Ships Flat
Once again, like all of Taylor Brady's poems, this one makes no sense. In the first stanza he talks about the afterlife, so I had that in mind throughout the whole poem. I thought maybe he would write about what he thinks the afterlife will be like. He talks about a man coming up a hill, tied with twine. He says he is quiet. I think maybe this man is coming into the afterlife. Brady says, "Here you hear the slow trash burn." I think maybe he is trying to say that everyone brings some kind of trash to the afterlife. Like all of your problems from the real world come to the afterlife, and there, they slowly burn.
Overhearing Eminent Domain
After reading the title, I looked up to see what eminent domain means. Eminent domain is the state's right to seize one's property without their consent. Keeping this in mind, I tried to figure out the rest of the poem.
The first few lines goes like this, "through a whole head a length of leak. This is my rifle. This is me rifling through my drawers. Had the memory been purged in time." I think he is talking about memories leaking out of his head and they are like a rifle. They're firing out and they won't stop. The last line of the first section is, "stand-up guy jumps lake." My first thought about this was suicide. That someone was trying to kill themselves by drowning. I think when he goes on to talk about the barrel bottom and the flipping fish, he is talking about hitting rock bottom and he is like the suffering, dying fish flipping and flapping at the bottom of the lake. Kind of depressing. He talks about being out of it and never missing the water.
I tried to figure out the last line, "set your clothes back," but i couldn't come up with anything. After reading the whole poem, I tried to relate it to the title, and I got nothing.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Bird By Bird Response
Plot
In this chapter, Anne Lamott describes what makes for a good plot and some tips on how to write it. The plot is like the backbone of the story. Everything in your book revolves around the plot. Anne stresses the importance of a kind of natural writing. You can't force anything in your book. You have to let your writing guide you. She gives the example that the characters are the ones actually writing the book, they just need you to write it down because they have bad handwriting.
Everything that Anne taught us about characters is important while developing the plot. She says, "...plot is: what people will up and do in spite of everything that tells them they shouldn't, everything that tells them they should sit quietly on the couch and practice their Lamaze, or call their therapist, or eat until the urge to do so passes." If you know what your characters care about most and what their true beliefs are, then you have a basis to write a story. Because a good plot will risk those things that they care most about. The characters come first. If you pick one fixed plot, and never sway from that, your writing will come across fixed and fake. You can't force anything. Every English teacher I have ever had has taught the class to never title your work until it is completely written, because you never know what the story will be like until the end.
Anne tells us about the necessities to a good plot: setup, build up, and payoff. The set up sets the scene. It's where we learn about the characters and their backgrounds and learn about their interactions with each other and the world. The build up is where shit happens, or as Anne Lamott says, "where you get all the meat off the turkey." And the payoff answers all the questions and ties the entire book together.
In this chapter, Anne Lamott describes what makes for a good plot and some tips on how to write it. The plot is like the backbone of the story. Everything in your book revolves around the plot. Anne stresses the importance of a kind of natural writing. You can't force anything in your book. You have to let your writing guide you. She gives the example that the characters are the ones actually writing the book, they just need you to write it down because they have bad handwriting.
Everything that Anne taught us about characters is important while developing the plot. She says, "...plot is: what people will up and do in spite of everything that tells them they shouldn't, everything that tells them they should sit quietly on the couch and practice their Lamaze, or call their therapist, or eat until the urge to do so passes." If you know what your characters care about most and what their true beliefs are, then you have a basis to write a story. Because a good plot will risk those things that they care most about. The characters come first. If you pick one fixed plot, and never sway from that, your writing will come across fixed and fake. You can't force anything. Every English teacher I have ever had has taught the class to never title your work until it is completely written, because you never know what the story will be like until the end.
Anne tells us about the necessities to a good plot: setup, build up, and payoff. The set up sets the scene. It's where we learn about the characters and their backgrounds and learn about their interactions with each other and the world. The build up is where shit happens, or as Anne Lamott says, "where you get all the meat off the turkey." And the payoff answers all the questions and ties the entire book together.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Bird By Bird Response
Character
In this chapter, Anne Lamott talk about how to develop characters in a story. She stresses the importance of knowing every aspect of each character. Know everything they would think and do from their political beliefs to what they would eat for breakfast. She says that some of your characters you will love and some of them you will hat, but that's what makes a good story.
As with everything in writing, it takes time to get to know your characters. You should let your characters develop as the story does. A character that plays a small role in the beginning of the story may end up being the most important character in the book. You have to just let it happen how it happens and not force anything. Anne quotes a good line at the end of the chapter that Fredrick Buechner wrote: "...Just as in the real world it may take you many years to find out that the stranger you talked to once for half an hour in the railroad station may have done more to point you where your true homeland lies than your priest or your best friend or even your psychiatrist.
I think that really knowing each character is the most important part of a story. It shapes the story and makes us feel like it's real and like we really know these characters. It also gets us emotionally involved. A good story plays with our emotions. If something sad happens to our favorite character, we will feel bad.
Anne describes a few ways to get to know the characters that you will be writing about. She says you can think about different aspects of your own personality and play on those. You can turn each aspect of your personality into a character. Another thing you can do is to base characters off of people that you know. Using these to strategies helps because it gives you a better idea of what these characters would think and do.
In this chapter, Anne Lamott talk about how to develop characters in a story. She stresses the importance of knowing every aspect of each character. Know everything they would think and do from their political beliefs to what they would eat for breakfast. She says that some of your characters you will love and some of them you will hat, but that's what makes a good story.
As with everything in writing, it takes time to get to know your characters. You should let your characters develop as the story does. A character that plays a small role in the beginning of the story may end up being the most important character in the book. You have to just let it happen how it happens and not force anything. Anne quotes a good line at the end of the chapter that Fredrick Buechner wrote: "...Just as in the real world it may take you many years to find out that the stranger you talked to once for half an hour in the railroad station may have done more to point you where your true homeland lies than your priest or your best friend or even your psychiatrist.
I think that really knowing each character is the most important part of a story. It shapes the story and makes us feel like it's real and like we really know these characters. It also gets us emotionally involved. A good story plays with our emotions. If something sad happens to our favorite character, we will feel bad.
Anne describes a few ways to get to know the characters that you will be writing about. She says you can think about different aspects of your own personality and play on those. You can turn each aspect of your personality into a character. Another thing you can do is to base characters off of people that you know. Using these to strategies helps because it gives you a better idea of what these characters would think and do.
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