Lady Speed Stick is sponsoring a women's diary thing. You chronicle your day, submit it, and you have a chance to be published in their collection. Ladies, you should check it out! :)

My 24/7 Life

*Edit: Here is my entry: April's 3/27 Diary.

"Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form."
- Vladimir Nabokov

I am rereading Reading Lolita in Tehran for the first time in a few years and came across this quote once again, which is just astounding. I love how it almost politicizes a very arty, imaginative thing like curiosity. To be curious is to go against the status quo, to challenge, to poke holes in the tapestry that covers us and find the light. Lovely.

This week I was not chosen for a journalism summer program that I really wanted. The failure is not a terrible blow to me as I do not have the journalism experience they were looking for. They gave one of those, "You don't need that experience, but we heavily lean towards candidates with it." What can you do? I tried and will try again.

But on another note, I got a contractual job for an educational publishing company, which is wonderful. It is not easy to get freelance writing work - everyone wants something different, some don't want to pay very much, etc. - so this is a stroke of luck for me.

Meme #1

I seriously love memes. I don't know if it's the writer or exhibitionist in me, but anyway... Here is one I got from Coyote Underground.

1. Do you have a favorite writing instrument?

The computer. I have been so spoiled by computers that I can't really write without them. I can, but my hand gets crampy very soon and I can't get thoughts down as fast as I would like. I type at like 90 or 100 wpm so I can just spew forth my thoughts onto a computer.

2. Do you imbue said favored writing instrument with special powers; for example, the ability to jump start your work?

No, because I can always sit in front of a blank screen and feel, you know, blank.

3. Are you superstitious or analytical about your muse?

I never really thought about a muse. If anything, I write better when I feel depressed than when I am happy, so I can't say that anyone inspires me (or it would be an insult to them :).

4. Is it better to write or to have written?

I won't lie, I love the feeling of having finished something that I feel has turned out well, but I wouldn't be a writer if I didn't say, "to write." Continually.

5. There is a certain celestial alignment present in many famous writer’s astrological charts. Whether or not you believe in astrology, is there something different about you that made you a writer?

That would be a cool thing, to be able to confirm that I'm meant to be a writer ;) I think that I express myself well and love writing so much that I must be one.

This is an excellent site for those of us who need a little help getting started sometimes (raises hand!):

Creative Writing Prompts

I am visiting home for a week, doing my work and classwork from here via the internet. My creative writing class is going wonderfully, although the assignment I am up to is simply to write a story, not more than 15 Microsoft Word pages long. I am working on a story that is loosely based on my childhood adoration of a funky aunt of mine, but it is hard to actually write a story, especially since I haven't done it since I was a kid. I hope I can pull it off.

Over two weeks after I crunched to get a freelancing assignment in, I still have not been paid. I don't like chasing people down and being a nuisance, but what can you do? I can't afford to work for free.

I thought that the column revision went well because they gave me the column and said they looked forward to working with me. Today I received an email that they were taking it back. I am pretty disappointed. I can understand rejections - hey, I'm a writer and for every acceptance, you know there are 5-10 rejections - but acceptance and then changing your mind? That just adds insult to injury.

I am applying for a staff position at another excellent website which I will not reveal until/unless I get it. Cross your fingers for me. I wrote them two good samples but if they don't want me, I will go elsewhere with them.

I've found it's very difficult to write when you have a full-time job. It becomes nearly impossible when you are in school as well. I haven't written anything for myself, or for a personal project, in a very long time. In May a writing group that I joined is having a weekend getaway retreat to a lake house with workshops and everything. I am looking forward to it with all of my being.

I got some feedback on my sample column this evening. They liked it, but they want me to be funnier. This disappointed me because I felt like the piece was quirky. Okay, it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny, but it was more casual and jokey than I ever allow myself to be as a "professional" writer. They seemed interested to work with me so I am going to try again and see what happens. I hope it works out as I was looking forward to this.

I was watching this excellent PBS program on journalism, media and blogging. God, was it good. It was basically about the shift from news on TV and in papers to the internet, and where we are going. It raised questions like, Are bloggers really "citizen journalists" or just commentators? Things like that. Good stuff.

I have been trying to figure out what to do with my life lately, and journalism has been one thought. I recently applied for a summer fellowship at Northwestern's journalism school. It's for "alternative journalism" and that was enough to draw me, even though I love creative writing. (I will find out what their verdict is in the next three weeks.) So I have been wondering, since a career as an award-winning novelist and/or creative nonfiction writer is a bit lofty an ideal to have, should I go to school for journalism and work on that as a career, with creative writing on the side? I thought it might be too cut-and-dried for me, but the PBS program made me wonder where journalism is going, really, and if I could be a part of wherever it winds up. Blogs sure do blur the lines.

I'm taking a writing course for the first time in my life. I took one before, a "writing seminar," but that was only in name - we read literature and wrote papers on it like any other lit course. Now I am taking a creative writing course on fiction, and it is more fun that I could have imagined. I always dismissed fiction as something I could not do, but I think that perhaps I only need training. I've learned the elements of a story - a character with a strong desire towards something and an obstacle that stands in the way - and I am now working on a lesson on character development.

I may have my own biweekly or weekly column on an up-and-coming website. I should know for sure after this weekend. Crossing my fingers! :)