Sophie’s Wor(l)d Work

As I promised yesterday, I did write a review of Sophie’s World today. I was a little surprised that the review didn’t come out as positive as I expected; I genuinely enjoyed the book, but I’m afraid the review may not come across that way. Thanks to Michael Main for introducing me to Jostein Gaarder’s work. (By the way, Michael, I saw the picture of the neon computer on your site, and I’m suitably jealous.)

I also started reading Bruce Holland Rogers’ Word Work today. I’m definitely biased here, since I’ve studied writing with Bruce, but it felt like he was talking to my soul in the first fifty pages. I didn’t want to return to work after lunch; I wanted to read and write. The man certainly has an infectious passion for his chosen craft.

I also replaced all of the links to my old e-mail address on this website. All new mail should go to lytspeed_web@comcast.net now. If you see any other e-mail links that I missed, please let me know.

Similarities to Symmetrinas

I worked on the assignment for Melanie Tem’s writing group at lunch today. Once again, it turned into a short-short story, and once again, I had no idea where it was going or how I was going to make it work. I’m not sure it does work, but if nothing else, it’s a cool idea for a comic book character!

I also learned about Bruce Holland Rogers‘ fixed form of writing called a symmetrina. The more I dig into this, the more fascinating it looks. It has elements of structured poetry, self-reference, and even a hint of fugue. It looks like the perfect form for what I had envisioned as a series of poems about Perspective. Dang it, Bruce, you just gave me another project!

As I read the description of the symmetrina, I thought about poems I have written that have some of the same qualities. Follow along with me if you are interested.

In Two Shifts Passing in the Night, I used line length, font color, font size, and a shift in point of view (from third person to second person) in one continuous sentence to convey a sense of motion and illustrate the Doppler Effect. (Oh, and on the surface, it works as a simple poem about an unrealized relationship.)

Tikkune is the closest I have come to making a truly rigid form, with 22 lines of iambic pentameter (ten syllables per line.) This poem is based on the Tree of Life from Hermetic Kabbalah, and as such, the numbers 22 (letters in the Hebrew alphabet and paths on the Tree) and 10 (number of sephiroth) are significant. The first and fourth stanzas contain three lines, the second and third contain eight lines each. Each stanza illustrates one of the four worlds, moving from worldly to divine (Assiah, Yetzirah, Briah, and Atziluth.) The symmetry of the stanzas is meant to convey the image of the Tree of Life before the loss of knowledge (Daath, the “eleventh” sephira) and the fall of the center structure of the Tree. The rhyme scheme is also fairly complicated, with rhymes fifteen syllables apart, and couples at the end of the eight line sections, though I don’t remember exactly why I built it that way.

(Note: Tikkune is my personal interpretation of how a person might use concepts from Kaballah to increase his self-awareness, and should not be seen as any kind of Kabbalistic reference or endorsement. I have studied Kabbalah a bit, and I’m fascinated by the philosophical aspects of it. But I am no expert or teacher, nor do I advocate anyone getting involved with Kabbalah — or any religious or philosophical system — beyond the level of academic research without serious soul searching and consideration.)

The poem Ornithology is a tribute to Charlie Parker, both in words and form. It’s a sort of musical acrostic, with each stanza having its own “key.” The first notes of each line, if played or sung, create a simple melody resolving in the final note, the key of the stanza. Each stanza’s key, if played as a chord, resolves in a IV-V-I progression in the key of C. The lines are staggered according to the relative horizontal positions of their beginning notes on the Circle of Fourths (also known as the Cycle of Fifths.) If all this makes any sense to you, you win a medal!

(The graphic above is from the Vision Music website.)

Bruce Holland Rogers (concl.)

Bruce Holland Rogers‘ “Writing Even Though You Have a Life” workshop is well worth the money. I also purchased a copy of his latest book, Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer (Invisible Cities Press, $16.95, ISBN: 1-931229-17-1.) Check your local book stores for copies; if they don’t have them, they can order them. If you must support the conglomerate, you can also order it from Amazon.

Okay, the commercial is over. What about the workshop? Our workshop group was small, so Bruce was able to let the workshop roll where it wished. We didn’t stick to a specific outline or syllabus, but he made sure to cover points on the outline in which people were particularly interested. I took more notes the first night, probably because there was more pure information disseminated than on the second night, which was more discussion-based.

We did have a small homework exercise, which I completed with limited success; limited because I don’t feel I got any new story ideas that I really wish to expand, but I did learn a new technique for generating ideas. The thing that impressed me most about the writing exercises, both in homework and in the workshop itself, is that Bruce participated in them. Rather than placing a separation between teacher and student, he jumped right in with us, acknowledging that he is still a student himself, despite the Nebulas, Stoker and Pushcart Prizes he’s won.

I left the workshop highly encouraged, with new enthusiasm for a couple of stories that are currently in creative limbo. Bruce inscribed my copy of Word Work with exactly the right words to inspire me, and I particularly look forward to reading the chapters in the book entitled “Writers Loving Nonwriters,” “Writing with Children in the House,” “Death and the Day Job,” and all of Part 4, “Dangerous Territory,” about rejection, workshops and reviews.

Thanks, Bruce.

(As for creative activity today, this update is about all I did. However, I did go to see Star Wars Episode II:  Attack of the Clones and enjoyed a Rockie Dog at Coors Field as I watched the Colorado Rockies whoop up on the San Diego Padres at Coors Field. The final score was 16-3.)

More Bruce

The workshop’s first night was quite good, and a bit risky for me. When I brought up Fear of Success (or Failure, or Rejection, or all of the above), Bruce walked me through a brief visualization exercise in which I imagined how it would feel to have my worst writing-related fears come true. Bruce claimed not to be very good at the process, but I felt comfortable enough to proceed with the exercise immediately, and that’s a testament to his interpersonal skills. I’ve done visualizations before, so it was not completely foreign, but it did make me feel as if the workshop suddenly jumped from being clinical to being personal, like the Omega and Delta Vector seminars I’ve attended in the past. That’s a good thing; I think people are able to share more that’s Real if they are being personal and a bit vulnerable. I know I work best that way. I’m excited to see how today’s workshop turns out; I think it’s safe to say that I got more than I bargained for on the first night.

At lunch, I completed my writing homework for the workshop. It was a timed exercise, both due to the timeframe in which I did it and the guidelines of the assignment. I’m not overly pleased with the results, but I did pick one of the sections and expand it a bit. It’s a strange little piece about dust motes traveling to Denver from the Far East and reuniting with lost family, including a long lost aunt, who has a few surprises up her sleeve. (Actually, I think that one line summary is more enticing than the actual 350 word piece!

Bruce Holland Rogers

The Bruce Holland Rogers workshop starts tonight. It’s a two day workshop entitled “Writing Even Though You Have a Life,” and I am interested to see how hands-on it will be. I hope to pick up some insights on how to keep motivated and get right into the meat of the work when I am short on writing time.