Writing Questions

  After going back through my mother's old blog posts, I found some interesting sets of questions that I wanted to try for myself. I tag my sister to do this next on her blog.

   1. How much writing do you do on average?
As a English major finishing her sophomore year? A lot. A whole lot of papers.

   2. What's the last thing you wrote? 
A two paged short story about a man-eating sunbeam. Dedicated to one of our cats.
 
  3. Is it any good? 
Nope. It still needs a lot of work.
 
  4. What's the first thing you ever wrote that you still have?
The first few chapters of a manuscript I started when I was twelve.

  5. Favorite genre of writing?
Descriptive Fiction. I have too much fun describing things and trying not to use the same adjective on any given page.

  6. How often do you get writer's block?
Did I ever get out of it?

  7. How do you fix it?
Music, midnight walks around campus and sometimes junk food.

  8. Do you save everything you write?
Yep, still have high school essays on my laptop.

  9. How do you feel about revision?
Honestly, I think I spend more time revising and editing than I do actually writing.

10. What's your favorite thing that you've written?
"The Library and the Candle" Took me three years, but I am extremely proud of it.

11. What's everyone else's favorite thing that you've written?
I'm not sure, no one has ever told me. "Hide and Seek" was pretty popular, but not a lot of people read my stuff.

12. What writing projects are you working on right now?
A play over two assassins who adopt their teenage sister after their father dies in a questionable bomb explosion. Final draft is due next Friday. In another class I'm working on a short story that could go fantasy or sci-fi, I haven't quite figured out which.

13. What's one genre you have never written, and probably never will?
Well, I have to write in several genres for classes, but outside of class? Poetry. I detest writing poems. I don't mind reading them, but writing poems has never been my thing.

When College Students Snapp

Despite it being only two weeks since we were on spring break, I'm seeing a lot of students start to go crazy, and I'm up there with them. Maybe it is the weather, the lack of sleep, or the fact that we are starting to feel the stress as our teachers start giving us more major assignments. None the less the results can be fun to watch.

1. My roommate was in the middle of complaining how she hated Thursdays when she rolled off her bunk. And kept rolling all the way to the other end of the room, moaning the whole time.
2. One of my co-workers rushed into our Brit Lit class exclaiming he was so busy he hadn't drank any coffee all day. This is one of the two kids who drank a whole pot of espresso  during a night shift last December (that was an exciting evening). I swear he drinks more coffee than my dad. I was tempted to dare him to go all week without it.
3. I licked my roommate's arm during class when she hugged my head. Tightly.
4. Two hours after that, Batman did the same thing. I didn't lick him. I don't think he'd taste as good (and I knew he would freak out if I did).
5.   My work supervisor gave of permission to close early next Thursday and we are closed for Good Friday on top of not having class. She's as eager to get out as we are.
6. I read four fiction books in one week. Because I was so stressed about homework I couldn't focus till the last minute. I'm turning into a procrastination queen. Mom, don't kill me.
7. Everyone is taking advantage of any opportunity to get off campus, even for a few minutes.
8. Ate two regular boxes of cheez-its and one giant one in under a week. Again cause I'm stressed. No I am not sick of them, and somehow I didn't gain any weight.
9. Chocolate is vanishing all over campus, and quite a few seniors are jumpy...
10. The Fire Department didn't show up for my dorm's fire drill.
11. I tried to play tag with a squirrel this week.
12. Several students are close to tears with stress, some have even broken down.
13. Lavender Link is trying to help us use up all our extra crazy by planning a video game night, assuming he doesn't go home this weekend. If he does, he'll come back to find us all gnawing at our desks.

Strange Articles

Sometimes we have to take turns presenting articles of literary criticism to the rest of the class. My turn is this Friday. I also have a test Friday, another presentation Monday and a finished manuscript for an entire play due next week. This accounts for my running across campus like a chicken with its head cut off instead of blogging lately. When I found the article for this week's presentation I started to wonder what I got myself into: “Eat Me, Drink Me, Love Me”: Eucharist and the Erotic Body in Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market by Marylu Hill. Possibly weirder than others, but I do find myself agreeing about the Eucharist. The other part, not so much.Needless to say I'm a little concerned about how I'm going to pull this off with an audience of conservative Christians.... Friday will be an adventure.

Spring Break

I am off. For one week I have no classes or work. Better yet, I won't be on campus for a week and will have real food. And oh, it shall be glorious! The following is a list of things that I plan to do over spring break.

1. Sleep.
2. Work on a seven paged story for my creative writing class
3. Sleep.
4. Write a two paged Christian Worldview paper over any chapter I choose from The Reason for God.
5. Sleep. With my cat.
6. Outline and write a draft of a full (most likely two act) play for my theatre class. 
7. Sleeeeeeeeeep
8. Read Charles Dickens and a bunch of poems for my British and American literature classes. Plus a short story for creative writing class and a handout,  and a chapter from another text book for Christian Worldview.
9. Curl up in bed with a non-college book and a cat, and eat chocolate till I fall into a sugar comma and sleep the whole day away.
10. Iron and model my medieval dress as my little sister requested and let her play with her camera. She wants to try human photography and all she's had to work with so far are the cats and a teddy bear. One cat kept photo bombing Teddy's photo shoot.
11. Walk laps around the yard until I collapse, or the cat following me starts panting through his black fur. If I'm out in the yard, Grendel insists on being there with me, alternating between guarding me from the other cats and showing off.
12. Invite Batman and a mutual friend of ours over for an evening and/or an afternoon.
13. Most importantly, the assignment my Christian Worldview professor has been stressing to us for weeks now (and I've barely done any of it). Rest: Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual rest. I guess we're all getting bags under our eyes because he really does seem concerned about how much sleep and relaxation time we're all getting.

I Buried a Dead Body

This past Saturday, the sun was shining and light breeze was floating through the window. How it managed to float through a very dense bush and down a small cement wall before reaching my basement window is a complete mystery but I was rather grateful for it. With my homework completed, I grabbed my sandals and went for a walk around campus. On my third round past the activities field, I noticed something small gleaming with reflected sunlight. I walked past it, thinking it was trash someone had left. What with our college hosting a basketball tournament, a lot of trash was being left around by visitors who had no respect for our campus rules on litter. Then something hit me: grey fur. I turned around and found to my surprise, a  full grown mole lying face down. I stood there for a few seconds wondering if he was afraid to move because of me or if he was dead. Then it hit me that he would have made a run for it by now if he could. From what I could tell, there were no wounds on his back, and his stomach was laying on the ground. He could have not have been there long, for there were no flies or any other sort of insect eating at him. "Oh, baby" I hear myself whisper. "I'm so sorry." I stood up and made a dash back to my room. Once there I grabbed five tissues and, for lack of a better option, a fork. No I did not eat the mole. I went back to the activities field, and noticed mole tunnels through the grass leading up to their owner's little body. Gently, I picked up the mole's body with the tissues. I had to cup him in both hands and stick the fork in my back pocket. Yet despite that he seemed so small and fragile. His body was limp and warm from the sunshine. His tiny white nose reached my fingertips and his perfect little tail rubbed against my wrist through the tissues. He was full grown, but to me he was as miniscule as a pen cap and as breakable as a glass figure. Ever so carefully I carried him to the cliff behind the library and ducked back behind some trees. Using the fork I dug a small little grave and paused. The mole lay on his back, velvet grey fur highlighted against the white tissues. There were no wounds on his front either. A blood covered tongue hanging out of his mouth was the only sign that he hadn't died a natural death. Chances are his little neck was broken by a predator before he died. With the greatest of care not to squeeze or damage him, I picked my little friend up with my bare hand. His fur was soft, so much softer than the silky belly of our family cats. His miniscule little white paws were perfectly formed and as endearing to me as the fingers of a new born babe. Once again I was struck by how small he was in comparison to me. Is this how small and fragile we seem to Abba? In a physical world where we are the largest, most powerful creature it can be easy to forget just how tiny and fragile we truly are. This past Saturday I remembered. In Abba's eyes I am no bigger than a mole, but I am loved with a fierceness that surpasses the compassion I felt for my smaller fellow creature at that moment. I sat there for a few seconds and stroked brother mole's fur lightly, putting it all in place as I hummed a small song and talked to him. I apologized for the shallow grave in a rocky earth that no mole would dig in. I couldn't bury him in the field where he had lived, not without getting caught and most likely in trouble for ruining the field where college students played Frisbee and had picnics. I apologized that he had to die right when the weather was starting to get nice and when he had just come out of hibernation. I described the trees, the view of the river below, the birds and the lack of college sounds to him. Then I laid him in his new home face down, as if he was tilling the soil beneath his paws once again, and covered him with the rather loose dark earth. It wasn't much, and in some ways I felt like Antigone, who just sprinkled earth over her brother. No doubt the wind and rain would blow the earth off and leave my poor friend open to the elements again. I offered a prayer for him, that he hadn't suffered, that his grave wouldn't be disturbed, and that I was grateful he was back with his creator. I asked for a chance to see him again when the whole world is restored. It isn't just humanity Abba wants to restore, it is all of creation, even the trees and moles. I wonder if my little mole will look any different when he is restored, will I recognize him? The chapel bell tolled as I stood up again, as if it was tolling for the death of my little brother. I wonder if it will toll for me when the time comes.  I do know part of my prayer for Mr. Mole was answered: it snowed the next day and the ground was frozen solid. He will rest undisturbed for a while longer. I can only hope the same is true for me when I am buried in the earth where the moles will make me welcome....that sounded much more morbid than I planed it to be.

Wednesday Quotes: Angry English Majors

"Split my infinitives" -2003 production of Peter Pan

Recently I went back and watched Peter Pan and found myself laughing at things I remember my parents laugh at but that I had not understood. One included this curse uttered by Captain Hook near the end of the movie. I think I just found a new alternative swear phrase for the English Department....if I can find a way to introduce it...

Roommates

Sometimes you love your roommate, other times you get on each other nerves. Here are some situations my roommate and I have gotten ourselves into.

1. I walked into our room to find my roommate had stuck her ear buds up her nose in an attempt to turn herself into a living speaker. It worked, the song came out clearly through her mouth, and out her nose when she swallowed.
2. My roommate had a scare when I trilled like a cat upon climbing into bed.
3. I've caught myself doing kitty calls when she's not in the room. Several times.
4. We bought a water spritzer to use on each other if one of us won't do something we swore we would do.
5. Discovered we can fire socks at each other with a blow-dryer. Granted, the sock doesn't go very far. Further experiments are being considered.
6. She likes Irish music, I like Christian Rock. Although she puts up with mine when I play it and I enjoy Irish songs too.
7. She likes staying up late. I don't. Not when I have class the next morning. Friday nights however...
8. We've both scared each other by talking back to our computers, or the new book being read. Mainly the computer.
9. Last night's conversation when the lights were turned off:
1. Me: "You know you can leave the light on till you're ready for bed right?"
2. Roommate (puttering around the room in the dark): "No, it's alright. I just had to put the hairbrush back; it's not that dark....Um...Where's the bed?"
10.  My habit of pacing in the room drives my poor friend crazy when she'd trying to get ready for church on weekends or work on homework.
11. We both like to keep the room cool, but cool has different meanings for each of us. I mean cool, she means snow. 
12. When we both get really excited about something, evil laughs emerge. Normally scaring the one who didn't laugh. Especially if it happens after the lights go out...sorry dear.
13. We both have our own tea pots. And use them.