I can write, really

I hate presenting theses statements. They make me panic and block up. My fave artist, Michael Jackson once said there was no such thing as writer’s block. But I wonder if he always felt this way – or did he run into it eventually? To me saying there’s no such thing as writer’s block is along the same lines as one of my aunts who asserted very firmly that there is no such thing as stress because “to me you’re just supposed to turn it over to the Lord”. Lovely sentiment, however this is an Aunt with a bunch of serious health problems that are directly related in my opinion to stress. So I don’t know if denial of your own stress level makes things any different or easier.

Anyway, as stated, I have a hard time with thesis statements. And I have bad attacks of writer’s block which is pretty irrational since I can literally type up 100K words in just a few weeks on my own time, but if I have to do it for academic purposes then that’s a different thing for me altogether and I spend more time worrying about delivery than anything else.

I’m not a newbie to writing, and I have 19 years of education and yet I still have problems harnessing my own words into acceptable form for academic review. What gives? I did a lot of writing in my past educational experiences, but I haven’t had to present working theses before. In the past I simply looked into material then looked into myself and came up with something suitable. But there was no back and forth with a professor between the part where you said “I’m going to write a paper about ____”. And the time you turned in said paper. My present school is a little different in that back and forth regarding the work is pretty much required and I suppose that is normal for decent graduate school, and reflects real world practice as well. Professional writers do work with editors and the back and forth about subject matter, tone and theme is part of the process. One has to learn to shift from being a “lone (she) wolf” writer to a writer of the collaborative type. I can write and now I just have to learn how to write on cue. Eventually I will get used to this and I will be able to deliver without my eyelid twitching and then I’ll be able to share technique and solutions with others.

Filed under: School, writer's block

Feminism down and the beat goes on

Feminism class over – phew! I felt that the issues addressed in the text sounded very Victorian – and out of date. So I was actually surprised at how many women in the class stated patriarchy and sexism are still key problems in their worlds – here in the US of A.

What can I say – it just isn’t the case in mine and never has been.
It was kind of like those natural hair care boards where people rolled up one after the next and told their virtual testimony about the trail of tears they’d walked in order to “go natural”. I’m never one to dismiss anyone’s experience, but I just couldn’t relate. I didn’t “go natural” – I was born and grew up that way. I experimented briefly with the perm thing, didn’t care for it enough to make it a long term habit, stopped, never looked back, it was never that deep for me. I wasn’t making a dramatic statement about the standard of beauty. I didn’t know that natural wasn’t beautiful.

Filed under: School

Adobe Digital Editions – A Lifesaver!

After my pushing my way through my first graduate course this summer, it occurred to me that I can’t go another minute without having digital access to as many of my texts as possible. And I need it the day before yesterday so even Kindle can’t get to me fast enough. So I did a little poking around on project gutenberg and found out that they have EPUB files now that are readable on Mac in Adobe Digital Editions – a free download available at adobe.com. I downloaded that right away and my life has changed already. Reading paper books for academic purposes – especially in accelerated courses is frustrating because you underline, make notes in the margin, flag and then end up not being able to find a good percentage of your marked up comments when it comes to discussion or writing papers. Adobe digital editions streamlines the process by allowing you to make digital book marks – and if digital rights management permits it – you may have copy and paste functions as well which save when it comes to inserting quotes. Not all of my books are available for free at places like project gutenberg. So those I have to pay for and the downside is that some of these e-books tend to disable the copy and past features and that’s a pita – however for me the e-bookmarks are enough of a benefit either way.

Filed under: School, adobe, ebook, epub

Bad Student

I’m being a bad grad student this week. What I should be doing instead of surfing youtube for classic Jackson videos and learning to use twitter, etc., etc., is figuring out a paper topic for my multiculti literature class. Some of the MJ fan tributes are outstanding – way better than anything any tv network is going to produce. Now that’s love. I like being in a love movement.

My proposal and thesis statement is due this weekend and paper due in about two weeks. I would like to do something about the evolution of AA fiction in the Obama age, but I don’t know if I can find enough materials on short notice. In my class we discussed the works of authors such as Amiri Baraka, Toni Cade Bambara and Alice Walker. I’d like to find their new millenium equivalents. What does a young writer sound like who was influenced by these established voices? I’m very wordy these days so I’m not concerned about filling up paper with coherent type. It’s just a question of knowing where to find  current cutting edge materials and I haven’t figured that out yet. Meanwhile I have a lot of reading for Wed and Thurs discussions – so time to get back on track.

Filed under: School