Assignments DUE for February 22nd (next class)
Posted by kscott on February 15, 2007
First of all, too many people are either coming in late or missing class; this is a gentle reminder that you all need to do your best to get to class and be on time — it WILL be a factor considered when grading.
Second, please make sure that you all check the course syllabus FIRST. I will always have the assignments assigned and due there. Sometimes I make changes, as I did today, and the only way you will know is if you either take copious notes or regularly check the syllabus.
Third, the work that you are doing is all working off of previous work (either in class or as assigned); by the time you complete this course, you will have a number of things that you will have to have ready — so do not get behind, because that’ll make it all the more work you will have to do (as it piles up).
FOR NEXT CLASS:
- Revise your 2nd piece (or at least what you think are the five best pages)
- On both your 1st and 2nd piece, choose 2-3 paragraphs (or the equivalent thereof) that you think are the most compelling, descriptive, interesting — (what you might want to use in the short blurb on the web to draw people into wanting to read more)
- Create the first draft of your artist statement, using what you wrote in class (If you weren’t in class, write the best artist statement you can — go to other sites and/or read other artist statements to help you determine what is and isn’t working, so you can apply it to your own)
- Try to read a few book reviews between now and next week, and take note as to how they are written (if you find any particularly good example, bring it in). Read them with an eye towards how reviewer’s approaches to writing about someone else’s writing might be useful to how you write about your writing.
- Read “Bios and Artist’s Statements for Web Portfolios” by Tim Long
- BLOG about your first informational interview and/or portfolio advising appointment. You should already have your appointment for your informational interview AND portfolio advising appointment; but if you don’t, you must make sure that you complete at least ONE for next week and blog about it.
Come into class with your work printed and be prepared to discuss what you’ve been doing or have read. Email me with any questions.
February 20th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I don’t really know where to write my response to my meeting with my portfolio adviser, so I guess I’ll write it in here…
Last Thursday I met with Ann Wiens. Ann has worked as an editor and a copy editor–mainly as a way to pay the bills–since she finished graduate school. To be honest, I’m trying to go into manuscript editing (that’s what all of my experience is in) and Ann works as a magazine editor (entirely different meaning) so we soon found that we didn’t have a whole lot to talk about. However, we decided to make the best of it.
Ann filled me in on how she got started, the best way to format my resume (she recommended I create three separate resumes; one for teaching, one for editing and one for writing), explained the “real-life” duties of a freelance editor, and informed me about a licensing program out of the University of Chicago.
It was incredibly helpful. I took about a page of notes. She really helped put a lot of things into perspective for me, namely that no newspaper will hire me considering that I’m not a journalism student, and that freelancing work can be found more easily through a temp agency. She also emailed me several “editing tests” which I will need to take before any freelance job.
Really, I don’t want to get into too much detail. I’m glad I met with her.
-David
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:28 am
Well, nothing is going well this semester. My interview emails have been ignored and I won’t have anything in that regard ready for class discussion. I prepared a list of questions for Ed Marszewski (Editor of Lumpen magazine) and I couldn’t make the “Fiction Writer’s at Lunch” to ask them due to class. (As it turned out, Lumpen seems to be a militaristic Democratic website dedicated to crushing the Republican Party so it was just as well.)
I sent emails back and forth with the Advising Center for an appointment, as my links to the Advisors wasn’t working, and I finally have a set day and time (Tues. @ 4:45pm). Unfortunately, they said they would get back to me with an exact month in the next few weeks.
As far as bringing in a resume, well, where do I begin? Seriously. Where do I begin? I’ve worked at a pizza place, an office furniture installation company, a bowling alley (spraying shoes) and a distribution center for Japanese electronics. I’ve never been published while I’ve been at Columbia and hardly feel my ‘newspaper’ experience grants too many kudos at the Junior College level. Now what?
On the productive side this week, I was able to finish my Artist’s Statement and did some bracketing on my stories. I read through a few book reviews and made a list of words that I feel describes my ‘body of work.’ It barely feels like a dent in what’s expected for class.
Of the pieces I wanted to include in my portfolio is a non-fiction piece that really turned out well. I can’t find it on any of my disks but Sam Weller claims to have a copy of it so I pray he finds it. Other than that, I have a thousand stories mashed in a file or sleeping on old disks that will take forever to go through to weed the promising from the putrid. Does everyone feel like this? I feel smothered by the weight of my professional ignorance and this class is like a ton of bricks on my skull, demanding organization from chaos on a whim. My head feels like it’s going to explode.
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:34 am
It seems that the more I learn about the publishing world, the less I want to have anything to do with it. At my appointment with portfolio advisor Joanna MacKenzie, I learned all about the current state of affairs in the publishing world, in regards to how a manuscript becomes a book.
1. It must fit easily into a marketable category. (Books of short stories, novellas, and anything else, even remotely interesting has little to no chance of ever getting noticed in New York.)
2. Agents are contacted through query letters and if they are interested then they start an open line of communication.
3. They end up having to do most of the editing because editors at large houses seem less and less concerned with doing it themselves.
4. Sometimes, half an agent’s day is spent tracking down money that has yet to be paid.
5. I probably won’t be sending my work to an agent, stray away from the madness in New York houses, and try to get published through an independent, or university press, where for the moment they still seem to be concerned with books that genuinely pique their interest and are not so concerned with what’s going to be the next “DaVinci Code.”
Joanna is also the internship coordinator at her agency so she was able to give me some information about getting an internship. First of all I have to send out another round of applications for the summer NOW! Second, New York is really the place to go for an internship, simply by virtue of having publishing houses, agencies, magazines, and literary scouts all based there. Third, play up my innate interest in books and reading, as that is one of the major things that Joanna looks for in applicants.
All in all a depressing meeting, but informative none the less.
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I met with Dan Rybicky, of the Film department.
I met him downstairs, and first off I noticed he was wearing a bike helmet. “You look familiar,” I said. He wanted to know where from. “I dunno, bike races, Critical Mass?” Dan indeed does Critical Mass, and immediately I knew we would get along. I started by declaring that I wanted to get into the world of writing screenplays, specifically for television. Dan told me there were three ways to do it:
* Go to Hollywood, get a job in the bottom ranks of “the factory” (script runner, production assistant, etc.), and after doing your time, people will take an interest in your work.
* Make a random connection and get on a project/writing staff – the odds of this increases when you live in L.A.
* Get a TV Writer’s Agent, write several pilot scripts similar but not identical to shows already on the air, and hope that when pilot-making season rolls around, your script gets greenlighted for a pilot.
We talked a lot about who he knew had gotten in through these various methods, and he provided ample examples of each. The bottom line is, to get into Hollywood, you have to be fairly comfortable with networking and socializing, because this is all anyone really has there. I pitched some ideas to him and he thought I could really go far in writing for sci-fi shows, which is really what I want to do.
Dan talked a bit about how as a teacher, he doesn’t see the school (Columbia) making much of an effort towards encouraging students to develop an overall philosophy or artistic identity – something we’ve discussed re our artists’ statements. I talked about my political and activist background, which impressed him, and he said that “I feel like I’ve found a kindred spirit in you,” which is basically a way of saying, “if you need a contact or recommendation, stay in touch with me.”
I read on his bio that he’s doing a documentary on Tryon Farms (a eco-friendly master-planned community in Michigan City, IN). I mentioned that I wrote a short article on Tryon Farms for Chicago Agent, and looked shocked. “We use that article all the time! I make copies and send it out to people!” Small world, eh?
What really came out of this interview, despite learning that Hollywood is mostly a lottery, is that now I see a clear path to what I want to do, and now I need to think of whether or not to simply do it. Basically, I need to move to L.A., and I think doing the semester in L.A. program is the best first step. I’m not afraid to move to new city on the spur of the moment – hell, I moved to Chicago after only 4 months of deciding to. Like alot of what other people have posted, to get into publishing it’s better to be in NYC. To get into film and television, it’s simply required to move to L.A., at least for a while.
I think I’ve had enough cold weather for my life, anyhow.
February 23rd, 2007 at 10:25 am
Hey, all
Is this the place to post for the next weeks blog? Not sure. But I’m still waiting for a reply from Deb about her artist statement. I’ll post as soon as I hear. If she checks her oasis as often as I do, it will be never, but I left her a voicemail as well. Till next time
Ric