Two confessions on "Supermoon Night"

a) I'm terrified of planets. I can't look when they show footage of planets on TV. Their monstrous size and their... "supernatural-ness" I guess, just creep me out. I could never be an astronaut.

b) If a full moon's light shifts to shine on me while I'm sleeping, I get crazy nightmares, hence why I keep my shutters closed at all times. I've been caught too many times. I'm definitely ruled by the moon.

What I'm doing right now in between school assignments

Most aspiring screenwriters simply don’t spend enough time choosing their concept. It’s by far the most common mistake I see in spec scripts. The writer has lost the race right from the gate. Months — sometimes years — are lost trying to elevate a film idea that by its nature probably had no hope of ever becoming a movie.

~Terry Rossio, WORDPLAY/Columns/01. A Foot in the Door

Wednesday Words

1) I'm crazy busy with school assignments, end of year thesis, exams and papers...my life is one big pile of never-ending homework.

2) I'm trying to find a concept. I'm working on a couple of stories but what I'm looking for, more than pretty sentences in a row, is a message, something that people will read and remember.
I'm trying to figure out & write "the truest sentence that I know". That's harder than it seems.

3) I'm trying to find time to meet the fellowship deadlines. With 2 months to go, I keep thinking that's more than enough time. Except when you factor in 1) and 2), it's not.

4) The results for the 1st competition I entered are in. I didn't win or place :(

I went to Granta Mag's Paris event today

& got my 17 euro (!) book signed by Dinaw Mengestu & Mark Gevisser (who spelled my name wrong, haha).
My 1st autographs ever :)

Art

Say it out loud, it's like spoken word.

Literary magazines

More so than winning competitions, my ultimate goal, obviously, is to be published.
Novels, screenplays, songs, editorials, articles, non-fiction...I want to write it all.

So far though, I haven't submitted to magazines. A lot of it has to do with them accepting only post submissions which costs money I don't have since I'm not in the US. Though that's mainly an excuse for me and my fear to hide behind.

I'm writing this now to make myself accountable: I'm working on a non-fiction contribution which I hope to finish and send by the end of next month at the latest. I've never written anything like that; it feels like submitting a diary entry in a way.

But now it's out there so I have to do it.
Who knows? I might even be selected :)

I've just submitted to 5 different competitions

I always plan on submitting to all the competitions and magazines around & then just before pressing 'submit' - or 'pay now' as the case may be - I chicken out & think of all the reasons why I shouldn't.

They won't like my style
They won't like the genre
They won't like the language
I don't have any money
My story sucks
I suck & I'm also stupid

I've just submitted to 5 different competitions & I'll be submitting more stories to literary magazines whether or not I place or win.

An excerpt of my story - Dreamtaker (1400 words)

"He was the worst storyteller I'd ever come across yet his little bursts had created a thread in my mind, and I could see everything that had happened to him. The young and beautiful artist, riding triumphant on his rising star, the large and imposing, equally beautiful, equally charismatic dreamtaker, promising to take the artist to the next level. I leaned forward, anxious for this new pause to end."

I'm terrified

but tomorrow I'm submitting to the following competitions:


Cazart
Global short stories
Brighton Cow
Unbound Press
Dark Tales
Exeter
Gemini magazine
Meridian writing
Bristol competition
Writer mag
American Short Fiction
Writersdigest
Bridport prize

I'm not sure if I'll write a different story for the following publications, but I will submit to these as well:

Glimmer Train
Granta magazine
The Paris review
Zoetrope
The Georgia Review

Jean Michel Basquiat - The radiant child

This weekend I wanted to watch something real.

I wanted to be affected by images on the screen in a way that no Hollywood movie can. I wanted to see real lives, real paths, I wanted a touch of humanity.

I started out with Waiting for Superman, which I reviewed previously. Then I came across this documentary: Jean Michel Basquiat - The Radiant Child.

My knowledge of Basquiat is tenuous at best. A few years ago I knew of him only his name. I didn't know he was dead, I didn't know he was black & I didn't know he'd died so young. Since then I've come across articles, book excerpts, interviews that reference him in some way so I eventually learned all this about him but not much more.

I went into the documentary blind as it were.

Waiting for Superman

Going into a documentary like this, you know from the start it's going to tug on your heartstrings.

There's also no surprise about what the message will be.

Education, in America in this case, but here in France as well, is in an abysmal state. We know this.

Barack Obama and other Americans like to quote French statistics on education spending, in order to show that they could be doing better.

The sentiment is commendable but the stats are wrong. We, in France, are also facing spending cuts, poor education in low-income areas, and what seems like a government unwilling to take the necessary steps.