August Challenge, Day 5: Something You Wish You Did Really Well

In no particular order...

 

This may seem weird. Why would anyone aspire to clean? But I wish I was one of those people that keep their house clean 24/7/365. If I lived alone, my house would be clean. I get sick to death of cleaning up after people all the time. Yeah. I wish I were a better cleaner.

 

I wish I could play a musical instrument. Any intrument really, but I lean more towards the piano. I love music and have always wished that I could play an instrument and hear the kind of music I wanted to hear, played the way I wanted it played, whenever I was in the mood. 

I wish that I was a better writer. More, I wish I was a talented writer.

It's good to have aspirations I guess. ;)

If you'd like to participate in this blogging challenge, please visit Natalie Grueninger's blog for prompts. 

Thursday Meme

I have a bazillion things on my mind today, but decided to go with Booking Through Thursday's post for today.

Writing guides, grammar books, punctuation how-tos . . . do you read them? Not read them? How many writing books, grammar books, dictionaries–if any–do you have in your library?

Being an English major, I read writing guides, grammar books, etc., all the time. Some are more helpful than others but with my major and the line of work that I'm hoping to get into, they are going to be a mainstay on my desk for the foreseeable future. How many do I have? We'll, let's count them...I counted 11 that I can see. Oh. And I also have a Spanish/English dictionary. Does that count for the purposes of this post, lol? I also have a reference book that is for the aspiring screenwriter which isn't me at all but it was required for a class. My favorite manual is The Little Brown Compact Handbook because it has MLA, APA, Chicago and CBE, and Columbia guidelines all jam-packed into one reference book which comes in really handy. And just for the record, it is really beyond me why it is necessary to have fifteen million ways to cite references. Does the placement of a comma or period really make that much of a difference in your list of references or works cited depending on what your professor prefers??? Mmm, no. I don't think so. I would like to find an all-encompassing reference manual for the copy editor but I haven't had any luck. Maybe they don't make one specifically for copy editors.

I'm Doing It

Biting the bullet.

Sticking my neck out there.

Taking the leap.

Going for the gold.

Taking a chance.

And most of all...

Sucking it up.



I decided to submit my creative nonfiction to a publisher. I have to submit a piece of my writing to either a publisher or my professor for consideration and I decided to go all the way and pick a publisher. I'm actually sending it to two different literary magazines. I'm only required to submit to one, but I figured if I'm doing it, I'm doing it all the way. I would have chosen more than two but I ran out of printer ink, lol. Do I think I'll get published? Not in a million. I'm mostly doing it for shits and giggles. The magazines that I chose said that they read each and every submission and will return an actual written response. I figure at the very least, this will be a learning experience. If I get turned down, I'll be disappointed, but not crushed. It's never been my life's ambition to be a writer. I want to put other writers' works into published books for the world to read, not my own.



It's curious though, that I'm more at ease with perfect strangers reading my writing than I am people that know me which is why I'm not posting it here. I don't consider blogging writing. Well, at least my blogging, lol.



Anyway, it could take 9 months to get a response, so be prepared to wait. I'll post the responses, when I get them, no matter what they are.

Dilemma

I have one. I have two actually, ummm, maybe three. But one is major and the others are minor issues. I've been debating with myself about posting them here but I need some unbiased opinions. However, the opinions I usually get are from my real life friends so are they really unbiased? ARGH!! Add dilemma #4: Not being able to make a decision. I don't know what to doooooooo!!!!! I have to give it more consideration.

In the meantime, I'm going to finish writing my screenplay. Yeah. You read correctly. I have to write a freaking screenplay. I already have the foundation written out and the mother dies in the end. BWAHAHAHA!!! Wonder where the inspiration for that one came from. Huh? Huh? And NO. She isn't murdered. Geez. I'm not a psychopath.

My CNF

I finally got my grade back on my creative nonfiction piece. Ya know, the one that I was all worried about because of how revealing and personal it was? I got an A!! I was so excited. He had really positive comments too. I also got my peer review comments back on my short story and all my reviewers had good things to say too. They liked the twist at the end. Maybe I'll post this one on my blog sometime.

Anyway, it was a really good way to start my morning yesterday and it set the tone for the rest of my day too.

Is This Back-handed or Just a Slap in the Face??

The following is a comment that I just received on a research assignment for my business class. I feel the distinct need to make excuses and to defend myself but I won't. Read this:

"That’s well and good, however, I think you’re gifted at completing
assignments like these quickly without a sufficient look into updated and useful
sources with specific data and findings."

That's copied and pasted word for word. Ouch, right? I like this class for the information that I'm learning and I like my professor despite the fact that she's hit me on every single assignment that I've turned in. She's thorough and involved and having an instructor that's actually involved in their class can be a rarity believe it or not. That being said, this is an introductory, 100 level class and I have the most writing assignments, reading, debating, and discussion than I do in my other two mid and upper level classes that I'm taking this semester combined. I think she thinks we're only taking her class and that's it. See? I bet you guessed that I wasn't going to be able to hold back defending myself, lmao. I'm irritated. I always score really high on my writing assignments but no matter what I do, it's not enough for this lady. It's making me question myself and wonder if all my other instructors went easy on me and everything else that I've written was utter rubbish.

Back to the Real World

This week is going to be hectic. I could've started out my week with a nice, gooey, chocolate, cream-filled doughnut from Krispy Kreme, but my oldest ate it so I settled for a raspberry filled doughnut. Yum.

Last week, I had to write a short story for my creative writing class. I agonized over it the entire week. I just could not come up with a topic. Last night, with four hours before my due date, I finally was able to write my story. It was about a boy who spends a week with his grandma. At the end, I reveal that the boy is actually a dog. Cutesy, I know, but I was completely stumped. C thought it was good though, lol.

This week, I have to get all of my work done and the house cleaned spotless by Friday because we're going to Virginia Beach!! I'm so excited, I've never been there before. It's for a family reunion and our hotel room is being paid for by the family. Can't beat that with a stick. We're also excited to be taking the new car on a road trip. Woot woot! I'm glad that I started re-reading my Harry Potters because I'll have something to read on the way up.

So, I'm off to get something productive done. It's after 11 already and I'm still in my pj's, lmao. I'm lazy, I know.

MY EYES!

I had my follow-up eye doctor appointment today. I went in resigned to the fact that contacts just aren't for me. The ones that I have had for the past week make my eyes feel heavy and tired all day and I looked it too. My eyelids would be red and puffy all day like I had just woken up after not enough sleep. I figured all that was sooo not worth it. So, I get to my appointment 15 minutes early (I thought the drive would take longer, heheh) and I explain to the girl that it's been a rough week for my eyes. Her solution was for me to try a different brand and they feel WONDERFUL I can't even tell I have them in. The original pair weren't as soft as the new ones so that made them less comfortable. Now, I have to go back in a week again to see how I'm doing with the new contacts and to have my eyes dilated and dye put in them and to have the pressures checked. Is anyone else's trips to the optometrist this much trouble?

On another subject...

Remember the post about my creative nonfiction piece that I had to write and have peer reviewed? Well, I got my reviews back this morning. It took me ten minutes just to work up the nerve to read them. And it turns out that I had four peer reviews instead of two. Not sure what happened there. We're only supposed to have to review two papers but whatever. My reviewers were very kind. The only suggestions that they made were to describe a couple scenes differently but not about the content. I still feel horribly exposed. I hate that strangers have read something that was so personal to me. I had just better get an A on my finished paper, lol. Suffice it to say, it will NOT be posted here. Sorry.