6-6:10pm. How are you? What have you been writing?
6:10-6:20pm: How’d the papers go? What are some of the strengths? Points for improvement, later?
6:20-6:45pm: Starting to write our stories. What do you have so far?
6:45-7pm: The next author…. Samantha Irby. What did you find? How do think she’ll be similar, different, from our other authors?
7-7:15pm: What do you stay busy, stay writing and reading, stay making progress on YOUR projects?
7:15-7:20pm: Start reading Samantha Irby. Forget about convention, forget about formality… forget about everything and just enjoy the read… Did any of you get that sense from her, from your research and/or if you started reading? Oh yeah, GET HER BOOK!!! Download on Amazon if you have to…. Just READ IT.
7:20-7:25: Back to your stories… Anyone have something, something to share?
7:25-7:30pm
HW: Draft of your story (4 FULL pages). Start reading Irby’s book.
#professormikey 
i want to write my own story with the notion of the hero archetype. I thought of it as i brainstormed and remembered a short speech I gave last year about my life. A story starting from the lowest point of my life, to achieving the highest thus far. In my head I have the basic structure and just need to put it down on paper.
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Thoughts, colleagues?
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Does the story have to be from a first person perspective, Mikey?
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Yes!
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Yessir!
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I think Sedaris shows that a personal story can be centered on the people around you in those formative years. Hoping to do something like that. I think the most entertaining paper to write about myself would be about my series of failed romances and crummy living situations, High Fidelity style. I usually get a laugh out of that. It wouldn’t be the most honest, however, because at the end of the day you have to go back to wherever you grew up, Spotless Mind or The Shipping News style.
I have an idea of structure I’m sort of admiring right now. Talk about a present-day decision, and deliberate about how your upbringing influenced that decision. Like a detective and evidence. It all goes back to your folks eventually, so my impression is that this structure would cover my bases.
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For tonight’s page, and on narrative philosophy….. First-person is the only person, YOUR person… and present tense is the only tense.
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Just wondering then, we should write our story in present tense?
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I would.. but it’s not required. If you’re more comfortable with past-tense, then use it. This is just a belief of mine.
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My story so far is going pretty good and I know exactly what I want to write about and how I want it to go. It’s pretty easy writing about yourself because you can’t go wrong with it. The only thing is that so far it feels like I have a lot of different situations happening all at once, but I think that once I have the whole story down, it’ll be easier to go back and edit out things that don’t need to be there in order for it to not feel like it’s all over the place.
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Choose one or two…. mention others if you want, but have one or two “anchoring” situations..
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So far I have decided to focused on the events in my life that were really the defining moments that make me who I am today. I’m thinking to start out with a bit of an overview of my childhood and use that to build into some of the challenges I faced as I got older and then how I overcame those problems to reach a better part of my life. I want to really give the reader the sense of how important it is to not wallow in the bad parts but to learn from them and move on. I want to write specifically about how sometimes making the hard decision has the best outcome, even if it is one of the most difficult decisions to actually put into motion. I want my paper to touch on the hard parts but over all have a positive outlook that hopefully can inspire others to get out of bad situations and use them to grow.
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Samantha Irby, I did research her but have not started on our new book yet. I found out Samantha is an African comedian, author and blogger who sites about her personal life events. The theme of the books for our class. Samantha has an notations in goodreads choice awards and best humor. I found one of her blogs on blogspot.com called “Bitches Gota Eat”. I read some of it what I got form her writing is that it vibes like Lawson. Direct and upfront. Irby discusses her struggles with Croons disease, arthritis and depression. -Stephanie Neeley
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I definitely got a Lawson-esque vibe from Irby. I did a little research and even just the name of her blog Bitches Gotta Eat and her other book titled “Meaty” makes me think of her as a raw, in your face kind of humorist, unafraid to speak of the uncomfortable things. So in that respect, Sedaris like as well.
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For sure…
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I really like Samantha Irby. She seems like a realist. She also writes in essay-like structure and she definitely has a dry sense of humor. I listened to her read a rather humorous piece completely deadpan and I found that even funnier. She reminds me of both Lawson and Sedaris. She is funny and bold and she just speaks/writes about what’s on her mind. I love her dry sarcasm quite a bit. I listened to her discussing taking advil for about 3 minutes and somehow it was comical. She discusses common and relatable life experiences with humor and that makes her funny. Looks like Samantha is an author, a blogger, and cohost of a show. I like how genuine, down to earth, and real she is. She lays it out as it is. The reading I watched is on youtube and was posted less than a month ago. It’s called Samantha Irby in Conversation with Entertainment Weekly’s David Canfield: Wow, No Thank You. I highly recommend even 10 minutes of it!!
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Good to hear!!
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I actually just got Samantha Irby’s book in the mail today so I haven’t started reading but just looking at the cover, I have a feeling that it’s going to be kinda fun. I did some research on her today and first off, she just looks like this beautiful, fun, outgoing woman. Apparently she runs a blog called “Bitched Gotta Eat”, and I found it and it takes you right to all her blogs. The most recent one is from August 1, 2019 and it’s called “things i’ve accidentally peed on a little bit” and it’s labeled sick bitch. I mean just after reading this blog post, I can already tell this is going to be a hilarious read and I’m quite excited.
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She’s candid in her composition, that’s for sure.
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This makes me excited just because it made me laugh after I checked this out. The similarity to Lawson is appreciated.
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Lots of similarities..
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Samantha Irby is another interesting character! I mean she is not afraid to expose her humanness! I Found her blog and read some of her posts and wow, she like the other authors we’ve read, is not afraid to hold back. I love her humor in her posts! It’s much different than the other authors we’ve read. I find it interesting how her tone sometimes changes from serious and unexpressive to funny and comical. She has degenerative arthritis and Crohn’s disease from partying too much, which we can’t blame her, and can somehow make that comical. She is very interesting!
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She’s great!! Glad you’re taking to her work! Cheers!
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Along with my sticky note pile, I’ve also been going through old photos from the time period I’m writing about. They sort of transport me back into the past and I start remembering some of the feelings I had when the photo was taken. I can compare these feelings to those in the present and think about what has influenced any changes.
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Ms. Irby seems to have a more inviting sense about her, what do you think?
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I like her somewhat casual approach to writing. In her blog, she doesn’t use capitalization unless it’s to emphasize her point, which I think is unique.
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I love her affront to convention in writing.
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What some people call raw, or real, I see and reactive and human. Samantha Irby reminds me of this..
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When looking into Samantha Irby I discovered that her myspace blog was her start in writing. I found the humble beginnings to be very interesting.
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From Irby, blog I enjoyed her humor. Looking forward to reading our new book. Stephanie
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For my story, I want to be able to write a story I’ve decided to dive deeper into my younger life. During this quarantine, I’ve had the opportunity to view thousands of old videos and photos that my dad had stored from my and my siblings’ youth, but never had time to find a way to upload them for almost a decade. He finally uploaded them during this time and I’ve been able to actually see footage of my younger years which I had never really had the opportunity to see until now. I want to somehow mold that into a story, but I still need some more outlining.
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for story blog
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Any specific points?
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I could take it in a direction that correlates to my relationship with my dad. I could write all day about our relationship and bond. It’s certainly not a perfect relationship, but that could make the story material strong. I could maybe use that as a plot point and go back and forth in a timeline scenario between now and my childhood.
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Overall I got the ideas that I want for the story about myself. I know who I want to talk about and the experiences I want to talk about as well. I’m thinking a bit about the audience as well and what they’re gonna learn from my writing and what they’ll take away from this as well.
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From what I saw in her blog, I think her writing will be very different from the other authors we read from this year. Totally didn’t expect her blog to be so filled with color
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Different yes, but there are some thematic intersections… just watch.
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I found out that besides being an author, she is also a comedian and enjoys to blog. I think she will be similar to sedaris in the aspect of how they write and life related events. Other than that, I think this will be a completely different ball game from our two other authors. She’s definitely has a sense of humor and my guess that will show up frequently throughout the book, but there will also life events that will make you think and wonder. I’m excited to get to reading it and can’t wait to share more next week!
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Looking at the cover of the book, and reading the reviews, she gives me vibe to similar to that of Lawson. If it is anything like Lawson, i cant wait to dive in.
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You’ll love it. A bit more relaxed than Lawson, and slightly more wandering..
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Samantha Irby gives me the Lawson vibe. I read a bit about her blog and she has a similar style of that writing in that stand up comedian style of comedy. She talks about old experiences and uses them as comedic elements which I enjoy. I look forward to reading her book.
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Started researching Samantha Irby and got distracted reading her blog posts. Her review on the Netflix series “You” is both hilarious and spot on. Also got a little lost scrolling through her twitter feed which was fun. Definitely reminds me of Lawson in the sense that she’s just able to make fun of herself and just about any situation. I’ve been skimming through her book today and there’s already been a few sentences that have caught my eye and had me laughing to myself.
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Like what?
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“I tried to inconspicuously scan the room to see if any black people other than myself were in the attendance- defense mechanism! we all do it!- and my eyes locked instantly with those of a black woman a few pews over from ours. And she was glaring at me like I’d stolen her fucking bike. […] Can you even believe that bullshit? Doesn’t she know the unspoken rule that all black people have to stick together within large white gatherings? You never know when a lynch mob might be forming next to the cupcake table!”
theres also another one on the next page, 120, where she says “I only went because the bride had a cousin I was interested in, but I ended up looking like some sort of mythical creature, all giant and hunched over and tucking my t rex arms into my sides so I wouldn’t mess up the pictures with my mossy pits. It was a fail, believe me.” 🙂
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keeping my busy for reading and writing is mainly this class. I have also been doing some research on projects too. For a while now I wanted to start a side gig to have an extra stream of income but I didn’t want ti to be an ongoing part time or a second full-time job. It takes time always to get things like that started but after that I just want to be able to add on as go after I have built a foundation. One project is that am researching blogging which I have a few ideas for. Also as of today I am starting to compose my first cookbook. Stephanie Neeley
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That’s awesome! What kinds of things are in your cookbook?
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Yes, I’d like to know as well!
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Yum! and Good Luck!
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wow you are composing a cookbook. That is cool! What kind of dishes are going to be in your cook book?
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As for Irby, I’m excited to see how she compares to Jenny Lawson. They both seemed to have to deal with relatively dark upbringings and young adult lives but found a way to use comedy to cope with it and I want to see how their Samantha Irby’s spin on a comical novel.
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I actually forgot to order Irby’s book so I read a bit on her blog while waiting for my kindle version to download. She reminds me more of Lawson than Sedaris, but that might just be because I was reading a blog post, which resembles Lawson’s writing. This might change as I read her actual book. So far, I like that she can joke around about her struggles, but also seems to hold a more serious space of inclusion for those with health issues.
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Jokes, but also teaches, no?
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Yes! She seems to someone who has a lot to share from experience.
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What do you DO to stay busy, stay writing and reading, stay making progress on YOUR projects?
Sorry about the typo in the prompt above..
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I set timers. They have may seem a bit rigid, but they’ve helped me a ton. I make progress when I have reminders to move on after some time and focus on another project. This is a chance to clear my head, get some new ideas, and come back later with more motivation.
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More motivation can only come from this self. This is great! Thanks, Yara!!
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When reading through a little bit of her blog she seems very open. I like the use of capitalization which she uses when she really wants to emphasize her point. Overall really looking forward to reading her book.
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I feel like I am always busy. Still working full time, either from the office or from the dining room table, homeschooling the kiddo, and my own schoolwork. The comedic value I have gotten from the books we have read keeps me engaged and entertained, as well as the personal connection. I am looking forward to starting Irby’s book, from the cover art I was intrigued.
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A big influencer in how I stay busy is by spending time outside. It clears my head and helps me identify what I need to do on a day by day basis.
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Love this…
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Spending time outside is so therapeutic for sure. Especially because the weather is nice!
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The outside tells me a lot as well!!
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Pretty much everything in Irby’s blog grabs you a bit. Books/snacks/softcore/despair? Did she really just say softcore? Things i’ve accidentally peed on a little bit? Alright, I’ll keep reading. I also appreciate the italics, words in bold, and a collection of colors so vivid that make you feel like you just walked into an acid trip. She seems like a cool chic and a fun read. I would definitely recommend getting lost in her twitter feed.
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yes yes & yes. I already think she’s going to be my favorite read yet.
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She’s great. Love the excitement here!!
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I’m the type of person who needs to do something right when I think about it. If I don’t immediately act, I tend to procrastinate into infinity. So I place all of my materials for reading and writing in arms reach at all times so that i have no excuse. It’s odd because I’m in my apartment most of the day and everything is at most 25 feet away from me at any given time but I will find it impossible to get off of the couch once I get comfortable. The most difficult part for me is starting. Once I begin, I get going and get into whatever I’m doing.
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Also not viewing it as work but instead viewing it as a chance to grow, learn, and express myself in these trying times.
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Like the arm’s reach approach. Very helpful, Chris..
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thanks. I know myself well enough to know that I can fall into the trap of being lazy. I try to prepare by surrounding myself with the things that I need/want to get done so it’s staring me in the face and almost mocking me if I don’t get on it.
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Awesome, Chris. Love the attitude and motion..
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As for personal projects, we’ve been doing a lot of work around the house and yard.I am about ready to plant some veggies for the summer and new floors will be installed this week which we’re all excited about. It’s the little things!! My main project has been with my indoor plants. My friend made and has been selling the cute rope plant hangers that are all tied together. I love mine and might try to figure out how to make them:) Also, has anyone else been having wild dreams since quarantine began??
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YES!! Crazy dreams!
I’ve also been spending time with my indoor plants. I have a succulent garden on my windowsill.
You should look up DIY macrame plant hangers. 🙂 I do stuff like that too.
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Love that!! Pinterest has been my new BFF in quarantine!! My plant bookcase is getting out of hand so I need to start hanging or mount more shelves!
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I love Pinterest. SOOO many awesome ideas.
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Yes… ideas that you can make your own!! Enjoy!!
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I have also been doing a lot of pretty personal journaling, I think more than I have in months!!
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Good! Enjoy!!
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I’ve been having crazy dreams too. I read that “they” think it has to do with dealing with emotional stress or a change in lifestyle. It was nice to see that I wasn’t the only one experiencing this strange phenomenon.
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Can I vent for a second?…. People that spend more time composing excuses than actually doing shit, even if the excuses are valid… I just can’t communicate with them. If you can’t do the work, you should remove yourself from the position and expectation of doing the work. What I do to keep myself busy is tireless movement, staying starved, and an obsession with and addition to new ideas.
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Preach! I love the idea of tireless movement!
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Cheers, Gilbert. Find yours and enjoy!!
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Right now school has been taking most of my time which for these times is most appropriate. I have put time aside for dancing as it is my one way I like to express myself. I have been working further on my Spanish and am trying to learn Korean also. I also cleaned out my closet which I finally had the time to do and I also helped my mom clean the garage as it was full of things that had no value to me or her anymore. Still trying to stay productive in my life!
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I was not able to get the book before today, so I did not get a chance to read or look over the book itself but I did look up Samantha Irby. My very first thoughts about her were very similar to the thoughts I had for all the authors. “This will be one wild, adventurous, and freewriting story.” The things I found on her were enlightening but at the same time were not very surprising. As she owned her own blog and is very open and up front on her pages which tells me she will be just the same way in the book so I should not be surprised at the things that may or may not happen. I think this book will be a great read and I look forward to reading some oh her thoughts.
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i got into a routine and started scheduling my time to allow me to be as efficient as possible. And on top of that i also like writing to myself just to remind me of what is to come next. I also found tackling the most important tasks, like writing a paper, all at once is not ideal. I become much more efficient when i break tasks apart and spread them out through the week. And i gotta say, it is amazing what you can get done working on something for just an hour a day, everyday.
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Good!! Efficiency is something only we can teach ourselves..
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The new author Samantha Irby seems like she might have a similar writing style as the last two authors we have read. She seems like she has gone through some trauma with the situation with her mother and that she is very straight forward with the way she writes, not sugar coating anything and just telling it how it is. It’s hard to tell how she may be different from what I have read but she seems like she is a powerful woman ready to use her words to make a difference.
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I feel like I’ve been less busy with this whole quarantine but have been spending more family time because I never really did that when all this wasn’t going on. I’m grateful that I am spending more time with the family because it’s really needed and we’ve been playing board games, watching Netflix shows, helping me with homework, going on walks, taking my turtle out to look at nature. Never mind I guess you can say I have been busy, but because time feels to slow down. I believe I can do a lot of the things that I couldn’t do before!
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To stay busy, like most people have said I’ve spent time outside, touring our beautiful county on my bike. I’ve seen a lot of places I didn’t know existed. For me constant movement, mainly exercise has been keeping me busy. Also trying to stay focused on my school work in other classes is keeping my busy as I have AP tests coming up.
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Happiness is health, and production provides just that..
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Start at the end. When I write something, I establish a goal. Sometimes I sketch out a skeleton or a treasure map to get me from Point A to Point B. Once I know what Point B is, the problem that I find most challenging, “Where am I going with this?” turns into a very entertaining problem, “How do I deal with this?” I casually write fiction, and in that medium, I know that everything I put to the page should have a purpose. In journaling, I don’t necessarily know where Point B is, but I set a standard to tell at least one specific story.
If I’m overthinking, I focus on where the new stress is. If I don’t fully understand a character, I flesh them out. I give them dilemmas and explore how they would realistically deal with them. I narrate what they like, what they dislike, what they obsess over. None of this makes it to a draft, but this side project writing keeps me writing.
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I like the idea of having an aim… this is great!!
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I’m tired of my excuses. I’ve been trying one new thing each day, small or big. Creating a new system for this time is interesting: how much value is there in making a system for something you know will end, but you don’t know when? From what I’ve found, there is loads, and routine has helped me out tons. Holding myself accountable is still an issue for me, but I know I can find a way to tackle this too.
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Awesome.
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I like to make sure I spend a good amount of time outside just to clear my head and enjoy the nice weather. I was also looking through some boxes in my garage the other day and found a whole bunch of books and decided I wanted to start reading for my own enjoyment again and not just for school work, so I’ve been re-reading Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, which happens to be one of my favorite books.
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Reading is an act that realizes and materializes more than we sought!!
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To stay busy on my work and projects, I like to just sit at my desk, get all my things out and get to work. I can only focus when I have headphones on with my music, otherwise I will be distracted by surrounding noises or my mind will just not work efficiently. When I read I like to lay down somewhere with my face nose deep in the book, preferably somewhere with little to no noise or distractions nearby.
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I find that I work best at night ( after 10pm) when everyone is in their rooms. I’m alone at the dinner table with my headphones and music and will get as much as I can done. I’ll go to sleep when my eyes can no longer take it and I’ll wake up when my eyes open. As for what I do to stay busy school has been taking a lot more time than usual theres so many assignments to do and I find myself just checking off things on a never-ending list. There are times when I don’t want to do any work and this is where the self discipline really kicks in. I’ll tell my self “fuck it ima do it now” and get off my butt and get to work.
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I definitely felt like that this weekend. I was being lazy yesterday but got up to get something out of the kitchen and saw my laptop on the table and had the same exact thought of fuck it imma do it now. 😀 For sure.
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Love it, Theresa!! Awesome!!
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Funny how quiet can antagonize such useful and enriching inner-noise.
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Anyone have something to share, from a story you’re considering writing?
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To stay busy, I’ve just been trying new things every day and seeing what sticks for my routine. I feel like I’m able to use quarantine as a testing zone for new hobbies or some new creative outlet. It’s been nice to ACTUALLY learn how to somewhat cook something other than mac n cheese. Shoutout Gordon Ramsay and MasterChef for the inspiration. And I’ve gotten to create a stable workout routine that I can religiously stick to along with a daily stretch and sometimes some meditation as well. I haven’t spent that much time looking into getting the work I need to at school lately. I feel like I give up, but I’m growing and if I don’t figure it all out this semester, I’ve really learned to understand the meaning “time is relative.” I’ll figure it out, almost there. Excited for the bumps ahead.
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Those bumps are what embolden and make the character brave.
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Life is simply that. Life. It’s the learning to cope with emotions, struggles, and things like unprecedented pandemics that’s the tough part. But I have tools today that I arm myself with that helps enable me to stay the course. And the course isn’t over. It never really is. I just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and do my best. Whatever that looks like. And I will prevail.
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Love the metaphor & love the positivity, Theresa!
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Thoughts like this is what we all need at the end of the day!
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I have been keeping busy by remembering my goals. I have looked at my timeline to accomplish certain goals and have thought about how they can get done on schedule and what I can do to minimize future contingencies.
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Talk to me about them stories, y’all!!!
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Lately, to stay busy I have been working on a few projects, some for school and some for personal health. For my Spanish class I have been writing an essay about my family in Spanish which is incredibly difficult for me. To help me practice my Spanish I’ve been talking on the phone with my boyfriend asking him to correct me when I make a mistake and really just help me to get more comfortable speaking the language. Of course I’ve been writing for this class as well. With the story about me, I have been forced to go back over some parts of my life that I have pushed back for a long time. That has definitely been a process for me but I think I will have a good story in the end. As for personal projects I have been sewing face masks fo my friends and family and I have also been sewing some pants for myself. It’s been a long time sense I have taken up any sewing projects but getting reacquainted with my sewing machine has been a lot of fun for me.
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Love the making of masks!! Do you want to start a business with the sewing?
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