Published Article!

Check it out! Yours truly wrote an article for the CollegePlus blog!! ^-^ CP has been gracious enough to me to send a few writing projects my way over the course of my time with them and this is one of them! I am so grateful for all the writing practice! This one features 9 "bad" reasons for going to college and it was a fun one to write! I think the most challenging part though was balancing the cheerfulness of the CP brand with the sarcasm of the article's content. It went through several major revisions and finally, we are pleased with the balance.

IEW en français!

Img by Jonathan Reyes, used under attribution-noncommercial license

The curriculum we use for the writing program at Veritas is called Institute for Excellence in Writing (or IEW) and the program steadily teaches children how to write by having them rewrite paragraphs incorporating stylistic techniques as they go. In this way, the program teaches students the style and technique of writing while removing the pressure to invent original, creative content simultaneously. As students mature, less content is supplied by the teacher (or article or whatever) and more content is generated by the student. It’s a very useful program that makes writing easy for kids, especially boys who are primarily concerned with fort-making. 

"Consolation"

Consolation

How agreeable it is not to be touring Italy this summer,
wandering her cities and ascending her torrid hill towns.
How much better to cruise these local, familiar streets,
fully grasping the meaning of every road sign and billboard
and all the sudden hand gestures of my compatriots.

There are no abbeys here, no crumbling frescoes or famous
domes and there is no need to memorize a succession
of kings or tour the dripping corners of a dungeon.
No need to stand around a sarcophagus, see Napoleon's
little bed on Elba, or view the bones of a saint under glass.

How much better to command the simple precinct of home
than be dwarfed by pillar, arch, and basilica.
Why hide my head in phrase books and wrinkled maps?
Why feed scenery into a hungry, one-eyed camera
eager to eat the world one monument at a time?

Instead of slouching in a café ignorant of the word for ice,
I will head down to the coffee shop and the waitress
known as Dot. I will slide into the flow of the morning
paper, all language barriers down,
rivers of idom running freely, eggs over easy on the way.

And after breakfast, I will not have to find someone
willing to photograph me with my arm around the owner.
I will not puzzle over the bill or record in a journal
what I had to eat and how the sun came in the window.
It is enough to climb back into the car
as if it were the great car of English itself
and sounding my loud vernacular horn, speed off
down a road that will never lead to Rome, not even Bologna.

Somehow, I'm not sure Billy Collins succeeds in convincing me that staying home is better than exploring Italy (or France). But perhaps I can still appreciate even his small consolation(s).

The Calm Before the Storm

Ashen clouds tainted with smoke

Stretch across a pale sky

Like cats on Sunday afternoons.

A plastic bag dangles,

Snagged on a stray branch,

And rustling against sun-soaked leaves.

As the horizon swallows the sun,

Our house is bathed in blue shadows and silence;

Even the wind chimes are still.

But the grief-song of the doves

Remains.

Why are they crying?

For lost loves.

Nature knows

There will be rain tonight.

Misha Tyler, 2014

Survey Says!

Stats:

days until my birthday: 1
thesis: 58% complete
survey responses: 3
screen time: @_@
reading: Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi 
learning: to embrace the unknown future
mood: girly
looking forward to: birthday chillin'
highlights: spring weather, finding cool stuff on the web, and conducting leadership webinar last night

Weekly Update:

Some days, I feel like that scene in Tangled where Rapunzel goes from "I'm a despicable human being" to "This is the best day of my life!!" Not that I believe I'm a despicable human being or anything, but from time to time, I experience severe mood swings in a single day--usually relating to perceived success or failure.

This week, it was my thesis project. After sending out a volley of emails Tuesday with minimal leads, I began Wednesday discouraged and a little despairing. My predicament appeared so bad that I was depending on my dad to fill out my little survey so I could at least have something.  I spent all day on an internet campaign, stalking potential participants through independent book-sellers, tracking down their contact information, and emailing them to participate in my survey. I was so desperate, I didn't expect anything to come of it. But lo and behold, by afternoon, two people had responded and a third committed to filling it out over the weekend! And because of those two people, I found the hope and the determination not to give up!! (Although, thinking of a big fat F also does the trick, but that's not quite as positive.)

I still have a little ways to go though, so if you know anyone who has written, or is writing, their autobiography (does not have to be published) could you please direct them to my questionnaire (linked below)? I would be much appreciative.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1GX-yc4nVkWR5gaKQTR6f9-PnTqeFD93TT9en4gS7ujk/viewform

My Thesis: Autobiography

In a time when the world is flooded with information, what's the point of adding one more story to the mix? One more story that is not likely to get noticed? Yet the autobiography genre is still thriving with people from all different backgrounds penning their stories. Why?

My project seeks to study this phenomenon asking the question, "How does the process of writing one's autobiography impact the way one views oneself and one's life-story?" My sub-questions will follow the writing process first analyzing what motivates people to write about themselves, studying the steps required to write an autobiography, and finally examining what authors learn about themselves through and after the writing process. The study will culminate in an autobiographical piece written by none other than myself! I have a few hypotheses about the answers I find and I think they will have something to do with identity and self-perception, but we'll see!

Because this is my thesis project (and not a research paper) I will be doing all the primary research, not culling it from other sources. In addition to my own writing project, I plan to send out a questionnaire to a panel of autobiographical authors. I'm hoping to develop a sample group which consists of authors at different stages in the autobiography process (already published, still writing, editing etc.). Then I'll collect the responses, organize them, and incorporate them into my material.

The paper is broken up into five chapters: the introduction, an overview of literature, an explication of methodology, the results of study, and a conclusion discussing the results. The course mentor has also been really helpful so far; she makes the whole project feel a lot more manageable and a lot less daunting! Under her guidance, I feel a lot more equipped moving forward. Being so young and tackling such a large project (my undergrad thesis!) sometimes feelings of inadequacy nag at me. What if my project isn't good enough? significant enough? professional enough? or something else? What if it's already been done? I suppose I question the scholarship of my topic. But I'm holding on to the positive feedback I've gotten on it, both from my course mentor as well as from other students in the class and a variety of other people I know in real life. I try to stay positive because I know I am so close to finishing my degree! The end is closer than it appears!

"Diary" by Barnaby, used under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

Inksanity Reunion

LtoR: Me, Sydney, Sabina, Kristin, and Marie

Things got pretty crazy last week at Inksanity's first reunion! Unfortunately, Nicole was unable to make it, so it was not a full reunion, but Marie was in town for Thanksgiving break! She came back just in time for the end of NaNoWriMo which, of course, meant all night writing and giggles! I could only stay until about 2am, but they were tweeting and word-warring all night long in the final push for 50,000 words.

I did not make it this year, but in light of my course-load, I significantly lowered my expectations for the global month-long write-a-thon. Total, I wrote about 8,000 words on two short stories (one of which may be featuring here this December) and probably another 12-15,000 words on school-related assignments. I have fully come to terms with my "failure," because I realize it is not so much a failure at writing, as it was a failure to recognize my schedule limitations. But it was fun and now I have two short stories that I didn't have before!

Sabina and Marie love pie

Misha's Short Stories

In which Misha talks about two of her short stories, geeks out about narrative theory and unreliable narrators, and says "yay" a few too many times.

Enjoy my third Inksanity video!

5 Quirks of Misha

My first video for Inksanity is live!

Things I learned: 

1. Don't use Windows Movie Maker
2. How to get to and navigate the inner workings of YouTube's movie editor
3. Film all your takes at once (i.e. say stuff a bajillion times the first time so you don't have to refilm)
4. Edit your video all at the same time. (i.e. don't upload half of it and come back to work on it later) 
5. I make some really bizarre faces on freeze-film 
6. I frequently sigh/exhale-heavily at random times when I speak
7. Verbal Crutches: And, So, and But

There are a few instances where you can tell they were separate takes due to lighting, the angle of the screen, and the fact that I am more freshly showered at some parts compared to others. Oh well. Overall, it was a good first experience (even though I'm pretty sure I spent well over 4 total hours editing it together) and I'm happy with the outcome. Enjoy!

Autumn

I wrote this poem for fall a few weeks ago while enjoying a pita out on the back porch. As I watched the sun gild dust motes and tiny insects in gold, the words came to me. Enjoy.

Autumn

Our shadows lengthen,

As the days wane,

A decaying palette,

Kindling

Leans against the back wall

Of an abandoned shed,

Tossed there,

Among stray cinderblocks.

Restless air

Shivers

With the approaching footfalls

of Autumn.

Cloaked in fire,

Bloody fingertips,

Guilty.

Of murder.

And proud.

With a laugh,

And a swish,

She throws her golden tresses,

Over her shoulder,

And looks the other way.

The Inksanity Begins!

Every weekend or so, I meet up with a couple of friends at Starbucks to write/study and hang out. We've been writing pretty consistently at the same Starbucks location for about two years now; all the staff know them well and we have our very own table which we have declared expressly "ours." Over time, we've developed into a close-knit group, as writing, though solitary is also a very social activity. We named our little group "Inksanity" (like insanity, with ink), and created a Facebook group to announce weekly write-ins.

And then one of us moved away for college! So to keep up with one another, we decided to do a vlogging project.

Mission TypeWriterEffect, in which six of us keep each other accountable to our writing (or non-writing) goals via video-blogs. We'll take turns filming our videos and if someone doesn't make their goal or doesn't post their video on time, they will get a group-mandated "punishment" or dare that they must complete and film-document.

It's a fun way to stay connected! I foresee our little project becoming less goal-oriented as we start dispersing more and becoming more of a way for us to catch up and be part of one another's lives no matter where we are. My first video will be posted this week!