Writers and Critics: Why Art Students Just Aren’t That Hardcore

Last night, I was at work – I work at my college campus paper as a copyeditor – and we discovered a Very Bad Article.

Now, we didn’t quite know what to do.  We felt that we couldn’t let this one slide, but we couldn’t really do much with the writer of the article being in the room at the time.  (He’s a nice guy and not a bad writer, jut apparently not cut out to do stage reviews.)  Finally, the copy chief jumped the Arts & Life editor when he stepped outside, and he agreed to have us do a digital copy (which we could rearrange and rewrite at will) rather than a hard copy, which we could only proofread.

My little copyediting escapade of last night brought to mind something that happened to me last year, when I was taking Drawing II.  It was a curious event that happened when we did our first critique.

Now, I like to draw, but I’m nothing spectacular as an artist – I can draw some excellent naked people, but that’s just about it.  My piece for that particular critique was not one that I was proud of: I’d made (in my eyes) mistakes beyond count and measure, the lighting was off, the symbolism was strange, and many other things were just WRONG about it that I couldn’t put my finger on.

Fast-forward to the critique.  I brought my pieces into class, expecting the critique to go similarly to the critiques I’d done in Creative Writing: brutally honest, meant to work like a chipper at a gem to take out all the crap and leave behind something priceless.

But something very odd happened.

I ended up receiving little to no constructive criticism.  Instead, I was told that “the mouse is cute” and “I like the atmosphere.”

I was so frustrated I wanted to pull out some of my own hair.  I like the atmosphere too!  But this composition’s a depressing one with a girl lying in a heap in a dirty alley, and you tell me that the mouse is cute?!  It’s not even a mouse!  IT’S A RAT!

It was then that I discovered the fundamental difference between graphic artists and writers.

Writers, by nature, have to stand up to harsh criticism.  Since our work can be fixed and reworked to no end, we get used to the harsh judgement – even of our writerly peers – and simply go to and fix them.  Artists, on the other hand, are apparently rather sensitive during their formative college years.

Am I right?  I’m pretty sure I  am… but, if I’m not, do correct me.

Teen Writing Contest – YVA Speak Their Muse

For the 2008 Young Voices of America Speak Their Muse contest:

Poetry is a wonderful forum for expressing emotion.  Poems can be lighthearted and fun or they can be dark and foreboding…. Poems can appeal to the very young or the very old.  They can inspire, inform, or entertain.

This quarterly contest, sponsored by The Young Voices Foundation, is a contest for high school students in the USA.

In the YVA Speak Their Muse contest, submit poetry with your teacher or parent’s approval.  You can find more information at http://youngvoicesfoundation.org/writingcontests.html.  All poems must be original, and “Obvious re-writing by an adult will result in disqualification.”

Public, Private, and Home-Schooled students are all eligible.  There is also a category for students in 3-7th grades.

Opinion Time!

All right, faithful readers!  I have a challenge for you.

I recently stumbled across this Reuters article about a company in Switzerland that is now offering to turn the cremated ashes of your loved ones into a diamond that you can apparently carry around with you for the rest of your days.

There are a few ways I can see this going down.

• “Oh, Tanya, I love that necklace!  The gems are simply stunning!”  “Really?  Well, this one is cousin Charlie, the smaller one is Great-Aunt Vera, this one is Granny, and this big one is my Uncle Richard.  He always was a bit on the chunky side, you know.”
• “*sob* *sob* *hiccup*  Timothyyyyyyyyy…”  Accompanied by a clattering sound, which is oddly similar to a rock (coughcough) falling into a hole in the ground.

Seriously, though, the procedure costs slightly less than what it would cost to bury, for instance, me, if I happened to die right at this very moment.  Plus, one gets an attractive, smooth stone instead of a rotting dead body lying around the house.

Sound useful, eh?

Well, my dear readers, I’d love to know what you think about this.  Seriously.  It’s a writing challenge.  I don’t care what you do — base a fiction on it, write an essay, state your opinion, whatever floats your boat.  I just want some reaction to this.  Hehe.

So, whatever you decide to do — let me know.  If you send me a trackback, or leave a comment with a link, I’ll visit your site.  (And my other readers just might, too.)  If you just want to leave a comment, that’s cool, too!

Looking forward to seeing thoughts on this…

The Game Plan

Here’s the game plan for August.

• Finish up the entry for L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest. Apparently, this is a very important Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror genre competition. Hey, sounds good to me.
• Turn in my job application to Barnes & Noble. Still haven’t done that. I need a job so I can save up to go to Alpha next summer.  (Assuming that I get into Alpha, of course, but I can’t exactly be picky about it. $1,000 is a lot of money to raise at a part-time, weekend job.)
• Write entries to 2 Young Writers Society contests. Hopefully, they’ll end up being good enough to send to publishing houses/magazines.
• Get Jocelyn, Jasmine, Cactus, and a few other friends to submit to an e-zine. I want some editing experience, and I figure that I’d best find out how to do it myself.
• Go talk to the librarian in the Business section at the Main Library and ask about business permits in my area. I’ll have to find out a few other things, too – like about vendors’ licenses and the fees required for such things. Maybe I ought to just ask about small businesses.
• Work on my weekly assignments for my internship!
• Actually finish Fractured. God in heaven above, but that’s taken a long time. I should actually be working on it now. There are only 10 chapters left to write, and one of them’s already written out of order! I am such a lazy bum.
• Compose the short short story I’m entering into the Writer’s Digest contest. In December. But hey – I’ll be busy in October and November. I won’t be able to afford time for writing contests. I think.
• Finish Rocket Stage 4, one of the graduation requirements at my school. Because people who shall remain nameless will not get off my back until I do so, and I want them off my back as soon as possible.
• Write three essays: one for BBG Systems, one for TextbookX, and one for PresidentialCandidates.tv. The essays are for scholarship contests. The BBG one is for $3,000, the TextbookX one is for $2,000, and the PresidentialCandidates.tv one is for $4,400. That’s a lot of money. I probably won’t get all of them, but even one would help matters substantially. Especially since I don’t want to stay at the university my high school is associated with.

Well, that’s the basic plan for now. There may be a few changes later in the month, but I’m not looking forward to it…

Lord, Have Mercy on our Souls

I know I promised a photo-laden post, but I stumbled on something in the AQ Connect group forums that I just couldn’t pass up.

http://jennifersolow.blogspot.com/2006/04/surefire-query-letter-is-here.html

If you’ve never seen somebody completely self-possessed, try this writer.

First of all, why any agent would accept such an unpleasant and odd query is beyond me.

Second, are you allowed to send agents things that are practically pornography?

Third, who on God’s green Earth IS Jennifer Solow?  Her blog is titled “The Famous Author Chronicles,” but I’ve never heard of her in my life.

Sigh.