Letter #24

Dear October,

        I lost a family member today. I only saw him once or twice a year, but his visits were always memorable. He was the kind of person who genuinely cared about whatever you were interested in, and he made an effort to make sure everyone around him felt included. He was full of boundless energy and joy. My heart goes out to the rest of my family, and I’m thankful that I have the chance to be with them for the next couple of days, with what little support I can offer. Above is a one of my favorite family photographs. Uncle Stephen, your generosity, courage, and love of life will never be forgotten.

Laura

Song of the day: Sacred Heart by The Civil Wars

Letter #23

You can see into the basement of the library from the outside!

Dear October,

        Today I wrote letters. A lot of letters. If you are a friend and you gave me your address, expect a letter. (And if not, send me your address so we can keep in touch!). I finished my work early today so I spent about thirty minutes in the Coe College library, waiting for a book to catch my eye. What I stumbled upon was a “complete” volume of letters from Kurt Vonnegut to friends, family, publishers, librarians, you name it. To say the least, it was fascinating. Letters are such a unique art form. Even as I say that I want to laugh at myself. To the people of the past letters were as basic to communication as text message and e-mail are today, so calling them an art form feels somewhat absurd. At the same time, I read some of Vonnegut’s letters and think, how can they not be? So many of them are beautiful. Simplistic. Profound. Witty. There is a letter in the book where he describes his time as prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany. This would become one of the focal points of his most famous work, Slaughterhouse Five. Just, wow. I read the letters of people who have gone before me and I feel like I am collecting some sort of ancient wisdom. I feel as though it were written just for me. This is another absurdity, I know, but that doesn’t change the power that letters have over me. They are like personal windows into not only the lives of the people writing them, but the time period, the social etiquette, popular culture.

Today, so much of our communication is based on instant gratification. They are all what’s-up? and where-are-you-now? and this-is-this-funny-thing-I-saw. Most of the texts I sent today were immensely inconsequential. Things like, “Where are you?” and “Want to eat?” I can’t help wondering what kind of wisdom anyone in the future would get out of reading them. And truth be told, the letters I wrote aren’t much better. I just talk about my classes, my friends, my job in the writing center. It’s hard to see them as art. But they are meaningful. Maybe even more so now than before the internet. Now, letters are rare. They have this kind of novelty aspect to them that makes receiving them even more exciting.  And even if their contents are ordinary, the act of writing them is special. I don’t really know where I’m going with this except that I’m learning to appreciate things whose gratification is a little less instant. And that I’d really like to have a bunch of my letters in a book someday. If anyone is still reading them. They’d a million times more interesting than my text messages, anyway.

Laura

Bonus Material! (These are some of my favorite letters I've ever read, from the website Letters of Note):

Kurt Vonnegut's Letter (mentioned above)

From Noel Coward to Marlene Deitrich, telling her to stop being "so bloody vulnerable"

From Ken Kesey to friends after his son's death (Warning: This one makes me cry every time)

From Ted Hughes to his son

From Tom Hanks to the people behind the Nerdist Podcast (after they sent him a typewriter as a gift)

Song of the day: Build Me a Boat to Nowhere by Hunter & Wolfe

Letter #22

Took this leaving the library late. So spooky!

Dear October,

        Today was a long, tiring day. I spent most of it doing homework: revising essays, studying for my sociology exam next week, and reading for Lit class. There were some highlights though. Things like chatting with a friend about where we could go if we could go anywhere. (I’m starting to get my heart set on the study abroad program that lets you spend a semester in London and Florence.) I’m currently trying to take control of my Youtube addiction, which I’ve finally admitted is getting out of hand, and am kind of failing at it, but I will persevere! Also I live tweeted watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind with my film music class. My classmates’ commentary was hilarious. So I guess if you want to check that out, go for it. That’s really all I have for you today. Oh, also October, the snow today was kind of pathetic. Maybe you should up your game a bit. (Except maybe not. I don’t want fall to be over just yet).

Laura

Song of the day: Basket by Dan Mangan

Letter #21

Dear October,

        Today has been one of those days that swings from good, to bad, and then back to good again. Some days, you just need a tally system:

Good:

-At 12am this morning I got to celebrate the start of my friend’s 19^th birthday!

-Got some amazing Halloween cards and a beautiful  hand painted post card from family members today. Who knew they even made Halloween cards? And they’re actually really well done. I don’t know if you can tell from the picture, but that’s Snoopy on a pumpkin with a typewriter! (My family knows me too well.) And the inside of the card with the bat on it says, “Wish we could be hanging out together!” Oh, the puns! Thanks Nana :)

-We’re reading a really fascinating book for Lit class. It’s The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector. It’s really cool so far because the narrator is a writer who’s talking about a character that he’s created, so it’s kind of got this weird meta-fiction thing going on. Lispector herself was a Jewish writer who emigrated from the Ukraine to Brazil in her teens, and became one of the most influential Portuguese writers. So that’s.. just wow. So excited for the rest of this book, and to learn more about the author.

-The heat in our dorm finally started working!

-Omg! According to my phone there’s a chance of SNOW tomorrow! Also rain, but .. SNOW!

Bad:

-I overslept this morning and rolled out bed ten minutes before my 11am class. That’s almost half of my day, gone.

-I have three or four writing assignments due at the start of next week. I’ve been trying to get an early start, but I’m really bad at working when I feel overwhelmed.

-I’m most productive in the library, but for some reason they insist on keeping the air conditioning on full blast even when it’s thirty-something degrees outside. WHY?!

So it looks like the good triumphed over the bad today, but the bad definitely contributed the most to my mood. In times like these, the best I can do is listen to some calming music, power through another bite-sized piece of homework, and trust that tomorrow will be better.

Laura

ps. Oh yeah! And if you’re doing Nanowrimo this year, check out my post about it and add me as a writing buddy!  Seriously, that would make my day.

Song of the day: Trying To Be Found by Snow Mantled Love

Letter #18 + 19 + 20

Dear October,

         Sorry about the relative silence this weekend. As you know, I went to Chicago for a Writing Center conference. It was a blast! Myself and about thirty other consultants sat in on all kinds of sessions and workshops about writing centers. It felt strange to be kind of the odd one out, since Coe’s writing center has about twice the amount staff as most other writing centers, and all of our consultants are undergraduates, which is not the norm. One of the things that the stuck with me the most was something that the Keynote speaker said in an otherwise unremarkable speech. He said that learning was “High risk, high reward.” I don’t know, something just clicked when he said that. For so long, my education has been grade-centered. I would study hard for tests, but for the most part the information wouldn’t stick. This can be a hard mindset to get out of. When your whole world has been centered around getting the grade so you can pass the class so you can get into a good college etc, the wonder that used to be associated with education in elementary school quickly fade into the background. This time, I’m not going to let myself fall into that trap. Learning is too important to lose sight of it because I’m too focused on getting from assignment to assignment. I love the idea that education is “high risk.” It makes it sound like an adventure, like I’m trekking into a jungle and I don’t know what I might find there. And the thing is, that’s true. You have to be willing to brave the unknown, to sacrifice things you’d rather be doing, to dedicate yourself. Because the rewards, while they seem impossibly long term, are also extremely high. I think that is the single most important thing I got out of the conference, and it came from one sentence of a speech that was fraught with poorly written metaphors. Still there were other things I learned, too, which luckily, I wrote down. Here’s a sampling:

“It can be good to remember that books, grammar, and writing are not knowledge in themselves; they are only symbols.”

“When conferencing with a student writer, explore your discomfort, and use it as a jumping off point for connecting with others.”

“Resist clinging to one definition of “a good essay,” because this can change depending on the context.”

The other highlights of the conference were running around downtown Chicago in the middle of the night, eating delicious tiramisu at the keynote luncheon, and playing word games in a fifteen passenger van for much longer than expected because the driver we were following got lost multiple times.

I spent the following two days after the conference catching up on homework and hanging out with friends. Yesterday I went to Sunday dinner in the writing center and had homemade minestrone made by the director, Dr. Bob. Yum. I think I’ll stop this here, before I start waxing poetic about food. I guess I’m hungry?

Laura

Several songs for several days:

Friends Make Garbage (Good Friends Take It Out) by Low Roar

Empire by Jukebox the Ghost

Shake it Out by Florence + The Machine

My Plans for Nanowrimo 2013!

Hello friends! I am taking a quick break from Letters to October (don't worry, I'm going to catch up, I promise!) to tell you about my plans for Nanowrimo 2013. For those who don't know, Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month, where the goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. The traditional month for novel writing is November, but the organization has several other months set up for noveling as well. Now that we're all on the same page, here's what you need to know about my participation in Nanowrimo this year:

1. I will be attempting the full 50,000 words, but not in novel form. My plan is to write a series of short stories instead of going for a single story. I have always been bad at seeing even the shortest of stories through to their end, and I am really trying to get out of the habit of abandoning them halfway. I think Laini Taylor says this best in one of my favorite essays on writing:
"Sitting down to the work is the start, but there's more. SARK talked about developing a "habit of completion" and this is a VERY important habit! For me, there's no feeling like finishing something! Getting through a first draft! Typing "the end" at the end! It's the embodiment of the satisfaction of crossing items off a list once you've accomplished them. Completion is a habit well worth the agony of developing. And I think, like any habit, it gets easier. It gets, you know, habitual. The more things you finish, the more you know you can do it -- and not onlycan but will. I'm hoping that this grows continually easier throughout my writing life, that my habits will imprint themselves deeper and deeper."
That's what I'm aiming for with Nanowrimo this year: forming a habit of completion. As Ms. Taylor so aptly points out, it's not going to be easy, but since when has Nanowrimo EVER been easy?

2. It's impossible to know how many short stories I will have at the end of November. The most important thing to me is that they are complete first drafts, so that I have smaller chunks to work with when I start revising in December. Ideally, I'd like to be able to send the revised versions to literary magazines, but that is a little too far in the future to really think about at this point. 

3. According to the Nanowrimo forums, I'm classified as a "rebel", since I am writing a series of unconnected shorts rather than a novel. If you are planning to do something non-traditional this November, I highly recommend you check them out! Remember: November is an arbitrary month chosen by the Office of Letters and Light for noveling purposes, but you should use it in the way that you think is most productive for you as a writer!

4. And, if you're planning on participating in Nanowrimo at all, feel free to add me as a writing buddy!

Finally, if you're looking for daily inspiration during Nanowrimo, check out these two Youtubers, who are both doing daily videos throughout November:

1. Katytastic: Super fun/energetic, experienced, VERY motivational, and hilarious. 

2. Abbythemuggle: Talented videographer, novice Nano-er, makes personal, relatable videos that have such a great atmosphere!

Well, that's all for now! You may not be hearing from me very much during November, but I would love to hear about your thoughts/experiences with Nanowrimo. Oh! And keep your eye out for the rest of Letters to October! 

Letter #17

Dear October,

        It is after midnight (so technically, the 18^th) and I am at a Holiday Inn in Chicago with the Coe College writing center.  We are here for a conference hosted by the Writing Centers of the Midwest, which I did not know was an organization that even existed until I learned about the conference. We left Coe at 4pm and arrived at our destination at 11:30…so needless to say there was much traffic, detours, and pit stops. At one point we turned around in a Lowe’s parking lot and the drivers insisted on stopping at every stop sign in the lot, even though it was completely empty. I had Subway for dinner. Even though we were all somewhat delirious upon stumbling out of the vans in front of the Holiday Inn, it was all worth it. Tomorrow is our first day of the conference, and I promise to give you a much better recap then. For now, enjoy looking at the amazing sunset over the Mississippi River!

Laura

Song of the day: "This Could All Be Yours" by Guster