Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie

Finals week is next week, and this semester of Creative Writing will soon be a memory. A good one, at that. This year I've had an interesting mix of students, all of whom can write, despite what they say about themselves.

Readin' Write

Been readin' a lot lately, that is, compared to what I usually get done during the school year. Need to get writin' now, too.

Every time I get into a book I like, I get inspired to write a book like that book. I remember reading The Shipping News by Annie Prouilx and get sucked in by the the non-pretty, but alluring characters and charmed by the illustrations of little knots at the the beginning of each chapter.

I was writing a novel at the time called Closing Words about a woman who gets raped and identifies the wrong man, and I got the idea to begin each chapter with a different postage stamp because each chapter alluded to closing words from a letter or note, e.g. always, sincerely, etc. I sent for a brochure from the Postal Service which had pictures of every kind of stamp one could order, and my plan was to choose one that was symbolic for the closing words or the chapter. The novel is finished, but the postage stamp idea? Didn't quite happen.

Most of the time I don't even get the writing finished because I'm on to reading another book that inspires me in a different direction. Last summer I began a series of essays about teaching because I was romanced by Michael Perry's Population 485. It's my goal to finish those this summer.

But, I recently met fictional Olive Kitteridge thanks to Elizabeth Strout, and went to Italy, India and Indonesia to Eat, Pray, Love with Liz Gilbert. Both deposited some fine, rich starting soil over my ideas, so now I need to plant and water them so they grow into fine, strong stories. And, this morning I did yesterday's paper's cryptoquote puzzle, and it was by Albert Einstein: "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." Hmmm. Have to be blind not to see some writin' potential in that topic.

So many ideas---so little time!

As the end of the school year winds up, I find myself tired but inspired. This summer I will make a list and check the piece off when I'm finished. Yes. This summer I will write everything I ever wanted to write and finish everything I start!

I suppose I should put blogging on that list. Right, AZ?

Creative---But Not Writing

I took my creative writing class to the computer lab last week. Getting them to produce on the spot can be a chore, for they, like many writers, procrastinate by checking email and surfing the Net instead of writing.

Creativity usually doesn't bubble to the surface like crude oil, I tell them. It's work, and you've got to dig. So, get busy and write!

Most of them were trying to write. I was correcting papers at a table where I could casually see the computer screen of one of the worst procrastinators my class and the world has ever witnessed.

Sure enough. He had the computer camera on, goofing around. When I looked up and saw him doing this, I, like a good teacher, chastised him, as I have to do on a regular basis.

"Avi---get to work and quit fooling around."

He laughed at me, saying, "Oh, that was soooo perfect."

I was getting pissed.

I got up to tower over him and assert my authority, and he replayed the video he had been recording and turned the sound up.

"Just watch," he said.

There he was with me in the background of the picture, and he was narrating: "Well, I'm sitting here doing nothing, having fun recording myself, trying to be creative, but any minute now Mrs. Kies is going to look up and yell at me."

It was at that moment, as if on cue, that I looked up and yelled at him.

The class got little writing done that day. Several helped Avi slow my voice down and then speed it up so I sounded like I was on crack.

Creativity abounded that day, but not much writing.