Episode 534: Minor Roadblock, Now Resolved

Realised that the thesis statement in my introduction wasn't forceful enough. Or to be more precise, the thesis of my essay was defused across so many sentences that I wasn't sure it would be at all clear to anyone reading the introduction what exactly the rest of the essay was going to be about. Have now restructured it, so that the thesis is clearly the final (long) sentence of my opening paragraph. What the essay is about hasn't changed at all, merely that this long sentence now actually touches on all the things I want to deal with. I'll leave it overnight, and if I still like what I read in the morning, I can run with it. Did a bit of secondary reading for 'The Eve Of St. Agnes' before the Francisco Goldman event in the Arts Centre, and I must say, it's gratifying to know that there are plenty of critics out there providing me with quotes that confirm my suspicions about the complexity of this poem's structuring, something which I'd heretofore taken completely for granted on the assumption that anything this long surely must have more to it than meets the eye. Then I found the time to complete a poem inspired by the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, which I thought turned out to be a nifty piece of work. Have perhaps gone a bit heavy with the alliteration, for no reason other than that I could, but I like the twist in my version. The Francisco Goldman event was great by the way. He talked about the experience of writing The Art Of Political Murder, which is really an intriguing book that I'm so tempted to buy, but won't because I have neither cash nor space to spare right now. He also read out an excerpt from his new novel, Say Her Name, inspired by his relationship with his late wife. I thought it was beautiful, kind of reminded me of Kundera in parts.

Episode 533: Racking Them Up...

Began the day with an acceptance from Six Sentences. I'm appearing in the next issue of The 6S Review, which means you're actually going to have to buy something to see my work in print. I think that's pretty damn exciting, even if it's just a flash fiction that's six sentences long. (It was actually something from one of Maureen Freely's class exercises last year. I just tweaked the punctuation to string the last couple of one-word sentences together.) This is after I was recently informed that Seedpod Publishing has accepted my tweet-length tale, which I just wrote on the spur of the moment a while ago and sent in. That's the thing with Twitter-based journals, I think. They force you to be interesting in very few words. Anyway, I'm ending of the night with a rejection from kill author. 'We enjoyed reading "Summer Heat" - particularly admiring the inventive approach to the story's structure - but ultimately didn't feel that the piece's themes or language quite suited it to our journal, so are passing on it.' At least they liked the structure, which was inspired by Mark Z. Danielewski's use of footnotes in House Of Leaves. (George Ttoouli didn't like that stylistic influence actually, although he liked the piece and saw further possibilities for it if I freed it of the 1234.5-word limit, which I might explore next term after portfolio deadlines and before the end-of-term examinations, or maybe even over summer break.) Have submitted it to another journal instead, as I am now firmly convinced that the story is good enough to be published, so I'm going to make it happen somehow. The trouble, of course, is that I'm not willing to pay for postage to submit work, so that shuts me out of the more 'established' names in the business. For this piece, formatting is somewhat important, so I needed to find a place that accepts electronic submissions via attachment. Not an easy task, I can assure you, but I've managed it, so I can go to bed now.

Episode 532: (My Equivalent Of) Major Progress

I've finished my introduction, having rewritten what was there to begin with and more than doubling its length. I think it's pretty clear now what my essay is meant to be about, so I just need to write it all out. (I know the module page says that my final thesis should come about after I've written the rest of the essay, but I don't buy that. My mind refuses to work that way.) I've actually found a book tying together sexuality and spirituality in the context of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, which maps back nicely onto ideas of sensuality versus religion and body versus mind, that sort of thing. Am tempted to stay up to write the next paragraph, which will then lead nicely into how sensuality and religion in 'The Eve Of St. Agnes' are portrayed as worlds that are incomplete when kept separate, but with a French test tomorrow, I think I'll just go to bed early instead. After all, it's not like the idea's going to fly away from me, now that I've got it mapped out in my head. Feels like things are really falling into place for this essay, and as long as I can be disciplined and find a pocket of time, I could really finish this in good time and not need to pull anything remotely resembling an all-nighter. Of course, given my track record, that's probably not going to happen, but it's a good feeling to have, all the same.

Episode 531: Double Duty

It was my first time attending the evening celebration because I was singing today, so I was out for 12 hours. Brought my laptop because I'd planned on doing work between services, but ended up playing The Settlers Of Catan in the Union. (That place is chilly on a weekend!) So not a terribly productive afternoon, but it was good fun. Can't decide if I'm so tired because being involved in worship for two services is very draining or because I haven't been getting enough sleep over the past couple of nights. Had thought of going to Topman tomorrow to see if I can get a few more lightweight t-shirts to pack for my upcoming vacation, for which I received the travel documents a couple of days ago, but I suspect I'll be too tired, and I'm going to a reading in the Chaplaincy anyway, so no point rushing to the city centre and back. Really do need to get a move on with the essay though, even if it's just browsing through my research so that I can pull an all-nighter on Sunday. I've got a good idea of how to phrase in the introduction what I want to say about 'The Eve Of St. Agnes', but I need to find some article that gives me a way to structure my thoughts on 'Goblin Market'. I vaguely remember coming across one, but need to flip through my research to be sure.

Episode 530: Post-production Party!

Missed the afternoon TEDx session despite having bought a ticket because I was in a Warwick Skills Certificate session. So that's £3 wasted. At least this module was the most interesting out of the three that I've attended, so that makes up for it, just a little. The assignments are really easy, and we completed one of them during the session itself, so if I wanted, I could probably finish it all by Monday. I think it's really time to devote some myself to the essay on Keats and Rossetti though, now that I've got an introductory sentence or two in place. It's always the beginning that's hard for me. However convoluted the subsequent argument, as long as it's been set up properly by the end of the first paragraph, it always goes fine in the end. Or so says previous experience up to this point. Anyway, since I wasn't at TEDx, I made it to the post-production party on time. We scribbled on each other's t-shirts (I'm quite horrified that I failed to get the dialect pun that Huabin wrote on mine until someone said it out loud) and screened a recording of the musical (twice), which I've actually got on DVD now, so if anyone wants to relive one of my rare moments of artistic triumph, you know how to get hold of me. escarp also published my haiku today, and I like the concept of a Twitter-based journal, if only because it means there's somewhere I can send off haikus to. Haha!

Episode 529: Breakthrough

Finally penned down the first two sentences of my essay! 88 words in total. I think this could be the start of something beautiful! If you think about it, I just need to write about three to four paragraphs each day over the next week, and the essay will actually get itself down. (When you break the work down like that, it's truly shocking how long it takes me to get it done. It's only 3500 words!) Awesome EN273 seminar today, discovering the gruesome origins of Sleeping Beauty. I really do like fairy tales and how there are so many variations on a single plot. It's one of the things I remember best from primary school, how there was one series of lessons that was all about reading different versions of fairy tales. Come to think of it, we were reading some pretty violent versions of Cinderella that I'm sure wouldn't be allowed in primary schools in Singapore these days. (Must ask Shirley about this.) Had a minor debate with myself when I got home as to whether I should attend Jemma's house party. Was having a headache and probably need the sleep that I won't be getting over the weekend. Ended up going, although while walking to her place from the bottom of the Parade, I did wonder for a while if I was lost. (I wasn't.) Took a taxi back and arrived home around 1.30 am, much earlier than I'd expected. Looks like I'll be getting some sleep after all...

Episode 528: Ecopoetry

After writing that poem George gave us as homework after today's seminar, I've decided that ecopoetry isn't really my thing. I applaud its aims, but I just can't write it myself. I've given it a go, and I think the end result is fairly musical, but I can't see myself doing it regularly. The irony, of course, is that this attempt is comparatively closer to the style of poetry I would like to write. Or one of them anyway. I just don't want to write about ecological themes! Sent four different edits to escarp because the original change I made was passable, but they wanted to explore better alternatives if at all possible. Who'd have thought trying to get a haiku published would be so nerve-wracking? I was also going to write a poem about Sleeping Beauty in advance for next week's EN273 seminar, but I can't decide on the beginning for it. I'm trying to go for something slightly voyeuristic, as the conventionally 'suppressed' element of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale is that she gets raped by the prince and gives birth to two children that her mother-in-law wants to feast upon. You've got to love unsanitised fairy tales! Who needs the Disney versions?

Episode 527: A Single Man

Spent the first part of the afternoon working on a poem for tomorrow, and because I got lazy and couldn't figure out what story to tell using it, I decided to parody Frost's 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening'. Again. Also banged out the first couple of paragraphs of the non-fiction piece for Maureen Freely on my N95, which I'll probably need to rewrite when it comes to turning it into a full-length piece, just because the opening sounds a bit too caustic right now. Spent the rest of the time before band practice watching A Single Man with Dan. I loved it! Colin Firth was simply brilliant, as was Julianne Moore. Nicholas Hoult was a bit creepy at first, but it's nice to see him moving on from Skins to other things. (His American accent actually managed to surprise me.) I was less impressed by Jon Kortajarena. Striking, as you would expect for one of the top international male models of the moment, but he's going to have to lose that Spanish accent to avoid being typecast. The cinematography was excellent, making brilliant use of palette variations in a way that is sorely lacking in most films today. I was actually really impressed by Tom Ford's direction and the sheer aesthetic gorgeousness of the film, although I completely didn't see the ending coming and it was literally heartbreaking. Dan thinks that Colin Firth's character didn't deserve it, but I thought it was kind of poetic. Make that really poetic.

Episode 526: Rejection!

Got a rejection e-mail today, which I know shouldn't be taken personally, but nonetheless created feelings of inadequacy that led to my spending the entire night sifting through work to send off to yet more editors to invite yet more (potential) rejection. I can't decide if this reaction was rational or otherwise. I've decided, at the very least, that I don't need to be overly discriminate at this stage of my literary career in whom I submit to, so at least one of choices has been quite outré, with the poems sent in being correspondingly edgier. Would've gone out, and I'd meant to, but would've been the only non-Leamington person and didn't fancy going home alone. (If I'd stayed late, I'd have to have taken a taxi, and I'm trying to avoid that as far as possible in my bid to reduce discretionary expenditure.) Instead, I stayed in the Library, although I didn't actually get any work done. I just sat there, reading Martin McDonagh's The Leenane Trilogy (The Beauty Queen Of Leenane, A Skull In Connemara, The Lonesome West). Pretty disturbing stuff, although I personally think The Pillowman still trumps them all. This whole plan to start work early on my essay is basically going down the drain really...

Episode 525: Has Spring Finally Arrived?

It was gloriously warm while the sun was still out in full force this afternoon. Can't say the same about right now. Anyway, have just finished the portfolio of assignments. So that's at least one item of my to-do list for today that I can cross out. To be honest, there wasn't a lot after it. I had meant to write a poem about Nick Chen at the zoo, but that hasn't happened yet. (No, I'm not even kidding! There was going to be a xylophone in it too, until I realised that you can't spell 'xylophone' without 'n'. Foiled!) In other news, I'm in the latest issue of Angelic Dynamo, so many thanks to everyone who helped me get there by voting! So now even if every single other place that I sent poems off to rejects me, I've got a tiny bit of validation to keep me going. (I exaggerate. Only a little bit.) I have now begun writing a zombie apocalypse story on my Facebook status with Lizzie. It's the most amusing thing I've done all day, which is both strange and sad. Bizarrely, the reason we started doing this was because we were discussing British TV shows, and I was complaining about how Being Human is a bit rubbish in this second series and Skins has jumped the shark with Effy's going off the rails. To end off randomly, let me just say that wasabi-flavoured Pringles do not pack a punch at all. I had to eat the whole tube before I even felt it sting.