I don’t know if I shared it here, but I have become known as “Dead Bunny” by a writing student in my center.
It all began with a lesson on prepositions. I was using the bunny and the box to demonstrate what a preposition is. I used my hands to form said bunny and box. For the most part, the student got it, despite the fact the teacher was afraid she wouldn’t.
Recently, the same student was presented with an activity on compound predicates. She called me over and told me she didn’t know what to do. I started by asking her what a predicate was, and she looked at me blankly.
So, I gave her the brief explanation of what a subject and predicate are. She still seemed lost, so I reminded her of our dear dead bunny. The sentence, “The bunny fell off the box,” quickly became the means by which she understood subject and predicate. Since she seemed to have that concept well in hand, I changed the sentence to, “The bunny fell off the box and died,” bringing compound predicates into the conversation.
Amazingly, she got it immediately, and the teacher and I just looked at each other. We couldn’t believe how much grammar could be taught from a dead bunny.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:34 AM EDT
No Comments »
I spend quite a bit of my time editing. Doesn’t matter if I’m at work, running my business, or relaxing. I must spend ten to fifteen hours out of my week editing.
I’m noticing something in my work, though, and I think it’s becasue I now have an editor for some of my projects. Technical editing is emotionless, and I do that much well.
Content editing…for whatever reason, when I’m asked to edit content, I seem to slip into this cold mode that doles out few compliments and asks a lot of questions. For the most part, this seems to be well-received (which is impressive, given that much of my editing time is spent with students and younger friends), but it occurs to me I don’t have to be quite so grumpy.
This occurred to me last week as I was grading some papers for a local high school. I had to put my pencil on the other side of the room because all I wanted to do was snark all over this poor fifteen year old’s paper. I’m certain I wasn’t a stellar writer when I was fifteen, so I’m guessing I probably had no right to feel so mean-spirited.
I’m going to try to be more….open-minded, forgiving…no…those really sound arrogant. I’m going to try to edit more from the point of view of who I was when I was their age. What would I have wanted to hear, and how would I have wanted to hear it?
Posted by Ceara as Uncategorized at 7:33 AM EDT
No Comments »
I’m working on developing a catalog for my jewelry business. Actually, I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks now. I have the pictures set. I have the pages titled.
I’m stuck on the copy…the descriptions of the items. My catalog pages are no larger than a 4″ X 6″ picture, and the title and picture take up maybe one-third to one-half of the available space. I’m trying to keep the font readable, so I figure I have maybe 100-150 words to highlight a piece’s high points.
Over the past few months, I’ve come to the realization that I pretty much write one of two lengths: 250 words or 1500 words. Anything else is a real struggle for me. The catalog has sixteen pages to it, which means sixteen opportunities to try to become comfortable writing half of what I can write comfortably. I actually picked up a tiny composition notebook to help me work on making my thoughts as concise as possible, the theory being that each page can hold at most 50 words. If I have to explain something and limit it to one or two pages, then perhaps I can become more comfortable writing less.
Only the completed catalog will be able to tell how successful this attempt is!
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:53 AM EDT
No Comments »
It’s no real secret that I have had a fascination with both the stars and mythology since I was a little girl. Mythological stories that involved the stars were my favorite! Favorites have included the story of Orion, which ends with the mighty hunter and the scorpion being hung in the sky, stuck in an endless pursuit; and the story of poor Calliste and her son, both changed into long-tailed bears and thrown into the sky to protect them from a goddess’ jealous rage!
Recently, I stumbled across this article that covers some spring time constellations, including Bootes, Leo, and Ursa Major. I realize you’re probably sitting there trying to figure out why this is at all important to me, a writer, and why I would want to show such a thing here, but really, I think studying mythology is interesting from just about every disciplinary point of view.
In the case of writing, studying myhology is a great reminder that we write to entertain and to educate. They also serve as an interesting reminder that what was true from one point of view may not work in another setting. The stories that amazed me as a child because I could understand that it was an ancient people trying to understand their world now amuse me as an adult because they have helped prove scientific theories. Through them, we can witness changes in the world around us, and in the sensibilities of a period.
Writing allows us to record our thoughts and understandings relevant to our own time, but time will change things to make what we write less relelvant.
Posted by Ceara as Uncategorized at 7:42 AM EDT
No Comments »
This actually showed up as an article in Randy Ingermanson’d e-zine this month (Archives available here. It was a great article on how dialogue is not the same as conversation. When you are writing the interaction of characters, what you are doing is creating dialogue. This isn’t like the conversation you have with your friends. This is creating a way for the characters to move the story along.
Ever since I started trying to be more serious about writing, I’ve been practicing the old cliche of listening to the conversations around me. Given that I spend most of my time as a hermit or as a teacher, it’s harder than you might imagine. When I’m out and about, I do listen to the conversations around me. As expected, most of them are fairly boring. Some of them get written down in my organizer.
Listening to conversations as a teacher, though, is actually a bit more interesting. I’ve understood for years that teaching is best accomplished through weaving a story, but I don’t think I truly understood it until I started actively listening. In teaching, when you engage a student, you’re talking to advance the lesson along, much like one would move along a story with dialogue.
I’ve been complimented on my ability to write believable dialogue, and I’m wondering if it actually stems from years of creating this interactive teaching style.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:13 AM EDT
No Comments »
In this case, I mean the condition where you can’t find the desire to write, not my still-unfinished manga script.
That’s the problem. I have a list of unfinished projects that need to be wrapped up. I set a schedule for completing them, and then I fell into the trap known as February. I still haven’t managed to get back on track, and can’t seem to find the desire to get back on track.
Looking at that list of projects that need to be finished is depressing me, though. Most of the list is short stories. They should be fairly easy to tackle, but I’m hung up on the one novel I’ve been half-heartedly trying to edit.
I’m thinking it might be time to try enlisting some outside help!
Posted by Ceara as Uncategorized at 8:24 AM EDT
No Comments »
I’ve been looking into changing my blogging style a bit. I have always viewed my blogs as information repositories, not having been fortunate enough to break into the conversational side of blogging yet. (It’s actually on my to-do list.)
I understand the need for bite-sized nuggets of information, but it hadn’t actually occurred to me that visual chunking could radically change how my readers process what i have to share. This great post from Lifehacker suggests pulling out nimportant points into bullets so readers can spot what they need to focus on quickly. It also includes other great tips for visually breaking up your information to make it friendlier to the busy reader!
Posted by Rebecca as Resources at 8:17 AM EDT
No Comments »
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been drawn to stories about dolls that come to life, either on their own or becasue someone’s soul was trapped inside. I don’t know how it started. I don’t even understand why it started. I’m not one for spooky stories or anything, and I was never drawn to fairy tales about princes trapped in animal form.
Nevertheless, I am fascinated by the phenomenon.
In more recent years, I’ve discovered an aspect of doll lore that just seems to stand out- the lore of the golem.
I’m sure most people would look at the golem and not see it as a piece of doll lore, but after finishing out the current season of a favorite anime I’m really convinced that they are one and the same. The human-esque representation animated by the spirit of either the creator or a victim.
For those of you unfamiliar with golem lore, the golem figures strongly in Polish mythology. It is believed, and has often been depicted, that a golem is created from caly or dirt, and then the creator reads some ancient verse to transfer their own soul into the golem to give it life. The golem is never long-lived, but lives with a purpose (and a temper).
To me, this suggests a kinship with the idea of the possessed or animated doll. The golem is generally portrayed as a means of extending someone’s life. The doll is often a prison.
I think this bears some serious research, because it really does make for interesting writing material!
Posted by Ceara as Uncategorized at 7:56 AM EDT
No Comments »
