MFA Crash Course: The Winners!

You followed along for ten (well, eight) glorious days of tips. My residency at Spalding University was crazy with every minute of the day accounted for with some lecture, reading, or bit of homework to do. The writers I met awed me with their talent. Some of my favorite moments were spent lounging with friends on the couches in the lobby of the Brown Hotel. A couple of memorable moments included:

• Writers singing impromptu Spalding-versions of The Sound of Music songs
• Cramming into an elevator with four classmates and two actors to watch elevator plays
• Drinking my first bourbon at the Seelbach – where Al Capone used to hang – and then promptly wishing I could spit said bourbon back into my glass
• Hopping into an elevator with a famous writer and being flattered when they greeted me by name only to realize I was wearing a name tag
• The eight gallons of chai tea I consumed. Seriously.
• Coming out of my shell mid-week and shocking people – namely my new mentor – when I went from sweet to snark.
• Meeting several people – Omar, Erin, Marjetta, and more – who I know I will be hanging with at the residency in Tuscany next year. We are going to rock our workshops/cooking classes!

Thanks for playing along through this series! I hope you all learned something from the tips.

And without further ado the grand prize winners are….

Kate Hart wins a query critique from my agent, Laura Bradford

Laura McMeeking wins a 10-page critique from my mentor and writer, Eleanor Morse

Winners, email me at corrine at gmail dot com to claim your prizes.

Thank you again to Laura Bradford and Eleanor Morse for donating their time to my contest!

*On a side note, I should have mentioned that I used Random.org to pick the winners each day, plus the GP winners. I’m really glad to say that no person won twice – quite randomly since every comment counted – and no, I did not intentionally make Kate a winner because she’s my friend. She simply entered every day with stubborn persistence and snarky comments until she won as Lucky #34. I have the Random screenshot to prove it if you like. Congrats to all the winners!

Full Winner’s List:

Day 1: Kaitlin Ward (iTunes Gift Card)
Day 2: Brent Watson (Barnes & Noble Card)
Day 3: Elizabeth Briggs (Amazon Gift Card)
Day 4: Cambria Dillon (iTunes Gift Card)
Day 5: Rachele Alpine (Barnes & Noble Card)
Day 6: Karla Calalang (Amazon Gift Card)
Day 7: Sarah Enni (iTunes Gift Card)
Day 8: Susan Quinn (Barnes & Noble Card)
Day 9: Abby Stevens (Amazon Gift Card)
Day 10: Angie Spartz (iTunes Gift Card)

Grand Prize 1: Kate Hart (Query Crit)
Grand Prize 2: Laura McMeeking (10-Page Crit)

MFA Crash Course: Days 9 and 10

You will notice that there are no tips posted here for Days 9 and 10. The last two days of my residency were a whirlwind of farewell meals, readings, and homework. But no lectures. Spalding posts audio versions of all the lectures on Blackboard, so we have the chance to hear those lectures we missed out on. I planned to include notes from those, but they are yet to be posted.

In lieu of more tips, these last two days of class are kind of like a teacher’s in-service day. You get prizes without actually having to learn anything. All you have to do is:

1. Follow my blog.

2. Post a comment by midnight tonight PST. If there’s something I didn’t discuss, or a question you have about MFA programs, let me know.

3. Win a $10 Amazon card or a $10 Barnes & Noble card. I’ll be giving away one of each so there will be two winners.

4. You will also be entered to win a query crit from agent Laura Bradford or a ten-page crit from author Eleanor Morse.

It’s that easy! I will announce the winners of the crits on my blog tomorrow. Good luck!

MFA Crash Course: Day Eight

***If you are following me AND leave a comment in this thread by 5 PM PST Tuesday, 6/8, you will be entered to win a $10 Barnes & Noble gift card. Plus you will receive one entry each toward the query crit by my agent Laura Bradford and the ten-page crit by writer Eleanor Morse. Full details here.

Workshop: Met with the four writers in my workshop, led by Julie Brickman. We did an in-class writing assignment to play with alternate POVs. Here’s my experiment with second person, and an answer to a challenge a friend made one night while drinking bourbon at the Seelbach Hotel – to try my hand at creative non-fiction.

You thought she was a hypocrite when she wouldn’t let you cut your hair. It fell past your waist in tangles and sometimes you dreamed it braided itself into a brown rope that strangled you. It seemed to get in your way, wrapping around your arm, your throat, your shoulders like creeping vines, and you hated it. Worse, your mother had a pixie haircut and had for as long as you could remember. Her ridiculous insistence that a seventeen-year-old girl should have long hair made you feel invisible. Your wants, your wishes, your womanhood hidden.

So one day you convince your aunt to trim an inch or two off. You look at yourself and see a hint of something you could be. It – the cutting – becomes addictive. You sneak around for the first time in your life, and the song of the scissors hisses through you. Until she confronts you, screaming, “You think I don’t know you’ve been cutting your hair?” And you think the hours of screaming don’t fit the crime – your first rebellion, but then she tells you, “Go ahead and chop it all off. I don’t give a shit,” and you forget the niggling doubt.

Should I? and Would I dare? whisper in your ear. You walk into the bathroom and know you will dare. Scissors in hand, you pull a hank of hair over your breast and snip… Whole inches fall and you are Samson-reversed made stronger with each cut. She finds you like that – scissors cutting away. Your eyes meet in the bathroom mirror. Pause, pause, pause. Without a word, she leaves the room , and you finish up before admiring your new do.

It’s not until weeks later you realize that you cut away some part of her love. You learn how jealous she was of your easy relationship with the aunt who made the first snip, but it’s too late by then.  She shows less interest in your life, and you no longer have a place to hide.

Lunch with Friends

Graduate Student Readings: Three of the graduating students read from their thesis work. Very inspiring.

Lecture: Online Marketing for Writers
Lori A. May, Lecturer
Lori A. May is a writer and Editor-in-Chief of Poets Quarterly and she shared her tips on social media for writers. I’m not going to share everything Lori said since she partly makes a living by sharing this info. Instead I will link you to her site. J   http://loriamay.com/

• Social media is about marketing your writing, networking, and “literary citizenship” (cheering on the arts).
• If you begin your social media strategy after your book is out, it’s too late. It takes time to build up a following, especially as a debut author. Start now even if you don’t have a book out.
• Your web, email, and blog are your online business card/portfolio. Be professional. Also use your name and get your URL set up with your name. This says “I am a writer and I take this very seriously.”
• Blogs should be professional while sharing your personality.
• When deciding which social media sites you want to use, try observing them first to watch the activity. Don’t try to do everything. Decide which ones work for you and put your focus there.
• Reciprocate support of other writers, and be a valued literary citizen.

Lecture: What Makes a Story Matter?
Eleanor Morse, Lecturer
Eleanor Morse discussed what takes a story from entertainment to a work that matters on a deeper level.

• Five elements of stories that “feel significant” include: the creation of something new; they connect us with a humanity beyond the self; they contain honest, intense emotion; there is movement; and the description of the finite introduces us to something immense.
• How should the writer approach a work like this? With a) curiosity and willingness to face the unknown; b) a vulnerability and honest emotional involvement, and c) absence of self-consciousness.
• Loved this quote! “Writing is not looking over itself to see how beautiful it is.”  (Not sure who said this.)

Cross-Genre Assignment  Follow Up: Performances of Elevator Plays
We gathered in groups to perform the elevator plays we’d written, cast and practiced. If something can be excruciating and funny at the same time, this was it.

Dinner with Friend: followed by Homework and More Homework, plus enlightening conversation with same friend

MFA Crash Course: Day Seven

***If you are following me AND leave a comment in this thread by 5 PM PST Thursday, 6/3, you will be entered to win a $10 iTunes gift card. Plus you will receive one entry each toward the query crit by my agent Laura Bradford and the ten-page crit by writer Eleanor Morse. Full details here.

Workshop: Met with the four writers in my workshop, led by Julie Brickman. We studied various forms of first person POV. On Wednesday, we also studied ways to use second person and alternate POVs.

• Second person POV is generally used to show a voice that is alienated from itself. A good example is Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City where the protagonist is devolving into a drug additiction.
• A POV that uses “we” can be used to demonstrate a collective voice. In the short story example we read called “We,” the collective was a group of women newly married who lose their identities while caring for young children.
• Both of these POVs would be hard to sustain in a longer work, which is why Jay McInerney’s novel is one of the few examples out there.
• POV you choose for your work should reflect your character. How close can you get to them? How together are they?

Student Readings: 3^rd and 4^th semester students read from their works or act out their plays. It’s a good opportunity to practice reading your work in front of a crowd.

Lunch with Friends: I had lunch with new friends. I swear hanging with these people is like sitting down with people you’ve known your entire life.

Plenary Craft Follow Up: Follow up to “Le Mot Juste” Lecture from Day Two
Sena Jeter Naslund, Lecturer
We each had to turn in examples of literature where we thought the authors had managed to surprise and delight the reader with unexpected language. She called students to the stage to read their examples and discuss them briefly.

Lecture: Early Loves, Lasting Influences: D.H. Lawrence’s “Women in Love” and Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse”
Robin Lippincott, Lecturer
Robin Lippincott was inspired early on by these two works. The thinking involved in these two novels helped him to develop his own work.

• Lawrence often used landscape as a metaphor the emotion in his work. He had a willingness to “convey the changing, quixotic nature of relationships.” His writing taught Robin to “be true to myself and trust my vision.”
• Woolf said “I write not to a plot but a rhythm.”  I love this quote!
• Woolf applied form to her novel, To the Lighthouse, imagining it in an “H” shape with the beginning and end of the novel covering hours and the center compacting a decade into a very short space.
• This lecture reminded me that studying poetry and the rules of formal poetry in particular can help a writer to understand rhythm and structure.

Cross-genre Assignment – Elevator Play Follow-up Practice: We were assigned to teams of six people and each person had to write a 60-90 second play that could be performed in an elevator. At this meeting, we cast the roles and practiced each other’s plays. As an introvert, I was mortified. As a writer, it was AWESOME to see my words acted out and see the reaction from others.

Celebration of Recently Published Books: One playwright performed a piece he was commissioned to write to help his city fall back in love with their local NFL team. Hilarious!

• Eric Schmiedl (playwriting), Browns Rules

• Marcia Dalton (Fleur-de-Lis Press author), The Ice Margin

• Kira Obolensky (playwriting), Raskol

• Louella Bryant (fiction), Full Bloom

Buffet Dinner at Brown Hotel: Two words for you, my friends – CASH BAR. After dinner, a new friend and I hung out discussing how the opinions of friends and family – real or imagined – can have an impact on our work. I love getting into these deep conversations with writers.

In-class Workshop Assignment: We were asked to try out a POV we had discussed. I chose multiple first person, but didn’t get very far – I tend to be a slow writer, especially when writing in class. Here’s what I wrote on the spot. You’ll notice I never got to the second person’s POV. Oops.

In a town engorged with concrete and oily exhaust, Delilah’s Café smelled of pancakes, sticky maple syrup, and home. I watched the woman herself skate through the place, twirling to avoid six-year-old Luke Murray, dipping under Dolores’ tray of plates held aloft by one meaty arm, and lunging forward to save a glass in danger of Frank’s clumsy elbow. From 6AM to 3PM, Delilah moved to some internal tune, gliding about her second home with grace my mother would have envied. In my six months of spectating from my booth seat, I’d only witnessed a single skip in her rhythm…a tiny blip that caused her wide, open smile to curtsy on one side. Her eyes had not widened in surprise when I confessed who I was. She had paused at the counter, a wet rag clinched in her hand that she’d been using to scrub the counter. Nothing more. No clue to how she felt about seeing me, the daughter she’d given up eighteen years ago. I would have thought she felt nothing if not for that dip in her smile.

*These tips are all my own paraphrases. This blog series is not sponsored by Spalding or its faculty

MFA Crash Course: Day Six

***If you are following me AND leave a comment in this thread by 5 PM PST Friday, 5/28, you will be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card. Plus you will receive one entry each toward the query crit by my agent Laura Bradford and the ten-page crit by writer Eleanor Morse. Full details here.

Small Group Discussion: Met with three other writers to discuss a short story. Discussion was led by a grad student. I will have to do this next residency.

Workshop: Met with the four writers in my workshop, led by Julie Brickman. As promised, here is my workshop piece (removed link) and the feedback I received. Note: I’m only going to leave this up through Sunday. Do not reproduce or link in other places. I hope this helps writers who are afraid of the workshop experience. It can be a really rewarding experience, plus it helped me to solve a major issue with the plot – I was withholding too much from the reader.

Lunch with Mary Waters: I had lunch with my new mentor, so we could get to know each other and discuss expectations for this semester. This is where I squee because I adore her. She reads YA so I feel like this semester’s feedback on my current WIP is going to be really insightful and helpful.

Graduate Student Readings: Three graduating students read from their thesis – a final creative work we are required to turn in our last year of the program.

Lecture: What You Can Do with Elevated Prose and How to Develop Your Own Elevated Style
Elaine Orr, Lecturer
Elevated prose is a kind of prose that is lofty, high style, and intellectual. There are times when this kind of language can be used to effect.

• Why use elevated prose? To deepen a character, slow the reader down, create atmosphere, and more.
• The narrative can be elevated and the dialogue more realistic. The elevated narrative can allow a more intellectual exploration into larger themes of love and death.

Plenary Lecture: What is Creative Nonfiction?
Richard Goodman, Lecturer
This lecture examined creative nonfiction – both its definitions and its variations.

• Creative Nonfiction conveys truth, but allows room for creativity.
• Recommended Read: Woman Warrior
• Commit part of yourself to the page
• Must always have a deep respect for characters. Compassion is required.
• This type of writing gets its soul from the writer

Student Readings: I read from my work. I hate doing it and think I’m an awful reader, but it’s good practice.

Dinner with the YA Writers

Spalding’s Festival of Contemporary Writing: Faculty members read from their current WIP or publications. More impressive writing.

• Charlie Schulman

• Kirby Gann

• Dianne Aprile

• Roy Hoffman

• Kathleen Driskell

• Sena Jeter Naslund

*These tips are all my own paraphrases. This blog series is not sponsored by Spalding or its faculty.

MFA Crash Course: Day Five

***If you are following me AND leave a comment in this thread by 5 PM PST Wednesday, 5/26, you will be entered to win a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card. Plus you will receive one entry each toward the query crit by my agent Laura Bradford and the ten-page crit by writer Eleanor Morse. Full details here.

Workshop: Met with the four writers in my workshop, led by Julie Brickman. Today we did a writing assignment in workshop to try out different POVs we’ve been discussing. I plan to post that and my workshop feedback, but I lack the energy to do it tonight since it is midnight and I still have homework. I promise to do it tomorrow. J

Student Readings: 3^rd and 4^th semester students read from their works or act out their plays. It’s a good opportunity to practice reading your work in front of a crowd. I’m up tomorrow!

Graduating Student Lecture: Killing Them Quickly: How Sudden Death Changes Everything
Jackie Gorman, Graduating Student
This lecture was about the benefit of killing off one of your main characters and what impact it can have based on when you do it in your novel.

• A character’s response to death reveals a lot about them.
• If you are going to have a character die, you need to do it responsibly. Gratuitous death does nothing for the reader. However, a death that is meaningful to your story and characters can push your characters into a new space.
• A quote I loved… “There is something bracing, almost exhilarating, about a catastrophe. Like a typhoon, it sweeps away all the small constraints of daily existence. It opens up the landscape to bold moves and rearrangements that would be unthinkable in normal times. (143) Mary Waters from The Favorites

Graduating Student Lecture: Raising Children and Writing Stories: Not Necessarily in That Order
Julie Stewart, Graduating Student
Like many writers, Julie is balancing parenting and her writing career. She examined how writers have dealt with this in order to benefit her own life. She believes that children can add a lot of magic to your writing. She also shared tips she’s gleened from other writers and her own life on striking a balance between a creative life and mothering.

Plenary Cross-Genre Guest Lecture: An Investigation into Theory and Practice: The Audience’s Participatory Experience in Specific Gravity Ensemble’s Elevator Plays”
Rand Harmon, Founder
Rand Harmon described the intent and theory behind elevator plays. These are 60-75 second plays that occur as you ride the elevator from the bottom floor to the top. The actors change costumed at the top floor and put on a different play on the way down. Four to five people cram in the elevator at a time to watch 1-3 actors. The idea is to break down the barrier between the audience and the actors. Our assignment is to write an elevator play that we will perform at the end of the week. That sound you hear is me shrieking in terror because I. Do. Not. Act. Or. Perform.

Mentor Assignments We each turn in a mentor preference form (due this AM). Based on those, we are assigned mentors at the end of the day with all of us crossing out fingers hoping we get the one we want. After all, we will be working with them one on one thru next January. I’m happy to say, I got Mary Waters – who reads a lot of YA. Tomorrow I get to have lunch with her to get to know her better one-on-one. I also love the other writers in my mentor group. You can’t see me right now, but I look very happy.

Elevator Plays: My group walked over to the Starkes Building and saw four elevator plays. The experience is so unexpected because we are trained to behave a certain way on elevators. In one of them, a business couple started making out while using merger lingo to speak dirty to one another. In another, the elevator would stop at certain floors and various characters from Hamlet would appear framed in the opening as Hamlet himself did his monologue for us. It was uncomfortable and completely entertaining.

*These tips are all my own paraphrases. This blog series is not sponsored by Spalding or its faculty.

MFA Crash Course: Day Four

***If you are following me AND leave a comment in this thread by 5 PM PST Tuesday, 5/25, you will be entered to win a $10 iTunes gift card. Plus you will receive one entry each toward the query crit by my agent Laura Bradford and the ten-page crit by writer Eleanor Morse. Full details here.

Workshop: Met with the four writers in my workshop, led by Julie Brickman. We discussed our pre-reading – excerpts from Gone to Soldiers and House of Sand and Fog – before spending an hour workshopping MY piece. Tomorrow I will share my piece, the feedback and tips that might be helpful. Today, let me just say – it was AWESOME! Great feedback and one of the greatest compliments I’ve received – that I’d written a lot of lines that writers would kill to have written. <- That is going above my desk.

Lunch/Closure Meeting with Eleanor Morse: Falafel. Hummus. Pita. Eleanor Morse. Discussion of writing. Heaven. Eleanor has been the greatest mentor I could have asked for this last semester. She will have to saw off a leg to escape me at this point as I consider her a for-the-rest-of-my-writing-life kind of mentor.

Nap: We’re supposed to pace ourselves. I interpreted that as attend every lecture available. Today it caught up with me.

Lecture: Surrender: The Act of Method Writing
Silas House, Lecturer
My favorite lecture so far. I wish all of the YA writers could have heard this one – though its applicable to all writing. Lots of great tips.

• Method Writing is all about giving yourself over to your characters. Try the things you have them doing. Experience what they experience so you can ground yourself in who they are. Store up the emotions from the moment caused to put them into your writing.
• Let your characters have the freedom to veer from the plan you’ve made for them. You have to find a balance between knowing when to let your characters run wild and when to rein them in. The revision process is when you tighten things up.
• Music can be a great way to get to know your character. Figure out what kind of music they would listen to and try listening to that music when you write. Silas also sends the soundtrack to his editor so she can listen to it when she’s editing.
• As a rule, use everything in your arsenal – be naked on the page. Readers won’t know it’s your shame and hurt playing out on the pages.
• Know the secret that your character would never share with another. This helps you to dive into who they are.
• An exercise he did when writing his YA novel was to have his young daughters take pictures of the things that mattered to them. These pictures helped him add color to his character, reminded him how children are always looking up (perspective), and reminded him about a child’s sense of wonder.

Book-in-Common Lecture: Chopin’s Garden
Eleanor Morse, Lecturer
Eleanor discussed her writing process for her novel Chopin’s Garden, including where she got the idea, her research methods, and how it made it into print. It was interesting to hear her struggles with POV (she switched from 1^st to 3^rd multiple times) and with plot since she is a character-driven writer.

Discussion with David Kipen: The Schreiber Theory
Featured Author David Kipen
This man is hilarious. When he asked how many of us read his book and we all raised our hands, he whipped out a phone to take a picture of us to email to his mother. His book is all about how credit owed to screenwriters is given to directors. He likens it to book editors getting credit for the books they edit rather than the writer. He made an interesting point that TV writers are getting more credit, and you can see writers migrating to TV “from space.” Hence, the better quality of TV over film lately. Really great Q&A session where we got to barrage him with questions.

Dinner: Great conversations with fellow writers over my favorite – Pasta night!

Student Readings: 3^rd and 4^th semester students read from their works or act out their plays. It’s a good opportunity to practice reading your work in front of a crowd. I’m up on Wednesday, much to my everlasting terror.

*These tips are all my own paraphrases. This blog series is not sponsored by Spalding or its faculty.

MFA Crash Course: Day Three

***If you are following me AND leave a comment in this thread by 5 PM PST Monday, 5/24, you will be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card. Plus you will receive one entry each toward the query crit by my agent Laura Bradford and the ten-page crit by writer Eleanor Morse. Full details here.

After staying up until 2 AM doing homework, my cursed alarm rang at 7 AM and it was off to the races. Here are the highlights of the day*. If you have questions, email me at corrinelj at gmail dot com.

Workshop: Met with the four writers in my workshop, led by Julie Brickman. We discussed our pre-reading – excerpts from Anna Karenina and Song of Solomon – before spending an hour workshopping a piece by one of the members. It would invade the circle of trust for my workshop if I shared feedback on another’s piece, so I will share general tips that came out of our discussion on the reading.

• The Omniscient POV gives the writer the most freedom. (Note: it’s not better than first person, it’s simply less restrictive)
• In a truly omniscient POV (as in Anna Karenina), the narrator is very separate from the characters. The narrator can tell you what the character thinks but they never go inside the character to think it.
• An easier way to begin an omniscient POV is to pan in on the setting and then narrow to characters

Lunch/Viewing of Shakespeare Behind Bars: We grabbed a quick lunch before heading into the lecture hall to watch a screening of Shakespeare Behind Bars. Just WOW. It is a documentary about prisoners putting on a Shakespeare play for their inmates. More than that, it is a brilliant statement about how art enables us to discover our humanity and connect with others. Go. Rent. It. Now.

Discussion of Movie: “This Thing of Darkness I Acknowledge Mine”
Curt L. Tofteland, Founder and Artistic Director of Shakespeare Behind Bars
Curt, the wardrobe designer from the film, and several ex-inmates who appeared in the show answered questions and discussed how they felt about life post-prison. It was pretty amazing to see how Shakespeare – and Curt – had touched their lives. One man said that “being with Shakespeare” opened him up, allowed him to get past his fear, and gave him more freedom to express himself.

Lecture: The Work of Robert Stone
Kirby Gann, Lecturer
An exploration of the work of Robert Stone. Not a lot of tips to offer, but I loved this quote from the author that reminded me that our greatest personal tragedies are sewn into who we become – especially as artists.

• “I had the curious luck of being raised by a schizophrenic…” Robert Stone, on the advantages of growing up knowing his schizophrenic mother’s magical world

Spalding’s Festival of Contemporary Writing: Faculty members read from their current WIP or publications. A great lesson in public speaking, plus fun watching a scene from a play acted out.

• Maureen Morehead
• Julie Brickman
• Sam Zalutsky
• Elaine Orr
• Crystal Wilkinson
• Greg Pape

Graduating Student Lecture: Cinematic Description: How the Written Word Invokes Imagery in the Mind
Michael Andrews, Graduating Student
This lecture offered examples and ways to make your descriptions of characters and settings read like a cinema that plays in your mind. Some highlights:

• Where are the objects you are describing?
• In what order are you describing the objects? Do you pan like a movie from large picture to focused, top to bottom, or left to right?
• What type of focus (lens) are you putting on the objects? (for example, are you describing the scope of a room your character has entered before narrowing in on the person they are meeting). This focusing can also include the general condition of the area or exact details.

Graduating Student Lecture: Drilling for the Dramatic Core: The Scene and Sequel Method
Christopher Klim, Graduating Student
The Scene and Sequel Method was described, which helps you to narrow your scene, figure out the heart of it, and see how it works with other scenes. I gathered that this process helps you to stay in touch with your character’s motivation/desires throughout your work.

• Examine your scene to figure out a) what your character wants in scene, b) what is in their way, c) what conflict pops up to stop them, and d) how is the conflict resolved.
• After the scene (steps a-d), you have a sequel (which is really a scene that doesn’t have a climax). The sequel asks you a) how does your character feel about what happened?, b) What do they think about what happened?, and c) what will they decide to do moving forward?

Dinner: Great conversations with fellow writers over my favorite – Indian food.

Spalding’s Festival of Contemporary Writing: Faculty members read from their current WIP or publications. More great writing.

• Eleanor Morse
• Joyce McDonald
• Brad Riddell
• Jeanie Thompson
• Rachel Harper
• Nancy McCabe
• Silas House

*These tips are all my own paraphrases. This blog series is not sponsored by Spalding or its faculty.

MFA Crash Course: Day Two

***If you are following me AND leave a comment in this thread by 5 PM PST Sunday, 5/23, you will be entered to win a $10 Barnes and Noble gift card. Plus you will receive one entry each toward the query crit by my agent Laura Bradford and the ten-page crit by writer Eleanor Morse. Full details here.

Wearing fresh clothes (thank you, United, for delivering my suitcase), I headed off to class this morning. I drank about six chai teas to drown out the desire to fall asleep in class since I was basically up at 5 AM my time. Here are the highlights of the day*. If you have questions, email me at corrinelj at gmail dot com.

Student Orientation: Typical taking-care-of-business meeting to review the syllabus for third semester students.

Lecture: The Expanisve First Person: The Omniscient I
Julie Brickman, Lecturer
A first-person narrative appears limited by its “I” nature, but writers are pushing the boundaries every day. Some tips:

• A third-person narrative offers a wider pan lens on your story. Since you are not inside your character, it invites more distance between the character and the narrator. You can also play around with that lens, starting wide (as if your character is viewed from the heavens) down to looking over your character’s shoulder
• A first-person narrative has far more reliance on voice is limited to the world your character observes
• There are ways to expand a first-person narrative that allows description without the tone of the narrator slipping through. Example text: The House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus. The author slips in descriptions that could easily be read as third person in between the more “I” focused descriptions/references. You can email me for examples.
• This more distant tone has to be consistent if you are utilizing it across multiple character POVs.
• Why do this? It gives the narrator more freedom to move between time periods. It also lends a tension to your narrator’s voice as you move from a wide lens (discussing a town’s history of slavery) to narrow (your narrator’s view on slavery).

Lunch by Genre: We met with the students and faculty members in our genre – Fiction. Our faculty briefly told us about their passions and their current WIP. The students graduating this residency introduced the topics they will lecture on this week.

Lecture: Le Mot Juste—The Right Word: A Grammar of Vividness
Sena Jeter Naslund, Lecturer
The creation of a powerful writing style comes from the tension between your diction (word choice) and the rhythm of your words. We examined the concepts of denotative vs. connotative meanings; abstract vs. concrete language; and imagery vs. figurative language.

• Colors and number have a lot of power in writing.
• Denotative – literal meaning of a words (car is a vehicle used for transportation)
• Connotative – meaning of the word takes into account emotions (a car is a right of passage; a symbol of transitioning to adulthood, etc.). When you fully explore a connotation, you can add a rich layer of meaning. I immediately think of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak when Melinda’s art teacher forces her to explore the meaning of tree to her – from an object in nature to a symbol that represents a traumatic event in her life.
• Abstract – language that is very cerebral
• Concrete – language that describes things experienced by the senses
• Imagery – employs concrete language to appeal to the five senses
• In order to surprise and delight readers, your language needs to be fresh and original. This comes from the way you work with the tension between these concepts. An example from Robert Frost’s Design: “I found a dimpled spider, fat and white.” If you replaced spider with baby, this sentence is expected, but by inserting spider, we are invited to think about the insect in a new way.

Workshop: I met the four other writers in my workshop, led by Julie Brickman. We discussed workshop expectations and then jumped into discussing a pre-assigned work. Each workshop meeting we examine a published piece, in addition discussing each other’s writing and doing writing exercises.

• Workshops are an “intellectual river with emotional support.” I loved this quote from our workshop leader. A workshop helps everyone collectively and not just the person whose piece is being discussed.

Lecture: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not: Love, Hate & Sex in James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room”
Rachel Harper, Lecturer
Rachel Harper discussed the themes of the text “Giovanni’s Room.” If you haven’t read the text, it’s harder to make sense of the takeaways, but here’s one quote I came away with and loved.

• “The state of birth, suffering, love and death are extreme states – extreme, universal, and inescapable.” From The Creative Process by James Baldwin, 1962. Youths by nature are exploring the extremes to discover who they are. This quote brought into focus why death, love, birth and suffering are such attractive topics to explore in YA lit.

Getting to Know the Faculty Session: Kind of like speed dating where you walk from room to room to meet the faculty and decide who you would like to work with as your mentor for the next semester.

Dinner: Great conversations with fellow writers and faculty.

Spalding’s Festival of Contemporary Writing: Faculty members read from their current WIP or publications. A great lesson in public speaking since I have no presence. Molly Peacock owns the stage. Go listen to her read if you ever get the opportunity. She could make the Yellow Pages entertaining. Overall, lots of impressive writing.

Molly Peacock
Robin Lippincott
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Richard Goodman
Mary Yukari Waters
Luke Wallin
Debra Kang Dean

*These tips are all my own paraphrases. This blog series is not sponsored by Spalding or its faculty.

MFA Crash Course: Day One

***If you are following me AND leave a comment in this thread by 2 PM PST Saturday, 5/22, you will be entered to win a $10 itunes gift card. Plus you will receive one entry each toward the query crit by my agent Laura Bradford and the ten-page crit by writer Eleanor Morse. Full details here.

Each residency heralds a maelstrom of emotion: elation in anticipation of spending time with other writers who get me; terror at spending time with complete strangers; panic as I rush to finish the last of my homework; and dread of being outted as a hack writer.

This residency has kicked off with a resounding crash of thunder. Seriously. A cab picked me up at 4:15 AM to take me to the airport. After hours of travel, I discovered my luggage had rebelled and diverted itself to Chicago. And my hotel key card? It has mysteriously demagnetized itself twice in a matter of four hours – which the kind lady at reception blamed on the ghost of Brown Hotel. Add to this getting caught in an actual thunderstorm that dropped the Ohio River on Louisville in twenty minutes, and you find me writing this blog post in a towel as my single change of clothes dries in the bathroom. On the bright side, Mother Nature just scented my clothes with spring rain and United Airlines provided me a toiletries kit so I can brush my teeth.

Lucky for me, today’s agenda was light, with a Welcome Reception and Dinner followed by one lecture. To my relief, I didn’t feel like I had a Freak Light – kind of like the Kmart Blue Light Special Light just for freaks – shining on me. I had that inward sigh of recognition: I know some people. Then the buzz kicked up about writing, and I remembered: I know these people. We sit at the same lunch table and speak the same foreign language. Home.

Now on to the day’s tips…Short but sweet since we only had one lecture, and I’m frickin’ cold since the hotel doesn’t provide a robe.

Sena Jeter Naslund, our Program Director, kicked things off with introductions. I mention this because she had a couple of lovely things to say that I thought bore repeating in my best paraphrase…

1. When reading the workshop piece of another, you should look for the “beating heart” of it so you can tell the author what they are doing well (in addition to what could use work).

2. Our competition is not the writer sitting next to us, but the reams that are in the library.

Lecture: Adapting The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Rebecca Gilman, Guest Lecturer

Rebecca Gilman adapted Carson McCuller’s novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter for the stage. She discussed the adaptation process, her methods, and the difficulty of adapting a novel for another medium. Based on her lecture and our discussion, here are some tips to take away.*

• Make it a goal to honor the original work, while clarifying the characters. Stay grounded in the original work but make it topical or relevant to today’s audience.
• Write scenes you want to include from the novel on index cards. These can be used to create a storyboard – one which you can manipulate the order and structure of as a novel can flow between timelines while a play moves forward in one timeline.
• Identify an organizational stylistic theme. For example, is the location central to the story? Will this impact the structure of the set?
• In a play, you get the luxury of writing from every character’s POV. Each character needs an arc. What do they want? What obstacles are in their way?
• Know whose story you’re telling. Which character changes the most?
• Why do a stage adaptation? To give a novel a new audience. To give a novel’s readers a new way to think about a book.

*These tips are all my own paraphrases. This blog series is not sponsored by Spalding or its faculty.