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What’s been going on in the writing world this week?

Well, for starters, I am writing notes to all of the incoming MFA candidates in brand new Moleskin notebooks! I’m excited for them to begin their journey, and I think a quote from Bradbury is appropriate: “You’ve got to jump off cliffs and build your wings on the way down.” That’s what we do as writers, and that is what Columbia inspires us to do. Here’s the note:[flickr id=”8659971643″ thumbnail=”medium_640″ overlay=”true” size=”original” group=”” align=”none”]
In class on Monday, I brought my laptop to Skype our teacher in. She was ill, but because she takes her class, our time, and our work seriously, she wanted to make sure to give us a full class. It was actually really awesome. Because we have such small classes, we were all able to hear her and she could hear us on my small laptop. It allowed us to move forward with the class instead of getting behind on work, and it showed just how dedicated everyone in the department is regarding their work and the student work.

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I’ve been having some issues writing about action recently, so when I got free tickets to a Cubs game, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to journal some action. I’m not a big baseball guy, but I took what I saw and tried to transfer it to action on the page.

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This is what I love about fiction writing. Anything I do is research. It can be filed away in my memory and can be something I write later. It’s great.

In addition, I had a meeting with my teacher yesterday about my work this semester. I’ve done two complete short stories (two drafts each), part of a third short story, and fifty pages of a novel for his class. We talked about my work, and then he told me he wanted me to submit one of my stories to McSweeney’s, my favorite literary journal. So… I’m scared. But, I’m going to do it.

That’s been my week in writing. How’s your writing going, MarginAliens?