On this wiki:
In the thirty days from October 10 to November 8, fifty SNL students, faculty, and staff participated in the 2012 SNL Month of Writing Challenge. Each participant used the challenge differently; some used the challenge to begin new projects, some used it to focus on their school papers, and others used the challenge to help channel their creative writing juices. Two writers agreed to share from their experience over the month.
SNL Faculty member, Jane Wagoner, used the month to begin a blogging project. She says, “While I had never written a blog, I thought this month was the perfect time to begin my blogging career. The writing is different from what I have done before and a lot of fun. I find myself thinking of different topics to write about and reflecting on various literary works. So this month has helped me find my "blogging voice" and I am grateful for the extra motivation that the word count goal provided.”
SNL student, Nikki Knighten, took the 5-week SNL course that accompanied the Month of Writing titled, “WriteNow: National Novel Writing Month.” Nikki distilled some of her writings from the month into a poem, “Save Me from Myself”:
The cares of this world arouse me from sleep
I lay thinking, “will I make it through this day?”
I need you Lord to come to save me from myself.
I’ve grown stronger because of my trials. They are companions resting in the recesses of my mind. Always on the ready to move forward and profess the powers that are present. To testify of the muscles that have grown and developed because they had to; because they were strained by burdens and invisible foes. The fears of the past are done away with. Some making way for new ones; weaker, less threatening new fears which pale in comparison to the old fears "made of good stock." those old fears that shook my existence and made me question my sanity and alliances. Those fears of yesteryear were the "real thing baby"! They played for keeps and didn't easily die. These fears required Herculean tenacity that morphed into crazy faith and fearlessness. There are those who dare to say that my future may be gloomy and despair ridden and there are those who have the gumption to question my fate. Theirs is but one voice in the crowd and but one view on the horizon but the report which I choose to believe is the Lord's. His report is rich with His hope and saturated by His plans for me. I am convinced that they are "of good and not of evil, to an expected end." Whereas many have come and seemingly even more have gone but Your word lingers and abides. It exalts and admonishes, it encourages and it chastens. It punishes the slothfulness and it rewards the diligence.
How will you use the SNL Month of Writing next year? Since we are increasing our departmental goal to 1.5 million words for the 2013 challenge, we’ll need you on board next fall!
The 2012 SNL Month of Writing has drawn to a close. From October 10 until November 7, SNL Faculty, Staff, and Students accepted the challenge to each write 50,000 words in a month. Our department goal was 1 million words – and we did it! Collectively, SNL produced 1,131,981 words in just 30 days. In recognition of this accomplishment, an anonymous donor will be giving $1,000 to SNL Scholarships!
Special congratulations to these participants that surpassed the personal goal of writing 50,000 words each:
Heather Burlingame, SNL Student
Cynthia Flores, SNL Staff and Student
Cynthia Meehan, SNL Student
Michelle Navarre Cleary, SNL Faculty
Cindy Stevens, SNL Faculty
Shannon Stone, SNL Staff and Student
Steffanie Triller Fry, SNL instructor
Kathryn Wozniak, SNL instructor
This is will be annual challenge and we hope you will join us next year!
On October 24th, SNL Writing hosted a panel discussion with 5 writers from different genres about their writing process titled, "The Craft of Composing".
The panelists included:
Michelle Navarre Cleary, SNL Writing Coordinator and Professor (academic writing)
Penny Pollack, SNL Alumnus and dining editor of Chicago Magazine (journalism)
Rita Leganski, SNL Alumnus and Novelist (novel writing)
Ann Stanford, SNL Professor and Author (scholarly articles, poetry)
Rochelle George Wooding, Neighborhood Writing Alliance member (personal narrative)
Three items that each panelist touched upon were
1) The importance of community
Writing is meant to be shared and written for a specific audience.
2) Revision
Write first, edit later. Even if you need to make significant cuts later on, you may be able to use that writing elsewhere.
3) Presence of panic
Deadlines can be stressful, and so can negative critiques of your work. Remember that practice makes perfect; you will find your voice the more you write.
To listen to the full discussion, please visit:
http://condor.depaul.edu/mptvideo/SNL/ETCPIW/ETCPIW.html
SNL students, faculty, staff, and alumni have been busy writing as part of the SNL Month of Writing Challenge this week! Let's keep the temperature rising...writing is hot!
|
“I’ve always been an obsessive New York Knicks fan, and John Starks is the closest thing to a messianic figure that I’ve ever known. It’s hard to overstate it, how much I loved watching him play. Starks set the Knicks record for most career 3-pointers and most career 3-point attempts, and the lesson I took from him is that if you shoot enough 3’s, some will eventually somehow go in. I’ve always been a quantity-over-quality kind of guy. I’ve thrown out a few terrible novels, I’ve thrown out two whole collections of short stories, I have hundreds of comedy pieces that are terrible that will never see the light of day. My feeling is I can’t really control how talented I am, but I can control how many hours I work and how many things I write.” -- Simon Rich, Author/Comedy Writer, “Last Girlfriend on Earth: And Other Love Stories” quoted in the New York Times Magazine, 9/30/12.
|
Join us for the SNL Month of Writing!
On 10/10 I'm on my way to 50,000
From October 10 until November 7, SNL students, faculty, staff, and alumni will be accepting the challenge of each writing 50,000 words in a month. Join us in the effort to create 1 million words total - if we reach our goal, an anonymous donor will donate $1,000 to SNL Scholarships!
|
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.