Clarion Day 29 - Thoughts on My Subs

So my week 3 sub was about pine trees, and I cut a lot of back story because I'm not one who likes much info dump. Looking back, I think it was a huge mistake. I think for a writing bootcamp like Clarion, one can't expect to produce much quality so quickly (though many people's stories are astonishingly well-written for first drafts). I'm so used to the MFA system, where we sub a story roughly every month vs. every week.

So because this week we're short on stories, I decided to quickly revise my week 3 story to sub for tomorrow's workshop. Hope this isn't a huge mistake, but I would really love for my fellow Clarionites to see something more textured than what I had originally subbed. I'm also still working on my original story for week 5. It's completely different from anything I've ever written. Completely. I've finished looking for the voice, and now I think I must start constructing scenes. Loverly.

Word count for Monday (and counting): about 800....only 200 more to go to hit my daily quota!

Clarion Day Who Knows - I'm Still Alive, sort of

For week 3, I worked on a story that pushed me emotionally and set me in a tale spin for a couple of weeks. Plus, I suffered from extreme homesickness. I think I'm mostly over it now. I'm still alive, sort of.

Week 3 - Mary Anne Mohanraj was one of the big reasons for why I wanted to attend Clarion this year with her multicultural background. She was focused more on characters and wanted everyone to write a protagonist who has a distinctly different identity from the writer. At the end of her week, she treated us to a delicious home-cooked Sri-Lankan dinner.

Week 4 - Neil Gaiman was pretty intense in an affable way. He is so sharp and cuts to the core while communicating in a kindly manner. I'm still processing, but in addition to Neil, we had lots of authors and artists visit that week. David Brin, Scott McCloud and family, Dave McKean and family.

Then, Sunday morning, two very distinct lines came to me in a voice that I think I will pursue for my week 5 story. It's going to be extremely different from pretty much everything I've written before. Guy teen protagonist.

I'm going to try to post more and including word count for my discovery drafts.

Word count for Sunday: about 2000 words.

Clarion Day 12 - Happy Birthday Monica!

So today is Monica's birthday, and her request was that we go out for yummy Eithiopean food. Yay, food! I sat on the veggie side!

Clarion Tip: The food here gets a bit monotonous. Eat out when you can. Or go for a walk to Whole Foods or Trader Joe's (or 99 Ranch if you have a car).

Clarion Day 11.75 - We have a Real-Life Cyborg

So, Friday night, at the end of Jim Kelly's last night with us, we're all seated in the common area to discuss our flash fiction. Then, Dan stumbles in a bit late, seats himself on the floor in the common area. One of us inquires about the two-inch gash oozing blood on the top of his head. He said he was fine, but his words were slurred and his eyes were weirdly dilated. From where I was sitting, I had a bird's-eye view of his head wound and knew he had to go to the hospital.

Everyone was concerned. We had no idea what had happened, and that was frightening. We guessed it could be as mild as a low-blood sugar accident to as serious as a concussion, so the ER seemed a better choice than just the med center. Thankfully, Damien and Ferrett came along and helped navigate to the ER. We waited for nearly 4 hours for the results, and during that time we talked about everything from what the was the best Star Trek series to how thrilled we are to be a Clarion. I love geeking out with my fellow Clarionites.

What's difficult sometimes is taking care of someone who doesn't want to be taken care of. In the ER waiting room, Dan kept saying he was fine and shouldn't be in the ER. The only way we could convince him of the gravity of his situation was for Ferrett to take a picture with his phone and show Dan a picture of his head wound. By that time the blood was not so freshly red, but had started to darken and run down his scalp.

In the end, Dan seems to be fine and has five staples in his head. We need to take him back in 10 days to remove the staples, but for now he is our resident cyborg!

Clarion Day 11.5 - Bring out the Water Guns!

So apparently a common Clarion tradition over the years is the release of stress through water gun fights. And of course, because we are the unofficial Resident Advisors, my roommate Dana decided with our neighbor Dan to get some water flowing. I have to admit, I did feel much better (and half-soaked) after defending myself against Dana and Dan. Apparently I have good aim!

Clarion Tip - have the water gun fights earlier. San Diego is the perfect place for water gun fights!

Clarion Day 11 - Donald Wesling!

Donald Wesling is a former UCSD literature professor and a huge advocate of Clarion. He always shows up for the readings and has been a huge contributor to welcoming our illustrious faculty. Today Donald sat in on workshop, and I gave him a copy of my story from last week for his perusal and critique. What a wonderfully generous man!

Clarion Day 10.5 - My Second Sub

So I made the mistake of starting two different stories over this weekend. One was a story without a voice, and the other was a voice without a story. I was equally compelled to write them at the same time, and that brought problems. So what did I decide to do at the last minute? I decided to start a third entirely different story. One with ninjas. And zombies. And pirates. And cyborgs. And the obligatory dead pet ala Clarionites '08. This is in complete contrast to my Week 1 prose-poetry story, which was deemed "literary" and not exactly genre. We'll see how my class reacts to my more conventional genre story (but all Asians all the time!). In the end, I probably wrote over 8000 words this weekend and this week, but the final pure first draft sub is around 2400.

I am so looking forward for Jim Kelly, the amazing story doctor, to help me with my stories and my world building!

Clarion Tip: If you can, sub early! I'm going to try my best to finish my Week 3 story over this weekend. Yay postcolonial lit!

Clarion Day 9 - Hearing Jim Kelly Speak

Before going to Mysterious Galaxy, a bunch of us decided to eat dinner at one of the local restaurants. We had Thai food, which in reality was a bit too Americanized for my tastes. Then we caravaned to Mysterious Galaxy to hear Jim Kelly read his story "Itsy Bitsy Spider." It creeped me out and made me want to cry at the same time. All good stories should do that. Met Shweta (Clarion '07) and her husband Nathaniel and some other Clarion alums. Congrats to Shweta for selling her story to Ellen Datlow's next anthology!!

Clarion Tip of the Day: It's okay to cry. Emotions run high at Clarion, and the best thing to do is let them out, ideally privately and constructively.

Clarion Day 9 - Skipping Jim's Talk

So per his orders to us this weekend, I decided to skip Jim's talk about podcasting today to work on my story for this week (more about that later). I'm bummed b/c Jim is incredibly savvy and sharp and I want to gain as much info as I can, but I have at least 400 reasonably usable words for my story now, which has indirectly inspired the first of a series of Clarion haiku.

The other very cool thing about Clarion is the constant exchange of creative energies and information among Clarionites. For workshop, someone turned in a really cool piece that was originally inspired during a walk-and-talk-shop conversation with me. Soooooo cool! And, likewise, while walking and talking, I was challenged to write stories that I would normally never think to write otherwise. Plus, if one is always walking and talking with another Clarionite, there is less probability of being late or getting too lost.

Clarion Tip of the Week: Walk and talk on a regular basis with your fellow Clarionites, even if you are an anti-social person. Because you will never have this opportunity to be around writers 24/7 like this ever again. Even my MFA program is not this intense.

Clarion Day 8 - Jim Kelly Workshop Begins!

I know it's been roughly a week since Clarion started, but I feel like I've been here for a few months. Jim Kelly said that week 2 of Clarion is where we need to start pacing ourselves because we don't want to burn out during weeks 5 and 6. So I am trying to keep on top of everything, the critiquing, the writing, the socializing. As I hang out with my fellow Clarionites, I am inspired and amazed at the different facets they reveal of themselves not only in their stories but in their critiques and on a personal level.

Jim Kelly is soooooooooooo different from Kelly Link. While Kelly is calm, Jim exudes huge energy. While Kelly talks quietly and in a constrained manner, Jim himself will say that he can talk forever. Yet they both give awesome critiques.

Clarion Tip of the Day: Because our writing is our highest priority, Jim told us to skip at least one non-workshop event this week. Don't know what I'm skipping yet, and I don't want to!

Clarion Day 7 - Reflections on Week 1

I am so sad to see Kelly Link leave us. She has been so warm, so supportive, so available and present for each and every one of us. Not only do I love her writing and her personal style, I think she herself is a fabulous person and someone I would love to know as a true friend, beyond the writing world. Her critiques are always on. She's excellent at maintaining a smoothly running workshop, and I learned a lot about "night logic" and horror from her. I think Kelly's piece of advice that stands out to me the most right now is: "Explore your own weirdness."

Kelly met with us as a group almost every day after lunch, in addition to her one-on-ones later in the afternoon. She lectured about so many wonderful things, and the biggest bright spots for me with Kelly was the ideas of "night time logic" and "day time logic." With weird tales featuring "night time logic," one doesn't have to explain much. I'm still not sure if I quite understand it, but I'll figure it out someday. First I must identify the weird. Then I can embrace it.

Clarion Day 6 - Nancy Holder & Hi and Bye to a Kelly

On Saturday our second Clarion instructor, Jim Kelly, arrived in the morning. I met him and Donald Wesling while I was on my way to the laundry room. I was struck by Jim's infectious energy, such a huge contrast to the quirky calmness of Kelly Link.

And I was surprised to find that we had informal meetings, which required a delay in my plans to cook a homestyle Chinese dinner, my contribution to the group meal. Grå made a delicious curry, Dana constructed home-made burritos, Megan made a yummy apple crisp, and Kelly made a wonderful carrot fennel soup and 4 fabulous pies that we saved for breakfast/lunch for the net day.

Nancy Holder came to visit to share her experiences writing tie-in novels, specifically Buffy! She gave us copies of her novels, and she was soooooo nice! Apparently I had met one of her editors, and so we chatted and bonded, especially when I found out she's a new member of SCBWI, even though she'd been published in YA lit for years.

Then we had an after dinner dramatic reading where everyone laughed so hard, I thought some of us were going to spontaneously combust.

At the end of the day (early morning for the next day), I was literally at the verge of tears when Kelly Link said her goodbyes to us at Clarion. At the same time, I am so excited to learn from the extremely knowledgeable and uber-entertaining Jim Kelly.

Clarion Tip of the Day: Take care of your mental and physical health. We've been writing, thinking, critiquing intensively during the weekday, and the weekends are the perfect time to recharge. I highly recommend taking solitary walks in the morning before people are awake. Or cooking. When I cook, that always brings me back in touch with my physical self b/c it's multi-sensory.

Week 2 begins!

Clarion Day 5 - We Killed Kelly!

The end of the first week: After workshop, we all took huge naps. The place was like a ghost town. Finally now we are playing Mafia!: Kelly Link is an awesome Narrator as well as an accomplished Mafia player! It is soooooooooooo much fun watching my fellow Clarionites discuss who is mafia!

Clarion Tip of the Day: Sleep when you can over the weekend. Five days of surviving on 2-6 hours of sleep nightly takes its toll.

Clarion Day 4.5 - Stolen Laptops! Please Support Clarion West!

For the three people who read this blog, 4 students at Clarion West had their laptops stolen! The story is here.

Since I'm at Clarion (in San Diego) right now, my laptop is my constant companion. I would be completely lost without it. Clarion West is collecting donations to help replace the laptops. Please consider donating to Clarion West.

Clarion Day 4 - Happy B-Day to Ferrett!

So today is Ferrett's birthday! To celebrate, we all took a walk to the nearest beach. Most of us drank 16 year-old scotch and played in the waves. We wrote "Happy Birthday Ferrett!" in the sand with our toes and heels. We looked at sand creatures, and I took lots and lots of pics of seaweed and waves.

Clarion Tip of the Day: Bring comfortable shoes. We walk a quite a bit, though we talk more.

Clarion Day 3.5 - Thoughts on My First Sub

So Kelly was super-cool about allowing us to work on our first week story a little bit ahead of time. So one week before I started Clarion, I started my first story. Almost 2 weeks later, I'm still working on it. This does not bode well for my goal of writing 6 stories in 6 weeks. Simply, I'm a sloooooooow writer, especially for short stories. I need lots of time to think about my characters, what kind of world do they live in, what kind of problems are they facing, how those problems will resolve, if at all.

Add that to this my "brilliant" idea of embracing my weaknesses and challenging myself. Normally I write rather traditionally structured stories. I like stories with a distinct beginning, middle, and end. I like stories with a clear arc. I like stories featuring characters who I want to believe are actually alive. So for my first story, I decided to play with the form and incorporate a few poems to go along with the prose. And then I decided to write a modernization of an ancient Chinese legend. And then, after realizing that no one would get any of the references, I decided to include the legend in my story. Talk about too many moving parts.

But I have to say that while some of the creative process was a bit painful, I did really enjoy dreaming this one up.

I need to speed up if I want to be happy with my submission for week 2. So my next story will be short and snappy, something I'm extremely comfortable with.

Clarion Day 3 - Hearing Kelly Link

So I've been enjoying hearing Kelly Link speak in workshop and lecture after lunch, but I've never heard her read her own work aloud. Tonight Kelly read at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, and the place was packed! Shweta from Clarion class of '07 was there with her husband and other friends. Kelly read "The Wrong Grave" from her newest short story collection for young adults, Pretty Monsters, soon to be out from Viking in the fall. It was hilariously funny. Perhaps my favorite line: "Her hair was not good Buddhist hair."

Clarion tip for the day: If you can, go to the faculty readings. Three of us Clarionites (not myself, unfortunately) won advanced reader copies of Kelly's newest book!

Clarion Day 2 - Climbing the Snake

After dinner I accompanied a few Clarionites taking a hike up the snake pathway up to the library. The snake walkway was a beautiful experience, almost meditative to observe the changing scale colors while hiking. Then we got library cards! I have no idea if I will use my card, but it's nice to have, just in case. Also, right near the library is a tree made entirely of metal. A singing tree? But, alas, it did not sing for us.

Kelly Link is, quite simply, quietly awesome, and my Clarion classmates are amazing, insightful, and full of amusing anecdotes and factoids. The second day is almost over, and I feel like I've been here for two weeks! Loving it!!

Advice for future Clarionites: Bring sunscreen, jackets, and use them! I forgot to wear sunscreen, and now I'm burnt! Thankfully I brought aloe vera gel.

Clarion Day 1 - I Begin to Bake

I warned my fellow Clarionites that my consumption of baked goods is directly proportional to my stress levels. That is, when I get stressed, I bake. Now that we have kitchen access, I plan to bake at least once a week (most likely more). I'm not a gourmet, but I really enjoy the process and the output. I find that baking and cooking are both creative expressions that bring me back into my physical body, while with writing it is so easy to just be swirling around in the mind. Baking grounds me and is so much easier than cooking.

First batch of Clarion cookies was the absolute most basic recipe because I had bought only the absolute most basic ingredients. I made shortbread cookies, and folks were appreciative. The best comment from a Clarionite: "An orgasm in my mouth."