Independent Study!

So I've made life a little complicated for myself this semester. I ended up dropping my workshop class because--quite frankly--there was no way I could handle the workload on top of everything else I am doing. So I talked to my program director and she set up an Independent Study for me! I'll be learning about Sequential Art (aka Graphic Narrative, Comics, whatever you want to call them) and hosting a weekly blog to keep track of my progress.

I'm still keeping this blog and I'm going to attempt to keep track of both, but that's going to be... interesting, to say the least. I may cross reference them, but subject matters should stay separate. (This is my more informal entire-graduate-life-experience blog, and the other is strictly on graphic narrative.)

That being said, the second week of the semester is here and I think I've finally got everything squared away. My schedule is locked in, my office hours are locked in, now I just need to fall into a rhythm and STICK to it. Which, seeing as it's already one in the morning, I'm not doing a very good job of. :/

I noticed I forgot how to critically read a whole novel in a short period of time. I've been going way too slow, and it's really hurting me. I need to pick up the pace and just read; I can't note every tiny little thing like I would in a short story or a poem. I wish I could, but time isn't really a luxury that I have. :(

Still, I'm optimistic about this new semester. :)

100 Year Starship Study

Here's a little something my blog has been missing for too long: science.

I just spent the weekend at the 100 Year Starship Study Symposium, and wow. I shook hands with scientists, engineers, and astronauts (even got one's email and phone number!), talked to science fiction authors (got a hug from Stephen Baxter! and had a nice conversation with Vernor Vinge) and lamented the currents state of education and inspiration for the communication of the vision of space exploration with several experts in the field--Luke Blaize, who argued for the use of video games as inspiration, June Scobee Rodgers, who founded the Challenger Center for Space Science Education in the wake of her husband's death in the Challenger Accident, and even Jeff Silver, who produced Tron: Legacy, Terminator Salvation, 300, and many other box-office hits. The weekend was amazing; I just wish I could have spent more time networking and listening to panels on propulsion, terraforming, genetic engineering, and the like. I know everything was video taped, hopefully they'll release the videos soon. And if they don't, I took copious notes.

The most important thing I learned at this symposium is that I need to get myself business cards.

I asked a lot of different people questions about what upcoming artists can do to help this vision of the future (which I want so badly, and part of the reason why I switched away from physics is because I know I'll be more useful in creative writing) and they all basically told me the same thing. Start with producing lots of little works, get known that way, and self-promote like nuts (hence the business cards). Which doesn't necessarily change much, except, well, maybe everything.

I was just talking to Boyfriend the other day about how I thought I was probably going to focus on Graphic Novel as an area of interest in my studies, and I actually have to write a pedagogy paper (that I am intending on turning into a conference paper, if I can get together a multi-generational group of panelists to go to AWP with me next year) and I was originally intending to argue for why Graphic Novel (in particular, and to a lesser extent, screenwriting) need to be taught in introductory-level multi-genre creative writing classes, but now I'm considering arguing for allowing genre-work (particularly science fiction) in those beginning classes, too. Those are two separate papers, so I'm going to have to choose, but still, it's worth a thought. Especially since I have been sort of building a syllabus and reading list in my head for the past few years for planning a science fiction creative writing special topics class. Although it will probably be a great many years before I get to implement it. I know eventually I'll write both papers. It's just a matter of which one I write first.

And speaking of graphic novels, the Multiverse Theory one I'm working on, it's focus is now probably going to go towards something bigger than myself, which is great. I've been kind of lacking focus for where to go with it, and the symposium has given me a lot of great ideas. :) Also--I have come to the conclusion that I need to really identify a specific art style for myself to make my art distinguishable and recognizable. Practice helps, yes, but I'm really seriously thinking about needing to take a digital art class or something just to refine my skills... because while raw talent and self-study does help, without formal training I'm really limiting myself. (Enter the half-baked idea of pursuing a second MFA--this one in art--after I get out of this program.)


Either way, we'll see what happens. Sorry for the brief and vague as usual; because of the Symposium I'm behind on homework and I really need to get to get moving on it.

Happy October <3!

Long vs. Short

So my thesis director posted a link to an essay regarding the absence of the novel in academia. It's a brilliant essay and I highly suggest you read it.

I personally have always had issues with keeping my writing short. I like to ramble. And I like to make things complicated. I just add layer upon layer and before I know it, I'm way beyond the scope of wrapping things up quickly. I know I'm good at creating conflict, I just haven't figured out how to create a nice happy resolution at the end, where the reader feels like all of their questions have been answered. But as a contemporary writer, do I even have to provide that service for my readers? I don't want to piss them off too much; then they'll never read any more of my work. But this is an issue I haven't really been able to work on in my creative writing classes because all we ever workshop is short stories or first chapters. :/ Even in my first thesis, I know my ending was weak. It was an extended personal essay, a string of anecdotes put together to analyze FIRST robotics as a religion, and in the end, it all kind of fell apart. It wasn't the best ending. I knew it. My director knew it. But still, it stands. :/ I'm still not happy with it, and I find that unacceptable. But rather than trying to beat that work to death and fix it, I'd much prefer to work on something new.

For this new thesis I'm working on, I already have kind of an idea of how I want to end it. End with the beginning. Circular kind of thing. It sounds lame when I reread that, but it makes more sense put into context. I know I'm being vague, and I'm sorry. I'm still trying to figure it out. But I want to try and like all parts of my life in this endeavor. Science Fiction. Creative Nonfiction. Writing. Science. Math. Music. Drama. Art. I'm going to try and make this work, but I need to make sure I don't bite off more than I can chew. I don't have a lot of time to get this finished, and since it's going to be a graphic novel, I really need a lot of time for the art part. It's sooo time consuming.

In both theses, there is a common strand. Rather than being long single pieces of work, they are collections of shorter works strung together in a way that makes sense. So maybe all of this training in writing short stories is actually rubbing off. The common string in the first one was a definition of religion, in which each bullet point was a segment I discussed in my anecdote. In the second one, I don't really have a common string. I have a theory that binds them together, but I don't have my story yet. The human aspect. The universality of it all.

I'm working on it. But I don't have much time.


In other news, the website that is supposed to be publishing my work has been down for about a week. :( Hopefully everything is okay, and they're just having mild technical difficulties.

Oh, I turned 22 last Thursday. I didn't really do anything exciting, just painted pottery with a few friends, and the day after, my mom came by and took me out for dinner and strawberry shortcake. One of my friends in aikido got me a cake (which we all shared after class yesterday), and Sensei was reminded that in all my 4 years at this dojo, I have still never had to do my Birthday Breakfalls. (I am expecting them tomorrow, and I am not excited about them.)

For those of you who remember Zombie Apocalypse Training, I've kinda started again. Besides going to aikido on a more or less regular basis, I've also been to the gym twice this week (going to try for at least 4x a week) to work on cardio, because my cardio sucks. So far so good, though. No passing out or anything. Hopefully by the summer I'll be able to graduate to a treadmill from the elliptical, and actually work on running. We'll see.

Backlogging, and Life Update

So after having a discussion with Boyfriend and thinking about it for some time, I've come to the conclusion that I should start putting up some old entries that I deleted, and writing a bit more about my personal endeavors than just simply criticism and strict discussion. That makes this blog a bit less "professional," but it will at least be more "interesting." I hope.

I haven't put any of the old backlogged entries up, but I'll mention it in a new post when I do.

In other news, I've already started on my new thesis. I'm very excited. So far it seems like it's going to be mainly graphic, but I'm really going to try and push some boundaries with regards to craft and form. I finally have a good, strong direction to work in, and for the first time, I actually feel like I'm creating a book, or something akin to it. I just hope that it is completed in the span of this semester to an extent that both my thesis director and I are happy with, and that I can maybe extend in graduate school to an actual publishable work. But no getting ahead of myself.

And speaking of publication, I still don't have any new details regarding my most recent one. I can tell you it's a snippet of flash fiction, and it will be published on an international online journal that showcases student work. (Yay!)

There are a lot of contests open that I'm considering submitting to, but I haven't had time to go through my work and pick anything out. :/ Classes haven't been very demanding this semester, but I've been really busy with extracurriculars and helping with my mom's wedding that's taking up a lot more of my time than I thought it would.

Ready to Rock and Roll

So I'm back from my trip to Virginia (I've only been back in Florida for about 5ish hours now...) and the only thing I'm going to say is that it was phenomenal! :] And completely needed. I was very excited that we got snow!


This is the first snowman I've ever made! You can tell it's a boy because of the leaf. :]
So anyways. Back to the writing. (Because I guess that's what you're all here for?)

All seven of my applications to Florida schools with MFA programs in creative writing (UF, UCF, FSU, USF, UM, FIU, FAU) are out. I submitted the fees, the transcripts, and all of the materials (namely the statement of intent and the writing sample). The writing sample was the most nerve-racking, because I was really ambitious with it. I submitted the first two chapters of a science fiction / steam punk novel I am working on (this is risky because it is a genre piece, and for some unknown reason genre tends to be frowned upon), and then for the schools that wanted more pages, I submitted a graphic novel. The term "graphic novel" is kind of misleading because it implies something lengthy... mine was only 8 pages long. More like a comic, then, but it was an adaptation of a piece of flash fiction, so there's not much you can do with only about 1000 words. But it was in full color! And I'm quite pleased with it. But that's also very risky because it's not only a piece of writing... it is art. Stick figure art, to be specific...


Don't judge Mr. Stick getting wasted with his buddies. There's a good cause behind it.
I can actually draw, but I liked sticking with the stick figures because of how identifiable they can be. :) Plus, it made drawing, inking, and coloring about a zillion times faster. But, as I was saying before, submitting a graphic piece is risky. I hope the universities see that as a good thing, though. That it is pushing boundaries and realizing that graphic novels are really starting to gain attention as legitimate literature. If not... well, there's always next year. :/ (I'd rather not, these applications are expensive!!)

Speaking of applications and their cost, I'm kind of stuck now. I'm going to start working on applications to all of the summer publishing institutes (U of Denver, NYU, Columbia) as well as any out-of-state programs. :) I'll keep you updated on my progress as I go along. For not the work shouldn't be that bad, I'll just keep using the same basic format for my statement of intent, and I'll be using the same writing samples... I just need to wait for after Christmas so that I can have enough money to pay for my applications and transcripts and such.

Speaking of transcripts, grades for last semester came out. I am so relieved. Got a 3.73 for the semester, and my cumulative GPA rose a hundredth of a point (to 3.68). Yay! The semester from hell didn't turn out so bad after all. (Although, I should note that MFA programs don't really look at your GPA or your resume or your GRE scores or anything like that. All they really want to see is your writing sample. Which is good and bad at the same time. :/)

As a last little note (I'm sorry this post is so long, thanks for bearing with me), I want to say hi and happy holidays to all of my readers. I've come to the realization that there are a lot more of you out there than I thought, so I want to thank you for bearing with me and my slight insanity and constant rambling. If you don't mind, I'd like some feedback. What do you want to read? More personal anecdotes? Or just writing about writing? Or something in-between? Do you want snippets of my actual prose? Or more pictures? Or comics? Or what? (Just wondering.)

Thank you for reading, and for those of you who leave me wonderful encouraging comments, a special thank you to you. :) I really appreciate it. You all are awesome. :]

Graphic Novel & My Second Undergraduate Thesis

So, I completed my first graphic novel this week! Its really more like a comic, only 8 pages long, and I need to tweak it, and maybe add an extra page of dialogue, but still, I drew, scanned, outlined, colored, added text, and submitted it for workshop, so I'm very pleased with myself.

The entire process took about 30+ hours or so. Extremely time consuming. The easiest part was just laying out the panels and what I wanted where. What took the longest was reformatting the panels on the computer (turns out I can't draw straight lines to save my life), and coloring. Even though I drew everything in stick figures, it still took an obnoxious amount of time. Its not perfect, but still, for my first full-length comic, "it's pretty damn good," as my professor stated.

Speaking of which, he suggested I draw a creative nonfiction one, and I got excited and asked if I could do that for my Departmental Honors thesis. When I first signed up for thesis, I was told that I could use my old thesis from Honors College for Departmental Honors, by when I inquired last week, I was told that I still needed to earn my three credits and that I should expand my original thesis or prepare it for publication.

Frankly put, I am completely sick and tired of that piece of work. I don't want to touch it, I don't want to deal with it, I'm done. So is Ira. So he's agreed to be my Director again, and help me work on completing another graphic novel, this time in creative nonfiction.

(You know, I have more pages of CNF than I do of F, and yet I'm still applying to grad school in F. It seems strange... I guess I write more CNF because it's harder and more of a challenge... but I do enjoy F also... I dunno. Whatever gets me into grad school. From there hopefully they'll let me take classes in CNF as well as F.)

I'm excited. :)