Amanda's recent post about not being able to write immediately made me think of this meme that I found a long time ago. In May 2008 I started writing this post about not being able to write, and intended to answer all the questions in the meme to get my creative writing juices flowing. And then I never did. Aaaanyways, now I'm posting it without my answers to my good buddy Roo Roo. May my failure as a writer inspire the crap out of you, or somebody. Or nobody. As we say in France, disfruta:
In the interest of "writing" I have spent the past hour at work not working, but rather wandering the internet looking for writing tips. I came across some interesting writing exercises that are supposed to cure writer's block. I guess the idea is similar to warm-up exercises in sports or drawing or music - like playing the scales or stretching the muscles. Some people say the hardest part of writing is coming up with a topic (which is what these exercises address).
I believe the hardest part is starting to write. I guess the exercises also help the writer start to write, because writing about some random topic that doesn't really matter to you is way easier than writing about something you find important. I always feel like the reason I can't write is the fear that I might mess it up. It's easy enough to go back and edit something you've already started, but the thought of starting is sometimes too...weighty, or something.
Anyhow, here's the single solitary writing exercise I found that isn't meant for writers of fiction:
1. Do you outline?
2. Do you write straight through a book, or do you sometimes tackle the chapters out of order?
3. Do you know how a book is going to end when you start it?
4. Where do you write?
5. What do you do when you get writer's block?
6. What size increments do you write in (either in terms of wordcount, or as a percentage of the book as a whole)?
7. How many different drafts did you write for your last project?
8. Do you let anyone read your book while you're working on it, or do you wait until you've completed a draft before letting someone else see it?
9. What do you do to celebrate when you finish a draft?
10. One project at a time, or multiple projects at once?
11. Do your books grow or shrink in revision?
12. Do you have any writing or critique partners?
13. Do you prefer drafting or revising?
14. What are your favorite writing books?
15. Morning writer, evening writer, or doesn't matter?
16. How do you handle reviews?
17. How do you handle rejection?
18. Do you prefer to work on writing by yourself? Or do you prefer collaborating?
19. Able to work on airplanes?
20. Have you ever abandoned a book or an article that you had finished? When? Why?
21. What writing advice do you really believe in?
Showing posts with label webjunks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label webjunks. Show all posts
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, May 23, 2008
new old post 3: on how I'm getting old
In my random internetty wanderings, I found this letter written by Katra, a blogger on Vox. Her blog is called "Freudenschade," which is a reversal of Schadenfreude (finding joy in other people's misfortune). So Freudenschade is supposed to mean being unhappy at other people's good fortune (see this article about a guy who felt guilty pleasure when they discovered the truth about that girl who plagiarized a novel in her college application).
I think it's a pretty cool concept, and clearly, a feeling I have all the time. It's similar to jealously, but feels more justified. I guess it's because the Freudenschade-feeler is the unhappy one, and we have this idea that gloating at others' pain is bad but self-hatred is kind of noble. Or maybe it's just because of the cool German name.
Anyways, enough about the word, back to the letter. This girl is turning 30, something I am kind of preoccupied with. What if I turn 30 and still don't have a real job? What if I'm never done with school? So her terminal degree and "real adult job" make me feel a twinge of jealousy. But after all, I have almost four more years to sort that out... yay?
I think it's a pretty cool concept, and clearly, a feeling I have all the time. It's similar to jealously, but feels more justified. I guess it's because the Freudenschade-feeler is the unhappy one, and we have this idea that gloating at others' pain is bad but self-hatred is kind of noble. Or maybe it's just because of the cool German name.
Anyways, enough about the word, back to the letter. This girl is turning 30, something I am kind of preoccupied with. What if I turn 30 and still don't have a real job? What if I'm never done with school? So her terminal degree and "real adult job" make me feel a twinge of jealousy. But after all, I have almost four more years to sort that out... yay?
Dear Twenties,
As I am sure you know, the time has come for us to part company. It's been a long, lovely ride, but this is my stop and I am getting off. Goodbye to you, suckas!
Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of things about you that were truly good: I gave up vegetarianism, for one, and every piece of bacon I now eat tastes just that much more delicious for its long absence. I was For Real In Love for the first time, which was also a pretty amazing thing. In retrospect, however, I'd have to say that my relationship with bacon has worked out much better for everyone involved. Except the pigs, of course.
In my twenties I think I also got the friendship thing right: I managed to keep the really important friendships and ditch the toxic ones. Learning to recognize the toxic ones alone was a major accomplishment. For some reason, it took me a while to figure out that if someone's basic function in your life is to make you feel shitty about yourself, then that person is not a friend. An ingenious insight, I know.
On the other hand, a lot about you straight up blew, Twenties. The long-nourished infatuations with people who didn't love me back (so much wasted time!), the exchange of running for sitting at a desk or on a couch, the mounting student loan and credit card debt -- those are fun little mistakes I plan never to repeat.
I hate to tell you Twenties, but I think the Thirties are going to kick your ass up one side and down the other. I'm no longer a student now, for the first time since before kindergarten. I have a terminal degree and a real adult job and a dog. I am at the beginning of my real life now, looking forward to establishing myself professionally and starting to earn a Serious Adult Salary (soon, we hope, right?).
The friendships keep getting better and better and I'm sure the relationships will, too, now that I know what I want out of them. One lesson learned, relationship-wise, for example: It is not okay if your boyfriend thinks that sitting on his couch smoking pot while you watch him play Nintendo is a fun date activity. Not okay.
Twenties, I bid you a bittersweet adieu. I'd love to stay and chat some more, but I have a mission. I am off to meet the Thirties and together we are going to step out and kick some serious ass. Sorry, Twenties, but it's over.
Really, finally over,
Katra
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
the state of my blog
a few weeks back I was surprised to find that industrious little high school math students came to my blog seeking information on how to use a TI-86. well, things have gotten weirder. here are a few of the more interesting searches that have brought people to my illustrious blog this week:
1. "stansfield tires" (I guess that's not too surprising, but why would someone actually seeking tires check out my blog?)
2. "wooden nickels"
3. "henry miller FEMA trailers" (at first I thought, what in the good green earth does henry Miller have to do with FEMA trailers? But then I googled it and discovered that the famous writer shares his name with a FEMA lawyer - who I can't ever recall blogging about, but whatever...)
and my personal favorite:
4. "how to write a apologize letter for drinking beer in school"
well, my friend, I hope reading my humble blog somehow helped you write a well-received apologize letter. my advice: perfect grammar will get you nowhere, so don't worry about that, but stay in school anyways. well at least high school. just don't go to grad school - it sucks, and even drinking beer during class doesn't make it more fun.
1. "stansfield tires" (I guess that's not too surprising, but why would someone actually seeking tires check out my blog?)
2. "wooden nickels"
3. "henry miller FEMA trailers" (at first I thought, what in the good green earth does henry Miller have to do with FEMA trailers? But then I googled it and discovered that the famous writer shares his name with a FEMA lawyer - who I can't ever recall blogging about, but whatever...)
and my personal favorite:
4. "how to write a apologize letter for drinking beer in school"
well, my friend, I hope reading my humble blog somehow helped you write a well-received apologize letter. my advice: perfect grammar will get you nowhere, so don't worry about that, but stay in school anyways. well at least high school. just don't go to grad school - it sucks, and even drinking beer during class doesn't make it more fun.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
i'm not an engineer
but I do spend 20 hours a week having my intelligence insulted by engineers, so when I found Cooking for Engineers, I was expecting a useless collection of gross recipes written in a condescending, unintelligible manner. I should rephrase that - I was hoping it would be like that, so I'd have an excuse to call engineers useless, gross, condescending, and unintelligible.
Oh look, I just did it anyways!
But I digress. Cooking for Engineers is actually a super awesome and incredibly super website. Some of the recipes are weird chemical experiments, mock apple pie and the like. But most of the recipes are good, plus there are lots of pictures, plenty of step by step information for the more difficult stuff, and interesting explanations of the science behind cooking and baking phenomena. Check it out next time you're at work - especially if you work with engineers, who may walk by, spot a chart like this, and think you're actually working:
:
who knew?
Oh look, I just did it anyways!
But I digress. Cooking for Engineers is actually a super awesome and incredibly super website. Some of the recipes are weird chemical experiments, mock apple pie and the like. But most of the recipes are good, plus there are lots of pictures, plenty of step by step information for the more difficult stuff, and interesting explanations of the science behind cooking and baking phenomena. Check it out next time you're at work - especially if you work with engineers, who may walk by, spot a chart like this, and think you're actually working:
:
| Material | Thermal diffusivity |
|---|---|
| Copper | 120 * 10-6 m2/s |
| Aluminum | 100 * 10-6 m2/s |
| Cast Iron | 22 * 10-6 m2/s |
| Carbon Steel | 14 * 10-6 m2/s |
| Stainless Steel | 4.3 * 10-6 m2/s |
who knew?
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The best thing about this website is that I can spend hours on it at work, and nosy coworkers looking over my shoulder may assume I'm just making some work-related charts and graphs.Except when I start laug
hing really really loud.
Monday, August 06, 2007
a brief foray into what I learned in grad school
kind of. in lieu of working I've been doing a lot of thinking, due in large part to Ben's recent post about commuting and unhappiness, followed by Amanda's incendiary comment about living in Lowell, and my recent discovery that I'll be living in Lowell for at least another year, if not longer.
so public transportation in Lowell basically sucks. the bus system is completely out of touch with the needs of people who would actually take the bus to get to work and back. the buses don't run often enough that you could take them and get to work on time, so the buses are often pretty empty. since there aren't enough people riding the buses to justify more routes or more frequent trips, the problem is kind of a vicious cycle.
the bus and train station used to be downtown (good) but when they expanded route 3 and the Lowell Connector, they moved the station to a weird location that's right off the highway, but a long walk from downtown. so ironically, the public transportation is now convenient only for people with cars. although I can't prove it, I suspect that a lot of these drivers live in the suburbs and spend their money outside of Lowell.
so the bus sucks, driving sucks (especially my car), there's no subway, and Lowell isn't especially bike-friendly. however, it's pretty easy to walk places in my neighborhood, and even more so downtown. There used to be a supermarket pretty close to my house, but they closed it and opened a shiny new one directly across the street from another supermarket, in a fancy neighborhood. apparently the hannaford brothers felt that maximizing their profits and squashing the competition were more important than my personal hunger. but there are a few convenience and liquor stores, a 24-hour Walgreens, plenty of restaurants, and some other good stuff within a few minutes walk, and another supermarket about a mile and a half away.
on a related note, I found a cool distraction called Walk Score that calculates the "walkability" of your address. you put in your address and it lists grocery stores, schools, parks, bars, libraries, movies, etc. within walking distance of your house, and rates the address on a scale from 0-100. my house got a 48 out of 100, which is better than I thought, but probably due to stuff like the claim that "Christine L. Allum, Independent Herbalife Distributor" is considered a "grocery store."
Walk Score can't tell you that the nearby bar is a super-shady dive, or that the supermarket closed a year ago. also, it seems to calculate distances "as the crow flies" as opposed to how you would actually walk there (you know, on streets and stuff). I MapQuest-ed a store that Walk Score said was 0.66 miles away, and found out it's more like 1.39 miles. anyhoo, I wouldn't use this to scope out potential places to live, knowing the reality of where I live vs. what Walk Score thinks, but it's a really good idea in theory. check it.
so public transportation in Lowell basically sucks. the bus system is completely out of touch with the needs of people who would actually take the bus to get to work and back. the buses don't run often enough that you could take them and get to work on time, so the buses are often pretty empty. since there aren't enough people riding the buses to justify more routes or more frequent trips, the problem is kind of a vicious cycle.
the bus and train station used to be downtown (good) but when they expanded route 3 and the Lowell Connector, they moved the station to a weird location that's right off the highway, but a long walk from downtown. so ironically, the public transportation is now convenient only for people with cars. although I can't prove it, I suspect that a lot of these drivers live in the suburbs and spend their money outside of Lowell.
so the bus sucks, driving sucks (especially my car), there's no subway, and Lowell isn't especially bike-friendly. however, it's pretty easy to walk places in my neighborhood, and even more so downtown. There used to be a supermarket pretty close to my house, but they closed it and opened a shiny new one directly across the street from another supermarket, in a fancy neighborhood. apparently the hannaford brothers felt that maximizing their profits and squashing the competition were more important than my personal hunger. but there are a few convenience and liquor stores, a 24-hour Walgreens, plenty of restaurants, and some other good stuff within a few minutes walk, and another supermarket about a mile and a half away.
on a related note, I found a cool distraction called Walk Score that calculates the "walkability" of your address. you put in your address and it lists grocery stores, schools, parks, bars, libraries, movies, etc. within walking distance of your house, and rates the address on a scale from 0-100. my house got a 48 out of 100, which is better than I thought, but probably due to stuff like the claim that "Christine L. Allum, Independent Herbalife Distributor" is considered a "grocery store."
Walk Score can't tell you that the nearby bar is a super-shady dive, or that the supermarket closed a year ago. also, it seems to calculate distances "as the crow flies" as opposed to how you would actually walk there (you know, on streets and stuff). I MapQuest-ed a store that Walk Score said was 0.66 miles away, and found out it's more like 1.39 miles. anyhoo, I wouldn't use this to scope out potential places to live, knowing the reality of where I live vs. what Walk Score thinks, but it's a really good idea in theory. check it.
Monday, July 09, 2007
roo roo's meme
What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was 15 and had just started working at my very first real (not my dad's store) job. It was a truck stop/diner/bakery on route 20 in Worcester. It was actually kind of cool, in the front we served meatloaf and american chop suey, but in the back they were making these incredibly elaborate wedding cakes. I started off washing dishes and eventually got to wait tables. ah, the beginning of my long and illustrious waitressing career. good times, free food, learning dirty jokes from gnarly truckers. then right before school started, I got fired because the owner's daughter was back from 'maternity leave.'
What were you doing 1 year ago?
It was my first summer off the Cape in 4 years, and it was motherfucking hot in Lowell. I had just inadvertently signed myself up for a world of pain, working two impossible jobs at the same time, yet still managing to accomplish very little. I was at the office for like 9 hours a day, the first three of which I spent on email or the phone with boss #1, trying to coordinate a seminar series that never quite went according to plan. The rest of the day I sat outside writing in a notebook, pretending to work for boss #2 and freaking out because she was coming back from vacation and I had done nothing in weeks, making phone calls and socializing with passersby.
Kelly had just had Croix, so that was pretty exciting. there was a girl from Spain who had just arrived to live at my house for a month. Amanda and I spoke drunken Spanish to her at the Folk Festival. she kind of sucked, but there were way better foreign exchange students to come.
Five snacks you enjoy
1. string cheese
2. granola bars
3. string cheese
4. string cheese
5. string cheese
Five songs that you know all the lyrics to
1. "shoop" - salt n pepa. no self-respecting girl between the ages of 23 and 33 will ever forget a line of that one.
2. "ripple" - grateful dead. same as above, except by "girl" I mean "hippie"
3. "meet me in the morning" - bob dylan
4. "el baile de los que sobran" - Los Prisioneros
5. all of Remain in Light - Talking Heads
Five things you would do if you were a millionaire
1. buy a regular car
2. buy the house I live in right now
3. quit my job
4. go to Morocco
5. do something, uh, philanthropic with the rest
Five bad habits
1. spending money I don't have
2. vanilla kreme donuts
3. chronic, debilitating procrastination
4. constantly indulging my desires to escape (from the house, the office, work, thesis, responsibilities, awkward situations, consciousness, etc.)
5. self-indulgence part II: drinking, smoking, eating and sleeping as much as I want, pretty much all the time
Five things you like doing
1. road trips
2. iced coffee
3. writing
4. frolicking, preferably in nature
5. escaping/eating/drinking/smoking/sleeping
Five things you would never wear again
1. champion sweatshirts over white turtlenecks
2. jelly shoes
3. bodysuits with the snaps
4. blossom hats
5. legwarmers. kidding!
Five favorite toys
1. coffeemaker
2. coozies
3. cell phone
4. the internets
5. my brand new mortar and pestle
I was 15 and had just started working at my very first real (not my dad's store) job. It was a truck stop/diner/bakery on route 20 in Worcester. It was actually kind of cool, in the front we served meatloaf and american chop suey, but in the back they were making these incredibly elaborate wedding cakes. I started off washing dishes and eventually got to wait tables. ah, the beginning of my long and illustrious waitressing career. good times, free food, learning dirty jokes from gnarly truckers. then right before school started, I got fired because the owner's daughter was back from 'maternity leave.'
What were you doing 1 year ago?
It was my first summer off the Cape in 4 years, and it was motherfucking hot in Lowell. I had just inadvertently signed myself up for a world of pain, working two impossible jobs at the same time, yet still managing to accomplish very little. I was at the office for like 9 hours a day, the first three of which I spent on email or the phone with boss #1, trying to coordinate a seminar series that never quite went according to plan. The rest of the day I sat outside writing in a notebook, pretending to work for boss #2 and freaking out because she was coming back from vacation and I had done nothing in weeks, making phone calls and socializing with passersby.
Kelly had just had Croix, so that was pretty exciting. there was a girl from Spain who had just arrived to live at my house for a month. Amanda and I spoke drunken Spanish to her at the Folk Festival. she kind of sucked, but there were way better foreign exchange students to come.
Five snacks you enjoy
1. string cheese
2. granola bars
3. string cheese
4. string cheese
5. string cheese
Five songs that you know all the lyrics to
1. "shoop" - salt n pepa. no self-respecting girl between the ages of 23 and 33 will ever forget a line of that one.
2. "ripple" - grateful dead. same as above, except by "girl" I mean "hippie"
3. "meet me in the morning" - bob dylan
4. "el baile de los que sobran" - Los Prisioneros
5. all of Remain in Light - Talking Heads
Five things you would do if you were a millionaire
1. buy a regular car
2. buy the house I live in right now
3. quit my job
4. go to Morocco
5. do something, uh, philanthropic with the rest
Five bad habits
1. spending money I don't have
2. vanilla kreme donuts
3. chronic, debilitating procrastination
4. constantly indulging my desires to escape (from the house, the office, work, thesis, responsibilities, awkward situations, consciousness, etc.)
5. self-indulgence part II: drinking, smoking, eating and sleeping as much as I want, pretty much all the time
Five things you like doing
1. road trips
2. iced coffee
3. writing
4. frolicking, preferably in nature
5. escaping/eating/drinking/smoking/sleeping
Five things you would never wear again
1. champion sweatshirts over white turtlenecks
2. jelly shoes
3. bodysuits with the snaps
4. blossom hats
5. legwarmers. kidding!
Five favorite toys
1. coffeemaker
2. coozies
3. cell phone
4. the internets
5. my brand new mortar and pestle
Sunday, July 01, 2007
various internets
I spend a lot of time sitting at a computer pretending to work, but others don't have that luxury. so just in time for Monday morning, I wanted to share with you, the kind taxpayers of the Commonwealth, a few of the things that have been keeping me "busy" while I'm getting paid to reduce toxics. some call it webjunk, I call it a way of life.
- Erowid: a website about drugs, "providing access to reliable, non-judgmental information about psychoactive plants and chemicals and related issues." we're talking all 'psychoactive' drugs, both plant-based and chemical, legal and illegal: alcohol, MDMA, caffeine, morning glory, cannabis, heroin, chocolate, opium, LSD, and all manner of pharmaceuticals. the stories in the experience vaults are pretty f-ing fascinating.
- Gröûp X: thanks to Mr. H for bringing to my attention the best (and probably only) fake Arabic rap group ever. The Mario twins: they look so goddamn the same, if I ask them if they want an ice cream, they BOTH say yes!
- Personal DNA: it's that colorful little box in the sidebar. You take a long-ish test (good for when you're serious about procrastinating but want to feel like you just "did" something for the past hour) and it gives you a personality analysis. Then if you're really bored, you can Psych You/Psych Me and take tests for other people. No more work, EVER!
- The Sublime Philosophical Crap Test: like the Spark tests I used to do instead of writing my undergrad thesis, the people who wrote this are pretty funny, but you get that sinking feeling that they really do know what they're talking about. They give you a painfully long analysis - the very short version of mine was: You scored 55% Non-Reductionism, 11% Epistemological Absolutism, and 100% Moral Objectivism! You are an N-S-O: a metaphysical Non-Reductionist, an epistemological Skeptic, and a moral Objectivist! yay?
Friday, June 22, 2007
"work"
so here I am, on a beautiful and sunny Friday afternoon, at "work," in my "office," wearing my "shoes." this BLOWS. there's good news though - when I got to work today no one tried to move me to a different location, plus I now have my very own PHONE and MAILBOX. yes, i have truly arrived. then my boss' assistant, who is quite possibly the only nice person in the entire place, showed me how to use the fax machine and the copier. believe it or not I was already familiar with those devices, but it was sweet of her anyways. everyone else in the office kind of looks at me like "who the fuck is that" but no one actually introduces themselves, so their loss, they'll never know who I am and why I'm the awesomest.
anyhow, having my own mailbox really gave me the sense of permanence I needed to feel comfortable at work. comfortable enough, anyways, to sit there for a few minutes, take off my sensible shoes under my desk, fill out my hours for the week, and leave. I'm in my other adopted office now, which belongs to Patty. her office is way nicer, it's painted in soothing tones and Homero is right next to me so I can pester him endlessly with translation issues. today we went over guinea pigs, which in case you were wondering, are NOT delicious.
in lieu of actually working, I have been messing around with pandora a lot today. in addition to being a good way to listen to music from anywhere, it's a really cool idea. it's based on something they call the Music Genome Project, which identifies "traits" of songs or artists you tell it you like. then it finds and plays other music that shares similar characteristics. for example, I'm currently listening to my 'Born Under Punches Station.' I told it I liked the Talking Heads song 'Born Under Punches,' and right now it's playing a song called 'Thieves Like Us' by New Order, according to them "because it features electronica influences, extensive vamping, groove-based composition, a dynamic male vocalist..." so when it picks a song you like (or don't like) you tell it, and it gradually modifies the content of the "station" according to what it thinks you're telling it. get it? i'm pretty obsessed with it as a way to discover new music. this thing always plays songs I otherwise wouldn't ever hear, and it's pretty fascinating to explore all the trait categories they use. apparently I'm a huge fan of 'vamping.' who knew?
anyhow, having my own mailbox really gave me the sense of permanence I needed to feel comfortable at work. comfortable enough, anyways, to sit there for a few minutes, take off my sensible shoes under my desk, fill out my hours for the week, and leave. I'm in my other adopted office now, which belongs to Patty. her office is way nicer, it's painted in soothing tones and Homero is right next to me so I can pester him endlessly with translation issues. today we went over guinea pigs, which in case you were wondering, are NOT delicious.
in lieu of actually working, I have been messing around with pandora a lot today. in addition to being a good way to listen to music from anywhere, it's a really cool idea. it's based on something they call the Music Genome Project, which identifies "traits" of songs or artists you tell it you like. then it finds and plays other music that shares similar characteristics. for example, I'm currently listening to my 'Born Under Punches Station.' I told it I liked the Talking Heads song 'Born Under Punches,' and right now it's playing a song called 'Thieves Like Us' by New Order, according to them "because it features electronica influences, extensive vamping, groove-based composition, a dynamic male vocalist..." so when it picks a song you like (or don't like) you tell it, and it gradually modifies the content of the "station" according to what it thinks you're telling it. get it? i'm pretty obsessed with it as a way to discover new music. this thing always plays songs I otherwise wouldn't ever hear, and it's pretty fascinating to explore all the trait categories they use. apparently I'm a huge fan of 'vamping.' who knew?
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