Back on track
Last week's hobby crises were overexaggerated and short-lived, as usual. I stopped in to my "knitting coach's" office that afternoon and she straightened my work out yet again. For whatever reason, something clicked that time, and I didn't have any major problems after that. I even went and bought my own yarn and needles last weekend. Of course, the needles I bought aren't long enough for the scarf I was planning to knit (who knew there were different lengths?), so I need to either get some new ones or knit a skinny scarf. But the whole "knitting is a language I don't speak" thing was an overstatement.
Same with creative writing. I took my Rick Steves piece and braced myself to read it, but almost no one else had brought anything either, including the guy who had proposed sharing our current work. One person read, then we did a writing exercise that ended up being a great icebreaker--several of us ended up reading things that we'd written.
And then another student (girlfriend of the guy, who admitted being too intimidated to read his work and then left early) spoke up and asked if she could read something before she lost her nerve. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was phenomenal. It absolutely blew me away.
She read very quickly and in such a high, strangled voice that I thought she was going to cry. And as soon as it was done and we'd all exhaled, stunned, she packed up all her stuff and left. She didn't come back this week; I don't know if that's the last we'll see of her.
So far the only literary magazine submission we've gotten is an anonymous (and extremely cliched) poem. If she comes back to the club I'm going to beg her to submit something. Although frankly, I think she should aim a lot higher. I've read worse stuff in a lot of published short-story collections.
As for my own writing, I left that meeting energized and then didn't do a damn thing between then and the next one. I was sick for part of the time, but that's not much of an excuse. Hopefully I'll do better this week.
Same with creative writing. I took my Rick Steves piece and braced myself to read it, but almost no one else had brought anything either, including the guy who had proposed sharing our current work. One person read, then we did a writing exercise that ended up being a great icebreaker--several of us ended up reading things that we'd written.
And then another student (girlfriend of the guy, who admitted being too intimidated to read his work and then left early) spoke up and asked if she could read something before she lost her nerve. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was phenomenal. It absolutely blew me away.
She read very quickly and in such a high, strangled voice that I thought she was going to cry. And as soon as it was done and we'd all exhaled, stunned, she packed up all her stuff and left. She didn't come back this week; I don't know if that's the last we'll see of her.
So far the only literary magazine submission we've gotten is an anonymous (and extremely cliched) poem. If she comes back to the club I'm going to beg her to submit something. Although frankly, I think she should aim a lot higher. I've read worse stuff in a lot of published short-story collections.
As for my own writing, I left that meeting energized and then didn't do a damn thing between then and the next one. I was sick for part of the time, but that's not much of an excuse. Hopefully I'll do better this week.
posted by Madame Defarge at 4:32 PM
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