I started out writing 100 word blurbs about a great broker opening, and ended up writing full page, three-column articles about neighborhoods I’d never been to. Of course, was doing the work of a salaried writer as an intern, but I was having fun with it. I can’t say that I could have stood for more than two months (especially if I was working fulltime), but I kinda got a sick rush from all the deadlines that popped up – one magazine was bi-weekly, and the other was monthly.
I suppose then, I could write about anything for money? Sure. Do I want to? Not really. Here are some money-makings things I would NOT write about/for:
*music articles – I have never been a music nerd, and never will be. This is one topic that is best left to those snobby hipsters that work in independent music stores.
*engineering trade magazines – Sure, I used to page through IEEE Times and Semiconductor Monthly, but that was mostly for the cool pictures.
*Cosmo/Glamor/Redbook/etc – I’m not a woman, so forget it.
*Business magazines / articles – At least in Real Estate, you have physical objects to talk about. Dollars don’t make sense to me.
* grant writing – grant writers have to do more than just write the grant proposal, and all those other duties are just no what I have in mind.
* technical writing – I’ve passed over job offers in this field, either because the subject is too boring, too technical, or requires me to relocate outside the city.
I guess that’s it for my list – hell, I’ll write about anything else for money. Just give me an hour to research it and I’ll give you a novel. I guess since I’ll be turning 30 this year, just a few months before I earn my B.F.A., my sense of morality has been losing out to my need to survive. And as anyone who’s aged knows, surviving only gets harder.
My ideal situation would be a little warmer than right now (my heater’s thermocouple needs replacing), but even if I was a high-paid screenwriter, I wouldn’t move to L.A. Too many distractions and distracting people. I wouldn’t live in NYC, either (Jersey maybe – the stigma is meaningless to me). I have to frequently stop typing to warm my hands, under my ass. Right now I still love Chicago, though I really need to get my own place. I play music constantly – silence is distracting because then I can hear my own thoughts. I have to play music when I go to bed because my own thoughts can keep me up and alert for hours, even after a really long day.
Which brings me to my weaknesses. I have plenty of ideas, for every kind of thing, constantly. I never run out of ideas. However, the execution of those ideas… umm, what was I saying? Right, ideas. Last night, I couldn’t fall asleep for three hours because I had an idea for a brilliant stand-up comedy routine. It would have been brilliant for me to get up and write it all down, but I REALLY WANTED TO GO TO SLEEP. Maybe I should flip my mattress over?
One thing that helps with the deluge of unfinished ideas is collaborative projects. Right now, I’m working on a comic book series with another Fiction Writing student. It’s pretty far along, but the process of finding artists, colorists, and most importantly a publisher, has made us rethink the whole thing, so we’re going to spend this year writing the novelization, and market that simultaneously with the comic book package.
Another friend of mine, in another city, is collaborating with me on a television series, that we might try to pitch once we get enough contacts and so forth. We’re not naive enough to submit unsolicited scripts.
The second weakness is the follow-up. I’ve written first drafts aplenty, but with all the business of cranking out new first drafts for school, and all my side projects, it’s hard for me to seriously revise some of my older, raw material. What then happens is that I miss deadlines for submission, for contests and publications, because I have a half dozen stories that would work, but none of them are polished. Columbia certainly hasn’t helped in this regard – we may do a singe rewrite of a piece, but there is no serious consideration to editing, proofreading, or 3rd/4th drafts. But that’s not what the curriculum is about, I suppose.
The only miscellany I have to say about myself is that I play bass guitar and violin in a band, get asked to “fix” my friends’ computers all the time, would rather read a novel than go to a bar and hit on loose women, despise rich people (having once been a dedicated political activist/radical), can type 62 words a minute, love to cook, am still trying to quit smoking, will play the occasional video game (but tire of them too quickly to spend much time on), and participate in various voluntary roles in organizations such as the Chicago Courier’s Union (which I helped start), and the North American Cycle Courier Championship ‘08 organizing committee.
I think that’s it.
-Teddie Goldenberg
January 30th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Now we’re cookin’ with gas. Got to agree with Joe and Teddie about cash registers, technical manuals, grants and lawyers. To Wit: A lawyer traveled out of town to try a case. Upon winning his client’s aqquital, he wired the home firm: “Good News, Justice Has Prevailed.” To which his superiors responded, “Appeal Immediately.”
January 31st, 2007 at 7:13 pm
If I left it all up to me to write, whenever and wherever I wanted, it would only happen when I was depressed. Maybe that’s why, though I don’t relish the idea of being unproductive in my daily life, it doesn’t scare me too much. I’m of the opinion, actually, that a day like the first in a series of twenty like the latter is benneficial to me as a person, not just my work. The problem with this situation is obvious. Not only are the only things I write depressing, it’s not a lifestyle that allows me to accomplish much other than the occasional sad story completed in one long coffee and Bailey’s night that, beautiful though it may be at the time, leaves me hung over and as unproductive the next day.
Deadlines can go either way. Sometimes my best writing is done when there are people tapping their fingers on my desk, waiting to read it, but other times the only thing I can get out is a shell–no substance.
I can write anything. I kind of enjoy any type of writing–essays, poems, letters, whatever, but what I love are stories.
Atmosphere isn’t too important to me. If I could have just finished a novel that really impressed me, be listening to low key, haunting music with a white russian on the desk next to me and no phone in sight, so much the better. But, really, I’d be fine anywhere.
Ooo, financial goals. I like this one because it doesn’t chain me down. I don’t need much money at all. I want to travel, but I want to see a place as it really is which means, usually, cheaply. I like living in my tent or on the floor of a friend’s apt, and besides, I’ll be making officer pay for at least eight years and after my grad school I’ll have nothing to spend it on.
Time. I don’t need much of that either. I write about the things that inspire me in life. To me, I have to have an exciting life to have something worth writing about. I’m not interested in city life, really.
I’m interested in being outside. I want to summit a couple of mountains in my life, finish an Iron Man, build a house from scratch, publish a book and fly helicopters, and I’m well on my way to all five. It doesn’t matter to me how long it takes. I have a lifetime.
Day to day, though, I like running, kayaking, playing monopoly, cooking turkey hotdogs on a fire, reading, eating cereal, sleeping, fishing, and watching the same movies over and over till I know all the words and can piss other people off.
January 31st, 2007 at 9:55 pm
After being on flu-lockdown for the last few days, I am getting a little too excited about the prospect of workshopping a piece with classmates. Usually, I am the most comfortable and thusly productive when I work on my own. When I have a piece that I am really excited about, I wait until it is enough pages for me to cover up a floor with. The best phases for me are the first one, journaling and conceptualizing, and the last one, rewriting, which could be repeated endlessly.
I like being left alone with myself and my work in a space enclosed yet large enough for me to make a mess. And whatever profession or pattern of jobs I end up picking up in the long run would hopefully encompass this haphazard style I’ve adapted. Also, hermitage brings me solace, so I wouldn’t mind working out of a home office or simply not having an office to go to during the week from 9 to 5. When all I have to do is read and write, that is pretty much all I do. I am a good task manager, though sometimes lacking the ultimate kick and confidence to get my work sent out or finalized.
Like I said, if given a spare second for reading, I will take it. My library is quite full and my appetite is quite voracious. I work at a bookstore, where I currently have three boxes on hold. But what I’ve learned the best about working there is that finding communities, whether they are an exact fit or not, to connect with is one of the most important jobs an artist will ever have. Art is created by communities; communities build artists. I would be nowhere and nothing without the support of my allies. And so, finding people to work with is important to me, though I am sometimes reluctant to do so. I am somewhat of a control freak, maybe a little obsessive compulsive: I like things my way. So it definitely takes a lot of personality dilution on my part to be able to successfully participate in a group environment. It is possible, though. Weirder things have happened.
Genres, for example, are some of the weirdest things in writing history. They just don’t make sense to me. And as a bookstore employee, this can sometimes be paralyzing. I started writing by scribbling in a notebook. When I showed it to someone and they gave it a name, I felt like I had been baptized or something. What I mean by that is that I have been confused ever since. Hearing what I write referred to as poetic prose that has a really slow arch does not help me understand my psyche nor my ability to be published. But having successfully survived fiction, creative nonfiction, prose forms, memoir, and poetry workshops tells me that I am satisfactory chameleon. I have no worries about being able to write all of the above and then some.
My first job was at a place called Gallery 37 where teenagers were hired to “apprentices” to “teaching artists” in any given subject matter in the visual, literary and performing arts. There I learned my first, though extremely soft, lessons in selling my words for a price. I also learned how to write in bizarre and sometimes extreme conditions of weather, gossip, hormonal imbalance, and awkwardness. In short, I can write anywhere at anytime, as long as I know and agree to my price. This is not to say that I can create methodical masterpieces in a matter of hours. Who could? Not even the person you’re thinking of. Not even they could.
And honestly I have no idea what I can or am willing to endure. My ideas about writing and the art world have changed since I began writing, put out a chapbook, began college, studied abroad, realized how close I am to graduation. I would like to eat daily, pay rent monthly and travel (domestic or abroad) annually. I would like to continue to support my book buying habits. I would like to call in sick and go to the zoo. I would like to pay off my debts and make new ones with fresh ventures. I would like to make a name for myself that somebody that I might come to love or respect recognizes objectively before I am introduced to him/her.
Writing will always interest me, so no matter what I end up doing for a living I know that I will be writing. It is one of the few things that I truly love, that I come back to after giving it up because it welcomes me every time. Words are the things I am most passionate about in the world. And so if I can find a correlation somehow between another interest and the world of words, I must truly love that interest. Some interests: dogs, cake, journals, books (the bound kind), manatees, Afro Caribbean culture, letters and arts of the African Diaspora, Latina culture, travel, my bike, theorizing, dreams, sleeping, sex, thinking aloud with people whose thoughts are intriguing, learning weird things, beer, wine, finding patterns or themes in anything, music that I don’t need to remember the name of, films that make me want to write afterwards, figuring out smells or tastes, photography, museums, questions.
February 1st, 2007 at 6:52 am
I suppose I’ll start with what I will never do for money, writing and otherwise. I will never ghost write (if I can’t put my name on something that I wrote why would I want it published?). The only other thing that I would not write for money or pleasure are technical manuals for stereos and the like. I don’t really used any of those instruction manuals when I assemble things, I’d much rather figure out how it works on my own. Oh yeah, and I don’t want to teach, not to knock the profession of course, but lesson plans and guiding class discussions require much more organization than I possess and patience with other people, which I really don’t have. I hope after I quit my job and leave Chicago after I graduate I will never have to work overnight in a supermarket ever again. The only problem is the money is pretty decent and I’m good at it. I’m afraid that the next time money gets tight I’ll find my way back to that kind of work before I can get an article, or some other piece of writing that pays, published. But hey, what greater motivator is there than fear? Oh, and who could forget about cubical jockeys. That prospect terrifies me most of all, but I think I can safely say that I have eliminated that eventuality. As the guy who did the tattoo on my left index finger asked me when I told him what I wanted, “Oh, so you want a job stopper, eh?”
What I do like though it to work independently and I would be more than happy to simply scrape by for the rest of my life subsisting only from a writer’s income. So what will I do for money? In terms of writing: short stories, novels, novellas, poems, freelance writing, grant writing, comic book writing and the like. What kind of income am I looking for? Not much, it doesn’t take a lot of money to make me happy: 1,000-1,200 dollars a month is a comfortably livable amount.
What I usually write are short stories, but as mentioned above I sometimes write other kinds of fiction, as well as creative non-fiction. I’ve never really tired any of the writing that is more bound by rules than literary fiction: mystery, horror, romance, etc. and parody has never really been my thing either. As mentioned before, ghost writing is out of the question as well as technical writing and just for good measure I’ll throw in corporate writing because that puts me in too close a proximity to cubicles…I’m breaking out in hives right now just thinking about those three and a half gray walls.
When it comes to the actual production of writing I think the only requirement that I have is that no one else is in the same room as me. They can be outside the room making as much noise as they damn well want to, as long as my laptop isn’t vibrating across my desk because of the bass from the stereo I’m fine. I prefer having music playing, I need a window to look out of while I’m writing. It’s nice to be able to take my eyes away from the screen for a while and just type looking up at the sky or like I am doing at this very moment, at the snow on the ground outside. If I’m not typing and instead getting out a story in my journal I can be anywhere. The train, as long as I have a seat, is one of my favorite places outside of the domicile. The only other thing that I need is time. Not even that much, only four hours out of the day. If I’m on a really good tear though seven or eight hours is very doable, but I usually don’t have that kind of time if I’m working at a job type job.
Beyond writing, I like to read, people watching is always interesting, movies, concerts, driving (even though I no longer have a car or a driver’s license), traveling (especially the extended kind, living out of a suitcase for months at a time which I haven’t had the resources to do as of yet but will by late October of this year…Australia here I come!), beer on hot days, hard liquor on cold days, wine any old time. I like being clean shaven but never enjoy taking the time to shave (which explains why I often don’t), the Daily Show and the Colbert Report (the only current television shows I actually watch), dreaming, daydreaming, selecting and getting tattoos and whatever else that I like but have neglected to mention. Oh yeah, and Quantum Mechanics.
February 8th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
I know this is a bit late, and I’m not sure anyone is even checking this anymore, but I’m still going to write something… And no, I’m not going to do anything Luddite-ish to this website in the process.
Working Independently: Yes, I’m very good at setting my own tasks. I have to keep my own deadlines. For instance, I must produce at least one chapter of my on-going novel material every two weeks. They always say that writing is about discipline, and I agree. In terms of new opportunities, I mostly seek out things that will challenge me. Since I became a tutor with the department over a year ago, I’ve continued to progress through the teacher training program. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, I’ll be getting my own class of kids in grades 3-8. We’ll see.
Working with Others: It drives me fucking nuts if there’s no structure on a job. I hate it. I need to know what I’m going to be doing on a certain day. That way, I’ll be able to get everything done on time–effectively. I find working with other people to be stimulating as long as we’re on the same page. It’s difficult when you’ve got lolligaggers and those who remain stubbornly unfocused. But seriously, I’m not anti-social, I just expect a lot from people.
I tend to write “literary fiction,” although I’ve recently become interested in genre (this occurred mainly because of the Holmes stories, but also because I’ve grown to love mysteries in general), however my favorite books still remain the classics–dostoyevsky, kafka, roth, faulkner–things of that nature. In terms of strength, well, I suppose I suffice at providing the reader with imagery and detail. Structurally, I like to make sure that all the pieces of my stories fit together like little puzzles–or like the tumblers of a lock. My dialogue, I believe, is okay. In terms of weaknesses, I have plenty; namely my lack of brevity and my tendency to allow the “place” of a scene to fade into the nether-regions of the narrative. Also, I tend to write about “germs” a lot and this confuses people.
In order to write successfully I just need to be left alone. I can’t handle phone calls or distractions. I generally write for 2-3 hours at a time, 3-4 times a week. I drink about two pots of coffee and take smoke breaks as I see fit (as rewards, mostly). If my atmosphere is penetrated by something… I fall apart. I won’t be able to start writing until the next day. I hate it when the phone rings… it kills me.
Financial Goals: I would like to be able to afford all the food I’d ever want to eat, when I want to eat it. I would like to live in New York and not have to worry about rent. I would like to wear clothes that are not too ratty. I would like to see films whenever I want. I would like to buy books whenever I need them. I have not achieved any of this at this point in my life.
Time: All of it.
Interests: I am interested in the country of Russia. I would like to visit sometime. I enjoy cinema (mainly that of the Swedes), I enjoy the Empty Bottle and the music that comes out of it, I enjoy food that is outside my budget but within my tastes, I enjoy watching cats fight one another and I enjoy exploring the city.