Before six-thirty this morning, I was already wishing the day were over.
There’s no way to avoid hurting people in this life, I guess? I mean… I don’t know what I mean… so between this and that text, email, and phone call… I mean, this day was ringing my bell… but through the blasted hours… as the morning gave way to a perfectly still, if not silent afternoon around the Rad Dad Pad… things came further into clarity… there are so few things within anyone’s control…
Listen, just try and be good to each other, for God’s sake. I’m saying this to myself from fifteen or sixteen hours ago. And… for the record… my sons’ Mom and I are back on the Amicability Train… through Mediation… it’s not perfect, but it’s way better than it was… just hanging tight until the lawyers sign off on some numbers… but we agree to these numbers in principle… so… here’s hoping for timely action on the parts of our lawyers, and whomever they must deal with to make whatever is necessary happen to bring the divorce to fruition…
So… as far as the program of study… it’s a moving target… but even just scoping it out feels like “productivity” or “progress” of a kind…
Listing, Like a Ship
So… around twelve hours after typing the preceding… I got up with uh… renewed purpose… so I can put a pin on this particular blog post… and get a move on with the rest of the day…
And it was yesterday… it dawned on me late in the day… as our perfectly quiet, calm, uneventful summer afternoon gave way to evening…
I’m going to get some kind of job again, someday. Probably.
It would have be an amazing, next-level work for me to consider leaving Kamloops. And more specifically, leaving my kids…
If I pinch my pennies, I should be able to go 1-2 years from now before getting a job of some kind becomes… financially necessary… and even then, with borrowing possibilities… I could probably stretch that out to late 2024… before taking the FIRST job becomes something I have to do…
Cause it’s about finding the RIGHT job, not the FIRST job… my mantra lately…
And my kids are with their mom for three weeks beginning Monday evening. While it would be amazing to just… get on a plane… to somewhere… or a bus… I’ve got this feeling like this is an opportunity… what kind of opportunity I’m not totally sure…
Hemingway Never Tried This. Probably. Nor Ondaatje. Robert Bloch on The Other Hand…
I’ve been ruminating over this post for days… as is my wont. These posts marinate in the brine for awhile before hitting the screen.
Cough.
I didn’t guarantee there’s going to be GOOD writing on this blog.
Anyway, it’s mid-morning… and it’s a sunny Saturday morning in late July… and for all the stalling and foreswearing and actual swearing… it’s Busker Fest in downtown Kamloops, BC… so me and my son are going to go down there and check it out… and have a Scoopz ice cream (only open during the summer, you know)… and hit Barnacle Records… and the post office…
Just a hanging around downtown kind of Saturday with the 10.5 year old. And then more hanging around… except in the apartment…
So… in order to get that facilitated…
A listicle like a ship-siècle
Writing the Blockbuster Novel
A reference book of sorts. But there’s more to it than that. A tattered (I like to think it was tattered) copy of this appeared in the clubhouse at Al Jazeeraland Compound #1, which was where I lived for 5.5 out of the 6.5 years we were in Qatar. At the time I went through it thinking of it like… junk food of a certain kind… but now some ten, twelve years later I’m on the other side of the world… and I’ve got weeks if not months of empty time on my hands… without work or financial obligations… for the first time in my adult life… so… why not read it again and like, follow along with the writing and so forth?
James Patterson on James Patterson
I’ve yet to read one of this guy’s thrillers. But I’ll bet they’re great for what they are. And that’s not to put genre stuff down. It’s just not my kind of genre stuff. But this collection of autobiographical shorts is just great. He’s writing in the plainspoken… fifty-or-sixty something middle class vernacular. A case study in writing in a way… that people… by the millions… enjoy reading. So, as much as it is junk food… it is also pleasurable, breezy summer reading… and informative… and in fact downright educative…
Coursera, Futurelearn, and Ed.X
I’ve scribbled and sighed and ranted and flailed and expressed disgruntlement and also real joy and gratitude about these… Freely Available Internet Courses (FAIC’s) in other spaces and at length. But in this case, it’s a loose framework for creating triage in the writing project…
Triage is a term from the doctorate… by which multiple research inputs are used… and common themes are identified… to help create a nuanced, multi-faceted view of the subject…
So… for my self-study of the next however many months or years… getting first steps first… it looks like there could be some potential in these here #FAIC’s…
Write Your First Novel
Asynchronous! Through University of Michigan! And Coursera. At first glance… an opportunity to hash together an outline and take a run through a messy, fucked-up first draft (MFUFD). I think there are opportunities to critique peers’ work… through discussion boards or something… it is unclear if instructor feedback is available… i.e., for a paid or upgraded experience.
Start Writing Fiction
Meanwhile, the Futurelearn offering Start Writing Fiction will also be going on… i.e., it is also asynchronous. It’s part of a very affordable “subscription” model… which… I mean, why the hell not? And so… another small online community (hopefully) to help workshop the project from the Coursera course…
UBC @ EdX
Finally, blessedly, UBC’s How to Write a Novel 1 and How to Write a Novel 2 are both happening this fall… and since UBC is my top choice for the MFA… if they’ll have me (25% acceptance rate)(wtf)… showing up… and paying ($300 USD per course)(not bad, IMO)… still… we’re not in MOOC Land anymore, Dorothy…
NaNoWriMo & the Three Day Novel Contest
So… my son and I actually went downtown… checked out the record store… and the comic book store… and the post office… and the Busker Fest!
Nothing of that has anything to do with the Intended Program of Study (IPS).
Now… the Three Day Novel Contest runs on the Labour Day Weekend each year… this Labour Day Weekend, however… I have the kids… and while they’re getting older and are definitely self-sufficient in lots of ways… leaving them mostly to themselves for three days just doesn’t sit right… unfortunately…
So… the kids are exchanged on Labour Day… so I may just crash the thing / do the thing late. Right after my Writing Your First Novel Coursera course is over.
And then… November is NaNoWriMo… National Novel Writing Month…
I’ve made attempts, which were all failures, except for once… in like 2011…. l showed it to my Mom… and she (said she) liked it… it was about a depressed substitute high school teacher who writes daily, increasingly unhinged letters to the editor of his local paper… only a few of which are published… anyway… it’s not something that is in any way good enough for wider reading… but I’ve got some history with the WriMo… and it’s one more triage point, if you will… for the same project being developed for the Coursera course… and the FutureLearn course… and the EdX courses…
I mean, I COULD try and developing different projects for each of these. But why?
Defragging the Past
This is all to say… that in the absence of tangible work deliverables prescribed by a job or employer… I can actually give myself some of these… some specific tangibles and targets…
And put together a portfolio for application to at least three distance or limited- residency MFA programs… for the summer or fall of 2023… I’ll have something to go into the program with… to hone and refine…
Or at the very least I’ll have a merry time making a creatively self-indulgent mess and maybe get a couple of blog posts or a self-published e-book out of it… I mean… worst case scenario? I’ve wasted time on so many other less worthy pursuits over the years…
And all these websites and books are saying it’s possible… so who am I to argue?
