Planning

 I am moving forward with my plan of starting a do-it-yourself program of study. I have been doing a lot of planning. I am going to assign myself to take classes each semester, which also involves scheduling the semester. I am even going to grade myself, based on the amount of time I spend versus the time that I have set as goals. I am planning on the first semester beginning on August 31, and ending on December 14. 

Initially I thought that I would take a few weeks to do prerequisites, in overviewing philosophy, brushing up on Shakespeare and reviewing writing advice, but I decided to make these classes into a full semester instead. It would involve a philosophy intro class of two hours a week, a Shakespeare review class of two hours a week and a craft of writing review class of one hour week. In the future I will try to limit myself to two classes per semester, but with more time devoted to each class. At the outset, I am going to use various video presentations as the equivalent of the class time, and I am going to use free videos for now. I have been looking at various sources for paid instructional videos, workshops and programs and I intend to incorporate those in future semesters. I started reviewing the paid programs and I definitely want to do that, but I am not in any hurry to start.

However it was challenging at first to find things that appeared worthwhile as free instructional courses, but the more I have looked the more I found. For the Shakespeare review, the plan is to read the Shakespeare plays that I have not read previously. That amounts to 17 plays, so perhaps I am biting off too much here. I plan to write summaries of the plays, a brief analysis and identify lines or speeches that stand out. It appears that almost all of the plays are available to watch in performance for free, so watching the performance will probably count as class time, although I may include some lecture videos as well.

I am excited also about the courses on philosophy that I have found. I have a philosophy textbook that I intend to make the outline for the course, and there is an introduction to philosophy course online from the University of Edinburgh that matches closely the text and looks to be of good quality. If there is any lecture that is not worthwhile, there are several other courses, including one from Yale, one from the University of Queensland Australia and one from Oxford, in addition to several philosophy podcasts.

Sooner or later I want to do the Brandon Sanderson writing class that is available for free online, but there are a lot of other writing resources that fit more closely with the first semester syllabus, which is simply to review the writing instruction books that I have read in the past, write summaries of them and do as many of the writing exercises as I can from them.

There are still a few other issues to resolve prior to starting in earnest but I am almost there and should be ready before the start date of Monday August 31.

Free or Spend Money?

Instead of a do-it-yourself MFA, I could do a real MFA, and still stay at home, with an online program. There are plenty of such options. Especially now with Covid. That would make it a much more serious commitment. I have to admit that part of the reluctance to doing an MFA is that I may not be ready for the commitment and the sacrifice that it would require in balancing working on the program and keeping up my day job, not to mention the financial commitment. But at least as important of a consideration is that I don't need or want a degree. I want to gain the training and do the writing and end up with the writing product that I feel is the best I can do. 

Still, a full MFA program would require me to put forward significant long-term commitment, which is something that I need. The alternative is to take individual classes or workshops. Initially, I thought that I would just do it entirely on my own, and rely on free courses or YouTube videos to have the visual instruction that supplements reading, and then forgo getting feedback. But I suspect that I need something more. Many believe that all MFAs are a waste of money and time, but the proliferation of programs makes it clear that at least some of them are a waste. I don't need a load of additional debt. But spending some money can be a good thing, a way to increase commitment, and provide an opportunity to build a community of writers. Spending some money may be better than trying to do it all for free.

I have been looking at the programs, courses and workshops. Much work just to look. One should be able to earn a degree from going through the process of sorting and identifying all of the courses that fit my needs. Preparing and scheduling a study program looks like it will be taking longer than I anticipated. I am anxious to get key dates calendared but I think that will have to wait until I have done more research.

Browsing through online workshops, I came up with a few suggestions to investigate further: 

Gotham Writers Workshop
NYU Professional Pathways
UCLA Extension
24PearlStreet
The Writers Studio

Catapult

That's a start. In addition there are several options of paid on-line courses without instructor feedback (therefore cheaper) such as Master Class. 

Some criteria for choosing a course: Ability to interact with other students is important because a primary goal is to end up with fellow writers with which to collaborate in the future; it is probably wise to delay the more expensive workshops until at least next winter or spring so that when the time comes I am prepared to get the maximum benefit from the class; is it worth spending money on courses without feedback? is it better to take workshops from different programs/schools or to take several workshops from the same school?

I've got work to do.

Re-launch and What Might Have Been

 

I have been working on a new program of work production and study. The inspiration for this program is the idea that if I had not not pursued my current career instead I might have continued on to do first a Masters degree in English literature and then an MLA in creative writing with the purpose of becoming a professional writer of some sort. To be accurate, at the time, I was more likely to be intent on continuing to pursue a PhD in literature with the purpose of becoming a professor, but hindsight suggests that the heavy emphasis of theory in academia at that time would have made that choice undesirable. I am not going to go into the problem of taking account of hindsight. Instead, I am going back imaginatively to decide what I might have done and then taking that alternate course and bringing it into the present. In other words, if I would have been happier professionally if I had done this thing back then, what can I do now to pursue a similar course?

 I came up with a do-it-yourself kind of plan for the equivalent of a Masters degree in literature with a focus on the topic of situating Shakespeare in the context of the history of ideas, and then also a do-it-yourself MFA, involving studying instructions on writing and of course doing a lot of writing, both on a work in progress and on writing exercises. I want to pursue this plan approximated to the semester schedule, where I identify and set out courses that I intend to pursue during the time frame of a semester with the idea that I can do three semesters in a year for a total of seven or eight semesters or in other words about 2 ½ years total to complete this program that I am developing.

There are two concerns. First, why do this? Why not just work on my writing by writing and read as I feel it is helpful to do so? The answer is pretty straightforward which is that I lack discipline. I end up reading things that are scattered. One of the chief motivations for developing this program was looking back at my reading over the past several years and seeing that there is no pattern to what I’ve been reading. My reading has not been building to anything. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but, and yet, there is an opportunity to build and work towards a goal. I feel like pursuing this program will help me to develop a greater depth of knowledge and ability that I otherwise would never be able to reach.

The second concern is how am I going to stick with this? I’m trying to help myself in that regard by setting short-term goals. But I have several obstacles. One is that there is no professor to whom I am submitting work by a deadline, so it would be easy to let deadlines pass. There is no report card being prepared, so there is no risk from failing to carry it out. I could tell people about this and in that way make myself more accountable, but honestly I am reluctant to do that. I don't who I would tell. 

What are some realistic ways to keep myself more accountable? To provide motivation to carry out this program?

Taking time to plan the program before starting it would help. That planning would make this more significant, and also it provides an opportunity to make the process more realistic.

I can give myself rewards for meeting goals. Celebrate goals reached along the way.

I can carefully document what I am doing. Keeping a complete record or journal of every step is likely to keep me more engaged in the process. That is why I am here. It took me a while to even find this blog and regain access to it, but I felt a rush of excitement when I got back in. A good sign. I am going to use the blog as blogs were originally intended, not heavily edited posts but in the moment journal entries that exists for the purpose of making a record of my journey and keeping me engaged.

Here's to starting over!

Silent Noon - A Valentine

Today on Valentine's Day it is a multi-media convergence of love and the romantic on this blog!

Have you ever felt comfortable enough with someone that you did not need to talk? Hopefully everyone has a relationship like that, but rarely has the feeling been expressed in language so gorgeous and memorable as Silent Noon by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I love the way it suggests that two people of one mind can jointly share and appreciate the beauty of nature in all its fine details. A few years ago it was part of a Valentine I gave to my wife, and this year it is my Valentine to the world.

Silent Noon

Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass, -- 
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms: 
Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms 
'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. 
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass, 
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge 
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge. 
'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly 
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: -- 
So this wing'd hour is dropt to us from above. 
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, 
This close-companioned inarticulate hour 
When twofold silence was the song of love.

I'm far from the only person who has appreciated these words. They were set to music by the great British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. There is a fine video of tenor Ian Bostridge singing the song in the out of doors, and you can watch it here.

The above painting, Pair of Lovers, by Pal Szinyei Merse, also captures the feeling of these words in a wonderful way. 

I told you this was multi-media! Enjoy and Happy Valentine's Day!

Days of Mercy

News item: Today I started circulating the first few chapters of my novel, which I am calling Days of Mercy.

Meanwhile, here is an updated description of the story: 

A British spy dies while rescuing a young aristocrat from the French Revolution.  The aristocrat, ungrateful and mortally offended to owe his life to a commoner, determines to discredit the spy’s reputation. Searching for hidden scandals, he inadvertently uncovers a plot to overthrow the British Monarchy, pulling himself into a perilous underworld of treason and crime.  In an epic journey across France, England and Wales, the boy aristocrat can only survive by finding the man within himself, and finishing the work the once detested spy had started.

A(n) Historical . . .?

When one wants to write historical novels, the first question that comes to mind is which indefinite article to use prior to "historical", "a" or "an"? I know, I know. That is not really the first question. My kids hate it when I exaggerate. But it is a point of confusion that was probably never cleared up in Freshman English, and it was bothering me, so I looked it up.

Here is the rule for using the indefinite article prior to words beginning with the letter "h":

• Use "an" when the "h" is silent, as in "honest." For example, we speak and write: "an honest woman."
• When the "h" is spoken but the first syllable is unstressed then we use "an" in speech, but we write "a." Thus, in speech we would say "an historical novel", but we write "a historical novel." This rule has transformed over time so that it is usually considered correct to write either "a" or "an." Spoken usage has also evolved to where using "an" in this case is considered formal, even pretentious. Translation: when the first syllable is unstressed, do whatever you want.
• When the first syllable of the word beginning with "h" is stressed, then "a" is always the correct indefinite article. Example: "a hat."

Conclusion: for the purposes of this blog, I am a historical novelist.

Details, Details, Details

One of the best things about writing a historical novel is that it forces me to dig up and closely examine details from history that I never would have noticed before. It turns out that details are much more interesting than the broad picture and often more informative and compelling, as well. Likewise as a reader of historical novels, reading a reference to a minor character or a long forgotten building can open new vistas for discovering the past. Let me give you one example.

London Bridge, 1799

The Old London Bridge is well-known for being crowded with shops and houses teetering precariously over the Thames, like a bloated version of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. At the time I am writing about, 1792, the bridge had been wiped clean of those structures. All of the houses and shops were torn down, so that the surface of bridge was a clean sweep. However, all of the original pillars, connected by nineteen arches, remained.

Especially interesting to me, the effect of all of those pillars was that they forced the river to run through nineteen separate channels, and when the tide was flowing, each channel was a separate fast moving ten foot waterfall! Daredevil boaters sometimes shot through the channel and sometimes drowned. Passengers from up river avoided the danger by disembarking above the bridge and walking down below the bridge to continue their journey. A whole other fascinating detail was the group of water wheels under the London Bridge, positioned there because of this flow, and which supplied London with much of its not-so-fresh water.

Much more information about the history of the bridge, including detailed diagrams of the water wheels, is available at the Old London Bridge website, here.

Details do bring the past to life, and one of the great virtues of historical novels is that they are informed by details, which can be jumping off points for the reader to do his or her own historical research. It makes history exciting, and that is the point.

London Bridge, 1710