http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:merecontagion&section=today deviantART RSS for by:merecontagion en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:19:27 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/24083737/ http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/24083737/ Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:50:11 PDT
"Let the rejections wash over you."

This was a piece of advice I was given recently in joking, but I've thought about it ever since, and really, truly, it's good advice. While for some of us, especially we younger writers, it's difficult to share something with which we've been so intimate for so long, something that's still growing and, if we expose it to the real world's natural elements, might be smothered instantly. And that's completely fine, of course. Sometimes I think it's best to keep these things to yourself while you're still developing as a writer, finding your "identity," if you will, as a writer, your unique style, unique interests, and unique strengths. I really feel that all of this must come before we can begin to publicly address our weaknesses with other people. If this happens too soon, we might even be dissuaded from doing what we love because someone else's fully-developed standards don't take into account the fact that we are still progressing.

However, some of us have been fortunate enough to bring themselves to acknowledge that, yes, we have a talent, and no, it's not Nobel Peace Prize-winning talent, or magazine-publishing talent, or maybe even dA-worthy talent (whatever that means)--yet--but someday it may be if we work hard, remember our strengths and focus on augmenting our weaknesses. For those, it is very important to "let the rejections wash over you." Let other people let you know what they think of your writing. The good and the bad. Understandably, this is a very difficult task for almost all writers. I've described my work this way before, and have heard many, many writers say the same: "my writing is my baby, my brainchild." The natural instinct is of course to protect your baby: but don't be afraid to acknowledge that no one's a perfect writer (not even Hemingway, or Dickens--actually, especially Dickens...Oops, personal opinion overcomes), and one or two negative points do NOT mean that the entire work is "bad" or that you yourself are a "bad writer." While you will eventually come across works that really do need to wind up in the recycling bin on your Dell's desktop for the sake of the world (everyone has them, don't worry), most things can be worked with and good pieces are never "finished." There's always room for improvement. And other people can provide fresh, new perspectives on your work which you are too close to to see yourself. This is a very important step in growing as a writer because others will be able to point out what you need to work on more often than not. (Everyone's a critic.)

To that end, however, make sure you take into account the credibility of the source of criticism. Logically-speaking, those who know what they're talking about always have more weight to their criticism; but, as we all know, it's easy to receive loads of incompetent criticism, too. Don't forget, you don't have to be good at--or know anything about, for that matter--the subject to be a critic. Hence, everyone's got something to say. Please, for your own sake and the sake of your writing, don't let these people discourage you from continuing to write or from valuing your own work. Good critics: 1) know about writing, about literature, and how both of these work in an applied sense; and 2) always see something GOOD along with the "bad." No work is entirely devoid of potential--except for, of course, the Harry Potter and Twilight series (oops, I'm being openly opinionated again).

HOWEVER, that is not to say that anyone can dismiss ALL criticism as having come from someone who's an "idiot" or "doesn't know what they're talking about." Only with experience can we learn to discern between useful criticism and nonsense criticism. And, as always, the final judgment regarding said criticism is always yours.

Whatever you do with others' opinions, however, do NOT stop writing if it's what you love to do. For most of us, I believe, we actually began writing because it made US happy...not because we believed we'd soon boast a massive cult following willing to die (or, in some cases, kill) for our million-dollar series or otherwise on so much as an implied command from us as the author. That being said in an entirely irritatingly round-about way, if it makes you happy, do it. You're not hurting anybody (unless eventually you DO garner a massive cult following and have people killed), and unless you say so, no one can stop you. So take comfort in the fact that most people are idiots and wouldn't know good writi... ]]> ~merecontagion http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/23789033/ http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/23789033/ Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:23:34 PDT
]]> ~merecontagion http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/19483697/ http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/19483697/ Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:00:23 PDT
It's a stupid feeling, at least for me to be feeling, trying to decide if I can make a living writing (not likely), should go into editing, should try to be a professional musician, or if I want to go into law, or maybe psychological research. Based on the structure of that sentence, I'm going to guess that I should cross out writing and editing. (Kidding. Kind of.)

BLAH. Most of those things aren't even vaguely related.

Why wasn't I born into a really rich family? Or at least born decisive?

By the way, I learned "Devil Went Down to Georgia" on violin. I cost $20 an hour, and I'll be here 'til Thursday...

]]> ~merecontagion http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/18936351/ http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/18936351/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:57:06 PDT is no longer effective. Isn't that nice and frustrating?

Ugh. I haven't been able to advance my novel in several weeks. I realized that I've reached a barrier, which, coincidentally, is the crux: currently, my main issue is how to advance the main character beyond the recent loss of his wife. I know how the story ends; but the fact is that I don't want to have to walk anybody through emotional loss of that magnitude. I myself have never lost anyone so close to me, and, honestly, when I can avoid sadness or other emotional distresses, I do...

...Recently, a very, very good friend of mine came around to face, after several months without him, the death of her father due to lung cancer. Until just last week, she would never even talk about it, and I had a feeling that it was not healthy for her to completely block it out. Only a few days ago did she start to show me his pictures, and, last night, after a conversation with me about how poorly her boyfriend treats her, and how sometimes we have to deal with being alone because sometimes we are all we have, she broke down and admitted the loss she was feeling without her dad. Then, of course, she had to go, so I let her hang up after telling her to make sure to rest.

Of course I love her very much as a very dear friend of four years or so, but I have NO idea how to help her, and I doubt anyone who has not experienced such loss and recovered could instruct me on how to do that, either.

So, a similar conflict: I would rather just avoid it altogether, but obviously that would be selfish of me to ignore her emotional trauma because I don't know how to deal with it. On the other hand, and at the same time, though, I get the feeling that I won't know how to solve the issue in my novel until I can sort these ideas and feelings out myself. (For awhile, I considered leaving a time-gap in the novel covering the several years which it takes the character to "heal," but then I realized the ending would crash-finish/crash-land/crash in general, and the ending is the most important part in sealing the "message.")

Agh. But anyway. This summer won't last forever. I'll be moving out in exactly two months; and I get the feeling that once all of THAT stress is off my shoulders, writing will come more easily to me.

I was browsing a book awhile ago about the "so-called" link between genius and insanity. For the first time in my experience, it insisted that those suffering artists who were killing themselves left and right or otherwise drinking themselves into numbness were great despite their illnesses, not as a result of them. Right now, I believe that more than anything.

On a more positive note (and to make this babbling journal EVEN LONGER...) I'm all signed up for college classes (at a college I don't want to go to LAWL *ignore*) this upcoming semester, and I'm excited to LEARN!!! And to MEET PEOPLE! And to LIVE AWAY FROM BOTH OF MY PARENTS O JOI. Really, I am excited Especially for my classes (nerd). Of course they're introductory (boring, especially since my AP class kind of covered the basics on my English course), but still they'll be fun. I'm especially looking forward to the class on the Nature of Language, since I think about it all the time anyway! Also, I have Intro. to Lit. Analysis (basically the same as AP English 12 Lit. and Composition), Intro. to Communication, and Intro. to Psychology (also already took two courses of at high school, but WHATEVS!). So, lots of fun stuff for the future. Yay!

Kom igen! Gor som vi gor, ta nagra steg at vanster; lyssna och lar, misse inte chansen, nu ar vi har med CARAMELLDANSEN!

And another thank-you to Ben for my outrageously fantastic subscription ! ]]> ~merecontagion http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/16899694/ http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/16899694/ Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:00:57 PST THANK - GOODNESS!

I received my first royalties check today for my book...Of course I'm not a millionaire yet, but it was fairly exciting ...before the credit union personnel ruined my mood. But I'm uppish again now, so the world is fair--sometimes.

Hopefully the mad college rush will be done with soon...Beyond expectations, my senior year in high school has been the most stressful of all twelve years I've been forcibly educated yet. Soon, I hope...Soon...

Today, I gave an impromptu (by which I mean I read all the 183 pages of necessary material last night) lecture on the American women suffragists' movement over the span of 1912 - 1919. If you haven't yet, you ought to watch the HBO special, available on DVD, Iron-Jawed Angels. It will tell you what you need to know about Alice Paul. Otherwise, I could just reiterate my lecture lol...It only took half an hour by oratory...

Tomorrow, I have to drive an hour, pay $20, and go sleepless for 24 hours in order to be judged on my playing ability by people who actually know music. If I succeed in being rated a "I," the highest honor available at the competition, I will receive a generic, 1''x2'' metal with a small blue ribbon to clip to the wall with the seven other generic, 1''x2'' metals with small blue ribbons from years past. I still don't understand why I do this every year...

Oh, right. My private instructor makes me.

Anyway, I wish myself luck, and would only like to announce that the world is not ending--actually, I had a dream awhile back that armageddon was coming, and despite what everyone said (including my mom), I stopped it somehow. My mom died in the process, but I guess that's not important. And I didn't mean that the way it sounded lol.



And another thank-you to Ben for my outrageously fantastic subscription ! ]]> ~merecontagion http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/16158355/ http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/16158355/ Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:53:50 PST
My dad, whom I moved in with a few months ago, is now getting a divorce from my step-mom, whom I love like my own mom. I don't know where I'm going to live after this. I don't know when we'll be leaving. I don't know if I'll be able to handle this anymore. There is no trust in this world, nothing stable. Nothing.

But...I'm moving away for college in eight or nine months...I wish they could have waited until I was gone, and I would have never known or have been involved in this...

The thing I dread the most is living alone with my dad now. This is his third marriage that's gone awry...Go figure...And who's going to take care of him when he can't take care of himself? Me?! I can hardly take care of MYself, let alone a grown but needy man who's supposed to be the care-giver in this relationship.

I so very barely have the strength for this. I hate the feeling, but the sensation is creeping up on me, the anxiety that I might not make it through one more disaster. Given, someplace safe inside of me, I'm sure I'll live. But the rest of me is shaking in fear right now.

Did you know that during periods of severe emotional pain, the body releases hormones identical to those it releases when in severe physical pain?

Only emotional pain last so very, very much longer.

]]> ~merecontagion http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/14853128/ http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/14853128/ Sun, 30 Sep 2007 09:13:13 PDT [link]

Yes, there it is, in all its glory.

The above link, if you haven't already clicked on it, will take you to the main printing and distributing website--it won't be up on traditional websites like Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com for another 60 - 90 days--but this is beneficial anyhow, considering, as you will notice upon opening the page, you receive something like a 15% discount by cutting out the middleman and ordering it from there anyway.

Obviously I'm not just posting this as a commercial tactic, because that'd be silly of me . I am also INCREDIBLY proud to see my work online and such, and...well...Yes. So I'm sharing it with you whether you want to buy it or not. It's pretty gosh darn exciting, as I'm sure you can relate.

The excerpt is the wrong section as of right now...They're working on fixing that for me (but seeing as today is a Sunday and they only work weekdays, I'm still waiting on that).



]]> ~merecontagion http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/14258159/ http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/14258159/ Mon, 20 Aug 2007 14:57:24 PDT
~merecontagion http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/12297372/ http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/12297372/ Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:47:16 PDT . So, first I'll try deviantART.

I suppose I could try to draw things, characters and the like, the typical commission on dA, but I wouldn't be able to charge very much...Being as I specialize much more in writing, I could take requests for pretty much any topic in any format, being as I can do most anything in writing (i.e.: flash drama, radio drama, strictly dialogue, fan fictions which you outline yourself, etc.). I suppose another possibility would be giving immediate-response- and highly-in-depth criqitues or editing for any other writers out there. The payment is due quite soon, so I don't have time for regular mailing systems, so everything would have to be through Paypal; if that could be arranged, I'm not sure...This whole thing is a last-minute mess, as you can tell. But if anyone is interested or has any ideas at all, maybe you could PLEASE send me a note? I would rather not communicate publicly through this journal.

Thank you!

P.S.: I appreciate it if anyone is concerned, but please don't ask why or how or when or what, because I'm quite embarrassed and I'd rather not discuss it.

s anyway.

]]> ~merecontagion http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/11413489/ http://merecontagion.deviantart.com/journal/11413489/ Fri, 12 Jan 2007 18:03:15 PST /


"First Writing Since" revised

There have been no words,
No poetry in ashes south of Canal,
No prose in trucks driving debris and DNA.

Evident out my window an abstract reality:
Sky where once was steel;
Smoke where once was flesh.
Please, God, let it be a mistake
The pilot's heart,
The plane's engine...
God, please, don't let it be anyone who looks like my brothers.

I don't know how bad a life has to break in order to kill.
I've never been so hungry that I willed hunger,
Never so angry as to want a gun over a pen.
Not really.
Even as a woman, a Palestinian,
Never this broken.

Ricardo on radio said in his accent thick as yuca,
"I will feel so much better
when the first bombs drop over there."

A woman crying in a car parked and stranded
And hurt, I offered comfort, a hand she did not see before she said,
"We're gonna burn them so – bad."
My hand went to my head and my head to the dead Iraqi children,
The dead in Nicaragua, in Rwanda,
Who vied with fake sport wrestling for America's attention.

People saying, "This was bound to happen, let us not forget
U.S. transgressions"—
Hold up. I live here.
These are my friends
And fam,
Me in those buildings, and we're not bad people,
Do not support America's bullying,
Can I just have half
A second
To feel bad?
Thank you, woman, who saw me brinking my cool and blinking tears,
Opened her arms
Before she asked, "Do you want a hug?"
Big white woman and her embrace only
People with flesh can offer.
My brothers in the navy, I said, and we're Arabs.
Wow, you got double-trouble.
Word.

One more person ask me if I knew the hijackers.
One more mother fucker ask me what navy my brother is in.
One more person assume no Arabs or Muslims were killed,
Assume they know me,
Or that I represent a people,
Or that a people represent an evil,
Or that evil is as simple as a flag and words on a page.

We did not vilify all white men when McVeigh bombed Oklahoma,
Give out his family's address or church or blame the Bible or Pat fucking Robertson,
Networks air footage of Palestinians dancing in the street,
No apology that hungry children are bribed with sweets that turn their teeth brown,
Correspondents edit images, archives facilitate lazy journalism,

And when we talk about holy books, hooded men and death,
WHY never mention the KKK?

If there are any people on Earth who understand how New York is feeling right now,
They are in the West Bank and the Ghaza strip.
... ]]> ~merecontagion