Category Archives: Blog

The road toward revision…such nightmarish loveliness

What the first copy of my thesis looked like many moons ago.

You hear those crickets? Yes, that’s the sound of nothing happening on this blog. And why? Because I was working on my thesis. And not just working on it, finishing it!

Yes, the first draft of my thesis for my MFA program is complete and is making its way toward my advisor and second reader’s homes as we speak.

Now that I have some free time (I still have six books to read, five annotations, and a 10-15 page essay to crank out) I wanted to take this time to give some revising tips. Though these tips are aimed specifically for those in my MFA program, every writer can use these lessons to their advantage. Seriously, revision is revision and we all have to do it. As one advisor said to me, “revision is a pleasure.” It is. And sometimes it’s about as pleasurable as a root canal. But I digress since I actually do like revision. So let’s start.

1) Just finish the darn thing.
If you’re in a low residency program like the one at Goddard College and have to turn in something in your fourth semester of publishable quality, finish the thesis first. In fact, finish that darn thing before the residency of your fourth (and hopefully final) semester. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Hemingway isn’t reading it. Just finish it. You can’t revise something that doesn’t exist.

If you’re not in an MFA program, same thing. Finish it.

2) Walk away.
Yes, I understand you are elated about step one. Congratulations! You are in no way done with this monster you have just created. But let it breathe. You will want to go back and start tinkering with it. Don’t do that. Stop it. It’s like the boyfriend/girlfriend that you love but are kinda tried of so you need a break. Take a break from your boyfriend/girlfriend.

3) And while you’re taking your break…
Get into the revision mindset. Workout. Read books. Watch reruns of Friends. But mostly read books. For me it was helpful to read William Zinsser’s On Writing Well. More than just a grammar type book, it’s a craft book on writing clarity. Listen, if you’re a writer worth anything you know every rule in this book. Hell, you’ve broken every rule in this book. Probably twice! But reading it once in a while reminds you of the epic fail festering in your prose. This book puts everything in perspective for you and gets you in the mind frame to go back into the work and make it sing. I also recommend Strunk and White’s classic The Elements of Style. (These two books need to be in your reference library anyway. Right next to the dictionary.)

4.) Also read…
An honest to goodness novel. If you’re in an MFA program, you’ve been doing this the entire time. But you’re about swim in a sea of words without any order and reason (maybe). Read something that does have some reason and rhythm to it. May I suggest something with the tone you want to achieve in your novel/thesis. Another advisor said to me she would read books that were like a playlist for her novel. So if she’s working on something gritty and mysterious some Raymond Chandler would make it to her night stand. Or if she’s coming upon something symbolic in her prose, Barbara Kingsolver would be read.

5) So it starts
Now you’re ready to start revising but don’t go in there without a plan of action. For MFA students, time will dictate the action plan. For those without such a tight deadline, you will have a lax process. Note how much time you have until the thesis has to be in the mail, MFA students. Then work backwards, giving yourself some time to revise JUST for grammar. Nothing will irritate you more than getting notes back with a notation on grammar. If you’re anything like me, you write first and don’t focus on grammar until the end. This is the end. Focus part of your time on grammar. Also, think about how many drafts you want to get in before you mail off the thesis. I wanted three. There was no time for three, so I adjusted accordingly.

6.) Print it out.
DO NOT EDIT ON THE SCREEN ALONE. Your eyes will become tired. You will miss something. Print it out, take out a pencil, and have at it.

Remember when I said decide how many drafts you’ll have? That’s because each draft will be to read for a specific item. For example, draft one can be read for just story arc. I suggest this first because if there are holes that need to be filled, you will have time to fill them. Draft two can be ready for imagery, dialogue, etc. Draft three can be read for word usage and precision, etc. The goal is to go from macro to micro.

TIP: Something that helped me was after reading for story arc, I went back and read things out of order. I was able to focus on words better, some foreshadowing, and redundancies. I also tried reading the chapters backwards, sentence by sentence.

7.) Keep reading
There will be a point where you will be overwhelmed. This sense of blah will come over you and you will want to quit. DON’T. Set the thesis aside for at least a day. Pull out that book you’re reading. Lose yourself in that prose. Then go out with some friends who by know think that you are dead because they haven’t seen you since you started down this rabbit hole. Then sleep. Eat. Workout. Shower. Watch whatever ridiculousness is on the telly. Then come back to the thesis fresh.

You have to remember that this process is a marathon, not a sprint. So if one day you don’t feel like looking at the thesis, don’t. If you want to sleep in instead of working, then sleep in. The goal is to no burn completely out cause if you do, you’re useless.

8.) The last week.
By now you’ve done a couple of drafts and you’re nervous. You’re looking at the calendar and you think, “how am I suppose to get everything done I want done!”

Sit down and let me break this down for you–YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET IT ALL DONE. There. I said it. Calm down. This, my friends, is a “first draft”. You want this perfect but it’s not going to be perfect.

So in your last week think about what little things you can fix. I’m not a fan about writing anything new the last week. Small things okay, but whole scenes…nah. New chapters? Forget it. Others may think differently, however. For me, writing a final scene that last week wouldn’t have given me enough time to tweak it and give it breathing room. So think smaller — grammar, formatting, spelling, mechanics, etc. You will already be stressed so doing the smaller things will help keep the stress from bubbling up. But as you tweak this last week, give yourself a cut off deadline. For example, tell yourself “I will be done and will stop looking at this sucker by 2 p.m. Friday.” After all, you do need to print two copies and mail them off.

9.) Celebrate cautiously
You are done! Kinda. Now, it’s the waiting part, which is (since I’m currently waiting) the worst part. I want to know what my advisor and second reader think. I want their notes in my hot little hands and I want to start working on “draft two”, which is due before Thanksgiving.

Stop doing that. Go out and celebrate because essentially you wrote a book, kinda (Thesis and book are different. I’ll get into that in another post.) Also, you still have those pesky annotations, the process paper, and other array of stuff to write. Keep your head in the game. You’re close but not quite there yet.

But do celebrate! It is quite an achievement!

If you’re not in an MFA program, then you actually did write a book. Might I suggest you get someone else to read it now. Let them have a crack at it and have them give you notes.

10.) Is it too early for a draft two strategy?
I don’t know yet since I’m still on number nine. I’ll get back to you on that.

So there is it. My advice to MFA-ers and non MFA-ers. This is what I did during my revision process for the most part. It was quite a ride with the limited time I had but the goal is to stay focused. Revise line by line, page by page, chapter by chapter. Slow and steady wins the race…or something like that.

Happy revision!

This is what it looked like before I sent it.

What’s on tap for this semester

OMG, it’s my final semester of grad school.

And yes, well, it’s all about to come to a beautiful end. However, I have so much work to do I kind of wish I had an assistant with swift nimble fingers to type all the stuff I have to type in the coming months.

I digress.

Here I have for you lovely reader the final reading list I will have as a grad student (God willing).

No Telephone to Heaven, Michelle Cliff
The Invisible Mountain, Carolina De Robertis
Memoria De Mis Putas Tristes, Gabo
The Autobiography of My Mother, Jamaica Kincaid
The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector
Butterfly Burning, Yvonne Vera

Let’s get this semester rolling shall we?

The Dream of Freedom

Proudly displaying both on my desk everyday

It’s July 4 and I’m proud to be an American.

It’s not that arrogant American pride that makes the rest of the world cringe. It’s that, wow-we’re-still-a-country pride since America’s roots were, in reality, an experiment in the theory of democracy.

But here we are a democracy for better or worse. We have rights that other countries wish they can guarantee to their citizens. Among the ones nearest and dearest to my heart is the first amendment which gives me the right to even think about having this blog and writing these words. It reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

So when I look at freedom and I think about how the press exercises and challenges these freedoms therefore making them stronger, I think not about those who are using it but those who don’t have it.

I think about blogger Yoani Sanchez. She is a journalist, writer, blogger from Cuba. She blogs from there. She gives us snap shots of life in Cuba, the real life, the truth without the veil of nostalgia.

Cuba is a closed island and has been since the late 50s. The Castro government has ensured that their word is law, has ensured that their citizens have free healthcare and education but at the cost of their basic rights. Or in this case, their basic writes.

As we have ensured that the experiment of democracy survives, so has the Cuban government worked toward the experiment of communism.

There is no speech that originates in the mind of a free people. There is no religion that is not monitored. There is no free press that does not cost more than the news stand price. No peaceful demonstrations, no petitions for redress of the government; that is paid for with life.

Therefore something as simple as internet access is monitored, filtered, and slow. She is limited by the screeching sound of a dial up connection.

Then this makes Yoani’s blog and its role in the blogsphere more powerful. We know how social media helped bring down a government and the power it gives people, the primal lust for freedom. Her blog stands for freedom of speech, of expression, and thought. Her blog criticizes the government for all it’s faults though it has come to great determent to her personally And above all, it tells her story.

Her blog is American.

Her blog is what our founding fathers had in mind. Yes, of course they did not know that blogging would be such a big thing in 1776 but the safety of saying what comes to mind is. This is what they had in mind and this is what Yoani is exercising everyday. And by exercising she, in the small island of 90 miles from our border, is making democracy stronger.

So yes, I am damn proud to be an American. We have faults, we hate each other, we love each other, we love to hate each other but that doesn’t matter. What is freedom to us is a dream to others. The American dream isn’t a house with a white picket fence and children and a car. Our dream is the reality of our Constitution, the soul of our Bill of Rights, and Yoani.

She writes the American dream everyday.

New Words: Unconditional

Unconditional
By Icess Fernandez Rojas

Bury me in the memories of your arms, protected by the strong crevasse your chest and shoulder,
So close to your heart I can hear it whisper, it’s tiny voice growing bolder.

It speaks to me of love, gained and lost and regained.
It tells me secrets of truths and lies and who’s to blame.

A hurt-lined path, a regret, and a climb to redemption.
A run, away from a memory having its way with you, without exception.

The spaces between the beats, hidden conversations.
I am the priest to your confession. Tell me your sins and imperfections.

You have lied, you have coveted, you have lusted.
You have betrayed those you have once trusted.

You say you are not worthy of love in all its forms — admiration, respect.
Your cross, your burden, your penitence is all you will accept.

But your confessor forgives and I love you beyond my reason
Bury yourself in me, a second chance, the spring of your season.

Because I am a sinner in search of love on a path not yet traveled
I am in need of company, to carry the burden not yet unraveled.

I’ve been reckless, dangerous, in a world made of glass.
Balancing between loving you and loving me and me loving you in our personal Mass.

Forgive me Father for I have sinned, my confession lies within my memory.
I have no recollection of how I got here. No shame. I do not repent the metaphor of my tragedy…

To love one man, as I love myself, despite his flaws…
Because of his flaws, with his flaws, flaws and all.

He and I make a perfect part of sinners. Smile.
Among the crowd of pointing fingers, go ahead and put us on trial.

No. We are no better than each other. We read from the Bible of Mistakes.
We speak the same faulty language of fuck ups and forsakes.

So you and I have traveling to do, a road not taken
Filled with excuses, explanations and apologies. Frost-bitten

We’ll share the weight of our crosses and let the burdens lead us where they may.
I am your imperfection, a mirror of your transgressions, wherever they lay.

So let me bury myself in the memory of your arms, my role is traditional
It carries me down this path of our love. A path toward unconditional.

Editing story for Soul’s Road

It’s late on Sunday night and I’m just about done with some edits for my story in Soul’s Road, the short story collection coming out soon. Like REALLY soon.

I owed you another desk picture so here it is. This one is of my desk at home, the printer area. Those books, most of them, are ones I’ve read for school. That peach binder is my teaching binder and under all those papers somewhere is my printer. Ironically, it needs ink. I ran out a couple of days ago.

For the fans of this blog, the white board in the picture is….my murder board, which currently has an unsolved murder for my character Detective Jennie Manning to solve. I miss her. She will come back soon and you guys will read her story. I promise. It’s just going to take a minute.

Hope you guys had a great day. Tomorrow is Monday, i.e. one day closer to the next weekend.

Write On!