Let's Just Disregard That Previous Statement

So the Creative Writing Class as a whole was good.  Part of me can hope for easier assignments and less grueling peer critiques, but all in all I had such a good time in this class.  I think my favorite days were the ones where we just went off on tangents.  Not a lot of classes hold that opportunity in them.  

I’ good at putting words to music.  Seriously, I wrote most of the lyrics for Theta Nu’s makin’ music show last year. But the thing is, when it comes to my own poetry it’s hard to write.  I wish I was Lin-Manuel Miranda and had this creative genius inside of me, but my inner Miranda is lacking.  I need an inspiration most of the time just as a launching pad.

Working with Cherie has been a great experience.  She is so sweet and kind and she’s doing so many wonderful things with my poetry.  My thoughts.  Our sound combined is one that I didn’t imagine would arrive at the end of this process.  Seriously.  Sometimes it’s overwhelming.

SO  the big question I’m trying to answer here is: “How was your peer critique, Karly?”  It was far more than I expected.  I didn’t expect to get so much constructive thoughts and most of them wanted more from the story.  I feel good as an author when people want more from my work, and in this case I’m happy to give it to them!

I didn’t expect everyone to love it, so when I got generally positive reviews I was pretty shocked.  The self doubt that consumes me normally deters me from any confidence in my work.

It started out quite simply, And purely innocent My coke rewards had taken me Down a path on the internet. I found this beautiful website Where my photos could be stored I could put them on mugs and keychains  And calendars and shopping bags and.....

So I feel like a lot of my work seems really depressing.  My poem today definitely was.  So let’s just put it out there.... I have issues!! Yay!!  But before you lock me up in a straight jacket, just remember that some of the best writers had mental illnesses.  Ernest Hemingway, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Ezra Pound, SYLVIA PLATH.  And these authors wrote some of the most highly regarded works to this day.

Writing process is always something I’m very interested about hearing from other people.  Maybe it’s my fascination with Criminal Minds and the B.A.U., but I think how people write reveals a lot about them.  So, I guess in writing this I’m letting you profile me a little and see what kind of person I am.

When I write I like pillows.  Yep, pillows.  I mean, I know pillows are really plain and most people love a solid place to write, but if I’m creatively writing I like to feel like I’m with my thoughts....in the clouds.   I like to lay back and be able to close my eyes and type whatever I’m thinking.  Yeah, I can type with my eyes closed.  Pretty cool, right?  That’s not to say that I don’t make a lot of errors, because I definitely do, but if I do happen to miss a key or two I can go back and correct my spelling efficiently.

Then I like there to be a fan and white noise.  I think what I’m getting at is that I like nothingness.  We talked in class about how creativity transcends, and in my feeble human mind I want to transcend with it.  I feel like I’m in the sky, complete with fan wind and soft comfy cloud pillows.  Hearing nothing, seeing nothing, feeling everything.  Then I just kind of let my mind flow where it wants to.

When I write I usually have a thought, character, or scene that really calls to me.  Then, when I hearken to that muse’s call, I let go.  Writing that specific thought is like a release for me.  After that comes the hard part, tying it to another scene or thought, but in order to reach that next thought I transcend again.  Yes, I transcend reality to obtain the fiction and creativity that scours my mind.  I don’t know, I just wanted to write some poetic sentence right there.  

I’ll usually leave work for a time, I like to tackle it all at once, and when I realize I can’t just sit at my computer for 36 hours and write a novel it sort of occurs to me that my transcendence led me to a deeper path than I imagined.