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coffeeandcalligraphy · 3 years ago

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Any tips got people starting their creative writing degree in September? Xxx

oh this is a great question!! sometimes I forget I will literally be an upper year next year :) how did this happen :) still feel like I’m in grade 9 :) lol! but I do have tips!

1. Trust in the process

Okay, this sounds a little gimmicky, but what I mean is, let things happen the way they’re going to happen. I was extremely prepared when I entered first year, and even more prepared for second year, and I’m not saying this is a bad thing--in fact, I recommend having something small (even an idea) at the ready, just in case of emergency writer’s block, time constraints, etc, but I’d love to go back in time and tell myself to chill! I wanted so badly to experience the idea of the Ideal Writing Degree Experience, and so kind of missed out on the actual (great) experience I had in front of me! so let it happen! Take creative risks! stray from your plan if your gut is telling you to!

2. Get involved

In first year, I found it SO helpful to get involved in writer events, or clubs on my campus. I joined my department’s lit journal (which I shall be managing in the fall!) as an intern, and made sure to attend most, if not all the writing events they had on campus, including general fine arts mixers. Though I am a super introverted person, it was actually super fun to make connections, and even so, just make memories of faces that I could later recognize on campus. This is also super helpful for getting to know people in your program! On orientation day, I really tried to huddle with some other Writing undergrads, and that was super fun because we just chatted about our writing backgrounds, etc! If you’re anxious like me, coming up with literal talking points could be helpful the night before, kind of like an “About Me” refresh?? Like, oh my name is Rachel and I write literary fiction, also I am from Toronto, would be what I would say in case someone asked (usually people were very excited to hear I was from out of province lol so this worked as a great talking point!). ALSO!! off campus events! go to readings! Readings are 100% more accessible to attend where I go to school versus where I live at home, and so I def took advantage of this by making sure to go out to multiple literary events! It’s nice to make connections, chat with the readers, or even other audience members! Usually people asked me if I was a student and what program I was in, etc, and because being a Writing major is kind of a Fun Thing To Be at a reading, this was always a great talking point!

3. Remember your writing degree is still work

I know a lot of creative degree pals give this advice to remind undergrads that their creative work for school is still work so they should sit down and do it rather than leaving it to the last minute, but I kind of like to flip this idea on its head by saying: it’s okay to prioritize your “non-academic” work versus your “traditionally academic” work! For example, I took many, many English classes this year, and put about 20x more of my time into those classes than my literal writing classes. I am a writing major?? lol! I could’ve gotten an English degree closer to home?? I did not come here for this?? I think it was easy for me to write off putting time into my writing classes because I was “good at that” and “needed to focus on my academic work” (whatever academic even means), but if you’re there for writing, don’t be afraid to actually... do your writing?? Fighting internalized stigma about my own degree is something I still work on! It’s still work! Which means it’s hard, and you should take breaks (and extensions if necessary/if you can) just like with any other work.

4. If you want to, prep a little

Like I mentioned above, this could be a helpful thing to do, though I do caution over preparation because that was me!! and I feel like one may learn more if they have more room to fail (which sometimes preparation reduces?) but this is also dependent on the type of person and student you are, so disregard if necessary! When I entered first year, I didn’t prep actual work, but made sure I knew what was expected of me so I could mentally prepare myself, haha. I knew there were 5 assignments for 5 different genres (because of COVID they actually axed 1 genre which I am GRATEFUL for rip playwriting), so I kept this in mind throughout the term. If I got an idea for a poem but knew we wouldn’t be doing poetry for the next term, I’d write the poem in advance, or write down the idea. A little bit of prep can help alleviate stress especially if you’re transitioning out of high school, but I do tend to overdo it!

5. SUBMIT your work!!!

This is also totally okay NOT to do if you don’t want to publish your work, but if you are interested in curating a portfolio, it doesn’t hurt to start submitting your work early to literary magazines! I know some people are too nervous to send out their work in first year, but if you’re comfortable with it and want to, go for it! I submitted my work for the first time in first year, and got 2 stories published. If you want to be published, you don’t have to wait for upper years to put your work out there! If you have a piece you like, send it out! This also includes on-campus writing contests if your school runs these. I entered one not thinking anything of it and won first place (HOW), and these experiences were fantastic in shaping my experience in the program and also showing me submitting your work is not so scary!

6. Talk to your profs and TAs

Y’ALL I did not realize how much I talk to my profs and TAs and how much the pandemic took that away from me! It’s so critical to form relationships with the people who are teaching you, not only because they’ll help you to shape your work, but also because they’re a great start to networking! In first year, I sat down with my TAs or prof for literally every single piece I wrote, and the amount I learned is astronomical. I guess this depends on your program, but generally, writing programs are generative based rather than super lecture heavy, and you learn by doing hands-on work (workshops, etc). I learned so much (sometimes, even more) by talking to my teachers. They want to help you and it’s a great way to get to know them. I only attended office hours once in COVID (and it was Zoom office hours), and I certainly feel a difference in my experience. Reach out! When I took an intro journalism course, my prof line-edited every one of my pieces by hand, and while it was nerve-wracking because she is a fantastic writer and a tough critic (and literally right in front of me), it was so rewarding when she’d point out where I’d improved. She was also great at taking her time to explain how I could better my piece. You can’t do that if you’re sitting in a 200 person lecture, but you can if you take some time for a one on one! Highly recommend if you can (coming from someone with social anxiety)!

7. Make friends

I will admit it! I still have not done a great job at this lol. But if you can, try to reach out to your peers. You’re all there to learn, and it’s actually so fantastic to meet likeminded people! My peers are incredibly talented, smart individuals, and when we’re in person, I’d love to chat with them more! In first year, it can be scary to reach out, which is why I did this minimally, though I still made an attempt to jump out of my comfort zone whenever possible. It’s nice to recognize faces on campus and wave at people/have a short conversation before you head into class. Like I said, I interned for my on campus lit journal in first year, so I had to reach out a few times to my classmates to participate in events etc, so this was actually kind of easier for me since I had a lil ~motive that allowed me to muster the courage to chat with people! It could be as easy as joining in on a convo of a subject of interest (for example, a lot of people at my school especially in my program, love D&D. I have no idea what that is/how that works, but if I did, this might be something to talk about if you love it also)! Also - follow people on social media if you can find them, or start a group chat!

8. Don’t be afraid to speak up for your needs

This will be my last tip, and it might be the scariest tip of all, but if you are not happy with how something is going in your degree/classes, speak up about it! If something is not accessible to you, don’t be afraid to speak out about that. Idk if it’s just me, but I’ve been advocating for the betterment of my education since elementary school (why am I like this loooool), but especially in university, you’d be surprised by how receptive some people can be! Shoot your prof or TA an email if you have concerns, and see what they say. Rarely, they can be assholes, but most of the time, they’ll try to work with you to make your class experience better. This is why I also recommend filling out your course evals. Most great profs really want their students to enjoy their classes and succeed, so don’t be nervous to speak out about your needs if xyz isn’t being met.

hope that helps!

#asks

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allocate-aloe · 4 years ago

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Hello c: I really love your writing style and I was wondering if you have any advice for people who want to write things that give more emotion and improve more on their own skill in general?

Hello, sneaky little anon. <3 It’s been a couple years since I started taking my writing more seriously, and what I’ve mainly learned during that time is to surround yourself with things that inspire you. Practice, of course, is important... but I think it’s more important to practice the art of playing. Don’t worry about writing perfectly, or even making much sense at all in your first draft. I think the best piece of concrete advice I can give is what I learned from a professor of Novel writing during my Associate’s degree: “Use description as an action.” This will keep the pace of your work moving forward, and it will be an awesome tool to use in any kind of writing that you do. By describing things through verbs, through action, it creates a better sense of immersion. Since I’m a visual and tactile learner, I’ll do a little example! “The moth flew by.” This is fine, honestly, not everything needs to be flowery or dense. But, for shits and kicks, let’s continue. This sentence has the moth acting alone, of its own design, we don’t get any other information about it or where we are in the scene. “The moth, carried by the wind, fluttered by.” “The moth struggled against the wind, its tiny body brushing by.” “The wind howled through the trees, sending the moth tumbling.” These examples let us, as readers, get a sense of what the scene is doing to our characters. Is the wind strong? Is the wind an obstacle (ex 2 & 3), or just part of the setting (ex 1)? Not every sentence needs this kind of work, and that’s where you as a writer come in. Only you can tell the story that you have inside, and it’s up to you to decide what should be highlighted in a narrative. Just play with it! If you have access to attend workshops, I highly suggest attending them. You may not learn that much, or jive with certain people, but all it takes is ONE good professor, ONE good glimmer of insight to really help you. A 5-10 minute chat I had with one of my medievalist professors gave me awareness for my sentence structure and how I was arranging my paragraphs/sentences. I received more information from her than from the past year of workshop classes I’ve had. Basically, bring your work to a reader who you trust to give you constructive criticism. Compliments are great! But we can’t continue to grow if we aren’t continuously learning. Talk to other writers, read all sorts of things, and return to the kernel of inspiration that is unique to you as a creative. My kernel is Silent Hill 2, Lord of the Rings, my muse, and the writing of HP Lovecraft. Gather your inspirations into your own kernel, see what you can learn from them and how they influence your own writing. Good luck, fellow traveler. <3 ~ Aloe

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writemarcus · 5 years ago

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Watch This Space: Playwrights Train for All Media

As dramatists begin to write for all media, the nation’s playwriting programs are starting to teach beyond the stage.

BY MARCUS SCOTT

In 2018, a record 495 original scripted series were released across cable, online, and broadcast platforms, according to a report by FX Networks. And with the growing popularity of streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon (not to mention new players like Disney and Apple), a whopping 146 more shows are up and running on various platforms now than were on air in 2013. So how does peak TV relate to theatre?

Once a way for financially strapped playwrights to land stable income and adequate health insurance, television has since emerged as a rewarding venue for ambitious dramatists looking to forge lifetime careers as working writers. Playwright Tanya Saracho is the current showrunner for “Vida” on Starz. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is the series developer of “Riverdale” and “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.” Sheila Callaghan is executive producer of the long-running black comedy “Shameless.” Sarah Treem, co-creator and showrunner of “The Affair,” recently concluded the Rashomon-esque psychological drama in November.

To satiate demand for more content, showrunners have sought to recruit emerging playwrights to fill their writers’ rooms. It’s now common practice for them to read plays or spec scripts penned prior to a writer’s graduation.

Many aspiring playwrights have caught on, enrolling in drama school intent on flirting with virtually every medium under the umbrella of the performing arts. Several institutions around the country have become gatekeepers for the hopeful—post-graduate MFA boot camps bestowing scribes with the Aristotelian wisdom of plot, character, thought, diction, and spectacle before they’re dropped into the school of hard knocks that is the modern American writers’ room. Indeed, since our culture has emerged from the chrysalis of peak TV, playwriting programs have begun training students for a career that includes not only the stage but multiple mediums, including the screen.

Playwright Zayd Dohrn, who has served as both chair of Northwestern University’s radio/TV/film department and director of the MFA in writing for screen and stage since 2016, said versatility is the strongest tool in the kit of the program’s students.

“We offer classes in playwriting, screenwriting and TV writing, as well as podcasts, video games, interactive media, stand-up, improv, and much more,” he explained. “There’s no one way to approach the craft, and we offer world-class faculty with diverse backgrounds, professional experiences, and perspectives, so students can be exposed to the full range of professional and artistic practice.”

Dominic Taylor, vice chair of graduate studies at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in California, also agrees that multiplicity is the key to the survival of a working writer. “In the industries today, whether one is breaking a story in a writers’ room or writing coverage as an assistant, the ability to recognize and manipulate structure is paramount,” Taylor said. “The primary skill, aside from honing excellent social skills, would be to continue to study the forms as they emerge. Read scripts and note differences and strengths of form to the individual’s skill set. For example, the multi-cam network comedy is very different from the single-cam comedy—‘The Conners’ versus ‘Modern Family,’ let’s say. It’s not just the technology; it is the pace of the comedy.”

Taylor, a distinguished multi-hyphenate theatre artist working on both coasts, said that schools like UCLA offer a lot more than classes, including one with Phyllis Nagy (screenwriter of Carol). UCLA’s program also partners with its film school, and hires professional directors to work with playwrights to develop graduate student plays for productions at UCLA’s one-act festival, ONES, or its New Play Festival. Taylor also teaches four separate classes on Black theatre, giving students the opportunity to study the likes of Alice Childress, Marita Bonner, and Angelina Weld Grimké in a university setting (a rarity outside of historically Black colleges and universities).

Dohrn, a prominent playwright who is currently developing a feature film for Netflix and has TV shows in development at Showtime, BBC America, and NBC/Universal, said that television, like theatre, needs people who can create interesting characters and tell compelling stories, who have singular, unique voices—all of which are emphasized in playwriting training.

“Playwrights are not just good at writing dialogue—they are world creators who bring a unique vision to the stories they tell,” Dohrn emphasized. “More than anything else, a writer needs to develop his/her/their unique voice. Craft can be taught, but talent and creativity are the most important thing for a young writer.”

For playwright David Henry Hwang, who joined the faculty at Columbia University School of the Arts as head of the playwriting MFA program in 2014, success should be a byproduct, not a destination. “As a playwright, I don’t believe it’s possible to ‘game’ the system—i.e., to try and figure out how to write something ‘successful,’” he said. “The finished play is your reward for taking that journey. The thing that makes you different, and uniquely you, is your superpower as a dramatist, because it is the key to writing the play only you can write. Ironically, by focusing not on success but on what you really care about, you are more likely to find success.”

Since arriving at Columbia, one of Hwang’s top priorities was to expand the range of TV writing classes. This led to the creation of separate TV sub-department “concentrations,” housed in both the theatre and film programs. All playwriting students are required to take some television classes.

“We are at a rather anomalous moment in playwriting history, where the ability to write plays is actually a monetizable skill,” said Hwang, whose TV credits include Treem’s “The Affair.” “Playwrights have become increasingly valuable to TV because it has traditionally been a dialogue-driven medium (though shows like ‘Game of Thrones’ push into more cinematic storytelling language), and playwrights are comfortable being in production (unlike screenwriters, some of whom never go to set). Once TV discovered playwrights, we became more valuable for feature films as well.”

Playwrights aren’t the only generative theatremakers moving to the screen. Masi Asare is an assistant professor at Northwestern’s School of Communication, which teaches music theatre history, music theatre writing and composition, and vocal performance. The award-winning composer-lyricist, who recently saw her one-act Mirror of Most Value: A Ms. Marvel Play published by Marvel/Samuel French, said that the world of musical theatre is not all that different either; it’s experiencing a resurgence in both cinema and the small screen: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, Justin Hurwitz, and Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have all written songs that were nominated for or won Oscars. The growth of YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter have offered new ways for musical theatre graduates to market and monetize their songs and build an audience.

“The feeling that a song has to ‘work’ behind a microphone in order to be a good song is really having an impact on young writers,” said Asare. “The song must sound and look good in this encapsulated video that will be posted on the songwriters’ website and circulated via social media.” She noted that in this case, the medium of video is also changing the medium of musical theatre itself. “Certainly it may lead to different kinds of musicals—who knows? New experimentation can be exciting, but I think there is a perception that all you have to have is a series of good video clips to be a songwriter for the musical theatre, a musical storyteller. I think that does something of a disservice to rising composers and lyricists.”

Some playwriting students, of course, are not interested in learning about how to write for television. But many who spoke for this story agreed that learning about the different ways of storytelling can be beneficial. One program in particular that has its eyes on the multiplicity of storytelling mediums is the Writing for Performance program at the California Institute of the Arts. Founded by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks in 2001 as a synergy of immersive environments, visual art installation, screenplay, and the traditional stage play, the program has helped students and visiting artists alike transcend theatrical conventions. Though Parks is no longer on the CalArts faculty, her spirit still infuses the program. As Amanda Shank, assistant dean of the CalArts School of Theater, puts it, “Every time she came to the page, there was a real fidelity to the impulse of what she was trying to communicate with the play, and the form followed that. It’s not her trying to write a ‘correct’ kind of play or to lay things bare in a certain prescribed way.”

That instinct is in the life fiber of CalArts’s Special Topics in Writing, a peer-to-peer incubator for the development of new projects that grants students from across various departments the opportunity to develop and produce writing-based projects. Shank defines the vaguely titled yearlong class, which she began, as a “hybrid of a writing workshop and a dramaturgical project development space.” A playwright and dramaturg, Shank said her class was born of her experience as an MFA candidate; she attended the program between 2010 and 2013, and then noticed her fellow students’ lack of ability to fully shepherd their projects.

“I was finding a lot of students that would have an idea, bring in a few pages or even bring in a full draft, but then they would kind of abandon it,” said Shank. “I wanted a space [that would] marry generative creativity, a place of accountability, but also a place that was working that muscle of really developing a project. Because I think often as artists we look to other institutions, other people to usher our work along. Yes, you need collaborators, yes, you need organizations of supporters—but you have to some degree know how to do those things yourself.”

Program alum Virginia Grise agrees. Grise has been a working artist since her play blu won the 2010 Yale Drama Series Award. She conceived her latest play, rasgos asiaticos, while still attending CalArts. Inspired by her Chicana-Chinese family, the play has evolved into a walk-around theatrical experience with some dialogue pressed into phonograph records that accompany her great uncle’s 1920s-era Chinese opera records. After developing the production over a period of years, with the help of CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP), Grise will premiere rasgos asiaticos in downtown Los Angeles in March 2020, boasting a predominantly female cast, a Black female director, and a design team entirely composed of women of color. Her multidisciplinary work is emblematic of the direction CalArts is hoping to steer the field, with training that is responsive to a growingly diverse body of students who may not want to create theatre in the Western European tradition.

“You cannot recruit students of color into a training program and continue to train actors, writers, and directors in the same way you have trained them prior to recruiting them,” said Grise. “I feel like training programs should look at the diversity of aesthetics, the diversity of storytelling—what are the different ways in which we make performance, and how is that indicative of who we are, and where we are coming from, and who we are speaking to?”

As an educator whose work deals with Asian American identity, including the play M. Butterfly and the high-concept musical Soft Power, Hwang said that one of his goals as an educator is to train a diverse body of students and teach them how to write from a perspective that is uniquely theirs.

“If we assume that people like to see themselves onstage, this requires a range of diverse bodies as well as diverse stories in our theatres,” Hwang said. “Institutions like Columbia have a huge responsibility to address this issue, since we are helping to produce artists of the future. Our program takes diversity as our first core value—not only in terms of aesthetics, but also by trying to cultivate artists and stories which encompass the fullest range of communities, nationalities, races, genders, sexualities, differences, and identities.”

The film business could use similar cultivation. In March 2019, the Think Tank for Inclusion and Equity (TTIE), a self-organized syndicate of working television writers, published “Behind the Scenes: The State of Inclusion and Equity in TV Writing,” a research-driven survey funded by the Pop Culture Collaborative. Data from that report observed hiring, writer advancement, workplace harassment, and bias among diverse writers, examining 282 working Hollywood writers who identify as women or nonbinary, LGBTQ, people of color, and/or people with disabilities, analyzing how they fare within the writers’ room. In positions that range from staff writer to executive story editor, a nearly two thirds majority of this surveyed group reported troubling instances of bias, discrimination, and/or harassment by members of their individual writing staff. Also, 58 percent of them said they experienced pushback when pitching a non-stereotypical diverse character or storyline; 58 percent later experienced micro-aggressions in-house. The biggest slap in the face: When it comes to in-house pitches, 53 percent of this group’s ideas were rejected, only to have white writers pitch exactly the same idea a few minutes later and get accepted. Other key findings from the report: 58 percent say their agents pitch them to shows by highlighting their “otherness,” and 15 percent reported they took a demotion just to get a staff job.

But there was more: 65 percent of people of color in the survey reported being the only one in their writers’ room, and 34 percent of the women and nonbinary writers reported being the only woman or nonbinary member of their writing staff; 38 percent of writers with disabilities reported being the only one, and 68 percent of LGBTQ writers reported being the only one.

For Dominic Taylor, the lack of diversity and inclusion in TV writers’ rooms can be fought in part by opening up the curriculum on college campuses, which he has expanded since joining the faculty at UCLA. “Students need a comprehensive education,” Taylor pointed out. He noted the importance of prospective playwrights being as familiar with Migdalia Cruz, Maria Irene Fornés, James Yoshimura, Julia Cho, and William Yellow Robe as they are with William Shakespeare, and looking at traditions as vast as the Gelede Festival, the Egungun Festival, Shang theatre of China, as well as the Passion Plays of Ancient Egypt.

“All of these modes of performance predate the Greek theatre, which is the starting point for much of theatre history,” explained Taylor. “It is part of my mandate as an educator to complete the education of my students. Inclusion is crucial to that education.”

After all, with the growing variety of platforms for story and expression, why shouldn’t there also be diversity of forms and voices? Whatever the medium of delivery, these are trends worth keeping an eye on.

Marcus Scott is a New York City-based playwright, musical writer, and journalist. He’s written for Elle, Essence, Out, and Playbill, among other publications.

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bettsfic · 5 years ago

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betts, what is your opinion on low-residency mfas? obviously they are ridiculously expensive, but what do you think of how they prepare writers to write? did you have any experience of what the low-res program at your school was like? (you can answer this publicly)

i think low-res MFAs are great for extremely rich, extremely bored people – people for whom a two-year, five-figure program isn’t a risk, people who don’t have to take out loans and won’t miss the money. i did a lot of research on them when i was looking for MFAs and decided they were really only a cash cow to help fund english departments. i later found out, as a full-res student, that in the same way low-res exploits tuition dollars, full-res exploits grad labor. so on that front, there’s no winning. academia is a machine.

there’s really nothing you can get from a low-res MFA that you couldn’t get from any good writers’ group. as for “preparing writers to write” my hot take is that no MFA prepares writers to write. writers should already be writing, and the purpose of the MFA is to allow time and space for it, which is another reason i don’t like low-res programs. they boast that you can keep your day job or whatever, not upend your life to write, but that eliminates the sanctuary of funded full-res MFAs. for example, as a full-res student, i got an optional summer stipend of $1500 because i took a summer class. that summer class was called “reading hours” which are credit hours you pick up just for existing. so the school made sure i was funded over summer so i wouldn’t have to get a job and sacrifice my writing time.

a good program should believe in you enough to pay you to write. they pay you, you write good stuff, you get a lot of publications and awards, and you bring their program clout, so other promising writers will want to attend their school. they’re investing in you. in low-res programs, they don’t really need you at all, they only need your money. sadly, i’ve never met any writers who have done a low-res and gone on to have a solid publication record. most people who get MFAs, even in full-res programs, don’t continue writing after graduation. they need the structure of a workshop in order to write.

my recommendation if you’re considering a low-res because you’re not ready to commit to the full-res, is to go to workshops instead. they’re cheaper, more fun, and you get a lot out of a little. you also meet great people and eventually you can form your own writers’ group so you won’t need the MFA at all. it’s like writing camp.

the one’s i’ve gone to are the tin house summer workshop (1 week), and the new york state summer writers institute (4 weeks). i’ve also applied but didn’t get into the lambda workshop. other workshops i know are good are kenyon, yale, and breadloaf (which has a rich history and is really highly respected in the writing world but i don’t like how they run things so i’ve never gone).

you can also apply for residencies, which are similar to workshops but tend to be in cooler places, and without a mandatory workshop element. the sense of community is still there though. i also recommend going to AWP every year.

if you go to a few workshops/residencies/conferences and still don’t get what you’re looking for, then you’re not going to get it from a low-res program, either.

#i hope you're doing well kyrstin!!#writing advice #kyrstin #writing life

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mebertolini · 5 years ago

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Field Notes from 25 years of Teaching Writing

Think like a reader, writer, and teacher.

Fifty years ago this September, I stepped into a high school English class and attempted to teach writing. I am going to tell you a secret that I wish someone had told me 50 years ago when I was so afraid of making a mistake that I carried a pocket dictionary every time I walked into a classroom. Here is the secret: You already know more than you think you know. So, take a deep breath, and concentrate on three main things: You as a reader, you as a writer, and you as a teacher.

Be a reader.

Start with yourself. Think about what you value in writing, any writing. Before you are a professional, you are a reader. Write for about three minutes about what is important to you as a reader. If you are with others, discuss with a few people, and then share with a larger group. You have just defined some writing goals for your students. You will need to have general writing goals and then particular writing goals for the class you are teaching and for the assignment you are giving. Goals for a first-year class can be more general than goals for a second or third year class, which is going to reflect readings and protocols in your discipline. Your goals for your first assignment and your second or third papers, also, should be different because you want to increase the difficulty or complexity of your assignments.

None of these goals matter unless you communicate them. Your students are not on the psychic hotline with you. It is unlikely they will magically sense what you consider important unless you communicate with them. When you convey this information—whether through speaking or writing—and the best approach is through speaking and writing, you are modeling good communication skills. Writing is communication between one mind and another. Writing is the conduit, which makes the ideas of one mind transparent to another mind. Whether what is in one of those minds is worth communicating or not is something, we will have to consider.

Be a reader is important when you are setting your goals, and it is important when you read your students’ papers as a reader. When I do not understand what a student has written. I write, “I don’t understand.” “I’ve lost the thread of the argument.” Or, “Do you have evidence to back up this point?” or “What is the point?” I always respond to papers as a reader. I also respond as a writer—“You might try so and so,” and as a teacher “Remember, we discussed xyz in class.” Nevertheless, responding as a reader comes first. Transparency and clarity in writing are two of my biggest goals. My college acting teacher used to say, “If you are going to make a mistake, make it big enough for me to see it.” How can I begin to help a student if I do know what the student understands?

Be a writer.

You know you need to communicate your writing expectations, yes, but you also need to be aware of yourself as a writer—to think about your own process. In order to teach writing, you need to think about how youwrite. How you revise. How you move from an idea to publication. How might that process vary from project to project? Think about your own writing process, and if you are with others, share your thoughts with them. What did you learn about yourself or the process of others? When you think about your process, you are really thinking about how you manageyourself as a writer.

How do you help your students have a process? You can talk to your students about your own process—how you manage yourself as a writer. How you break down your process. You can be honest, and admit that writing is messy and hard. Thank about what resources you have. Consider what resources your students have. Do you direct them to the Writing Center to the Library, to other support services?

Teaching your students to manage themselves, as writers, is one of the most important things you can do in helping them become better writers. Not always, but frequently, the paper your students hand you is a first draft—or not even that—what I call a discovery or exploratory draft. They are thinking, “What do I know about this subject?” Rather than thinking, “How do I communicate what I know to another person?” Consider how much time you give your students to write. Is it enough? Do you budget a week for every 5-7 pages you assign? When I teach a writing course, my students write three drafts of every paper. Along the way, they receive feedback from their peers, peer writing tutors, and from me—a process that spans several weeks. This has worked beautifully, but it may not be realistic for you in your course. So, I invented the 30-minute writing process, which I will unveil shortly.

Be a teacher.

Do you remember the old question, “What are the three most important things in real estate?” The answer, of course, is “Location. Location. Location.” Your location is your classroom, or your office or your desk. Whatever you do, face to face conveys importance. So, use the classroom, or your office to convey your expectations, to share writing management, to discuss the assignment. To say what it is your students need toknow to complete the assignment. Here is the 30-minute writing process: When I give out paper topics, I spend 15 minutes in class discussing the assignment. I might have three or four possible prompts. I discuss each one, discuss how a student might approach each one, and discuss what the student needs to know to complete each one. Then I ask students to eliminate one right then, to draw a big X through that topic. I ask them to spend another 15 minutes of their own time that day or the next day looking at and thinking about the assignment, and choosing one. Even if they never look at that assignment again until the night before the paper is due, it has been sloshing around in their brains for a bit, and they will write a better paper.

You have all heard by now of “Flipping the classroom.” It’s hot. It’s the new thing. Teachers of writing smile “about the “flipped classroom” because we’ve always flipped the classroom. We have always workshopped student work. We do not ask students just to comment on how they like a student paper, and we do not ask peers to fix semicolons. Instead, we workshop student work in a very directed way. To write well, students need to read well and perceptively. This can happen in directed workshops, where students learn first to be readers and editors of each other’s work. I’m always frank with students about the benefits of the workshop—that they will, at first, learn more as a reader/editor of someone else’s work, then as a writer, but soon, they will learn to be perceptive readers of their own work. Maybe you do not have time for that. Maybe your class is too big. You can bring in examples of opening paragraphs from a previous class and discuss. Or before your students hand in their own work, you can ask them to read their own papers silently in class—and make changes.

As a teacher, you should be asking yourself, why you are assigning a paper. What is the point? Is it to know if your students understand the content? Is it to see if they can use concepts you have taught them on new content? Is it to apply theories to new situations? To recognize and understand the research knowledge in the field? Is it to use key terms or theories in your disciple? If you cannot answer these questions, or if you are not conveying this—how can your students write well? As a teacher, you have to answer these questions:

What do your students have to know or understand before they write?

How well do your students understand your content?

How well have you taught them about this subject matter before they write?

Two experiences molded me as a teacher before I taught writing to college students. First, before Middlebury, I taught in suburban, rural, urban, and inner city high schools, and I attended a private high school—all, vastly different experiences. When I taught English in a NYC high school, I taught 150-200 students a semester. When I began teaching at Middlebury, I knew my students had had vastly different educational experiences before they arrived at Middlebury. I have tried hard not to make assumptions about what they know or do not know, and I have sought to normalize what they knew or did not know. I often introduced a skill with the words, “As you may have already learned or not.”

Second, for five years, I was “just” as a stay at home mom. Those five years taught me more about teaching than I learned from any book, or that I learned in the other 45 years of my teaching life. My two same gender children, from the same gene pool, learned completely differently. One remembered most what she saw. The other remembered most what she heard. One wanted to learn with me sitting next to her. The other wanted to try things on her own. Because students learn differently, I have tried to teach a variety of ways. I create opportunities for students to listen, to read, to write, to speak, to act. I encourage students to share things with others, and to try tasks own their own. I share important instructions in class, on paper, and online on a course website. Always, I direct students to resources. What you might change in the way you teach writing? Take a few minutes to write or think about this. For now, keep this information just for you.

Finally, what have I learned most in 25 or 50 years of teaching writing?

Humility, Patience, and Faith

Humility: You cannot teach everything there is to teach about writing from one paper. You cannot even do it in one course. You are one stop—one important stop— on a writer’s journey. Many people set your student on this path, some well, some not so well, but you are not the only one.

Patience: not only with your students but, also, with yourself. Take the time to know what you expect, and spell that out. Respect where your students are in their writing journeys. Give your students good directions. Take the time to prepare your students. Give your students enough time to write well and to revise– week for every 5-7 pages, and throw a weekend in there. Give your students support, and direct them to the Writing Center, Learning Resources, and the Library for more support.

Have Faith: pass your students on to the next stop in their writing journeys, and have faith that the next person on that journey will care as much about your students’ writing lives as you do.

Mary Ellen Bertolini

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madamlaydebug · 6 years ago

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Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931) is an American novelist, editor, and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977), and Beloved (1987).

Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for Beloved. Beloved was adapted into a film of the same name (starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover) in 1998. Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. In 1996, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected her for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. She was honored with the 1996 National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Morrison was commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner, first performed in 2005. On May 29, 2012, Morrison received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2016 Morrison received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction.

Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio, to Ramah (née Willis) and George Wofford. She is the second of four children in a working-class family. Her parents moved to Ohio to escape southern racism and instilled a sense of heritage through telling traditional African American folktales. She read frequently as a child; among her favorite authors were Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy. She became a Catholic at the age of 12 and received the baptismal name "Anthony", which later became the basis for her nickname "Toni".

In 1949 Morrison enrolled at Howard University. She graduated in 1953 with a B.A. in English, and earned a Master of Arts from Cornell University in 1955. Her Master's thesis was Virginia Woolf's and William Faulkner's Treatment of the Alienated. She taught English, first at Texas Southern University in Houston for two years, then at Howard for seven years. While teaching at Howard, she met Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect, whom she married in 1958. The couple had two children and divorced in 1964. After the breakup of her marriage, she began working as an editor in 1965 for a textbook publisher in Syracuse, going on two years later to Random House in New York City, where she became a senior trade-book editor. In that capacity, Morrison played a vital role in bringing black literature into the mainstream, editing books by authors such as Henry Dumas, Toni Cade Bambara, Angela Davis, and Gayl Jones.

Morrison began writing fiction as part of an informal group of poets and writers at Howard University who met to discuss their work. She attended one meeting with a short story about a black girl who longed to have blue eyes. She later developed the story as her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970). She wrote it while raising two children and teaching at Howard.

In 1975 her novel Sula (1973) was nominated for the National Book Award. Her third novel, Song of Solomon (1977), brought her national attention. The book was a main selection of the Book of the Month Club, the first novel by a black writer to be so chosen since Richard Wright's Native Son in 1940. Song of Solomon won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

In 1987 Morrison's novel Beloved, inspired by the true story of runaway slave Margaret Garner, became a critical success. When the novel failed to win the National Book Award as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award, 48 black critics and writers protested the omission in a statement that was published in The New York Times on January 24, 1988. Not long afterwards, Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the American Book Award. It also won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. That same year, Morrison took a visiting professorship at Bard College.

Beloved was adapted into the 1998 film of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. Morrison later returned to Garner's life story in the libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner, with music by Richard Danielpour. In May 2006, The New York Times Book Review named Beloved the best American novel published in the previous 25 years. In 1993 Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her citation reads: Toni Morrison, "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality." Shortly afterward, a fire destroyed her Rockland County, New York home.

In 1996 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Morrison for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Morrison's lecture, entitled "The Future of Time: Literature and Diminished Expectations," began with the aphorism, "Time, it seems, has no future." She cautioned against the misuse of history to diminish expectations of the future.

Morrison was honored with the 1996 National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, which is awarded to a writer "who has enriched our literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work."

In 2000, The Bluest Eye was chosen as a selection for Oprah's Book Club.

In addition to her novels, Morrison has written books for children with her younger son, Slade Morrison, who worked as a painter and musician. Slade died of pancreatic cancer on December 22, 2010, aged 45. Morrison's novel Home, half-written when Slade died, is dedicated to him.

Her 11th novel, entitled God Help the Child, was published 2015.

Although her novels typically concentrate on black women, Morrison does not identify her works as feminist. When asked in a 1998 interview "Why distance oneself from feminism?" she replied: "In order to be as free as I possibly can, in my own imagination, I can't take positions that are closed. Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it, to open doors, sometimes, not even closing the book – leaving the endings open for reinterpretation, revisitation, a little ambiguity." She went on to state that she thought it "off-putting to some readers, who may feel that I'm involved in writing some kind of feminist tract. I don't subscribe to patriarchy, and I don't think it should be substituted with matriarchy. I think it's a question of equitable access, and opening doors to all sorts of things." Critics, however, have referred to her body of work as exemplifying characteristics of "postmodern feminism" by "altering Euro-American dichotomies by rewriting a history written by mainstream historians" and by her usage of shifting narration in Beloved and Paradise.

Morrison taught English at two branches of the State University of New York and at Rutgers University: New Brunswick Campus. In 1984 she was appointed to an Albert Schweitzer chair at the University at Albany, The State University of New York. From 1989 until her retirement in 2006, Morrison held the Robert F. Goheen Chair in the Humanities at Princeton University.

Though based in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton, Morrison did not regularly offer writing workshops to students after the late 1990s, a fact that earned her some criticism. Rather, she has conceived and developed the prestigious Princeton Atelier, a program that brings together talented students with critically acclaimed, world-famous artists. Together the students and the artists produce works of art that are presented to the public after a semester of collaboration. In her position at Princeton, Morrison used her insights to encourage not merely new and emerging writers, but artists working to develop new forms of art through interdisciplinary play and cooperation.

At its 1979 commencement ceremonies, Barnard College awarded her its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction. Oxford University awarded her an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in June 2005.

In November 2006, Morrison visited the Louvre Museum in Paris as the second in its "Grand Invité" program to guest-curate a month-long series of events across the arts on the theme of "The Foreigner's Home." Inspired by her curatorship, Morrison returned to Princeton in Fall 2008 to lead a small seminar, also entitled "The Foreigner's Home." Also that year, The New York Times Book Review named Beloved the best novel of the past 25 years. She continued to explore new art forms, writing the libretto for Margaret Garner, an American opera that explores the tragedy of slavery through the true life story of one woman's experiences. The opera debuted at the New York City Opera in 2007.

In May 2010, Morrison appeared at PEN World Voices for a conversation with Marlene van Niekerk and Kwame Anthony Appiah about South African literature, and specifically, van Niekerk's novel Agaat.

In May 2011, Morrison received an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from Rutgers University during commencement where she delivered a speech of the "pursuit of life, liberty, meaningfulness, integrity, and truth."

In March 2012, Morrison established a residency at Oberlin College. In addition to Home, Morrison also debuted another work in 2012: She worked with opera director Peter Sellars and songwriter Rokia Traoré on a new production inspired by William Shakespeare's Othello. The trio focused on the relationship between Othello's wife Desdemona and her African nurse, Barbary, in Desdemona, which premiered in London in the summer of 2012.

She is currently a member of the editorial board of The Nation magazine.

In writing about the 1998 impeachment of Bill Clinton, Morrison wrote that, since Whitewater, Bill Clinton had been mistreated because of his "Blackness":

Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas.

The phrase "our first Black president" was adopted as a positive by Bill Clinton supporters. When the Congressional Black Caucus honored the former president at its dinner in Washington D.C. on September 29, 2001, for instance, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), the chair, told the audience that Clinton "took so many initiatives he made us think for a while we had elected the first black president."

In the context of the 2008 Democratic Primary campaign, Morrison stated to Time magazine: "People misunderstood that phrase. I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal that was surrounding him. I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race." In the Democratic primary contest for the 2008 presidential race, Morrison endorsed Senator Barack Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton, though expressing admiration and respect for the latter.

In April 2015, speaking of the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Walter Scott—three unarmed black men killed by white police officers—Morrison said "People keep saying, 'We need to have a conversation about race.' This is the conversation. I want to see a cop shoot a white unarmed teenager in the back. And I want to see a white man convicted for raping a black woman. Then when you ask me, 'Is it over?', I will say yes."

Toni Morrison was the subject of a film entitled Imagine – Toni Morrison Remembers, directed by Jill Nicholls and shown on BBC1 television on July 15, 2015, in which Morrison talked to Alan Yentob about her life and work.

Morrison's papers are part of the permanent library collections of Princeton University. Morrison's decision to add her papers to Princeton instead of her alma mater Howard University was criticized by some within the historically black colleges and universities community.

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catholicartistsnyc · 6 years ago

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Meet: Melissa Maricich

MELISSA MARICICH is an NYC-based actress, singer, dancer, producer and writer, as well as a Catholic Artist Connection board member. (www.mmaricich.com or [email protected])

CATHOLIC ARTIST CONNECTION (CAC): What brought you to NYC, and where did you come from? How long have you been here, and why did you decide to move here?

MELISSA MARICICH (MM): I was born and raised near Seattle, Washington. Specifically, a lovely spot called Maple Valley, where I grew up on multiple acres of countryside as one of nine kids. I started out as a dancer, but once my voice sort of "kicked-in" during high school I became involved in musical theatre which led to greater interest in acting and film. Because New York has both theatre and film I was encouraged to move here rather than LA initially. A couple of years after gaining experience in the professional scene in Seattle I did just that, and moved to New York to further my opportunities of work in the entertainment industry.

CAC: How do understand your vocation as a Catholic artist? Do you call yourself a Catholic artist?

MM: I want it to be very clear in my interactions with people that I am a Catholic, but I don't think my work could be termed "Catholic Art.” Our vocation as Catholics is to love and serve God and our neighbors, which we should do through our work, whatever that work may be; whether as postal workers or Hollywood / Broadway stars. I see my work as being a job (that I love to do), that often takes place in the secular arena, which is part of what gives me a greater opportunity to share the Good News of the Gospel. Whatever our daily occupation may be, it should be a means by which we strive to serve and love.

CAC: Where have you found support among your fellow artists for your Catholic faith?

MM: One of the beautiful things about life in New York is the hugely diverse places and ways one can make connections. I've met Catholic actors and artists in as many ways as the number of individuals I've connected with. I've also hugely benefited from the Sheen Center and people I've met there - very particularly all the people I'm involved with for Catholic Artists Connection and Catholic Artists NYC... a perfectly "unbrazen" plug on my part, for the people making this very interview possible :)

CAC: How can the artistic world be more welcoming to artists of faith?

MM: The artistic world would have to make a decision to be humble enough, and open-minded enough, to entertain the thought that those with faith could have good reason for their beliefs. However we can only be responsible for ourselves and I think the artistic world will be more open to us once it is confronted with, and realizes, how many more of its members are people of faith than it currently suspects. That accomplishment rests in great part on our being more courageous, vocal and generous in sharing the Gospel. Of course, that definitely requires Prudence about the right time, place, and manner in which we share. (As an aside, I think that is a beautiful function the secular world unwittingly provides us with - opportunities to grow in virtue: particularly Prudence, Courage and Charity/)

CAC: Where in NYC do you regularly find spiritual fulfillment? Which parish(es) do you attend?

MM: I've found a home and welcome at St. Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village. It has a vibrant community, with particular connections to NYU and the students there. It is served by wonderful Dominican priests. I've met performers through some of the parish ministries, even the Thomistic Institutes' talks and lectures there (which are hugely formative and inspiring I might add). I highly recommend signing up for the emails and updates for the Thomistic Institute events. I've not once been sorry I spent my time in attending them!

CAC: Where in NYC do you regularly find artistic fulfillment?

MM: A number of mentors, teachers and coaches are of course essential in this. It's fulfilling and satisfying to work with people who help you to be your best, who challenge you and help you to actualize your potential. I have a wonderful voice teacher (feel free to contact me if you are looking for one!). The Barrow Group (take Seth Barrish's class) and Jon Shears' "Take Action" Workshop (film work) are both wonderful resources. The Growing Studio and Max Theatrix are particularly helpful for musical theatre performers and making connections. The Growing Studio is how I was connected to my current agent.

CAC: How have you found or built community as a Catholic artist living in NYC?

MM: I'd say the simplest description for how it has, and is continuing to happen for me, is simply by being open with the people I meet and by connecting as much in the moment with those who I come across as I possible. You'd truly be shocked at the strange way you can meet people in the business, and even other Catholic performers. Especially if you're simply willing to smile, say hello and introduce yourself.

CAC: What is your daily spiritual practice?

MM: It can shift from time to time, but there are particular forms of prayer and different saints that tend to regularly be in the forefront. The Rosary - and with it Marian Consecration. St. Joseph, Francis of Assisi, Peter, Therese, Padre Pio, etc. etc. Whenever possible during the week daily Mass, and Adoration. And some kind of religious reading of which there's a large variety. Definitely anything Chesterton, or Lewis. Other recommended material is The Light of Christ, by Fr. Thomas Joseph White. A number of podcasts of which the most recent addition is Stacey Sumereau's "Called and Caffeinated". And Bishop Barron's "Word on Fire" is a staple.

CAC: What is your daily artistic practice?

MM: They aren't ALL always daily simply due to constrictions of time, but, as much as I can I'll have hour-long voice practices a couple times a week, dance classes, reading on pertinent info for acting/material that is inspiring for production/writing ideas.

CAC: What resources have you found helpful in securing housing/roommates?

MM: 80/20 Housing is quite the resource. For females, look into St. Agnes Residence or other women's residences. Unfortunately I don't know of the equivalent for guys... sorry fella's!

CAC: How can you find work in NYC?

MM: If you are looking for a survival job, be willing to tell/mention it to random people you know or meet that you are looking for a job. I got my first hostessing job (glamorous, I know) because I mentioned in passing that I was looking for consistent work to a girl I was doing a temp-job with. She said, totally off-the-cuff "Oh, my roommate is leaving a place right now, and they are looking to fill it. I'll send them your resume."

CAC: What other practical resources would you recommend to a Catholic artist living in NYC?

MM: Gingerb3ardMen Photography. Billy Bustamente Photography. Sean Turi Photography.

CAC: What are your top 3 pieces of advice for Catholic artists moving to NYC?

MM: Don't be afraid, and give yourself some grace and slack in expectations when you first arrive. (Of course don't slack in your devotion to doing what you know is necessary in pursuing excellence in your craft but DO cut yourself-slack in your expectations of immediate or worldly "success"). And make sure to get out of the city every now and then! Take the train up the Hudson or somewhere cute on Long Island. Get out of town every now and again.

If you have recently arrived in this busy City, Welcome! Glad to have you here and look forward to meeting you soon!

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ava-rosier · 7 years ago

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oh my god, this one guy commenting in the romance threads of the NaNo forum....

there’s a thread that invites you to introduce/describe your two protagonists...that’s it, just people having fun describing the characters they’re going to smush together happily ever after (after some dramz). After several people do this, he decides to comment on this one woman’s description, saying

“Sounds like you have two appealing characters. I am sure you know, however, appealing characters are boring. A good story needs serious conflict. Who wants to achieve something and what are the obstacles to achievement. I know the thread is just to lay out two characters. Just want to be sure that these two compelling characters have a plot and structure worthy of them.”

What. The. Fuck. Amirite?

Then he decides to introduce his own protagonists...by linking to his website. This link is prefaced with the comment:

I am pretty sure this is going to blow you away but here are my characters:

Around this time, I’m getting the feeling that this dude is one of Those Dudes...who thumbs his nose at romance novels but thinks he knows better than all these wimmin who read/write romance novels. So I check out his profile and....*drumroll* WINNER WINNER ASSHOLE DINNER

Yes, I am an old fart. Over the last 35 years, I have taken several university-level writing classes and attended writer's retreats and workshops. I have one short story collection on Amazon Kindle and a new novel Shooting Star at the editor now.

For Nano, I will be writing a romance novel. I HATE romance novels. How come I'm writing one? I lead a critique group. One of the writers in the group wrote a romance novel and asked if she should write a sequel. No, I said. But she was going to write a sequel anyway So I drew up a great plot, which she rejected. So, I had this great romance novel plot. But, I HATE romance novels, so I wasn't going to write it. What to do? I decided to coordinate a contributed novel. I invited romance writers from all over the world to contributed chapters. To do this, and make the whole thing hang together I had to plot out every chapter. I had to specify the characters involved in the scene, what the background of the scene was, and what the result of the scene would be. And, the author had to have a clear picture of the characters involved and their motivation. It turns out that doing all this is WAY more effort than writing the novel. After I had about 25, of the 60 chapters in the novel in the bank, it just became too much work. I also had to tell some writers that their work was not good enough. (I really didn't like to reject work from writers who offered to help.)

So, I am taking a break from the writing I truly love to write the world's greatest romance novel. What the hell, it's only a month.

I have no words. I only have reaction gifs:

#romance novels

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fredenglish · 4 years ago

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Feature Friday: Heather McEntarfer and Cornelius FitzPatrick

For this week’s Feature Friday, I had the opportunity to talk with Professors Heather McEntarfer and Cornelius FitzPatrick. On Thursday, April 29, 2021, they were in the spotlight in the English Department’s Creative Writing Faculty Reading Series, for the final reading of three this semester featuring professors reading their work virtually. It allowed students and faculty to encounter literature outside the classroom in an informal setting, to learn about their professors’ and colleagues’ writing styles, to find out what they are working on, and to ask them questions.

Professor FitzPatrick went to Columbia University for his undergraduate degree and then attended Colorado State University to earn his MFA. On campus, Professor FitzPatrick typically teaches Introduction to Creative Writing and an Intermediate Fiction Writing Workshop. For the first time this fall, he will be teaching Screenwriting. Outside of Fredonia, he has received a Fiction Fellowship from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and an Emerging Writers Fellowship from A Public Space. His work has appeared in A Public Space; he is currently working on a collection of stories and a novel.

Professor McEntarfer earned her bachelor’s degree in Integrated Language Arts at Hiram College. After graduating, she earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh and herPhD in English Education at the University of Buffalo. Professor McEntarfer is now the English Education Coordinator for Fredonia English. She teaches a combination of English Education and writing courses including Adolescent Literature, Texts and Contexts, Methods and Seminar for English Education, and Intermediate Creative Nonfiction. Outside of Fredonia, she has had her work appear in Permafrost, The New Yinzer, and Trillium literary journals as well as in PittMed, Pitt Magazine, and Jill Magazine.

Professor McEntarfer decided to read to the students and faculty a creative nonfiction personal essay in progress that is set during the time of the pandemic. She had mentioned during the reading that she mostly has been focusing on academic writing for the past couple of years, and is starting to get back into essay writing. I asked Professor McEntarfer how she got interested in writing nonfiction and if she focuses exclusively on this type of writing. She replied, “I have loved writing since I was a little kid. When I was in 3rd grade, I wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder, and I always was writing fictional stories as a kid. When I was in college in Ohio I was a writing minor and I had a professor who was into creative nonfiction. Creative nonfiction is still the lesser known genre in some ways, like poetry and fiction are the main stage; that was even more true then. She introduced it to me when I had been writing poetry, and I kind of felt like ‘oh, I can say everything I want to say here,’ and I can’t do that in my poetry. I just loved it once I got into it. I pretty much only write nonfiction now.”

When I asked Professor FitzPatrick if he writes only fictional stories, he replied, “I do write only fiction. Sometimes I read another author, a fiction writer, writing about books, and I think, ‘gosh, I’d like to do that sometime,’ but I just write fiction. I’m engaged to a brilliant poet. Reading her work is exhilarating and also shows me that my mind doesn’t quite work like that. I encourage people to work in multiple genres, of course. I imagine it’s hard to find the time. Maybe I watched too much television as a kid; those narrative grooves are just in there.” I then asked how he got interested in writing fictional stories. He responded, “I write fiction because I’ve always read fiction. My parents are reading constantly, so I suppose I should blame them, but reading fiction, spending time with an author’s mind like that--it was joyful. It made the world, inner and outer, bigger. I still feel that way. I guess an answer that may be a little more practical, though, is that I started writing fiction seriously in college. More specifically, I didn’t dedicate myself to it until senior year. Before that, my school had all these core requirements, plus I’d been taking Chinese classes because I thought I wanted to be a journalist. A few years at the school paper showed me that I wasn’t really interested in journalism, and then I finished my Chinese classes over the summer after junior year, and senior year all I took were writing classes. It would still be a year or two, maybe more, until I had anything resembling decent writing habits, but that was the start of it--taking all those writing classes senior year. I don’t know if that will be useful to students.”

As theirs was the last creative writing faculty reading of the semester, I asked both Professor McEntarfer and Professor FitzPatrick what they were hoping the students and faculty got out of their faculty reading. Professor McEntarfer stated, “I know that I have enjoyed and gone to the other readings, and it is nice to get to know my colleagues as writers. It has also been nice to get a sense of the faculty members’ style of writing. I knew who wrote fiction and who wrote poetry in the past; however, I never got a sense of their writing style so it has been nice to listen to that. I think it is a more informal place for the students to get to know and hear a range of approaches to writing.” Professor FitzPatrick replied, “This year has been hard on all of us. My conversations about fiction and poetry with my students have really pulled me through. I hope the reading can be more of that. Teaching creative writing can sometimes feel a bit one-way, at least in terms of sharing work--I get to read so much student work in a semester--I guess it’s only fair that they get to hear something of mine.”

This has been the first year that the creative writing faculty readings have happened in the English Department. So far, they have been a success. But should they continue? Should the department make them an every semester event? Professor FitzPatrick answered, “I do hope the faculty readings continue. I don’t know that anyone needs to hear me read every semester, but hopefully someone will read every semester. It’s all part of the writing community we’re trying to build, trying to maintain.” Professor McEntarfer added, “I think it is a great way for students to see their professors are writers and for us to get to know each other outside the classroom setting--I think it is an awesome opportunity.”

Katherine Yudin, May 7, 2021

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lalka-laski · 4 years ago

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Can you recommend any Neil Gaiman to me, aside from Stardust or Good Omens? The only book I’ve read of his was “The Ocean at the End of the Lane.” It was good, just not really my scene.

What’s the best concert you’ve been to, if you’ve been? The Killers, hands down.

Is there an animal you like that most people don’t? I kinda like spiders and most people are terrified of them. Which makes me the designated spider-catcher whenever one’s nearby. (I never kill them. Just relocate them!)

Is there an animal that you think is overrated in terms of how it’s liked? Dogs

Do you find yourself listening to music that’s a bit more esoteric? I guess sometimes. But a great deal of what I listen to could be considered “mainstream.”

What are your three favorite books and why? This is an impossible question! So I’ll respond with the 3 best books I’ve read *lately* Water for Elephants, This Close to Okay, What Comes After (I’m still in the middle of it but I sense it’ll become a fave!)

What about authors? Anita Shreve, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Patti Callahan Henry Do you have any likes you wouldn’t tell someone until you got to know them? I have some ~guilty pleasures~ but I’m not so ashamed of them that I’d keep them secret.

Do you have a favorite language? Polish

What about a place you’ve always wanted to visit? Poland, Northern Ireland, Iceland

Do goldfish crackers ever make you sick, or is that just me? Nah I enjoy them.

Do you have a favorite art style? I’m not familiar enough with art technique/history.

Do you have a favorite myth/fairy-tale? Sleeping Beauty, of course!

Who is your favorite person aside from family? Glenn

Do any of your pets (if you have them) have weird quirks? I don’t have pets. And probably won’t ever.

Do you listen to music from anywhere besides America? How boring would my life be if I limited myself to only music from America (or any single country for that matter).

Have you ever “quit” a site and came back to it more than once? Facebook a couple times

Do you have an “odd” fascination with anything? I’m sure there are several things but of course I can’t think of any at the moment What is the thing you want most at this moment? I guess I’d prefer not to be at work but it’s really not so bad.

What was the last book you read and what was it about? I’m currently reading What Comes After about the aftermath of the deaths of two teenage boys

What was the worst book you’ve ever read & why? There have been several I’ve started and couldn’t bear to finish.

Do you have a favorite breed of dog or cat? Which? Nah I’m not much of a dog OR cat person.

If you like any anime/manga, what are some titles you recommend? I don’t watch it but Glenn’s a huge fan and could rattle of a looooong list if you were interested

What’s the hardest thing you’ve been through, & what did you learn from it? I think it’s kinda of weird to rank my painful experiences like that. I’ve felt pain in different ways at different points of my life.

What are three “unrealistic” things you want most? My dream body, my dream house, my dream career

What are some of your favorite foods? Pizza, falafel, popcorn, chips & dips (I’m a snacker for sure)

Where do you like to buy your clothes? Lately I’ve just been buying bullshit on Amazon (and then getting disappointed when the quality & fit are terrible). But my favorite stores are Windsor & Express.

Do you take any daily vitamins? Magnesium & B12

Who are three of your favorite fictional characters of all time? Elle Woods, Lizzie McGuire, Mr. Gellar from Friends

If you had to give the world a pre-existing mythological/fictional being, what would it be? Mermaids. Just because they’d be cool as hell.

When buying Slurpees, if you do, do you get only one flavor or mix them? I haven’t had a slurpee since I was a kid, but IIRC I liked Blue Raspberry.

Do you have a favorite 7Eleven food? We don’t have many 7Elevens around me but I will admit I love me some gas station/convenience store food.

Do you have any desire to learn (a) foreign language(s)? Which? Polish, because I want to speak the language of my ancestors. And because I just think it’s beautiful.

If you could have any career, “realistic”-ness aside, what would it be? Published author or maybe a content creator for a lifestyle blog/magazine.

What are three memorable movies from your childhood? Sleeping Beauty, of course. Toy Story, Monster’s Inc

Do you, personally, put a space after ellipses, or not? Nope

Micky D’s sweet tea, y/n/other? Not a fan of sweet tea, period.

What are three of your best (non-physical) qualities? Friendliness, empathy, creativity.

What are three of your worst (again; non-physical) qualities? Anxiousness, hyper-sensitivity, impulsiveness

What is one of your firmest beliefs? Moe’s is FAR superior to Chipotle in every conceivable way.

Do you ever question things until you’re unsure of even the silliest thing? Yeah, overthinking is my superpower.

Do you have anything that keeps you from doing something you’d truly enjoy? ~ANXIETY~ What are your three biggest pet peeves (personality-wise) in others? Arrogance, close-mindedness are the top of my list. I also can’t STAND conversation hogging.

Do you work to fix your faults? Or at least, admit to them? I could work on them MORE... but yes I always own up to them.

What are three of your best physical qualities? (NOT EYES!) Collarbones, nose, the shape of my lips

What are some of your greatest aspirations? Write a book, have a family

How do you hope the world will change, if at all? That’s just too heavy of a question. I’m just here to chill!

What are three things that make you the happiest? My loved ones, my babies, good food!

What is/are your view(s) on god, religion, spirituality, or relations to? I don’t subscribe to any fixed set of beliefs but I could be considered spiritual.

Are you arachnophobic or scared of spiders in the least? No, I actually think they’re kinda cool.

Do you play WoW? What do you think of it either way? Nope.

What kind of computer do you have? Windows 7/Vista/XP/Other? I’m at work and currently on a Dell. At home I have a Chromebook.

What are you good at? Writing, worrying...

What career do you hope to have? Writer

Are you taking any interesting classes in school/do you not attend? I’m done with school (for now)

If you don’t attend, are you taking any “lessons” for anything No, although there have been several creative writing courses and workshops I’ve had my eye on. I really should register for one. A book/piece that has had an exceptional impact on your life? For Women who are Difficult to Love by Warsan Shire

If you know of pandora.com, what is your favorite station? I only listen to Pandora at work and the office usually has “Brunch Cafe Radio” on which plays a lot of coffehouse style singer/songwriters. I dig it! Have you ever “lost” a friend in any way? How did you deal? Of course I have. Friend “breakups” can be just as painful and life-altering as romantic ones and I wish that was discussed more.

Any music recommendations? I’m actually on the hunt for some new music so if anyone has reccs for ME... that’d be cool.

What are at least three of your biggest fears? Losing my loved ones, death, birds (:

Most recently read book that you liked? The last book I read in full was Jessica Simpson’s memoir Open Book. And it was surprisingly delightful & touching.

Do you have a piece of jewelry you don’t like to take off? My claddagh ring & of course, my engagement ring.

Do you have a favorite quote? Why is it your favorite? Too many to list Any odd pastimes you have? I like reading the inmate profiles on Writeaprisoner.com, then googling the inmate’s names to find out what crime(s) they committed.

Are you quirky in any way? (Name them please). I have some OCD tendencies that could be considered peculiar. Oh, I also hate wearing shoes or socks & prefer to be barefoot whenever possible.

Political standing? Filthy liberal

Do you have any piercings/what do you think about piercings? I have none as I just don’t think they suit me. But they look great on other people.

Do you have a favorite material? Not really?

What are three names you’d name a pet if you HAD to get a pet right now? Brixton, named for David Bowie’s hometown.

Do you like to listen to dorky/amusing music? What’s considered dorky and/or amusing?

Coffee vs. Tea vs. Energy Drinks: Order from favorite to least favorite. Coffee & tea are probably tied. And energy drinks are dead last. I avoid them.

Do you like more “fruity” sweets or “savory” sweets? What the fuck is a savory sweet?

What do you hate the most? My anxiety

What genres of music are your favorite? Most of my faves could be classified as alternative/soft-rock

Do you believe in true love? Absolutely

What are some of your favorite clothing accessories? I’m not big on accessories. I love sunglasses, though.

If reincarnation exists, what sort of person would you want to be next? Someone born into wealth What are some things you believe strongly in? Love, forgiveness, second chances

Where’s your favorite place you’ve been? My family’s cottage in Canada

What sort of books and movies do you like? Book-wise I love a good family drama or tragedy. And the occasional cutesy love story. As for movies, I want all rom-coms all day.

What’s your favorite thing to do on a rainy Saturday? Read, write, maybe marathon a show, cook something yummy in the crockpot...

Is there a book you’ve read that really touched you? Have you MET me?

PC or MAC? PC

What do you love doing? Reading, writing, spending time with loved ones, crafting, cooking, going out to eat, watching live music

If you could create the perfect world for yourself, what would it be? All my loved ones would be present, we’d have NO financial burdens, good health, plenty of free time to devote to our hobbies & passions

Do you think that fate plays a part in people’s lives? Somewhat, yeah. But action > everything.

Are you religious, spiritual, atheist…? Spiritual

Do you think that people throw the words “love” and “hate” around too much? Eh, maybe. But I’m a deeply emotional person so although I may say I love and hate things frequently, I mean it sincerely every time.

What is your favorite piece of technology that you own? My phone, no doubt. It’s glued to my hand.

What’s a piece of technology you’d like to own? I’m not a real techhy person so I don’t need much besides what I already have.

Are you afraid of technology developing to where we’re too reliant on it? We’re past that point my dude.

Does it bother you when people do things to fit in with a certain crowd? Yeah, but I can’t say I don’t do the same

Hot or cold? I’d much rather be cold. I am MISERABLE when hot & sweaty. Do you think that Bzoink should extent the character amount for questions? What the hell is Bzoink

Do you have a favorite combination of complimentary colors? Pastel pink & pastel, dusty blue. (These are my dream wedding colors)

What’s your favorite odd ice cream flavor? I love any kind of oatmeal/oat filled ice cream & people seem to find that weird?

Where do you like to get your ice cream? Moonlight Creamery holds a special place in my heart because that’s where I got engaged! And besides that, they really do have some of the best tasting ice cream I’ve ever had.

What’s your opinion on stereotypes/labels? As humans it’s natural for us to categorized people based on past experiences. Is it always accurate? Of course not. But we all do it.

Do you believe that history repeats itself? Mhmmmmm

Would you rather learn from your mistakes or just undo them? Wouldn’t it be nice to just undo them? And since I’m not great at learning from mine...

What was the most interesting class you had in school? Any creative writing class, of course. Also my Kenyan Literature class was FASCINATING. Do you write? If so, what? Yes. Mostly personal essays, some poetry & short stories

Do you have a favorite website? Facebook & Twitter are my go-tos. And Reddit when I can’t sleep.

Do you think that the quality of TV shows is going down? I’m not much of a TV watcher so I can’t comment.

Do you have a favorite culture? Thar’s a borderline creepy question.... What was a story you heard as a child that really affected you? Any kind of ghost story or vaguely paranormal story fucked me up BAD

Who was your favorite grade-school teacher and why? My 5th grade teacher was a doll, so perhaps her.

Do you think that the world will end? How? Can we NOT

Do you believe in Global Warming? Have you researched it? It’s not up for debate

Do you prefer piercings or tattoos? I have one tattoo and zero piercings so I guess I’m on team tattoo

Do you remember your dreams? Almost always

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moodboardinthecloud · 4 years ago

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Amanda Gorman 2018

https://nyti.ms/2F1bs82

A Young Poet’s Inspiration

By Adeel Hassan

Feb. 28, 2018

How did Amanda Gorman, 19, become the first person to be named national youth poet laureate? She shares her story with the Race/Related newsletter below. Ms. Gorman also wrote original poems, which we animated. Watch them here. For more coverage of race, sign up to have our newsletter delivered weekly to your inbox.

It’s impossible not to think of your having been a precocious child. Tell me whether there was anything early that pointed you in the direction of writing.

I grew up at this incredibly odd intersection in Los Angeles, where it felt like the black ’hood met black elegance met white gentrification met Latin culture met wetlands. Traversing between these worlds, either to go to a private school in Malibu, or then come back home to my family’s two-bedroom apartment, gave me an appreciation for different cultures and realities, but also made me feel like an outsider. I’m sure my single mother, Joan Wicks, might describe me as a precocious child, but looking back in elementary school I often self-described myself as a plain “weird” child. I spent most of elementary school convinced that I was an alien. Literally.

The worlds I mentioned, traveled between for school and home — of blackness and whiteness — seemed so foreign to me. While other students were on the jungle gym, I was writing in my journal on a park bench, or trying to write my own dictionary. I was obsessed with everything and anything; I wanted to learn everything, to read everything, to do everything. I was constantly on sensory overload. I’d hoard dozens of books in my second-grade cubby, and literally try to read two at a time, side by side.

What contributed to my writing early on is how my mom encouraged it. She kept the TV off because she wanted my siblings and I to be engaged and active. So we made forts, put on plays, musicals, and I wrote like crazy.

Who were the writers who made you first want to write? When did you decide to be a poet?

I’ll never forget being in third grade, and my teacher, Shelly Fredman, a writer in her own right, was reading Ray Bradbury’s novel “Dandelion Wine” to our class. I don’t remember what the metaphor was exactly — something about candy — but I lost my mind. It was the best thing I’d ever heard. Pure magic!

How did you discover your own voice? How did it feel to discover your own voice? Did it happen gradually? When did you get more serious about writing?

In eighth grade, I picked up Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” because I’d never seen a book with a dark-skinned, nappy- haired girl on the cover. I was enthralled, not just by Morrison’s craftsmanship, but also the content of her stories — her characters, which I’ve always called fourth dimensional. What’s more, I realized that all of the stories I read, and wrote, featured white or light-skinned characters. I’d been reading books without black heroines, which nearly stripped me of the

ability to write in my own voice, blackness and all. Reading Morrison was almost like reteaching myself how to write unapologetically in a black and feminist aesthetic that was my own. After that I made a promise to myself: To never stop writing, and to always represent marginalized figures in my work.

COOKING: Daily inspiration, delicious recipes and other updates from Sam Sifton and NYT Cooking.

And from that sprouted my own voice — the voice of an unashamed black woman who also by way of a speech impediment understood what it was like to be silenced, and didn’t wish this fate on any other soul. To hone my voice, I read everything, from books to cereal boxes, three times: once for fun, the second time to learn something new about the writing craft, and the third time was to improve that piece. I woke up early every day and basically did “literary dress up,” where I’d wear another writer’s voice like clothing and move onto the next one, until I’d gone through a stack of 10 different books. I wore ephemeral versions, copying their sentence constructions, verbiage, and tones. Then I’d step out of them and choose the best characteristics of those styles, until I created a voice that was mine.

This was before I started thinking about publishing, which came in early high school when I started attending free poetry workshops at Beyond Baroque and the nonprofit WriteGirl.

What is it that gets you started on a poem? Is it an idea, an image, a rhythm, or something else? Do you rely more on your ears or your eyes?

Both the external and the internal trigger me. If I’m writing about something internal, say past experiences, I’m writing about it in relation to an external reality, like the ocean. When that connection happens in my mind, I grab a pen and find the closest excuse for sunlight. I usually begin with a word cloud, where I write down the best words I’ve heard that week — like plum, stone, spoon — I don’t know why but I love words like that.

I then take those words and begin to write. I think about the content of what I’m writing first, just getting the lines out and choosing the most necessary ones. Only then do I think about a shape that comes out of that meaning. Where do I want this line to break? Do I want the stanzas to be shaped like a girl, or a house? Maybe it’s because of an auditory processing disorder, but I depend a lot on sight. But that also means I’m hypersensitive to sound — I just see it, rather than hear it, if that makes sense. For example, in order to write, I must have music. Without. Music. I. Can. Not. Write. I’ll play an instrumental track that speaks to my mood, usually something by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ludwig Göransson or Michael Giacchino, and then my poem becomes a visualization of that sound.

"It’s always difficult to describe my own poetry, it’s like trying to paint my own face without a photo." Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Do you have a writing routine? Do you have a favorite place to write? Do you tend to revise?

When I was in school and commuting at least an hour each way, I had to write on the bus or anywhere I could. Now I spend a lot of time writing by the Charles River, when it’s not cold enough to freeze my hair. The revision muscle has been the most difficult for me to build. I used to treat my poetry like hiccups — it came out and that was it. I’d sit for an hour and write something, edit it a few times in that same sitting, and that was it. At Harvard I’m working on the ability to go back to a piece after a few weeks and carve out a better version.

Revelation is a fact of your poems. Do you feel “visceral” is an accurate description of your poetry?

It’s always difficult to describe my own poetry, it’s like trying to paint my own face without a photo. I guess visceral is accurate in that I attempt to bring the reader or listener on an emotional journey, but it’s also a visceral inquiry. I want my poetry to ask questions, even without answers. I want my poetry to interrogate myself and the audience so deeply you can feel it ringing in your gut afterward.

Do you agree with Czeslaw Milosz that poems should be written “under unbearable duress and only with the hope/that good spirits, not evil ones, choose us for their instrument?”

Often my poems are written under duress — I probably lose eight strands of hair every time I write — but I’m not sure if they should be. Meaning that I believe poems can be written in casual moments and still be great — which is a challenge if you’re a writer of color and compelled to write about something concerning the physical and sociopolitical trauma and endurance of your people.

Do you feel any ethical responsibility as a poet? Do you have a reader in your mind when you write?

I will always feel an ethical responsibility as a poet because I will always feel an ethical responsibility as a person, as we all should; the truck driver, the engineer, the painter, the prince, the writer, the biologists, all have a responsibility just by being. So I write to them when I write, a myriad people with their own dreams and duties. I write a lot for that bucktoothed, kinky- haired, speech-garbled 7-year-old still inside myself who didn’t see herself reflected in literature.

Why have you chosen poetry as a medium of artistic creation?

In all honesty, in the beginning I chose writing out of a socioeconomic and human necessity. With a speech impediment I was always looking for ways to express myself. Dance classes became too expensive, and I used 99 Cents Store paint for my art, which got frustrating. To write I just needed a pen and a page.

How do you understand this moment when it comes to race?

Ah. I’m not sure if I can say I understand a lot about this moment when it comes to race; a lot is still frustrating and complex. In many ways it feels like we are in the fog of war.

I firmly believe that this moment, when it comes to race, is a moment of redefinition and revolution. I believe that the fact that this moment at times is so painful and terrifying might actually be a source of hope — because usually the things that matter, the things that make change, and the things that last for generations to come are painful and terrifying for the generations that initiated them.

Follow Adeel Hassan on Twitter @adeelnyt.

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imaginexmeintheuniverse · 7 years ago

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Promposal

@buyreputationbytaylorswift requested: "Female!reader ask MJ to the prom with the help of peter and ned"

Pairing: Michelle Jones x Fem!Reader

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1, 818

Summary: Asking Michelle to prom is not as easy as you thought it would be...

Tags: @coltcas

Masterlist

A/N: This is long overdue I'm sorry it took so long for me to complete this request but I think I'm finally getting over my writer's block so I hope you enjoy this!

You're not quite sure what you'd call your relationship with a certain mysterious, intellectual loner- who was ironically enough, one of your closest friends. Nothing was ever made official between the two of you, but it had certainly crossed over the platonic line. Everything always happened behind closed doors with you and Michelle.

You've wanted to ask her to be your girlfriend for so long now, but you also didn't want to ruin what you had by freaking her out. What you had now was good and you told yourself that knowing her, even if you were official, not much would change since she probably isn't a huge fan of PDA, but you're okay with that because neither are you. However, you couldn't continue lying to yourself and minimizing how strong your feelings for her had become; you're ready to take the next step and if she's not on the same page now, how were you guys going to remain friends at the very least, past graduation?

You don't want to force her into any commitments she's not ready for, so you think there's no harm in asking her to prom as the first step. Brainstorming for ideas, you research promposal videos online for inspiration, while keeping in mind what would be best suited for Michelle. She probably wouldn't want something too public or in-your-face, but you feel like she would secretly appreciate a grand gesture of some sort.

You've got it! You've a got a plan and you can hardly wait till the next day to ask her.

You barely slept. The excitement of it all was too much and you stayed up all night working on the banner. You weren't as good of an artist as MJ is, but you're pretty proud of your work.

You made a banner with a bunch of cute caricatures, much like she likes to draw, with a message scrawled on it asking her to prom. You're standing under where it hangs in the hallway, waiting for her to pass by on her way to her first class. Everything is set up exactly how you want it to and you see her down the hall, walking towards you. Before you can call out to her, you here a girl squeal in excitement.

"Oh my gosh! You did all this for me?!" The girl's boyfriend looks dumfounded as she launches herself into his arms. He doesn't have a chance to protest before she exclaims, "Yes, yes! I will go to prom with you!"

Everyone around you claps for the happy couple and you're left burying your face in your hands wondering how the hell that could've possibly gone wrong. You lift your face at the sound of a groaning Michelle standing next to you.

"I know," she says. "It's so cheesy I can't watch either."

You're left speechless and semi-broken hearted as she walks off to class. So that may have not worked out, but you're not ready to give up just yet.

It's game night and the squad is over. Peter took a night off from his double life and came with Ned right after the decathlon practice you all attended. Michelle had some' presidential' business to take care of afterwards, so she'll be joining a little later.

The pizza arrives right before you receive a text from MJ that she's on her way over. Perfect timing, you think to yourself. After checking the masterpiece of a pie you ordered and silently cheering that so far everything was going according to plan, you set it down on the kitchen counter. It has all of Michelle's favorite toppings and it's from her favorite pizza place in town- and you requested it in a heart shape, hoping it wouldn't be too cheesy.

Your promposal attempt with food this morning failed miserably. You had picked up a box of her favorite doughnuts on your way to school and decorated them with the letters to spell out 'PROM?' on them. They looked adorable, and food seemed like the perfect not-too-public way to ask Michelle to prom. However, just when you spotted her at a locker and made a beeline, you were knocked to the ground. Some kid who was carrying a giant model that obstructed his view had bumped into you and immediately started to apologize profusely after seeing what he had done. You let him know you were okay, dusted yourself off, and met MJ at her locker, glad the box of doughnuts didn't go flying when you fell. Unfortunately, the box was shaken up and the icing was smudged all over the place.

Despite this, you weren't ready to give up on food or asking Michelle to prom yet, so you figured third time's the charm and went with the pizza. You go retrieve your markers to write your message to her on the box, but you come back to the pizza to see it being devoured by two hungry teenage boys.

"Peter?! Ned?!" You shout incredulously, horror written all over your features.

"What?!" they ask in unison, mouths full with your promposal.

"Ugh, the universe is against me!" you cry out, looking up at the ceiling.

"We didn't eat all of it! We did leave some for you guys-" Ned says.

"W-We could order another one! On us!" Peter offers.

You know your best friends mean no harm; they're the sweetest guys on the planet, but boy were they oblivious. "That pizza was in a heart shape for a reason; I was going to ask Michelle to go to prom with me." They follow up with chorus of apologies which you accept and then shush them for when it becomes excessive. You worry all these failed attempts are a sign of some sort that you and her might not belong together, that you're not good enough for her. "It's all right guys, I don't think it was meant to be."

"No way!" Ned speaks up. "You two are most definitely meant to be! You're like Leia and Han!"

"Yeah," Peter chimes in. "You're like Sherlock and Watson; you two belong together."

"I don't know..." As much as you appreciate your friends' reassurance, the only opinion about your relationship that really matters is Michelle's.

"We'll make it up to you!" Ned exclaims. He and Peter share a glance and you're not sure whether or not you should deem it worrisome.

"Yeah and I know exactly how," Peter affirms.

You texted her to meet you in the workshop where you, Peter, and Ned like to take apart old electronics to build cool stuff, before academic decathlon practice. You're standing right under the masterpiece, admiring your hard work.

The three of you have been working non-stop the past two days on an LED sign with the coolest effects (courtesy of Ned), Michelle's name having never looked cooler. Specifying the person was important as you learned from your first trial- not that anyone but Peter and Ned would see this. You barely avoided yet another disaster when the sign almost fell onto your head, Peter coming to your rescue with his Spidey-strength and efficiently securing the sign to the wall with his web-shooter. Ned checks the status on the little robot you sent out to greet her, letting you know that she'll be here any second and Peter gets his camera ready to capture the whole thing.

It all happens so fast, you don't even seem to have time to blink before Michelle is standing right in front of you, more expressive than you've ever seen her in public. She stares at the scene in front of her with wide eyes and her jaw slack, lips slightly parted. Her focus shifts from the sign to lock eyes with you. All words leave you sounding like a bumbling idiot, not even directly asking her what you've been trying to ask her all week. "I- uh- well you know- you don't have to- only if you want to-" She cuts off your nervous babbling by gently grabbing your face with both hands and kissing you, leaving you wide-eyed and breathless. "I-Is that a yes?"

She rolls her eyes playfully and nods her head 'yes' before pulling you into another sweet kiss, which interrupted by Peter and Ned's 'awww's. "Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to ask?"

You're both surprised and extremely happy that she's been wanting you to ask her to prom but there was quite a bit of time left, in fact this was pretty early to do so. "W-Well, I've been trying to ask you to prom all week, but every plan I had kept failing." She raises an eyebrow as though to prompt you to elaborate. "Two days ago when I brought you the box of smushed doughnuts, the icing spelled it out, and then that evening I had ordered your favorite pizza in the shape of heart, but these fools," you eye Peter and Ned who have huge grins plastered on their faces. "They ate the pizza before you got there- A-And the banner in the hallway Monday, that was me- It was meant for you."

"Oh my..." A wave of realization washes over her features. "When I said it was cheesy- I would've loved it if it were for me- from you of course." A relived smile spreads across your face as she takes your hand in hers. "But the whole 'waiting for you to ask me' thing, I wasn't referring to prom..."

"Huh?" You're smile is replaced by a look of utter confusion, further warranted by Peter and Ned running out of the room laughing. You reluctantly turn around to see that they must have changed the words on the sign at the last second to read 'Michelle Jones, will you be my girlfriend? (and go to prom with me?)'

"I'm going to kill those two," you mutter under your breath and Michelle lets out a laugh. You are grateful that they did change the sign since that's what you've really been wanting to ask her; prom was trivial compared to how you felt about her, but it could have also gone horribly wrong.

You're ecstatic it went the way it did, because now you're walking to academic decathlon practice, hand-in-hand with your girlfriend.

*BONUS EPILOGUE*

You enter the practice, still holding hands with Michelle, to quite the scene. Everyone on the team is holding up protest signs, each decorated in various ways to ask you to prom. Michelle lets out a chuckle next to you. "I didn't know whether or not you'd ask me to prom, so I made a few preparations of my own."

"I like that one," you say, pointing to a sign that reads:

Can Y/N agree to go to prom MJ so I can put my arms down? I'm tired

She laughs again, before calling out, "Flash! Stop whining!"

#michelle jones #michelle #mj #michelle jones x reader #potatowrites #michelle jones imagine #mcu #michelle x reader #michelle imagine #mj x reader #mj imagine #marvel #marvel imagine #marvel oneshot #oneshot #spiderman: homecoming #Spider-Man: Homecoming #zendaya #zendaya coleman

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goldenchildkatsuki · 7 years ago

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“It’s about having fun”

request by @awesome-yet-weird-weirdo: “could you do a fluffy kacchako? im a sucker fot this ship its my otp. especially the ideo of bakugou being sweet in his own way like he might SEEM like an ass but hes trying his best ok”

Writers note: Ahh, my first request! I had no idea that my first request would come so quickly. I’m extremely excited to work on this/ And thank you for telling me my ask wasn’t open, that was a bit silly of me. I had a lot of fun writing this. I really wanted to be good. I hope it’s a decent amount of fluff for you. Can’t wait to hear your feedback.

Summary: It’s Open Academy week at UA. A week full of lectures, workshops and extra training from a fair variety of heroes connected to the school. The students must pick out of a selection of activities and set up their own schedule. The goal is to experience new things, learn a tiny bit more than in the standard classes, meet other heroes and spend time with other classes!

Bakugou couldn’t wait for Open Academy week. He was always striving to learn as much as possible to stay ahead of everyone. What perfect way to do so to go to nearly every lecture, workshop and training possible. Although it would definitely be an exhausting week, he would be an absolute idiot not to atleast try. The workshop he looked most forward to was the streetfights and public harassment training the hero Gunhead gave at the end of the week.

Ship: Kacchako (Uraraka x Bakugou)

Tags: Bakugou POV, Slow Burner, kinda? Quite fluffy

Word count: 4.572

Oi Bakugou!’ Kirishima yelled whilst running at him with a hand full of paper and folders. ‘What is it?’ Bakugou sneered. He was just about to go to his room and make sure his schedule was ready to hand in. ‘Sorry man, I was just about to ask if you had your schedule ready. Wanted to see if we had some workshops together.’ Bakugou turned his head away from Kirishima and started walking up the stairs. ‘Tch! As if I care who I’m in a workshop with. And you shouldn’t care either idiot.’ The red haired boy started sulking a little bit and put the papers in the backpocket of his pants. ‘I think you’re forgetting about the “having fun” part of Open Academy week you know?’ Bakugou stood still for a second. He bit his bottom lip. He hated when someone mentioned he should have more fun or loosen up. To him, that was equal to slacking off and that’s the last thing he wanted to do. If he wanted to become the number one hero someday he could definitely not slack off. Bakugou thought of a good insult for a second to make that over-enthausiatic boy shut up for the whole week, but he decided to simply growl and walk further up the stairs. ‘Bakugou, c’mon!’ he heard Kirishima yelling from down the stairs. Walking to his room, Bakugou only looked at his feet. Why did that stupid comment affect him that much. He heard it so often, he shouldn’t-

In a second his shoulder connected with another shoulder and he lost his balance. ‘Hey dumbass, look where the fuck you’re going next time!’ He looked around to see who he bumped into untill he saw a girl on the floor surrounded by papers and folders. ‘Ouch! You weren’t looking where you were going either!’ Uraraka looked up annoyed and as if she only just realized who she was talking to she awkwardly waved her hands infront of her trying to retract what she said. ‘Oh, Oh! I’m sorry Bakugou, I’m sorry, I’m- Let me just-.’ “What a mess she is.” Bakugou thought. Even though he liked people being afraid of him because to him it meant that they admired him, he got an uneasy feeling whenever the floaty girl acted like that towards him. After their battle at the Sport Festival he started respecting her. Seeing her come up with such a desperate and reckless plan made him a bit scared of her to be honest and not a lot of people have made him feel that way. He always tried to be his definition of civil towards her. Correcting her form whilst sparring, not going easy on her during training because he knows she hates that and trying not to call her names in class. But his loud and graveling voice seemed to scare her off still, even though he’s being a civil as he can be. ‘Bakugou, hellooo? Ba-ku-gou?’ Uraraka stood infront of him, with all her folders and papers clutched to her chest and her face a bit too close for comfort. “Fuck, she’s really close”, he told himself in his head, “doesn’t she know what personal space is?” Uraraka sighed. ‘Well then, anyways, sorry for bumping into you, see ya!’ and she walked off. He must’ve looked like a complete idiot, lost in what seemed like an infinite train of thought, just standing there like a complete loser. He needed to wake the fuck up. ‘Wait!’ he yelled. Uraraka jolted and turned around slowly. Bakugou looked at her from head to toe and stopped at her chest. The first folder she was holding was from the workshop he most looked forward to go.

‘Gunhead’s workshop,’ he muttered, ‘are you going his workshop?’ A smile creeped up Uraraka’s face. The boy felt his face get warm and his ears go red. Stupd roundface, stupid smile, stupid bright pink cheeks, stupid chocolately brown eyes, stupid girl. ‘Ah yes!’ she chirped. ‘My internship at his agency was a very good learning experience and he actually asked me to help out with a few things, so I’m definitely going there. What about you?’ Bakugou looked at his feet again, there’s no way she’s allowed to feel how stupid he thinks he looks. ‘Maybe.’ He said softly. ‘Maybe?’ ‘Yeah, I said maybe! I don’t know, I have a lot of other workshops I want to go to and-‘ Why was he rambling, he knew damn well he’s going to go to that workshop, why was lying to her? ‘You should definitely sign up for his workshop, it would be loads of fun and I think there’s not too many students that have signed up yet so there’s definitely a spot for you!’ she skipped towards him and started bouncing whilst talking more about the workshop and Gunhead himself. She looked so stupid, way too happy about this sort of thing. Just like Kirishima. Did she even take this half as seriously as he did? He felt himself get hotter and redder so he decided to cut her off. ‘Alright, alright! I guess, I’ll sign up, but don’t even get it in that tiny mind of yours that it’s because of you got it?!’ Uraraka giggled and started walking off again. Before heading into her room she turned around and winked. ‘Got it!’ and she went into her room. Tiny explosions went off inside Bakugou’s heart instead of his palms. This feeling that girl gave him. Disgusting.

After a tough week of attending almost every activity of Open Academy week he went to his room to change into a new set of clothes. He really worked his ass of in Mr. Snipe’s workshop and his clothes really smelled bad after that. He took off his jacket and looked in the mirror at his arms. Even though it were just rubber bullets Snipe fired off they still did some damage. Tiny red and blue bruises started forming on his arms. ‘Fuck,’ he muttered and jumped on his bed. He hated to admit it, but he was extremely tired. Exhausted you could say. His whole body was hurting and the fact he wasn’t allowed to wear his hero costume the whole week meant that his wrists and arms were doing the utter most. ‘One more to go.’ He tried to motivate himself. He got up, changed into a comfortable pair of sweats and a black tank top and looked on his phone for a bit. Five minutes. Five minutes to prepare for Gunhead’s workshop, five minutes to mentally prepare being with Uraraka for a hundred minutes, the longest time they spent together. Of course they wouldn’t be the only people there, so it wouldn’t really be spending time together. Though he hoped that when choosing partners she would choose him. He already knew from past workshops that no one really wanted to team up with him and he’s usually the last one left. Always getting put with some scared fuck that didn’t have a single ounce of strength or dedication in his or her body.

‘Ba-Bakugou, are you in there?’ He jumped up and launched himself at his door. ‘Who the fu-‘ he looked through his peephole to find her infront of his door, awkardly fidgeting like she always did. ‘Uraraka?! He yelled. What in the actual fucking fuck is she doing here? In front of his door? “Don’t tell me that she came to pick me up”. ‘Uh, yeah! I wanted to know if you were still coming? To the workshop I mean. It starts in…now, the workshop actually starts now! Oh no, I’m going to be late, I had no idea it would take this long to walk back to the dorm and-‘ Bakugou grabbed his phone, shoved it in his pocket and flung the door open. ‘Let’s go then, Gunhead would be disappointed if you were late.’ He said brushing past her. He started jogging his way downstairs, out of the dorm and to the impromptu dojo at the back of the dorm. Every now and then he looked behind him. She’s keeping up quite well. He couldn’t get a good look of her, but he knew she looked different. ‘Wait up, would ya!’ ‘You’re keeping up just fine.’ When there, Bakugou confidently slid the paper door open. ‘Excuse me, have you already started?!’ The six people already standing in a perfect line each tuned around and give him an irritated look. ‘Yes we have actually! You can still join the class, it’s okay, as long as you remember that a hero is always punctual and should be on ti-.’ ‘Excuse me, excuse me!’ Now Uraraka brushed past him. ‘I’m so so sorry Mr. Gunhead! This was the friend I told you I might bring; Bakugou Katsuki. I didn’t think it was going to take this long to walk to the dorm from here. I must’ve been tired because I usually don’t walk this slow.’ Gunhead starts to laugh, walks towards her and pats her head. ‘It’s alright Ochako! We haven’t fully started yet. I’m glad you brought your friend. Bakugou Katsuki huh? Number one at the Sports Festival if I remember correctly. You can stand in the line and you can stand next to me is that okay?’ Bakugou felt his hands go into fists. Friend? Did she really say that he was her friend.? What in the hell made her think that they were friends? She always seemed so scared of him, jumpy, warry, annoyed. Is she alright in the head? Gritting his teeth he went to stand in the line desperately trying to ignore all the eyes on him. Can they just get started? The last thing he wanted was to think about were unnecessary things. ‘I’ll start the introduction again, I’m Gunhead! A combat hero! And today were going to learn about streetfights and public harassment. How do we handle them? How do we diffuse them? Sometimes we might need to engage in combat so we’re also going to learn what the best way is too disarm thugs and pin them to the ground so they won’t do anymore harm. This here is Uraraka Ochako and she has been an intern at my agency for a short while. She has been one of the best interns I had, very determind and very skilled. She’s going to help out today, so if you have any questions and I’m busy with another pair, you can always ask her things.’ Bakugou could tell Uraraka was nervous as hell. Her knees were wobbling a bit and her smile was a bit forced. He wouldn’t mind seeing her genuine smile again. Especially when he could see her whole face properly now. Her hair is in a tight ponytail for te first time since…Ever. She was also wearing a black tank top and wearing pink worn down shorts. Legs. It’s the first time he had seen so much of her skin. She’s quite pale in comparrison to himself. Her legs are a bit chubby but also toned just like her arms. Her waist is tiny but she still looks like she has a strong build. Very feminine, but also strong. A total bad ass. ‘Katsuki!’ He jolted up. Hearing his first name always meant serious business so he immediately jumped off his stupid train of thought Uraraka always seemed to cause. ‘We’ve already made pairs but it seems like we’re with an uneven number, do you mind pairing up with Ochako, since you’re already friends I think you won’t mind right?’ ‘Stop calling us friends, we’re not friends okay? Doubt we ever will be!’ he yelled suddenly. His face felt like it was on fire. If he heard the word “friend” one more time he was actually going to explode. There fell an awkward silence and the other students started mumbling, gossiping. ‘What a shame, I would kill to be friends with a girl that cute.’ A guy from a pair next to him said. ‘I know right, she’s so pretty it makes me looks like a sack of potatoes next to her!’ What the fuck should he do now? This was too awkward even for him to just ignore. He felt too many things and therefore didn’t know what to do. First thing on the list though was to suckerpunch the guy that called Uraraka “cute”. Suddenly he felt someone grabbing his wrist hard. ‘You’re embarassing yourself and me!’ she whispered angrily. ‘Can you not be such an brute for once in your life? Gosh!’ He’s done it now, fuck. He obviously didn’t mean to say they weren’t friends. But they also weren’t so what does it matter to him? ‘Like hell I embarassed myself, I was just thinking about who I was going to destroy in here.’ He chose to completely forget the real reason he embarassed himself. ‘That’s not-That’s not why…Forget about it.’ The girl that seemed so nervous at the start of the class turned into a girl fired up by irritation and probably also the feeling of a hero watching her. She didn’t hesitate to come at him straight away with a fake knife. ‘We’ve waisted enough time, now try to stop me!’ Bakugou, the talented child that he was, didn’t get suprised that easily and immediately got into a firm stands putting his hands before him. Ready to receive her blow. Finally his mind was just filled with what’s going on here and now. He could finally get in his element again. And there’s no way he’s letting her distract him in this class again, starting now. He received her blow just like he expected he would. ‘Gah!’ she winced. He held her arm which she was holding the knife forward and kicked one of her feet away. He knew that in this awkward position was hard to stab him in. Unexpectedly she punched the inside of his knee with her free arm. Fuck, how could he forget about that? He lost his form because of that. Gunhead is yelling instructions to everyone whilst walking up and down the dojo. Carefully listening to them he thought about his next move. But before he could even do that Uraraka yanked her arm loose, stood up, went behind him and kicked the back of his knee again. ‘Got you.’ She said breathing heavily in a low voice. She was clearly driven by anger now. And unlike him, she could only just control her breathing and think rationally. Before she could stab him, Bakugou rolled away, leaving her confused. In no time he was sitting on her waist and pinned both of her arms above her head. Bakogou was holding her knife and smirks. He was definitely in his element again. ‘I- You stupid, fricking..!’ He has never seen someone try so hard to get free when he’s got them pinned. Usually they try for a bit but give up quite easily. But she was really, genuinely fueled by anger. He almost felt guilty for acting so smug about his victory. He knew all too well that can increase anger times ten. She kept struggling and struggling but his weight on her waist is definitely too much. After a compliment from Gunhead she stops struggling. Bakugou looks up to him and smiled. ‘It was quite do-able sir, not really a challenge.’ “Think before you speak idiot!” he screamed to himself. “Uraraka is going to be even more pissed. If that’s even possible at this point.” Thinking that Gunhead was going to pat him on the back he reached out for Uraraka instead. ‘Ochako? Ochako, are you okay?’ Shit. Her eyes looked dull and slightly closed. Bakugou got up as quickly as he can. The rest of the class heard the comotion and stopped the training. Slowly they surrounded Uraraka. Gunhead leaned in close and checked her heartbeat and breathing. ‘She passed out. It’s likely that she exhausted herself too much. Bakugou?’ His blank face went from Uraraka to Gunhead. ‘How was she doing duringg the training?’ Gunhead asked whilst picking the tiny girl up with ease. ‘Well, her breathing was unsteady and…I don’t know, she was being stupid. Going beyond her limit again. Bad habit of hers.’ He had a hard time getting his words out. He rubbed the back of his neck and in a swift motions ran his hand through his spikey hair. What has she done? No, what has he done? If he didn’t embarass her like that she wouldn’t have gotten so pissed off and go beyond her limit again.’ Alle eyes were on him again, all angry eyes. ‘I see.’ Gunhead says. He was looking at Uraraka had closed her eyes by now. ‘I don’t think she has to go to Recovery Girl, she just needs some rest. You’ve done well Ochako.’ Gunhead said that so softly that his whole name and look didn’t seem to fit him anymore. Bakugou wasn’t going to let himself hop onto another spiral of thoughts again so he said something he didn’t think he would ever say. He raised his hand. ‘I can take her to her room, I think it’s partially because of me that she’s like this.’ The whole class that had been silent the whole time exploded in a matter of a second. ‘You want to help her now?! You just feelt guilty, you don’t care about her! ‘You went too far!’ ‘Gunhead should be the one to care for her!’ Bakugou palms became sweatier and started sparking. ‘You fucks, I will destr-‘ Before he could finish his sentence Gunhead passed Uraraka onto Bakogou’s arms. ‘Very good, so you’re friends after all!’ The last part of the sentence he whispered whilst blushing. Bakugou adjusted his arms and held his breath. She was close again. She was definitely burning up. Could she have been battling with a fever the whole time? Before Gunhead could anything and the class could yell anymore abuse at him he took of stomping. ‘Thanks for the workshop.’ He yelled before almost walking through the paper doors. The only thing he can think about is hurrying. No one was allowed to see him holding a girl like this. What would they think of him? What would they think of them?

It’s a good thing she didn’t lock her room. This was the first time he had been in a girls room. It’s different from what he imagined. There’s a lot less pink, fluffy and unnecessary things. Her room showed off what her personality and body showed; feminine but also strong in a way. With one hand he tried to shove her duvet away to put her in bed and tucked her in real tight like his mother used to do when he was younger. ‘What now?’ he whispered to himself. He sat at her feet on the bed. His butt nearly drowned in the soft matress. ‘What the fuck?!’ He almost forgot that he should be quiet and slapped a hand over his mouth. The spikey haired boy felt so, so awkward. Wasn’t this extremely creepy in a way? He decided to go on his phone. A few texts, one from his mom asking him when he’s going to visit again. And a few texts from the groupchat containing him, Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero and Ashido. Oh, the times he had thought of stepping out that group because those bastards just don’t stop texting. Even in class. Kirishima sent some pictures of them in a few workshops. Bakugou facepalmed and rubbed his face. ‘So annoying.’ He sighed.

Boink!

There she was. Uraraka, casually floating up against the ceiling. ‘You have got to be kidding me!’ Bakugou yelled, completely forgetting the fact that Uraraka might still be asleep. How could he be so stupid to let her fingers touch in her sleep?! He hastily climbed up on her bed and pulled her down by one arm. Het gets her other arm and made her fingers touch. Softly she fell into his arms. They soak into the soft matress together. Uraraka started moaning. ‘don’twakeupdont’twakeupdon’twakeup.’ He knew damn well that it didn’t matter how many times he repeated it; she was opening her eyes already. ‘I..huh? Baku-Bakugou?!’ she started banging on his chest with fists. ‘You stupid, stupid smelly idiot, you suck!’ ‘That kinda hurts you know?’ he said whilst absorbing her punches with ease. Her eyes widened. ‘I thought this was a dream.’ Absolute silence. Her chocolate brown eyes stare into his fiery ruby eyes. Tiny explosions go off again. Her eyes were sparkling again. Thank fuck. Without thinking his rough hand went to touch her face. The still somewhat dazed girl’s eyes shifted from his hand to his eyes again. Together they became as red as tomatoes. ‘Damn, still very warm, you need some rest still,’ he said without barely moving his lips. These strange impulses are nothing like him at all. He didn’t knew how to control all his movements. He would like nothing more to step outside his body and yell at it to stop doing whatever it was doing. ‘What happened?’ Uraraka finally asked. Bakugou retracted his hand and remembered why they were here in this gooey mess in the first place. ‘You should really know your limits roundface! I seriously thought you were smarter than this.’ The explosive guy was getting angrier with every word he spat out. ‘I know you want to do well, I mean fucking hell, we all want to be the best right? But fucking take care of yourself because I don’t want to be doing it everytime. And you know, I thought you were smart enough to understand that emotions can’t take over in combat. Should’ve known since the Sport Festival. Seriously, what is wrong with you?’ Uraraka stayed silent, letting his rampage run her over. She kept looking at his eyes, at his arms, at herself lying in his lap. When he was done she just started smiling. ‘You still haven’t explained what happened ya know?’ ‘You passed out, you didn’t let me finish God dammit.’ Now he’s explained what happened there was no need to stay by her side anymore right? He shifted, aiming to lay her back to bed. ‘Wait!’ He froze. ‘Did you carry me to my room and put me to bed?’ His grip tightened a bit. ‘Well, who else was going to do it? Gunhead still had to continue the workshop. Don’t think too much of it will you?’ That last part was partially aimed at himself. In a few moments he would leave her room and bash his own head in against a wall so he never had to think about her again, her in his arms, her starring into his eyes. Uraraka put a loose strand of hair behind her ear. ‘That’s very sweet of you, thank you for that.’ He scoffed. ‘It was nothing, I said not to think too much of it.’ Uraraka, already feeling a bit better craddled of his lap and sat next to him instead. Bakugou was too scared to move incase he touched her in an inapproperiate place and ruined the whole moment that was already partially ruined by not feeling her close to him. The girl grabbed his face, came in close and put her forehead against his. ‘You’re burning up, just like I thought! And you were lecturing me? You have been attending almost every activity at Open Academy week, how are you not the one that passed out?! I think you’re forgetting about the “having fun” part of Open Academy week silly!’ Bakugou felt his stomach twist. Not again. He really thought she would understand. But at this point he felt too weak to spout a lecture intertwined with insults. She was right after all. His body was worn out and had been telling him “no more” since the third day of Open Academy week and they’re on day five. His body had finally caught up with him. ‘You know what?’ she said somewhat mysterious. She picked up a blanket from under her coffee table and threw it on them both. It he a nice baby blue color and it smelled strongly like her. This might be his most favorite scent in the world. A scent you could only describe by saying her name. ‘We should take a break. Just sit here with me okay?’ she pulled up her legs and put her arms around them. ‘Sounds good?’ she said whilst turning to him. Bakugou suddenly felt a bit sad. Fucking hell, when was the last time someone has genuinely cared about how he was doing? Only stupid Deku wondered about his wellbeing every now and then but he was sure that concern had a double meaning behind it. Bakugou hadn’t felt this sad in some time actually. As if Uraraka could tell she creeped in closer. You could almost physically see the question marks above her head. ‘You’re a real bad ass you know?’ That’s the only thing he could think of to say. To him, that should probably contain everything he felt in that moment, also everything he felt for her in that moment. That sentence contained a “thank you”, a “I’m sorry” and everything he couldn’t put into words at that moment. She put her head on his shoulder. ‘Good.’ She closed her eyes again. Surely she couldn’t drift off like that again. ‘You can relax ya know, I’m not angry anymore.’ She said whilst laughing. How does she know him so well? Bakugou, nervous as he was, relaxed his back a little, let his hands fall to his side and then relaxed his shoulders and neck. His knuckle of his pinky touched her leg softly. Uraraka let her arms fall too. They stayed quiet. This feels like an alternate universe, where he’s everything but himself. Through all the queasy feelings in his body he forced himself to say something. ‘Your room is cool.’ She stayed quiet. ‘Is that an All Might poster?’ Silence. ‘Why is your bed so soft? It’s ridiculous.’ Nothing. She’s gone. He keeps talking so that the silence wouldn’t bother him too much. ‘Why don’t you have your hair in a pony tail more often, it’s very convenient and looks nice.’ ‘Do we have a tanktop from the same brand? I think so, that’s pretty cool’ ‘You did great in Gunheads workshop, I can tell he admires you.’ ‘You’re clumsy though and that’s funny to me.’ ‘Your smile makes me want to fling myself out of window because I don’t know what to do with myself.’ ‘Your hands look like cats paws and I want to touch them real bad.’ ‘I do consider us friends.’ ‘I did have fun this week, I had fun with you.’ ‘Can someone tell me what you’re doing to me? Did you poison me?’ As he kept talking he rested his head ontop of hers, crawled closer towards her and finally let his whole body relax. When he wanted to adjust he carefully turned to her and catched her head with both hands. He strokes his tumb over her pink cheek. With the other hand he starts straightening curly strands on top of her head. ‘Tell me, did you poison me woman?’ he whispered.

‘I didn’t poison you, you just like me.’

#JJ writes #JJs fic requests #awesome-yet-weird-weirdo #kacchako fic #kacchako #uraraka #uraraka ochako #bakugou #bakugou katsuki

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howdoyouwriteanapplication9-blog · 4 years ago

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cumlauderpg · 4 years ago

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welcome to fulton university, charles drake !!!

out of character.

name / Destiny

pronouns / she/her

age / 24

timezone / CST

in character.

character name / Charles Drake

character faceclaim / Keith Powers

pronouns / he/him

sexual orientation / bisexual

journalism focus / news

alma mater / university of california, los angeles

writing sample.

THE FOLLOWING IS A RECORDING FROM FULTON UNIVERSITY. THIS AUDIO RECORDING WILL BE KEPT CONFIDENTIAL. THIS AUDIO WAS RECORDED ON FEBRUARY 12TH, 2018.

(Recorder clicks on)

INTERVIEWER: Good morning, Mr. Drake. It is nice to meet you in person rather than email. Before we start, I want to let you know that my secretary is recording this meeting for record keeping. Let me know if this makes you uncomfortable. As you were informed via email prior to this meeting, I will be asking you some questions to determine your fit in the program. Your entrance into the program will depend on your answers but no pressure.

CHARLES DRAKE: Yes, sir. It is a pleasure to meet you as well. Record away, I have no problem with that. I look forward to answering your questions. I always love to start my mornings with off with friendly chats. Please, sir, ask away.

INTERVIEWER: Good, it is nice to see someone so peppy at 8 o’clock in the morning. I expected you to need coffee. Anyways, let us begin, shall we? What experience do you have that you feel has prepared you for the stress of graduate school?

CHARLES DRAKE: I try to steer away from coffee. Protein shakes and smoothies are the way to go. Well, sir, I believe one of the biggest stressors in graduate school is accountability. Graduate students often mention how you are expected to be on your own. You are no longer reminded of deadlines or required to attend classes due to an attendance policy. Instead, you are responsible for waking up on time, turning in your assignments, and diving much deeper into the work than in undergraduate. Ultimately, you hold yourself accountable for your own education and knowledge of your field.

But, you see, sir, I have already held myself accountable. My mother was not involved much with my sister and I. And my father…well, he ended up in jail when I was seventeen. I took on the responsibility of raising my sister. I was not going to let our futures dissolve because of absent parenting. I do not come from a place where I was allowed to fix my mistakes. I was responsible for my own education and for my sister’s education. And, well, as you saw in my records, sir, I graduated in the top 10% of my undergraduate class. My sister just recently graduated high school with a 3.92 grade point average and a full ride to her dream school. My accountability and passion will drive me through trying times in this program.

INTERVIEWER: Uh huh, I see, so your parents were not around? That is a shame. I am glad to hear that both you and your sister have a promising future despite their unwillingness to help you gain that future. What challenges do you expect to face in this program?

CHARLES DRAKE: Would you mind if I took a moment to deliberate on that question and take a drink of my shake, sir?

INTERVIEWER: Not at all. Go ahead.

(a minute & one protein shake sip later)

CHARLES DRAKE: Well, sir, I believe I have two weaknesses in my life that would cause challenge in graduate school. The first is that I have a hard time letting go of projects I start. I always want to see it from start to finish. In graduate school, I know that topics get thrown around, but they are not necessarily fully fleshed out. I think I will have an issue letting go of cool topics I would like to write about for more realistic topics. This would be similar to an advisor telling you to write it their way rather than your way. It takes me a moment to switch gears and get it where it needs to be, but I will always keep an old draft on hand for future project ideas. Lastly, I could use more experience in delegating tasks. I often take on too many things at once because I do not want to both anyone else with my needs. Once I become too overwhelm, I start to delegate them, but until then, I stick to all the tasks. I need to learn when to delegate sooner than I currently do.

INTERVIEWER: Good thinking, Mr. Drake. If it helps any, while advisors do expect you to write a certain way, they will generally give you creative rights to the work. You are free to write whatever you would like under a specific topic.

CHARLES DRAKE: Yes, sir. I read that on your website. That is what drew me to your program. I chose you guys to help improve my weaknesses so I can be better prepared for the job market.

INTERVIEWER: It is nice to hear that you checked out the program. Many applicants fail to do so, but they also generally fail to get an interview. My last question for you, Mr. Drake, is to understand a bit more about you. I am going to ask you the toughest question. Why should we pick you? What stands out about you that you think is different from other applicants?

CHARLES DRAKE: That is a tough one, sir. It can be hard to determine what makes you stand out, but I think I have an answer for you - my willingness to be humble, quiet, and to learn. From what I have read about Fulton University, the success of the program stems being able to grow and develop as a writer. I started writing for my high school newsletter at seventeen. Unfortunately, none of my writing was accepted. I worked with my high school mentor to really develop my writing. By the time I hit undergraduate, my professors placed me in advanced skills workshops, guiding me to become a better writer. My drive and dedication is the reason Fox News was interested in me, but I decided to term them down to hone my skills. I know I am not close to newsworthy yet, but after this program, I am confident I will be ready for any story I write in the future.

INTERVIEWER: Awesome, thank you, Mr. Drake. You may proceed with the rest of your interview day. I will get back to you soon about your acceptance.

CHARLES DRAKE: Thanks, sir, for this amazing opportunity. You have certainly taught me to stay humble and question myself more. Have a blessed day, sir.

(Recorder clicks off)

anything else.

Additional headcanons for Charles:

His little sister is his pride & joy. They talk to each other on the phone at least twice a day and videochat weekly.

His mother recently remarried to someone with kids. She is a better mom to them than she ever was to him & his sister. He is currently trying to reconcile with that but finds it hard.

He is involved in the Catholic church and attends mass every chance he gets.

Every Sunday Charles goes to serve at the soup kitchen. He sees it as a way to give positivity back to the community.

#acc #charles drake #keith powers fc

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