Sometimes, even if a certain story may be of no value to anyone else, it may still be a story that you have to write out.
Category Archives: Writing
Random Thought #1
While rejection always sucks, there’s something unbelievably liberating in looking back on a rejected piece and knowing, with added wisdom and hindsight, where its strengths and weakness lie and how you can improve it.
LiL and Website Work
Check out my latest Live in Limbo article titled “Books for Dads: Bookstore Chains’ Holiday Reads“. I’m a bit hesitant about this article because I was unable to spend much time with it. Its due date arose between family visits, relatives’ birthdays, graduating ceremonies, and fundraising events. As a result, I was unable to really get a feel of the article before submitting it. I know that if I really want to make a living as a writer, I’d have to quickly learn how to write timely articles on a deadline. Because of this, I’m even more glad that I’m part of LiL; it familiarizes me with this aspect of writing. I hope to gradually improve with practice.
On another note, I spent a good few hours transferring my website to a different host (WordPress instead of Blogger). I find WordPress enables me to create different Pages within one Blog site that users can easily navigate through. With Blogger, I had to create completely different blogs and link them together through an HTML sidebar to create the feel of different Blog sections. Please feel free to give me feedback on the website’s change. Suggestions are greatly welcome, as I’ve just recently received my domain name and am still at the very beginning stages of my website construction and career.
Convocation, Writing, Film Fest Going
A lot has been going on and I just haven’t had the time to update. My apologies in advance for the long, long post.
Yesterday I attended my convocation ceremony and have officially graduated! The ceremony was early in the morning and, even if it was a nice day, I was extremely hot in the toga. I couldn’t help feeling sleepy, but I think the fact of graduating finally hit me when everyone began to clap for the final person to pass through and shake the Chancellor/Vice President’s hand. Only then was I suddenly struck with a wave of intense relief… I’m done!
I was unaware of this going into graduation, but apparently my grades ended me off on footing for an Honours Bachelor of Arts “with Distinction”. I guess that’s a good thing because only a handful of Trin students graduated without it. Nevertheless, it was a really nice surprise.
As I was walking up to the stage and shaking the Vice President’s hand, she congratulated me and asked me what I’m planning on doing now that I’ve finished my degree. I told her I’m going to write. She asked what I planned to write. I told her I’d like to write fiction – short stories or novels. So she congratulated me again and said she can’t wait to see my name in print. Neither can I!
In terms of writing, I recently registered for the Writers and Exile program at the Tatamagouche Centre. The program is a week-long intensive writing workshop focused on creative non-fiction, fiction, and culture’s role in these forms. The mentors for this retreat will be Shani Mootoo, author of Cereus Blooms at Night, Aaron Berhane from PEN Canada, and Gwen Davies, founder of Community of Writers. The only limitation I have with this program is its price ($620 for the program, accommodation, and food costs + approx. $450 in travel costs), but I received word that I’ve been approved for a $200 bursary from the Tatamagouche Centre and I applied for a scholarship there as well. I’m hoping all goes well. I used my published short story as part of my writing sample and received an awesome reference letter from Krishna. If everything goes through, I’ll be heading off to Nova Scotia for a week after I come back from my cruise this July!
In regards to scriptwriting, I’ve still been vigorously working on my script but am still in the plot revision stage. I’m not sure if I’m just really slow-going or if this is how long it takes to set the foundation down for a feature film. Although the last day of Krishna’s contract was June 15, I’ll be meeting with him tomorrow morning for our final go-over. Krishna has really been an awesome mentor – a little rough at times and blunt when things in our script have to go, but exactly what I needed – someone to tell me how things stand exactly as they are. After my time with Krishna is done, I’m taking a bit of a break from the screenwriting, only to return to my script with a vengeance later on to ready it for film fests and scriptwriting competitions.
On the side, my scripwriting friend, Maureen Holland, and I are volunteering for the ReelHeART International Film Festival. Founded in 2005, the ReelHeART Festival has grown to include the works of over a hundred different filmmakers from all around the world. The volunteer opportunity is a pretty awesome way to learn more about the industry, see new filmmaking faces, and view emergent films and screenplays for free! Maureen and I signed up for the Lunch n’ Learn morning shifts. Although the morning is a bit hectic, we get to see live reading performances of the winning screenplays selected for this year’s festival and meet with industry execs who discuss the art of screenwriting and the steps to discovery, distribution and filmmaking. Oh, we also get some free lunch – obviously the reason why I signed up for this shift. Haha, just kidding. But seriously, I signed up for this opportunity on a last minute whim upon request from Maureen, and have been wow-ed by the windows it’s opening up, providing excellent insight into the (still widely mysterious – to me at least-) film industry.
Last but definitely not least, as part of my graduation gift in celebration of yesterday’s event, my brother presented me with the following: https://miaherrera.com! Currently, the domain name redirects users to my blogspot, but soon I will have an up and running website of my own. I’ll update everyone when the website is in place. For now, feel free to continue following me here on blogspot or on my Twitter – a more informal place where I track what I’m doing, what I’m reading, what I’m seeing and what I’m listening to.
If you’ve made it thus far in my post, congratulations! I’ll be back soon!
LiL Article 1: Live Literature, Live Life
Check out my first, self-introductory article on LiveInLimbo.com titled “Live Literature, Live Life“. Feel free to leave me a comment there or here with any questions, opinions, or requests.
Find me on Live in Limbo
I’m pleased to announce that I will soon be starting a weekly “column” of sorts on LiveInLimbo.com – a new “synergetic effort of many multi-talented and multi-disciplinary young folks from various parts of Ontario”. The site has recently debuted online, through the efforts of my high school classmate and awesome web master, Sean Chin. My articles will be appearing online on a bi-weekly basis and will involve a mix of book and literary events reviews. Another exciting outcropping of this decision has been the possibility of upcoming author interviews for publication online. That means more opportunities of me talking one-on-one with published writers (my occupation of desire and choice)!
The “MWG” to the CMW – Future Plans and Current Transitions
It’s been about a month since I’ve begun the “Markham Writing Group”, now titled the Community of Markham Writers, and it has already been a learning experience. The idea was first met with much enthusiasm by myself and fellow founder, Karen Yuen. Without her support and positive feedback, I probably would have never gathered the guts to take on such a task. Even now, with her continued encouragement, I find it in myself to continue the hard work it takes to maintain the group.
Despite much online support for the group, it’s been difficult to obtain any faithful in-person members and, to be frankly honest, the number remains at 3 (with myself, Karen, and Johnathan Lui). Our meetings, as per our group’s objectives, are dedicated towards form exploration and mentoring and has been productive in expanding our creative scope and encouraging production. I am starting to feel in “the groove” even more with our current excursion into Short Fiction – a form I’m very familiar with and passionate about. Unfortunately, our group hasn’t seem to grown despite our well wishes and future objectives.
This week, after meeting, I laid my disappointment out on the table with Karen, lamenting the smallness of the group and, despite the online support, the lack of physical members. Perhaps there was a lack of creative outlet in Markham because there was no creative interest to tap into? Fortunately, Karen is a strong personality and helped pull me out of my rut by brainstorming solutions rather than fuelling regret. Within our hour of discussion, we’ve come to new goals and obtainable objectives to become the group that we want to be.
Although much of our plans are still in progress, I realize now that a group with a loyal base doesn’t happen overnight. We’re going to look into viral marketing at the moment (kind of like those Obay adds that cropped up everywhere in downtown T.O. but without all that advertising cost) and we’re also planning to place out a call for submissions (with a fee) to generate interest in the group and, if the call is successful, the financial support needed to take our group to the next level. The call for submissions will involve the creation of an anthology of work. But of course, baby steps must be taken.
Another bright-side tidbit to consider is that my great friend, Cindy Yang, has offered to create a new and exciting logo for our group – one that I hope to spread around on social networks and community centres. I’m sure that whatever it will be, it will be an upgrade from my Word Doc creation. Even more, it’ll have the added exoticism of coming all the way from Shanghai! Haha.
On the side, I’m looking for employment. Despite the fact that I’ve worked hard to be where I am right now (comfortably unemployed without any school to worry about), my lack of income makes me uncomfortable. I’ll also be going on a vacation for about three weeks at the end of June, but am sure to come back with renewed vigour and concentration.
MWG 2nd Meeting: Poetry and Multiculturalism
The most recent MWG meeting was held in one of Angus Glen Library’s meeting rooms last Sunday and focused on poetry and multiculturalism.
I became acquainted with a new member – Johnathan Lui – and we had an interesting session in which he shared some of his poetry with us – the form being one of his strong points. Karen also shared a poem by Dionne Brand and I shared one of my own poor creations (Just for the record, I pretty much fail at poetry!). Although Karen had to leave a bit early, Johnathan and I were able to get better acquainted with each other and discuss our most recent projects and plots.
Later on, Johnathan forwarded a very productive e-mail regarding the structure of our meetings. After discussing the aims of our group with him, I was able to dispell some of my worries about the committee (mainly about the size of our group). As Johnathan noted, the group is bound to start off small in the beginning – something that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. By starting small, we can find dedicated members who may more easily work with each other to mentor and improve each others’ styles and forms.
The next MWG meeting will be held in the same location this upcoming Sunday, May 24th at12pm. Yet again, more information may be found on the MWG website.
Script Revisions, Book Prizes, and Piano Concerts
Yesterday I went downtown to discuss my beat sheet with Krishna. I am now working on Beat Sheet Revision #7! According to Krishna, my script has become belaboured with too many plot lines and I have to really trim it down to the basic story. I was pretty discouraged but know that in the end my script can only benefit from Krishna’s mentoring.
On another note, I won a prize from Keep Toronto Reading! I think I probably won it through submitting a ballot at the Diaspora Dialogues Reading. I won five books by five different Canadian authors and will probably receive it later this week. I always love getting new books; it’s more to add to my library. Very excited!
On a final unrelated-to-writing note, yesterday I also watched Serhiy Salov play for the Four Seasons Centre’s Piano Virtuoso Series. It was the first of the series that I attended. I was especially impressed with his last performance of Mily Balakirev’s “Islamei: Oriental Fantasy”. He also performed some Scarlatti, Beethoven, and Ravel. I probably need to garner a greater appreciation for piano music to understand the complexity of the songs. Whenever I listen to piano music, especially Beethoven, I always picture black and white silent films from the early 1900s where people are hurriedly running about performing gags. It’s my Cinema Studies background getting the best of me and it’s sad to say that it usually ruins my perception of the music as I picture set up gags. At the end of his performance, Salov received a standing ovation.
Serhiy Salov playing at the Four Seasons Centre
MWG: First Meeting
MWG’s first meeting was today, and it consisted of Karen, Jordan Chiang, and myself – not the biggest turn out, but I guess we can’t expect too much from the very first session. I must admit that, upon arriving, the event seemed unorganized due to a lack of reserved meeting space. We set ourselves up in the designated spot between Angus Glen’s basketball court and hockey rink on the second floor, but we didn’t anticipate how inconducive or unprofessional the place could be to a group that wants to take itself seriously. At least we know better this time around, and will be better prepared when more members join.
Other than that, the meeting was fairly productive. Earlier this week Karen and I were messaged by Donna Marrin from the Markham Village Writers’ Group, which has apparently been around for about ten years. Unfortunately it has existed in relative anonymity or obscurity, as neither Karen or myself knew of its existence and had difficulty finding out about it even after much rigorous research into the matter. Still, they requested for us either to join their group (not an option!) or change our name. Although we weren’t able to resolve this issue today, we’re still working on it and will hopefully come up with more workable titles.
On another note, we each briefly discussed our interests and expectations and settled on a topic for next week’s discussion: poetry and multiculturalism. None of us are very familiar with poetry as a writing form and picked it so that we could venture beyond our comfort zone. Karen and I also managed to briefly discuss our greater community-wide objectives, but I anticipate this to be something we will have to mainly figure out on our own time. We’ll allow members to get involved if they’d like, but other than that, we can’t take up our biweekly meeting time with organizational issues all the time.
Again, for more information about upcoming meetings check out the MWG’s official website. We will soon revamp the page with submission listings and reading lists.