The Evolution of a Creative Writing Major

Coming into college, I was very focused on a certain type of writing—fiction, particularly novels. In high school, I completed many Young Adult novels and had completed one novel for middle-school-aged children. Though I knew I’d have to stretch myself in terms of writing other kind of works during my four years at Susquehanna, I figured this would continue to be my creative focus.

Throughout most of my freshman year, I was pretty certain about my aims as a writer. I really enjoyed my Introduction to Fiction class, where we wrote short stories, but I knew it was no coincidence that most of my short stories were on the longer end of the spectrum. Even my professor seemed to recommend elaborating on my stories when they were already over ten pages long. The stories in my head just don’t seem to come out in short story form. I think this is one thing that has remained consistent for me as a writer.  I love fiction, but short story is not my forte. Next year, I need to take a class for my Advanced Writing requirement. I could take Advanced Short Story, but I much prefer the idea of taking the Novel Writing course instead.

However, I certainly haven’t worked on novels at college as much as I had anticipated as an incoming student. I have never been the best at time management, and I think college makes time management all the harder since there’s so much to do. In high school, I could have friends and activities to keep me busy, but ultimately, I went home at the end of the day. When college is your home (at least when school is in session), those things surround you.  Maybe this sounds like I'm making excuses. I might be to an extent. Though I love writing and do think I should be more disciplined, it’s hard to imagine regretting any of the times that I spent immersed in activities important to me or just chatting with friends. I have a whole life of writing ahead of me, but only four years of college.

When I do have time to write now, I usually end up writing poetry. This is not what I expected at all my freshman year. It’s funny that I'm so surprised by it, since looking back at high school, I definitely did write poetry. I never took it seriously, though. Poetry was this complicated thing that I just did poorly as an emotional release—not something I could master. Last school year, though, I began to write poetry more and more frequently and with a bit more seriousness. It especially helped that I began finding poetry that I liked to read. I was still not sure, however, if it was something I should think of as any more than a hobby. My Intro to Poetry class during the spring semester led me to produce some poetry that actually made me feel proud and gave me some validation that, even if I was far from where I wanted to be as a poet, I still had some talent—I had someplace I could start.

Poetry continues to be my genre of choice at the moment.  I am currently in an Intermediate Poetry workshop, where we are working on formulating chapbooks. Chapbooks are small collections of writing, typically under 40 pages. The topic that will tie together my chapbook is women in the Bible. So far I have worked on poetry that explores the perspectives of Mary, Martha, Yael, and Delilah and have also done some poetry that looks at reading the Bible as a woman.  I am very excited about this project and often very inspired by my Women in Biblical Tradition class.

I am interested in pursuing poetry and seeing where it takes me, but I also hope to make more returns, and soon, to fiction, the genre that  really kindled my passion for writing.

Collaboration

I will admit that some part of me, a rather dominant part, wished group work would be over by the time I got to college, but I've learned that's not necessarily the case.  I'm not too huge of a fan of group work for a variety of reasons.  I have a very stereotypical writer personality in that I enjoy working independently and am somewhat introverted, and I can also be a bit controlling.  I also tended to be the person who got stuck with most of the work.  It'll be interesting, with group projects coming up this semester, to see how any of that differs in college.     

One requirement of the Central Curriculum is a Team Intensive Course.  I'm happy I fulfilled this in my first semester through Intro to Fiction, which is team intensive due to its workshop focus.  However, that doesn't mean the rest of my classes will suddenly stop using collaboration.

In my Thought & Civilization: Romantic Novels class, I am presenting a project today that we had to do in pairs. Fortunately, I was able to pair up with my friend Lindsey.  It has actually been nice doing this together because we were able to split up the work whereas having this all due myself might have sent me into a state of complete chaos.  I think--or hope--we will be able to complement each other well as we present later today.  

I have two big upcoming group projects as well, one in Principles of Sociology and the other in Applied Biblical Ethics.  Both projects are actually somewhat similar.  In Principles of Sociology, we have to take a look at a social problem--through a sociological lens, of course.  For Applied Biblical Ethics, we'll be examining an ethical issue, um, in light of Biblical Ethics--surprise!  Both of these projects have to culminate in some sort of presentation, creative if possible.  I really hope that these projects go well and that my groups have good dynamics.

Literature Conference

Update: it went fairly well; here's a program!

Coming up at SU on February 21st is the annual Undergraduate Literature and Creative Writing Conference.  The theme is Literature and Creativity in the Digital Age.  I will be reading my short story "Routine" at this conference during a panel titled Literature and Gender 1.  I have never been a part of an academic conference before, so this will definitely be a first for me!

In an earlier post I talked a little about the conference and also about the story I'm reading.  It's titled "Routine," and I wrote it in Dr. Bailey's Intro to Fiction course last semester.  It's about a couple who meet on Halloween their freshman year of college.  The two characters, Belinda and Cyrus, are dramatically different.  Cyrus spent his Halloween drinking, then being offended by frat boys who treat creativity as a one night stand; Belinda is alone in her dorm room typing up an essay on The Fountainhead, dressed in costume, just to be festive.  And of course, in that story-like way, they have this whole opposites attract thing going on and fall for each other.  The story then takes us through multiple Halloweens with them and shows the decay of their relationship.

In that previous post, I also mentioned how nervous I was when I first received the program and found out I'd be reading during a panel on gender.  I'm still sort of scared that people will call me out for stereotypical gender roles--yes, the woman does want to get married, and yes, the guy is just terrible at commitment--and yet, I don't think I'm actually embarrassed by the role gender plays in my story.  The story may look at gender in a conventional way, but I don't think unconventional must always be preferred to conventional, if that makes any sense.   In attempts to combat gender stereotyping, and provide strong female role models, there's been an influx of sassy, spunky, snarky independent girls in books (specifically in my beloved YA genre)--and that's great, really.  But that is not representative of all girls.  Not every girl breaks the mold.  Some fall into it.  Some are domestic, and some are concerned with romance, and some are timid, and some are weak, and girls who fall into any of these traits aren't any less interesting to me just because those traits line up with some sort of female archetype.  Not if they are treated as complex, flawed people.  In Belinda, I wrote a character with whom I can relate, and I don't think that would be the case if I forced her into someone less stereotypical for her gender.

Thinking about being on this panel has provoked some thought in me, obviously.  I am hoping that it somehow manages to be thought provoking, in some way, to others.

Minors!

I've been lucky to come to SU with a clear idea of what I wanted to major in: Creative Writing.  Unlike a lot of people, I'm not struggling with trying to decide what I want to study.  I am, however, considering what topics might merit minors.

Right now I'm a part of the Honors Program, which takes up a position of a minor.  I plan on adding at least one more minor.  Right now I'm thinking about adding an Editing & Publishing minor.  This minor is of practical interest to me, since as a Creative Writing major, one of the probable fields I'll look into for employment is publishing.  When I first started looking into the publishing of my own pieces, I discovered that I was interested in the industry itself, beyond merely a potential career as a writer.  I've also found, through critiquing in Introduction to Fiction, that I do have some skill at looking closely at a piece, ripping it apart, and having something valuable to say.

Another minor I'm considering is Religion.  I've yet to take a Religion course here at SU since I didn't get to form my first semester schedule.  However, I signed up for Applied Biblical Ethics not only because of my interest in the individual course, but to get an idea of the department as a whole.  I suspect I will probably end up adding this minor but 3 minors seems like an awfully lot.  Particularly, I'm interested in studying both Religion and Creative Writing since I hope to find a way to incorporate them. 

Perhaps the Honors Program will fall to the wayside.  Perhaps something differently will happen altogether.  Perhaps I'll be so enthusiastic about my religion courses that I'll want to double major.

There really is so much here at Susquehanna that I want to study.  I can only hope I have time to fit it all in!    

Winter Nearing, Fall Semester Disappearing!

The Fall Semester is wrapping up here at SU.  Meanwhile, December has arrived!  All of a sudden the weather has gone from manageably cold to numbingly so.  Last night, as friends and I left West Village, we were greeted by snowflakes!  Though not Winter yet, the various campus buildings sporting impressive Christmas trees have definitely given me that feel. I'm consistently struck by the immensity of the tree in the Blough-Weis Library.  My roommate Sarah brought a tiny, adorable fake tree for our room and a few Christmas decorations.  Likewise, many of my hallmates have also embraced the Christmas spirit when it comes to dorm decor.

As a freshman, I've heard about many Susquehanna traditions that I have not yet experienced for myself.  One such tradition I'm anticipating is the upcoming Annual Christmas Candlelight Service.  Chapel service this Sunday will be a dress-down day, and afterwords people will stay to help decorate for the service (and eat pizza-yay!).  I definitely want to attend this decorating as well as the candlelight service itself. Usually on Sundays, everyone who attends chapel is right there on the stage.  It'll be awesome to see Weber entirely full!  Another Christmas festivity I'm looking forward to is InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Christmas Party.  Hopefully I'll also be attending Lutheran Student Movement's last meeting of the semester, which includes a gift exchange and caroling!

Though I'm so looking forward to break--I practically require it--I am going to miss my friends here a lot, so it's nice that I will be getting a little bit of Christmas here at SU, with them, before my Christmas at home.

The only thing dampering my holiday spirit is end of the semester work.

I have two final tests, Intermediate German and Colonial Latin America.  In Thought class, I have to edit my final paper, which must be at least 8 pages.  Mine is about social media in Iran.  So far I feel pretty good about my first draft.  It focuses on The Twitter Revolution and speaks a lot to the use of social media--like blogging, for instance!--in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential election.  My Perspectives course wrapped up today, with a final class where we were treated to breakfast, but I still have to turn in a self-reflection about a group project we worked on. This, too, must be 8 pages, a seemingly magic number among college professors. 

The most important final project to me personally is my portfolio for Intro to Fiction.  Regrettably, I haven't been working on my two stories all that much since they've been workshopped, but I really hope to knock these revisions out of the park.  The rewrites are pretty extensive for both stories.  At the very least, I am starting and ending each story in a different place, even if I'm not quite sure where those ends are yet.  My first person story has evolved from a scene with a cheesy romance ending to a story that will be more real and messy and heartfelt.  My third person story received a much better reception, but it will change so as not to rely on a structural quirk.  Instead it will allow the reader to stay with the story and go forward.  It will begin right where the tension does, rather than taking the reader through background before letting them enter the conflict.  Perhaps this weekend I can lock myself away in my room and rewrite!

Frankly, just as I expressed in my previous blog entry, I still cannot believe this semester is almost complete.  I arrived here in August.  And now it's December!  The older I get, the more amazed and startled I seem to be by the passage of time.

Catching Up: The Hodgepodge Post

Excuse this post for being a hodgepodge of things, but I wanted to catch this blog up on what’s been happening lately for me at SU.

One of the major things for me and the rest of my freshmen friends right now is registration (which happens to end today).  This was our first time picking our own classes at college and then navigating the registration process online.  I’ll admit to being pretty excited, especially about seeing which classes would be offered next semester.  The classes came out online and in a newspaper supplement students received in their mailboxes. My degree audit in tow (a degree audit shows you what requirements you still have left for your degree, including requirements for your major and Central Curriculum requirements), I began picking out classes.  After some contemplation about how many courses I should take, whether I wanted to take any courses for the Editing & Publishing minor I’m thinking of declaring, how I felt about night classes, etc., I came up with the following courses: Introduction to Creative Nonfiction, Applied Biblical Ethics, Principles of Sociology, and Thought & Civilization.  Two would be on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the other two on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  

Whether I’ll get into those classes will not be discovered until a later date, however.

I also didn’t get to share what my first Halloween at Susquehanna was like.  I had meant to be Wendy, to match a friend dressed as Peter Pan, but I had procrastinated getting a costume.  My friend Lindsey and I walked into town on the Saturday of Halloween weekend, hoping I could buy and piece together something from a thrift store.  Alas, we had slept in too late and the store was closed.  In the end, I simply went as a hippie, wearing a tye-dye T-shirt my parents had bought for me, my somewhat tattered, bell bottom-y jeans, and a scarf from Lindsey as a headband.  That Saturday we went to the TRAX Halloween party and had a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, actual Halloween, which fell on a Sunday, was spent doing schoolwork.  

This past weekend I went on the InterVarsity Fall Conference, which was at Refreshing Mountain Camp near Lancaster.  InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is one of the religious life organizations on campus that I’m really happy to have gotten involved in early during my college career.  Though I love SU, getting off campus for a short period is always great.  I got to spend time with two friends on my floor in Hass and got to know other people from IV a bit better.  Of course, I also got to experience plenty of prayer and worship.

When we got back on Sunday, I hosted an overnight student who’s interested in Creative Writing and Journalism.  I tried to give her the inside scoop on Susquehanna life.  I’m hoping she had a good experience here and that I conveyed all SU has to offer.

As far as academics go, I recently had a workshop in Intro to Fiction that went really well.  I just had my conference with Dr. Bailey today to discuss my story (which is probably going to be one of the longest stories of the bunch for the second time; my inner novelist just isn’t allowing anything under 10 pages).   Soon enough, my dorm room will be turning into Rewrite Central.   In my Thought class, which I take for the Honors Program, I’ll be leading my class in discussion on a section of The Persepolis next Monday, a fascinating memoir told in graphic novel form.  Of course, I’ve also endured exams since last writing, but that’s not nearly as exciting.

All in all, things at Susquehanna are going well, chugging down that track to Thanksgiving break.

Visiting Writer Steve Yarbrough and Creative Writing at SU

A huge part of being a Creative Writing major at Susquehanna University is reading and being exposed to authors you may have never read before—or so it seems from my Intro to Fiction class.  I’ve gotten to read plenty of short stories, and though I haven’t connected with all of them, there has been true love in some cases.  Robert Boswell’s “The Darkness of Love,” for instance, has me eager to buy one of his short story collections.  Though I’ve read it before, “Lust” by Susan Minot was even more poignant this time around.   

One writer whose work I’ve gotten to know has been Steve Yarbrough, one of Susquehanna’s visiting writers.  Our class read his short story anthology Veneer.  I particularly liked “Bohemia,” a story set in Prague that explores a woman’s issues with her boyfriend and body image. 

On Monday, Steve Yarbrough spoke to my Intro to Fiction class, sitting between me and my friend Lindsey.  I got the chance to ask him a question relating to one of his stories, “The Rest of Her Life,” and listen to him talk about writing.  Of particular to interest to me was the discussion on setting and how the place he grew up factored into his stories.  I tend to skimp on setting, so I am trying to be particularly attentive to such discussions.  Hearing about his process was likewise intriguing.  Previously I’ve heard that you should finish your first draft of a novel before doing nit-picky editing, but Yarbrough uses the revise-as-you-go option, which I’ve learned is just an effective method.  Whether it’s the method for me, however, has yet to be discovered. 

Yesterday I attended Steve Yarbrough’s reading.  He shared a short story about a writer and the best friend whom inspired his lauded novel Hard Cash.  It’s hard for me to keep track of a story without the written text in front of me, but Yarbrough’s story was interesting, nonetheless, and even provided some laughs.  At the reading’s end, I was excited to get his signature on my copy of Veneer.

Steve Yarbrough emphasized during his reading that Susquehanna is a very special place for aspiring writers, and though I haven’t been here very long, I’m inclined to agree.  I know Steve Yarbrough is one of many authors I will be able to meet and learn from here in the coming years and one of countless writers I’ll be exposed to through reading in my classes. 

On a related note, I cannot wait until I find time today to sit down and work on my new, third person short story for Intro to Fiction.  It has helped so much to have fellow Creative Writing majors in my dorm to gripe with when the going gets tough, to inspire me, and to celebrate with when I’ve finally found something that’s going well.   I love the community I’ve felt so far in my Creative Writing studies at Susquehanna, and I hope I only experience that more as my education progresses.