Discovering your Writer Self

Attending the right graduate program can alter your life and writing style. Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but I think grad school gives you a wide range of skills. After reading a post entitled, "it feels like changing fortune," by fellow classmate Dave Kiefer, I agree with him when he writes how attending the University of Baltimore has significantly improved his writing. Before attending UB, I never wrote my stories by hand--I wrote every story directly into the computer. As a novice, I thought it was bad if you didn't know what your story was about before writing it. However, as I began to study the writing habits of writers that I admire such as Toni Morrison, I learned that many of them write their stories on a piece of paper or pad. At UB, I learned that writing is a process and an exciting journey. Discovering the story is the best part of writing. I used to think it was crazy when I heard writers tell journalists, "The story just came to me." But I can honestly say, this is true. A writer shouldn't cocooned himself in his dank, lonely writing den because the best material comes from the outside world. I find myself incorporating conversations I overheard and things I saw on TV into my writing. Writing is cultural; so why not embed society, media, and real life into your writing? With writing we are creating worlds, and those worlds should somewhat resemble "real" life. Not just fictional life.

My New Addiction, Part II

As I mentioned in a previous post entitled, "My New Addiction," blogging has opened up my universe; I have found an emerging passion. It is cool to be able to voice your thoughts and opinions--and bam--you have an audience. After installing, Google Analytics, I found out that this blog has been viewed by folks in Hawaii, California, and even India! Call me a nerd, but I was tickled to see those statistics. Blogging is a new form of communication. I call it "the call and response." I write a post, you read it, and you respond--there is interaction. I also love to read other writers' blogs. My favorites are Blue Mosaic Me: The Writing Blog of Jackson Bliss and Alligator Legs. I like "Blue Mosaic Me" because Jackson Bliss, a Ph.D. Literature and Creative Writing student at the University of Southern California, blogs about the conversations he has with faculty including Aimee Bender, TC Boyle, and Percival Everett. He types verbatim both acceptance and rejection letters he has received from editors and literary agents. He shares the correspondence he has written to authors, literary agents and editors; he includes their responses (my favorite is the one from Junot Diaz; click here to read it). The other site I enjoy is Alligator Legs. I like how she blogs about the New York literary and arts scene. Plus, she chronicles her writing aspirations in New York City. Are there any writing blogs that you love?