32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 31

Well...
I'm going to have to cheat tonight on my writing.
I did write, really I did...
I wrote two summaries of chapters.

Why is that cheating?

Because I wrote them for school.

*smh*

It is what it is...

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 30

I played around with Maxwell's song titles from Blacksummers'night:

My bad habits
Are so cold
My pretty wings freeze
Please, help, somebody
Stop this cold, stop the world
And I can love you
Without you these fistful of tears grow
I die, not playing possum
Death, and from my ashes
A phoenix will rise.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 29

Well, I technically did my (Thursday) triolet today for my writing challenge, because I didn't write one on Wednesday...but I should probably write some more.

I need to get in touch with my character La'Mia.
Maybe I could keep a journal of her thoughts.

Oh boulderdash! My eyes keep closing. I'll have to write more later.

Phooey.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 28

Sir Archie is holding on to my thoughts for today. I wrote mostly about Sade's new song "The Moon and Sky" and how musically gifted she is...I figure if I just touched her fingertips I might be able to siphon some of her talent. Ha!

I also talked about how having my hand wrapped in a make-shift brace, helped the soreness. I'm going to wear it again tonight.

And with that...goodnight!

Triolet Thursday - Triolet #20

Question: Why Do I Write?

Answer: It's because I feel light.
Holding on to thoughts, an idea, a word
silence, when a response doesn't seem right
Answer: It's because I feel light.
On paper or keyboard, my words take flight
In person, I'm more like a hummingbird
Answer: It's because I feel light.
Holding on to thoughts, an idea, a word.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 27

Today, for my writing challenge I wrote in Kit-Kat...er, Kit Kat...or KitKat...I guess I haven't decided the best way to write the name of my little Acer. If I use the same spelling of the candy bar, then I can't use the hyphen. I kinda like the hyphen holding the name together though.

Anyway, I had no intention of talking about that.

Kit-Kat is holding on to my writing for today. I had an idea to link a group of poems together using poem titles. So, I wrote all the poem titles before actually writing the poems and I'll go back later and write the poems.

Wah-lah.

Anybody else done anything like that before? I know no ideas are original.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 26

I spent my writing time today working on a character sketch of Mawu (from Wench). It's predominantly to serve as a model for my students on how one should be written, but it may end up being a blog I use for Mahogany Books. The plan is to write a book review of Wench, but Mawu is such an interesting character, I'm sure the character sketch of her has the same ability to give a reader of synopsis of the book that might help them select it to read.

Turning in early. Didn't sleep well last night.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 25

I finished Wench today by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. I enjoyed it and will be writing a review about it for Mahogany Books (and myself). Something drew me to this book and I'm not sure what. Whatever it was, I decided that I was going to be a supporter of this book. It startled me when I noticed that one of her characters was named "Mawu" because one of the poem-stories that I'm working on has a character named Lisa who is related to Mawu, as far a origin stories are concerned. Perhaps that might have been the connection...on a subconscious level...

*I see your side-eye*


Anyway...


My hand has been hurting a lot today and I can't figure out why. I'm worried that it has something to do with my writing/typing. Like maybe it's putting too much stress on my hand. It should be both hands that hurt though, right? It's just one though. Maybe I slept on it funny? The pain is mostly localized in my wrist. If I bend it forward too much it begins to hurts.

Ouch.

What does arthritis feel like?

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 24

I don't know how I completely forgot to do a triolet on Thursday...but I can't let myself off the hook for writing one.
************************************
Robot

It's best to not tell you how I'm feeling
fragile like an eggshell, handle with care
my emotions you find unappealing
It's best to not tell you how I'm feeling
moving towards the process of healing
sharing often leads to deeper despair
It's best to not tell you how I'm feeling
fragile like an eggshell, handle with care

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 23

Aww, it hasn't been a good writing day.

It's been a good day for keeping my eyes closed, but not a good writing day.

There's a flash flood watch advisory...perhaps it's the flood of marvelous writing that is going to come to me unexpectedly.

Yeah, that's gonna happen.

Maybe it's gonna happen when I'm sleeping.

Goodnight then, I wouldn't want to miss all this inspiration.

****OMG****

I forgot to write a triolet on Thursday!

Aaaack!

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 22

*Thinking*

My brain is so empty.

I can't believe that I am the only writer
that feels like a blank screen taunts them.

I should be writing, but I'd rather be playing a video game. I'm at the point where I might fall asleep on it, even if I did play.

Been thinking about semicolons. I taught them this week. I dislike them, wrongfully. I dislike them because I can't use them effectively. Isn't that a shame? I honestly feel like you should just use a comma instead of a semicolon or split it into two separate sentences. I mean, there are some times when a semicolon is absolutely necessary and those are the only times you should use them.

Example: I wrote Monday, January 18; Tuesday, January 19; and Wednesday, January 20; I have written every single day for the writing challenge.

You need to have those semicolons, there's no way to get around it unless you change the sentence completely. I understand the necessity for a semicolon then.

Example: Some days I write for an hour; other days I write for thirty minutes.

That kind of semicolon is unnecessary to me. All you have to do is stick a "and" in there. Wa-lah! No need for a semicolon. Or, how about a comma?

Geez! What a strange little person I am. Who rants about such things?

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 21

Sir Archie Argyle is holding today's writing.

I must have been having a low day...meaning a high anxiety day, so my writing consisted of a series of affirmations to uplift my spirits.

Yup.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 20

Sometimes, all you can get in is a sentence.
Maybe two.
Sometimes, it's not even a full sentence.
Maybe just a few words holding on to each other.
A fragment.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 19

Renewed from the writer's group Sunday, I spent my 30 writing minutes, reading/revising the story I shared with them. It's the one about La'Mia. When I told them my ideas for her, their reaction felt geniuinely warm, and that was great.

I'm hoping this group will provide the push I need to finish.

*crossing fingers*

One thing I noticed as I read through the story, was that I enjoyed it. I know that might sound weird, because a writer should like what they are writing. It's not always the case for me.

*warm fuzzies*

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 18

Does lesson planning count as my writing for the day?

It should because it does require a lot of writing on my part.

Hold on a minute, my writing muse is saying something.

***listening***

My muse says that lesson planning doesn't count, so I must write.

I fell asleep last night, in the middle of writing yesterday's entry. Tuckered out. One of my professional development goals for work is to be able to balance work with life, so that I don't burn out.

Still working at being successful in that area.

What ends up happening is that I'll work hard during the week with school stuff, maintaining my writing habit, and exercise. Then, I'll do fun things during the weekend, and try to cram in my school planning Sunday night and only be prepared for Monday...so Monday night, I'm planning for Tuesday....and so on...and then I'm...

BURNT!

Like raisin bread you leave in the toaster for too long.

I'm able to juggle on my Wii Fit Plus, but I'm not so good in the real world.

*sigh*

How do other people do it?

I know for a fact that it will be easier next year, as far as planning is concerned. I can tweak the lessons I've created from this year. My confidence will be higher because I will have had time to adjust to the school culture. The parents will be less concerned with the "new teacher" and the students won't be able to try the same tricks.

It will all be easier next year.

I just have to survive until then.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 17

I had a good time at the writer's group today. It was a small gathering of five women, including myself. The rain almost detered me from going out of the house, but I made the right choice to be fearless and drive to the meet up. I hate driving. I hate driving in inclement weather even more, but driving with bad weather to an unknown destination is even worse.

We shared book ideas we are working on and our struggles with completing our projects. One of the women is almost done with her memoir, and it sounded like the type of story that Oprah would probably enjoy.

***fell asleep***

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 16

Tomorrow I'm going to a Meetup.com group for writers.

This is my first time attending this particular group. I write much more in a community of writers than all by myself.

The first meeting is just a get-to-know-you type of deal, so no writing will be shared for critique.

I'm going to bring a book, similar to the one I'd like to write though, so people will have an idea of the direction I'm heading in. That means I can either bring, Love That Dog, Locomotion, or The Surrender Tree because they all follow the same formula of using poetry to tell a complete story, like prose would.

Poetry can sometimes be a bit of a red-headed stepchild in writing communities who critique fiction. Folks don't feel qualified to make suggestions because poetry isn't their thing. What qualifications do you need though? Either the story works, or it doesn't. I'm not looking for anyone to read my poemstory and tell me that I should use more alliteration or that the metaphors need to be more abstract. It's not the poetic techniques that I need for the group to focus on, it's the story. Either the story is crap and needs work, the story is okay and needs work, or the story is good and needs work.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 15

I shouldn't be fighting sleep this hard, but I must write.

I finally received my copy of Wench by Dolen and I'm trying my best not to tear straight through it. I want to take my time with it. Write little notes, underline descriptive parts, circle new vocabulary words, reflective questions after each chapter, you know, the whole nine yards...but it very difficult to do that because it's so easily digestible that I want to keep on reading to see what happens next.

I'm only up to chapter six, but I noticed something in the book that caught my attention. I wouldn't say it's a theme yet, just an interesting relationship brewing. I won't even say anything directly, I'll let Dolen paint the picture with her words.

Chapter One:

Sweet spoke up. "Us can plait your hair."
Lizzie instantly wished she had thought first to ask. She wanted this creature with the strange name to be trapped in the curve of her own strong thighs (pg. 4).

Chapter Two:

Mawu waved her hands when she talked. She fluttered them about as if rearranging the air around her. There was a fluidity about the woman that made Lizzie take notice. At that very moment, she was stroking her bare chest right about her left breast, and Lizzie couldn't stop following the movement (pg. 10).

Lizzie had been taking down laundry behind her master's cottage when Mawu came up from behind and put her arms around Lizzie's thick waist.
"Come help me cook these here birds."
Lizzie turned around, trying to hide her pleasure at the first sign of Mawu's interest in her (pg. 12).

**************************************************

I dunno about you, but my 'dar went off a few times...

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 14

*yawn*

Someone should be in the bed sleeping. Can you guess who?

But you know it's Thursday and a triolet must make an appearance.

**********************************************************************

Haiti, it must be hard to believe
with the earth shaking, people dying...
tears full of concrete dust, while you grieve
Haiti, it must be hard to believe
destruction you can't even conceive
so many souls are crying, trying...
Haiti, it must be hard to believe
with the earth shaking, people dying...

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 13

My writing for today is in Sir Archie Argyle and I just don't have enough energy to type it out on here.

I wrote two different pieces.

One was a reflective journal entry, the other was the beginning of a song. The song is about quotation marks, sung to the tune of Rihanna's "Hard". It stems from an assignment I gave my students. I have this idea that eventually I will compile all the creative models I share with my students about grammar rules and mechanics and create a book. Shoot, even if it isn't deemed publishable, I'll be able to keep using it myself for my classes, cutting down on the lesson planning time...and that would be truly amazing.

I could use the sleep.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 12

It's a free write day. It's a free write day.
Time to free write
because writers write
and I wanna be a writer
so it's a free write day, it's a free write day
because it's day 12 of my writing challenge
and even though it's late
and I still have planning to do
and papers to grade
another "and" I have to do is
writing, writing, and more writing

I can't put my writing on the backburner
or it will remain on the backburner forever
I did my excersize
and my chores
and now I'm doing my writing
see, you have to fit it in
and I might be staying up late tonight
but my body will be happy that I worked out
my Boo will be happy that I cleaned up
and I will be happy because I wrote

ooooohhhhwoooozerrrrssssszzzz

note to self, don't have the american idol try outs on tv
or you will be distracted by the crazy nonesense that comes on

I just really want to know if the people who have awful voices
think they can sing
or do they do it to get on tv
or are they actors?

************

let's talk about anxiety
my anxiety gets on my nerves
and i haven't managed to get rid of it
i don't remember experiencing this when I was younger
but I'm sure I must have
so then it's progressively gotten worse then...?

you might wonder what makes me anxious?

talking.

*************************

enough about that,
sometimes I forget that anyone can read these
and it might not be so good to let it all hang out
ya know.

thinking about editing that out.

it's not that i care that you know about it
cause maybe you have some suggestions that could help
but you never know who might try to use that against you.

***************************

a co-worker tried to gently throw me under the bus today
he thinks he's slick
but i'm on to him, i've been ON to him for awhile now
he HAS to know he's the reason why I keep my door closed...

****************************

my writing alarm is going off...nope, not even going to edit this(much)...

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 11

Currently, I'm reading Long Train to the Redeeming Sin (Kola Boof) with a Twitter Bookclub. Today we discuss the first short story in the book, The Lioness.

I'll be honest, I feel disconnected from it because I don't feel like I know what's going on. As I was reading it, I kept having to go back and reread parts for clarity. At first I thought it was a cultural disconnect, you know, that I didn't know some of the traditions that are probably commonplace to the audience the author intended.

When I read Toni Morrison, I generally have to go back and reread part as well to catch subtle symbolism or foreshadowing and what not, but that's not the same feeling I got when I read The Lioness.

Can't put my finger on where my confusion lies. Some it surely comes from some of the expressions like: mama-tit boy, sexy leopard, irhala, kasha, etc. Many of the words that seem foreign to me are explained, but they don't entirely clear up the fog in my mind.

Let me see if I can give you an example. Soti, the most favored wife of Kueth, was said to have come from a group of people known to eat their newborn's afterbirth. What I don't understand is...is that a bad thing? I can't quite tell. Right after this admission of the afterbirth eating, the word "kasha" appears. I have no idea what "kasha" is, but I bet if I did, it might at least alleviate some of my confusion. However if eating the afterbirth is a bad thing, why is she the most favored wife?

Just some thoughts I was having. Maybe the discussion will help shed some light on my darkness.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 10

Dear Jacqueline Woodson,

How are you? It's been a minute since the last time I've written you. I had an idea the other day to actually send you a hand written letter because the actuality of you reading my blog is slim and not at all. Besides, I figure if I really want a response from you, an online letter is probably not the best way.

So Jacqueline, I was thinking you should get a Twitter page. My reasons are mostly selfish, however there are things I'm sure you can get out of the experience. There a lot of other writers on there that you can network with like: Carleen Brice, Connie Briscoe, Neil Gaiman, Neesha Meminger, Sharon Creech, Sharon Draper, Sharon Flake, and probably a bunch more I haven't found yet.

Fans of your work would love to interact with you. You'll be able to give us a heads up when you are doing a book signing or promote authors you enjoy, drop a few notes about the writing process, and maybe give us previews of works in progress.

I'm almost positive it would increase your book sales (and it's fun too).

Think about it,

Evelyn

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 9

Staring at this blank screen for the last ten minutes. Did you know that words don't magically appear on the screen if you sit down in front of your computer? This is news worthy right? Okay, maybe not. I keep waiting for some genius-ness to hit me so I can receive an outpouring of a delicious story that people will want to devour.

Alas, no.

I'm not even sure why I feel this way, because I know that isn't the way it happens. Revision is where all the magic happens, but I'm not even that far yet. I need to finish. One story, just need to finish one story. All the way done, the sh**ty first draft, like Anne Lamott says in Bird by Bird.

Is it because I'm thinking too big that it's difficult to get past the intro of a story? Is it because the story isn't really good? Is it because I don't know what the ending is and so I don't where to go with the story?

Let me think about that for a moment...is it because I don't know the end of the story?

Alright, with Joi's story I certainly don't know the ending, but I have a good idea of the time period in the story. Time period might not be the best way to explain myself. I'll use Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia as an example. The setting of the book is at a high school and it starts at the beginning of the school day and ends (sorta, not including the epilogue) at the end of the school day. So the period of time - or time period, like I said earlier - in the book is roughly 12 hours. With Joi, it starts during the summer before she starts her 8th grade year and leads up to some time in spring, where she has to make a decision that will seemingly change a part of her life forever. I don't know what choice Joi is going to make...and that's where I'm stuck.

What's to stop me from writing all the way up to that part and then figuring out what choice she'll make once I get there? Nothing, right? Tell my brain that.

Sheesh. I need to move past that.

Maybe if I broke it into tiny chunks, using the months as sections, I might may be able to shrink my vision of the enormous task I have ahead of me. That's probably it, the fact that it seems impossible to do, which stalls my writing. If I gave myself a limit, of say 15 narrative poems for fall, winter, spring, and summer, I might be more apt to wrap my brain around 15 poems versus the billion my mind believes I have to write in order for the story to be great.

I can try that.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 8

Today was rough.
The snow was a tease.
She gave me a 2 hours delay and not a minute more.
Frustration is what she gave me.
Grateful. I know I should have been grateful for those 2 hours.
I was...but
I so could have used a mental health day
and my frustration didn't allow me to sleep soundly for those extra 2 hours.

**********************

Do you feel appreciated?

**********************

Ah, well, what am I on here to talk about? Nothing really. I'm too sleepy to write for my characters.

I played the new Wii Fit Plus earlier. The plan was to just look at some of the new features compared to the old version, but thirty minutes later I had burned 97 calories. It's fun and I hope if gives me a renewed interest in getting on the Wii regularly.

**********************

Started reading Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsten. It's a book that I'm reading with the class as part of the curriculum. Not a book I would have selected on my own, but I'm willing to give it a chance to grow on me. I'm about up to chapter 5 and it's alright. The main character, Cole Matthews is a young high school kid who has some anger issues because he has parents that are alcoholics and a father who beats him when he isn't sober. He's one of those, I'm-mad-at-the-world-and-the-world-is-going-to-pay type of cats.

***********************

I wonder what it's like to be a published author? Do you really need an MFA in order to publish?

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 7

Hi Snow!

I see you outside my window. You don't know how much I need you to stick around, to the roads especially. I don't have anything to offer you except for poetry. It's a Thursday night, how about a triolet?
***************************************************
My weary eyes are happy to see snow
this body of mine craves extra sleep
You were unaware before? Now you know
my weary eyes are happy to see snow.
Stir it around like bad gossip, wind blow
If I don't get a day off, I might weep
my weary eyes are happy to see snow
this body of mine craves extra sleep.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 6

Dear Snow,

Please come to visit. I miss you immensly. I know you were just here a few weeks ago, but I need to see you again. I wasn't even expecting your last visit. I'm ready now. Not just me, we are ready for you.

It be great if you can come through early in the morning, say 2 or 3 am. If you knock gently at the window I will check for your arrival and then turn on the tv to see if everyone in the county agree that we should stay indoors in honor of your visit.

I will wear the official snow day apparel, pajamas, and participate in the two-hours-of-extra-sleep-in-the-bed ritual. Even have a new shovel for you, so you can be piled in neat, white mountains on the side of the stairs.

So how about it Snow? Do we have a deal? Will you come by? I promise to be sweet. I'll put on some hot chocolate and relax. And, I won't forget to do my excersize no matter how hard you come down.

*eyes closed*

See, I'm already prepared. If there's anything you need of me, let me know. I heard an old wives' tale a while back that if I wear my jammies inside out, then you will appear. I know that's fake (because I tried it once) but I'll do it again if it will make the difference.

I'm just saying, thinking about it.

Wishing you were here,

E.N.A.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 5

So it's day 5...and I don't have anything in particular to write about.

I'm not sure why that is because there are subjects I could talk about.

One of them might be too gross to broach. There's certain details you don't need to know or want to know about me.

Today was the first day back for my students, though all the teachers and staff went in on Monday.

Uh, nothing interesting to write about there.

I did 30 minutes on the treadmill, in an effort to stick with my vision board.

Dolen's first book Wench came out today. I wish I had a copy of it sooner because I could have had my post be a review of the book.

I assigned a book review to my 8th grade students and I could have used my review of her book as a model of how to create one. Is that my sly way of promoting books I enjoy? Certainly is! We read a piece of The House on Mango Street today and I use other books I enjoy too, like: How Writer's Work (Ralph Fletcher), Fledgling & Bloodchild (Octavia E. Butler), Peace, Locomotion (Jacqueline Woodson) A Kick in the Head (Janeczko & Raschka) and a host of others. I have to figure out, how I can tie in Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia that I finished the other day. Maybe as an extra credit assignment? Oooo, I forgot about the cursing and the tiny sex scene...I'll have to tell them to get parent permission first. Ooooh, maybe I can open it up as an extra credit to a lot of other books I've read.

See how I haven't focused on any of my characters yet?

*closing my eyes to see if they wanna talk*

Hello in there? Do you want to come out and play?

*crickets*

Geez.

I was hoping Joi would say something, she's the one that has been talking to me recently. Perhaps she's observing. She's the only character so far that attends a private school. She is in her 8th grade year in middle school for the bulk of the book. The record scratched when I said 'book' just now...hard for me to imagine ever finishing her story. Perhaps she realizes this too and has given up on me. Have faith in my Joi, be patient. If you tell me I will write it down, especially if you tell me during the writing challenge, cause I'm sticking to it, unlike nanowrimo

*moment of silence for nanowrimo*

Speaking of nanowrimo, I failed miserably at it...I got upwards 9000 words from the experience, so it wasn't a total bust. However, I was no where near the 50,000 words you were supposed to write in the month of November. I wrote about Joi for nanowrimo...I found out that Joi has a best friend named Toni. She also is a bit of a follower.

Have you ever typed with your head down and your eyes closed because you are tired but you still want to keep up the practice of writing. Yeah I'm doing that now. I'm sure there are typos galore, but I'll get rid of them before I hit the publish button.
Only think about typing with your eyes closed is if you are doing a timed writing, like I am, you don't know when time is up unless you set an alarm. ..and I thinking I might have done that, but I'm not 100% certain. I had too look up at the keyboard to type the
*****
Oooh, there goes the alarm...I don't think I'm even going to edit and revise this. Tired.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 4

Doing a timed write for today. Not feeling very motivated to write, but as long as I sit here and type something for 30 minutes, then I can at least feel good that I wrote today.

I actually wrote a little bit earlier in my argyle composition book...I need to give that composition book a name. I could just call him Argyle, that would be easy, but not very imaginative. I do like the word argyle though, reminds me of gargoyle, you know one of those ugly, sinister, rock formations. Doesn't that remind you of writing? LOL! How about Archie, the Argyle Composition Book or Sir Archie Argyle. I like that.

Normally when I name things, they are female, but Sir Archie Argyle feels like he is a boy. Alright, so from now on, if I say Sir Archie Argyle, just know that I'm talking about my composition book. Depending on how long you've been reading my blog, you've already seen a picture of Sir Archie Argyle. I should post another, because Sir Archie Argyle is very vain about how he looks. He finds himself rather handsome and would probably enjoy you admiring him.



Sir Archie Argyle would love to take up the full thirty minutes, but I do need to focus my mind elsewhere before I get into planning for my classes tomorrow...yes my two week break is over.

*A moment of silence*

*Another moment of silence because it's a tragedy*

*One more moment...it's that serious*

Let me make a confession to you. One of many probably. I've started three different stories and finished none. Two of them are collections of poems all centering around the main character, like Locomotion (by Jacqueline Woodson) or Love That Dog (by Sharon Creech). The the third book is a collection of vignettes...but it's poetry-ish too. I'm using Sandra Cisneros' book as a guide for that one.

All the protagonist are young girls, teenagers. Dawn, La'Mia, and Joi. Dawn was the first character that started talking to me. She came to me after getting my appendix removed, so she was able to speak to me and I wasn't able to move and so I wrote down the things she was telling me. Once I was better, she may have still been talking to me, but I was no longer listening to her. Scratch that, I was listening to her, I wasn't writing down the things she was telling me. So I forgot pieces of her story. And then when I joined a writing workshop group about a year later, her story evolved into something totally different. It was almost a totally different story. Dawn's been with me for years and she still floating around in my head waiting for me to get my ish together to tell her story...and she's still waiting.

La'Mia was born from Dawn. Something about Dawn's story triggered La'Mia, but I knew it wasn't something that Dawn wanted for herself, it was someone else. Once La'Mia has probably been marinating in my mind for awhile though. La'Mia is a vampire of sorts, but not really. No blood, sharp fangs, garlic, or anything like that. I'd tell you more about her, but she said it's not a good idea to tell you. La'Mia is the story that is the collection of vignettes. I feel like I know a lot of La'Mia's story, all the way up to the resolution almost, but when it comes time to write....nada.

Then there's Joi...she's going to be my heterosexually-challenged character.

****

Times up!

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 3

My Writing Process for Triolets

1. The first part of the process is to pick the topic I want to write about.

Let's say my topic is reading.

2. Second, I pick two words that relate to the topic. The two words I pick must be words that are easily rhymed. I would never select a word like chartruse because I can't readily think of rhymes for it. I'd pick yellow or green instead.

The two words I'll pick for my topic are happy and friend.

3. After I have the two words selected, I create a sun/spider web (a graphic organizer I use when teaching middle school kids) and brainstorm as many words as I can. You'll have to just imagine it, because I can't draw pictures on this blog.

friend: bend, blend, spend, end, depend, lend, pretend, mend, recommend
happy: sappy, crappy, nappy

3.1. If during my brainstorm I find out that I can't create at least 4 rhyminng words, then I select a different one.

So instead of using happy, I'm going to use fiction.

fiction: depiction, eviction, friction, restriction, diction, prediction, addiction, etc.

4. Next, I number my lined paper 1-8 because triolets are 8 lines long.

5. Then, I focus on the first line. Whichever word that I find more rhymes for, is the word that ends the first line.

In this case it would be friend.

Example: Novels can be better than a friend.

6. I do a syllable count once I get the first line. I shoot for 8 or 10 syllables. Ask me why I do that later, if you want to know. It's not something you should feel required to do.

So if the syllable count is wrong, I revise the first line.

Example: A novel can be better than a friend.

7. On my lined paper, I write this first line on lines 1,4, and 7.

8. I repeat the process for line 2, and write it down on lines 2 & 8

Example: reading is my favorite addiction

9. Then I work on lines 3 & 5 because they both rhyme with line 1.

Example: always ready, on books I can depend
I can tell you which ones I'd recommend

10. Finally I work on line 6, which rhymes with line 2.

Example: memoirs, sci-fi, poetry, and fiction

11. And that's it. I read the poem a few times and make sure it sounds right, give it a title, add punctuation (if needed), revise a bit, and then I'm finished.

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Books > Friends

A novel can be better than a friend
reading is my favorite addiction
always ready, on books I can depend
a novel can be better than a friend
I can tell you which ones I'd recommend
memoirs, sci-fi, and young adult fiction
a novel can be better than a friend
reading is my favorite addiction.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 2

I have a hair appointment in a few minutes.

My first thought was to get it in with Dragon Age, but I passed by my vision board and don't see anything representing a need to get better with my gaming.

That's because I'm pretty good at getting my game on already. Ha!

The words "poet" and "writer" and "blog" all gave me the side eye when they learned of my plans to spend some quality time with my video game. They pushed me over to my Kit Kat (netbook) to make sure I was productive.

I'm going to need to continue this writing in my argyle composition book, because I still haven't finished last weeks triolet. Sad, eh? Well that's the way it is.

*pop*

My brain frequently requests more guidance with this writing thing. Knowing a writer's process is one of those things I enjoy hearing. Hoping that whatever process they use might also work for me. Maybe I should share my own writing process.

I'm not a published writer or anything, but I do have a process that I use when writing triolets in particular. I suppose reading my process could help someone too.

Alright, that's what I'll focus on when I'm under the dryer at the beauty shop. I'm bringing Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia with me, hopefully I won't be distracted.

*grin*

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 1

Creating my Vision Board


Did you create a vision board for your New Year's Eve celebration?

It took me quite some time to get mine altogether. More time than I imagined. I had a good time with it though.

I wish I had more magazines to select from...the pictures and words you select from a particular magazine matters to me. I used a Poets & Writers magazine, a few Essence magazines, an Oprah magazine, and Glamour (the one with Michelle Obama on the cover in the red dress).



I had an idea of how I wanted to focus my vision board, but I certainly didn't know how it would look at the end. Can you see it? The heart in the middle ties everything together. Of course I had to have a section of the board dedicated to poetry and writing. I made it such a large section because I feel it needs to be if I'm going to be successful with it. It's been too low on my list of things to do. I don't want to view poetry as a hobby I do on the side. I want to be a poet, feel like a poet, live like a poet...whatever that means. I want people to see me and whisper behind my back "that's the chick that writes poetry."

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What is the meaning behind the 32 Day Writing Challenge? Click here and here to find out.