…and we’re back.  Today we’re still talking about taste but instead of using eating as a metaphor, we’ll be focusing on having fun with words.

Taste Part 2: Playing With Our Food… I mean, Words

One of my favorite genres is parody.  I find it so much fun to read and a great challenge to write.  I’m sure you all know what parody is, but here’s a quick definition.

parody: n.  An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.  Parody mercilessly exposes the tricks of manner and thought of its victim and therefore cannot be written without a thorough appreciation of the work it ridicules.

An example of a poetic parody is Lewis Carroll’s The Crocodile, which is a parody of Isaac Watts’ How Doth the Little Busy Bee.  The Carroll poem appears in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, when Alice tries to recite the Watts poem but “The Crocodile” comes out instead.

Jack & Jill Writing Exercise:  Today the writing exercise involves “playing with our food” by writing parody.  Write a short scene or collection of scenes in which you recount the events of the nursery rhyme Jack & Jill in the style of a famous author.  After you’ve written your piece, you can check out a piece I wrote with this exercise by going here.

I recently graduated from an MFA program in creative writing, and as I have blogged previously MFA programs, while valuable, are also flawed.  Don’t get me wrong, I am so glad I had that experience and would not trade it for anything.  I do, however, realize that not all writers are as lucky as I was to be able to do an MFA.  For some it’s the geography–there just isn’t an MFA program conveniently located in their hometown.  For others, work/family/life make going back to school complicated.  And let’s not forget the budget issue; MFA’s aren’t cheap and writing isn’t exactly a career that guarantees piles of moolah.

Which brings me to the point of this post.  For some time now I’ve been tossing around a crazy idea: What if there were such a thing as a Do-It-Yourself MFA in Creative Writing?  The advantage of a DIY MFA is that writers can complete the work at their own pace, tailor the writing/reading/study plan to their specific genre or interests, and anyone could do it regardless of geography, logistics or budget.

To that end, I’ve decided to do a series of posts about DIY MFA (just in time for this Blogfest)!  Stay tuned for more posts about how to put together your own tailor-made MFA writing program.

Disclaimer: DIY MFA means you don’t get that shiny piece of paper at the end of it all and the clouds will not part and a beam of light will not anoint you a “Master of Fine Arts in Writing.”  So if you’re into pieces of paper, beams of light and so forth, I suggest you get your application together and go for the real deal.  But if your goal is to improve your reading and writing skills, work on craft and challenge yourself, then maybe a DIY MFA is for you.  Curious about what goes into a DIY MFA?  Read on.

Ingredients for a DIY MFA

Books:  If you want to create a DIY MFA you’ll need access to books.  That means if you’re living on a desert island with no libraries, bookstores or internet, you’ll have a hard time putting together a DIY MFA.  Then again, if you’re on a desert island with no libraries, bookstores or internet, you probably wouldn’t be reading this anyway.  As you put together your DIY MFA, one of the things you’ll need to do is develop a reading list.

Critique Partners:  You’ll need at least 2 trusted readers to whom you can send writing for feedback.  The beauty of this is that with the internet at your fingertips, you don’t even need to be on the same continent as your critique partners.  Of course, face-to-face meetings are great, but it’s certainly not a deal-breaker if you must do critiques via email.

Time:  You will need to set aside some amount of time each week (even if it’s only an hour or two on a weekend afternoon) for your writing.  Honing your craft takes time and you must protect this time from interlopers.  This is the advantage of being in an MFA program: if someone starts getting in the way of your writing time you can just say “sorry, got schoolwork.”  In a DIY MFA you’ll have to protect your writing time on your own.

Community:  Perhaps the most valuable aspect of going to an MFA program was the opportunity to meet other writers (both emerging writers like myself and established writers).  My MFA program required that we attend a minimum of 8 readings each semester and I think that is extremely important.  In a DIY MFA, you don’t have a built-in set of readings sponsored by the school to choose from.  Instead, you’ll have to hunt down readings and literary events for yourself.  Some places to look: your local bookstore or library, poets.org (they have a great events calendar), and literary associations.

Check back for more posts about the DIY MFA.

Hello everyone!  Today’s topic is taste and we’ll be adding some playfulness to our writing.  Because this is such a fun topic, I’ve decided to split it into two parts.  I’ll post Part 1 now and Part 2 on Friday (because I have something else planned for tomorrow).

Taste Part 1: Food as Metaphor

First we’ll start with a feast of words:
How to Eat a Poem by Eve Merriam
Eating Poetry by Mark Strand.

I love reading these poems back-to-back because while they are dramatically different, they both use eating as a metaphor for reading poetry.  The Merriam poem is very visual and almost literal in its description of eating poetry, while the Strand poem is a bit more abstract, but fascinating nonetheless.  In the latter, we see the contrast between the visceral relationship the speaker has with the poems and the librarian’s reaction as she tries to maintain order.  I read this poem almost as a manifesto for enjoyment of poetry and not letting conventions and rules get in the way.

What do you think about these poems?  Did one of them speak to you more than the other?

Writing Exercise: Write a short piece (prose or poetry, either is fine) using one of the following titles:

1. How to Eat a _______________
2. Eating ____________________
3. Recipe for _________________

You can fill in the blank with anything you wish, though I encourage you to try using something that is not normally edible.  Have fun with this!

Dear loyal readers,

How I’ve missed you and this (virtual) space.  My apologies for the almost-week-long hiatus but I was struck down by a nasty summer flu and spent the week in a cough-medicine-induced stupor.

Well, that was until Sunday.  After that, the worst of the flu had passed but I got hit by writing paralysis (which often happens if I’m away from writing for too long).

Which brings me to the subject of this post.  What do you do when you need to get back on the horse?

I often have a hard time figuring out what to do and tend to wallow a bit too long in my non-writing.  Usually, a deadline will crop up and I’ll be forced to produce something which breaks the cycle, but now that I’m done with the MFA, deadlines are a lot more flexible and self-imposed.  This scares the besneezes out of me because it means I don’t have someone else helping me get back on the horse… I have to get up all on my own.

 So tell me, what do you do when you need to jolt yourself back into a writing routine?  I know, I know… BIC (Butt In Chair) and all that, but do you have any tricks to get yourself past that initial paralysis?

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a short anecdote.

The Alf Incident
When I was a kid, I used to ride; I went to riding school, even won a couple of ribbons at a show or two.  One day, as I was practicing my jumps with a horse aptly named Alf, I learned the true meaning of the phrase “get back on the horse.”

See, Alf and I had a slight difference of opinion: I wanted him to go over the jump and he wanted to go around it.  Instead, I ended up going headfirst into the jump (thank goodness for helmets!) and ended up on the ground.  My riding teacher insisted I get back on immediately and ride around the ring a few times, show Alf who was boss.  Apparently Alf was boss because as soon as I got on and tried to canter around the ring I lost control again and ended up getting thrown into the ring fence.

After a trip to the ER I ended up being perfectly fine, just some scrapes and bruises and a bad headache.  That double fall, though, terrified my parents and thereafter they refused to drive me to  riding school.  Dad joked that I could ride to my lessons, but seeing as I had no horse, that option was out.  Not to mention, that I had a slight communication problem with horses as it was, and I probably would’ve ended up halfway across Connecticut in the opposite direction.