December 7, 2011

Short Story Wrapped and Good Book Stuff

Today I am not only excited to have received a signed copy of Armen Melikian’s novel Journey to Virginland, a book I reviewed, but I am also anxious to tear to pieces the neat and not so tidy short story I wrapped last night, after many, many sips of hot chocolate.

So I’m not working on my novel right this second, but I’m a product of the twentieth century, my attention span is anything but stable, and while I’ll admit that any second of the day, I will also be the first to attest to the fact that I do not have attention deficit disorder. That to me, my friends, is one of the most commonly misdiagnosed disorders of our century.

A few weeks ago I started a short story after a short camping trip and a series of successive horns blaring outside my apartment window upon my return. I got a page and a half into it before I forgot about it, and returned to it a few nights ago, only to forget about it some more a few nights later. So last night, I picked it up and gave it a go. I told my self to sally forth into the gallows of writer despair, and to keep going until I could truthfully say I had written enough to call it a job done, if not very well. And you know what? I finished the damn thing. It’s only 750 words or so, but you know that feeling when you just know a short story is done? When you just know your character has finished saying what it wanted to say, doing what it needed to do?

And so I stopped and tweeted about it, like most tweeters do, and then I went back and read it over. It was rotten orange peels on a pile of yesterday’s feces. Simply revolting. I read it aloud three times and made all these tweaks. When I was satisfied with the night’s revisions, I read a little in bed and Nyquil’d out for the night. Someone I know gave me the snifflies. I intend to revise it until I’m more sniffly tonight, then give it one more day. Then, after one more day’s revisions, I’ll send it to a couple of friends, pretend I’ve integrated their feedback, and submit it somewhere.

Okay, I might integrate a little feedback. Depends on whether or not I’ve had my morning coff.

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December 6, 2011

What’s Your MBA Game Plan?

Call it fate, call it God, call it Buddah, but for whatever reason, I was asked to review this book, Your MBA Game Plan by Omari Bouknight and Scott Shrum. Shrum. That’s a fun last name to say. I like it.

As you may or may not have read in my Who Am I? section, I am currently killing ants in my room and sort of meandering about the bottom of a steep grassy hill, at the top of which lays my unfinished application to UCLA Anderson. Okay, the killing ants part isn’t really in my About section, but it is what I’m currently doing, and if you want to discuss what I’m currently not doing, that is applying for UCLA Anderson.

I want to go to business school because I have a fabulous gadget I’ve invented and I have no idea what to do with it. Bottom line? It helps writers (and readers). I want to go to business school because I thought of this fabulous idea for a website and I have no idea where to start. Bottom line? It helps writers. And readers.

As an English major 9 months ago, business school was the furthest thing from my mind. But after reading a charming little book called Trust Agents, I began to question my purpose. A quarter-life crisis happened, if you will. I decided that there was no way in hell I was going to sit back and be a drone. Being a drone is good for people who were born to be a drone, taught to be a drone, bred to be a drone, but I for one, was not. I wanted to go to business school.

Trust Agents ultimately taught me to shut up and do good things, be great at them, be good to people, and oh yeah, love it while you’re at it. I mentioned in my last blog post how I was struggling to decide whether or not writing was really my purpose in life because sometimes I enjoy blogging and connecting with writers more so than the actual writing. And then I realized that maybe in working towards what I thought my purpose was (writing), I actually found it.

I was born to be multipurpose. I’ve come to realize that like Swiss army knives, you too, can be multipurpose. And in multipurposing my way through the past couple days, and getting my fill of @laurenonizzle‘s wicked tweets on Twitter, I’ve realized that it’s okay to be crazy and have all of these things you want to do. It’s okay to not have one goal in mind. Why pursue one goal when you can pursue 12? So what if I want to get my MBA, start up a cool website, give the world a cool new gadget, and write a book all in the same lifetime? So what if I have multiple answers to the questions, “What do you want to do with your life?” and “What are you passionate about?” I think having to narrow those answers down to one wretched, cubicle goal is as depressing as having to decide which side of a buffet start at first.

Of course, pursuing 12 goals can be a little dizzying at the starting line, which was what originally stressed me out. But realizing there is a time and a place for things, helps. I’m no project manager, but I know that when I feel compelled to do something, it’s the right time to do it. And tonight when I got home tonight, all I wanted to do was learn.

The game plan? I want to go back to school. So I picked up this book. Even though it’s not the one I’m currently reading, I was inspired to pick it up and get started. Get started doing what? Ok, I’ll start from the top….

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