Journaling and Italy and My Father

I’m not into journaling. I know a lot of writers are, and if I never get another journal as a gift, I’ll be a happy girl. I just don’t care for it. Part of me wishes I did. I think about these famous authors who left behind a legacy of hundreds of journals filled with their thoughts and bits of writing, starting from their teen years through their old age. Then I think, “Oh, well. I should’ve started as a teen, and now it’s too late. Besides, you know, I still don’t like journaling.”

It’s not that I haven’t tried. As a teen, I tried to keep a diary, but I ended up writing lame, stilted entries that sounded like I was explaining my life to somebody’s awkward cousin. Happily, those journals have long ago disappeared into a trash bin.

I would happily never journal again, except that my school asks us to every summer when I go off to my summer residency. They like us to record our experiences and then we read an entry to each other our last night together. It’s actually very fun to hear the readings, to hear how others were inspired by what we experienced. I generally write exactly one entry during the residency – the one I read out loud. (Sh. Don’t tell my school.)

This summer in Italy, I planned to do a better job, but I kept putting it off so I could do homework or cool off in the pool at Spannochia. Then, in the last days of the trip, my father passed away. When I sat down to write my one journal entry, all I wanted to was curl up and cry. So the journal entry I read our last night was not a happy one. I broke down reading it, and my amazing friends cried with me. And I was reminded how cathartic writing could be, and how it connects us with people, even when we feel disconnected from everything.

I didn’t plan on posting this, but because a few people requested that I do, here it is. I promise to post a much more cheerful piece of writing next week.

I will not journal. I will not sit and pause over what this trip has meant to me. I will not ponder the grieving pietas or the blood-stained Colosseum or the churches with their body parts. I will not write about the Roman roads that often never led home or the wars that showed the darker side of men. I will not think about the Inferno, or the Purgatorio, or a paradise that some men may not reach. I will not journal about an email from home or how Italy has left her mark on me.

Because everything here reminds me of death and grief and him. It’s in the ground and in the air and in all the words we breathe. Age makes me think of wasting, waning time and everywhere I look I see bricks older than a great-great-great me. We’re dying every minute, blowing back to dust. Which brings me back to an email and to him. Which makes me cry. So I will not journal.

When Good Things Happen

On July 3 I flew off to Italy for my MFA residency and a much needed vacation. One of the lectures I attended while there was by my MFA mentor, Mary Yukari Waters. She spoke about “The Deceptively Simple Question” and challenged us as writers to steer from the obvious to keep our writing fresh and unexpected. The writers who give the readers what they expect are not the ones who will stand out.

I thought about that lecture a lot over the weekend. If one writer were to write about my experience in Italy, they might list the obvious facts. My car broke down on my house sitter while I was away. A centuries-old villa set off my asthma so I was on Prednisone a lot of the trip. I dropped a glass on my foot. I was stung by a bee – twice. I fell on the cobblestones in Rome, bruising my left knee. I tripped on a curb in Florence, deeply bruising my right knee, which caused me to limp the rest of my trip (and still hurts). And a couple days before we left, I got news that my father had passed away.

When you see the facts laid out that way, a reader would conclude that nothing good came of that trip. Even though it was difficult, I’ve forced myself to look beyond the simple answer, to be the writer and the PERSON, who digs deeper. Here’s what I found.

A hundred comforting hugs from new friends who found out what I was going through so far away from home. Two friends who held me in a foreign kitchen when I received news my father had signed a DNR. A roommate and new dear friend who stayed with me when I received news he’d passed before I could say goodbye. A travel agent who did everything in her power to get me to the funeral. Dear, dear classmates who made it their mission to make me laugh when all I wanted to do was cry. A sister who centered me and gave me strength. A brother who walked through some difficult days with me and held my hand at the funeral. Siblings and cousins and an aunt I’d scarcely met who made me laugh and told me stories about my dad. Stepsisters and a stepmother who invited me to share in their grief and be part of their family. Coworkers and colleagues who made sure I could be away without worry. And so many messages of love from friends everywhere, including some very personal messages from those who have lost their own fathers.

By my admittedly bad math, I received a thousand blessings when I look beyond the obvious.

Now I have a favor to ask. I would love it if you would all share something good someone has done for you during a difficult time in your life.  It can be anonymous. I just want to read something good for the soul. Think of it as a way to give back to the person who gave to you in your time of need. Has something good come of a bad time in your life? Do you just want to thank someone who was there for you? Do it. Seriously. Life is too short to leave things unsaid.

Spalding MFA Makes Top Ten

I’ve made no secret about my love for my school. I heart it all over the place until people are sorry they brought it up in conversation. I’ve been very happy in my time there. And now… they’ve made the Poets & Writers 2011 Top Ten Low-Residency MFA Programs. I couldn’t be more pleased! The staff – Sena, Kathleen, Katy, Karen, and more – have worked so hard to make this a program that works for its students.  Congratulations!

**On a personal note: I was accepted into 3 of the top ten programs! I’ve never doubted I’m at the right school, but that kind of makes my day.

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.