--Lecture notes mostly done for Friday’s Mythology class. Must print, highlight key points and give them one more read through to see if there is anything I want to add before Friday. Must also come up with some sort of group work relating to either goddess myths or love/marriage myths. Hmm… Will think on it. Maybe I’ll find a way to work romance novels into the class.
--Working on a story about sex and religion. Still trying to figure out where it’s going.
--Wrote the following snippet because it popped into my head, but I don’t know what it’s going to be, part of a story or part of a novel idea I’m working on:
I have heard the phrase “build a better mousetrap” used to refer to keeping a faithful husband from straying. Which basically reduces men to being nothing more than mindless rodents and the whole love, marriage, happily-every-after package to a vicious steel trap whose only purpose is to quickly capture and slowly kill.
I’m okay with that.
--Read the beginnings of my screenplay. There’s some good dialogue there. That gives me hope. It’s due April 22. That makes me panic.
--Making a to do list (already) for summer:
--Finish screenplay and enter it in the Virginia Screenwriting Competition (deadline May 23).
--Work on summer anthology deadlines (I have 10 calls for submission at the moment, that number is sure to increase).
--Finish my novel proposal for Avon Red.
--Agent hunt. Again.
--Read, read, read (and update my GoodReads page).
--Figure out what/if I’m teaching in the fall.
--Reinvent Book ClubTM! I have big plans!
--Chicago? South America? Florida? A trip-- somewhere!
I think there will be more, but that’s a start.
Buzzing along at Starbucks, getting ready for class (Mythology) tomorrow. Everything is graded-- for that class. I still have the online English Composition essays to grade. Maybe this weekend? Ah. Spring Break is next week and I’m very much looking forward to it, though I know I really should spend many, many hours working on my screenplay.
I have a tendency, when my plate is full, to heap a few more things onto it. Take the screenwriting class, for instance. It really shouldn’t be much of a challenge for a professional (::cough:: me ::cough::) to write a first draft of a screenplay. Really. And I know it. So, when something like this comes along (courtesy of my screenwriting professor, no less), I feel like I must rise to the occasion. Never mind that it’s my first screenplay. Never mind that writing a first draft by the end of April and writing a final draft by the end of May are two entirely different beasts. Never mind that I don’t stand a chance in Hell at winning a screenwriting competition. I am writer, hear me roar. Or write. Whatever. Must do it. (The masochist’s version of “Just do it.")
Then there is the lovely and talented and driven Alana, who occasionally forwards interesting calls for submissions. She inspires me to want to write something for these calls-- something good and literary and emotional-- something I don’t possibly have time to write with everything else I’m supposed to be writing. But I want to and feel like I should, since my writing friend took the time to forward the call for submissions. Must do it.
Looking at my Stickies, I see that I have seven calls for submissions on my must-submit-something list and four on the if-I-have-time-to-submit list. These calls for submissions do not include the calls received from writer friends or that I run across in my daily blog and magazine readings. My head spins when I contemplate the grand total and I become anxious when I consider how many I can really submit to, with deadlines ranging from March 31 to June 15. Unfortunately, I find I often have ideas for the later deadlines and the fast approaching deadlines leave me blank-minded and frozen-fingered. Ack. Better not to think about it, but I still must do it.
I read once that the more you do, the more you find time to do. Or something like that. It referred to writers who dream of giving up the day job and writing full-time. In theory, you’re likely to accomplish more with a full-time job on top of the writing job than you are if you write full-time because you will structure your free time better if you’re working a regular job and you will squander much of your time with promises of “I will write later” if you are writing full-time. There are times when I can vouch for that. While the full-time writing is currently juxtaposed with part-time teaching, part-time studenting (not a word, I know) and full-time husband at home part-time, I am writing more lately than I think I could write if I were working full-time. Lately. This has not always been the case. I am glad I feel the sense of urgency that makes me write when part of my brain says I’ve done enough for one day (or that it’s Sunday, so take the day off for god’s sake), but I wonder if I will ever feel like I’ve really done enough.
Must do it. All. Now.
In writing my lecture notes for Friday on Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth (specifically, the section called “The First Storytellers") I have been able to incorporate:
--William Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality
--Carl Jung
--the collective unconscious
--Judaism
--Buddhism
--death rituals
--the Blackfoot Indians
--hunting rituals
--animal consumption in contemporary culture
--menstruation
--female genital cutting
--William Gibson and his novel Neuromancer
--cyberspace
--science fiction
Fun! (I know, I know… I’m a geek.)
I’m back, I’m gone. I’m back. So. Hi.
You would think I would find more time to blog since I am all but attached to my laptop many hours every day. Teaching two classes in two subjects in two forums is proving to be a (mostly) fun challenge. Two classes is not much of a course load, but still it takes up a good bit of my time. The online class, of course, was already fairly well organized before it started since I taught it last semester. The face-to-face (in-person? real? I don’t know what to call it. Traditional, I suppose) class requires much more work since I haven’t taught it before. It’s fun work, don’t get me wrong, but it is still work. A lot of work. I’m trying to decide if I will continue this teaching stuff next semester-- meaning fall, as I think I will take the summer off-- or pursue something else. We shall see.
So, that’s the teaching. Then there is the learning. I opted for the fun class rather than the working-toward-my-women’s studies-certificate class. The fun class is work, too. It is… gulp… a screenwriting class. Yes, because I don’t do quite enough writing, I have committed to taking a graduate level class in screenwriting. I will be writing a feature-length movie script between now and the end of April. Oh my. When I’m not thinking about mythology or grading English essays, I am contemplating scenes for a film. It is the one area of professional writing I haven’t yet attempted (there are others-- poetry, technical writing-- but I’m only referring to those that interest me) and taking a class seemed the best way to motivate me. Here we go…
So, I am teaching and learning in 2008. I like it.
Dear Student X:
All it takes to get an A or B in my class is to do the work. Oh, yes, and turn it in.
Do not make me hunt you down to get your last essay. Despite my compassionate demeanor and swift response to your e-mails, I really do have a life.
Do not make me e-mail you three times because you do not check your school e-mail address.
Do not make me wonder whether you’ve decided that, despite your 90 average, you’d rather get a D in the class (because that is the most you can hope for when you get a zero on 20% of your grade) than submit your last essay-- which I know you’ve written because you posted your rough draft.
Do not tell me you are busy with other classes. I am busy, too. But look at me, e-mailing you to find out why you haven’t submitted your essay.
Do not complain about your internet connection, the school website or any other technical issue. You have known for four weeks when this essay was due-- you could have submitted it at any point.
Do not send me snippy e-mails. It will not make me think fondly of you when I am grading your late essay.
Lastly, please forward this e-mail to the three other students in the class who have not submitted their last essay. I am tired and do not feel like typing their e-mail addresses.
Thank you.
Lowly Paid, Highly Dedicated Adjunct
What’s it all about?
Life. Love. Writing. Editing. Sex. Books. Romance. Movies. Friendship. Photography. Teaching. Coffee. (Lots of coffee.) Travel. Feminism. Academia. Insomnia. Memories. Experiences. Rants. Raves. Reviews. Babies. Pregnancy. Motherhood. Insanity. Musings of an insomniac writer. Want to know more?
