Tuesday Quickwrite - Slanted Credo and Quick Interview with Marlon Grunt

I really tried to cut down on my blog-length today, since I'm making a concerted effort to spend more time on finishing revisions for Secret Order of Extraordinary Outcastz.  Although, I will say that all of the writing practice I've done lately for TeachersWrite! has naturally fallen into my current WIP, The Rude Awakening of Marlon Grunt.  I think it's because I'm longing to sit down and spend my writing time working on it.  Good, that's the kind of anticipation I want to build for myself.  It's going to have to build a while longer, because I'm bound and determined to get the SOEO manuscript revisions done first.  I've set a personal deadline for that project of the weekend after July 4th, so I really need to get on the ball.  (Look at that, I've already spent too much time blogging today. Gah!)

Okay, the assignment today came from two authors, and we could choose one of the many assignments they laid out for us as a quick write.  I chose two.  I chose to write the slanted credo suggested by author and poet Sara Lewis Holmes for myself.  It's called a "slanted" credo because instead of writing "I believe..." we were asked to start with, "I Don't Believe...")  It's short because:

1) I found this difficult at first.  I kept wanting to start with "I Believe".  This will probably be a great exercise for some of my writing for characters.  What do they believe or not?  BTW, for twenty minutes, I could not get this scene from Bull Durham out of my head:  (WARNING: Rated PG-13)

2) I was trying to keep it under 100 words (Which I did! Yay!) ...although the point of that is sort of lost since I"M WRITING THIS STUPIDLY LONG BLOG POST. Hi, I'm Jessica, and I have a writing problem.  I CAN'T SHUT MY PIEHOLE! (in writing terms, would that be instead, I CAN'T STILL MY PIE-FORKERS? I digress.)

Here 'tis:

I don’t believe…

• That skinnier is happier.
• That dogs are man’s best friend.
• That any politician exists anywhere but inside a bubble of collective ego.
• That outside is better than inside…I LIKE air conditioning.
• That there is any issue in the world that doesn’t have gray area.
• That you should ever make a judgment about someone without trying to imagine their side as well.
• That the Chicago Cubs deserve a World Series win because it’s been so long, but it sure would be nice.
• That I am comfortable defining what I believe by what I don’t believe.

The second quick write I did was a quick, two-question character interview suggestion from guest author Joy Preble which turned out to be difficult for a couple of reasons:

1) I don't know a whole lot of sixteen year old boys who are terribly forthcoming about their feelings.  So, from that aspect - since it was something he was "saying" instead of "thinking" Marlon was having difficulty finding the words.

2) I was trying to keep it short, and it felt like I could've gone on FOREVER if allowed to skate around inside Marlon's head rather than ask him what he'd SAY if asked.

Anywho...here 'tis:

Marlon Grunt, how do you see yourself?

I’m…I don’t know.  It’s hard to separate what other people think about me from what I think about me. I’m a son to my mom, but I don’t know if I’m a good son. We piss each other off a lot. I’m a great older brother to Phoebe. I’m a half-orphan, since my dad is dead. I’m a kick-ass friend to Chick and Blue. I’m a so-so student. I’m half-black, half-white.  I suck at sports, but I’m a good musician.  I guess I could start with what I am.  I’m a drummer. I’m a superfan of Green Day, and I’d give my left nut to meet Tre Cool. I have all these dreams that I want for myself and the people around me, but I can’t seem to catch a break.  I’m the kid that the world seems to kick around, but I just keep getting back up for another punch. I’m tired of getting back up.

How do you think others see you?

If they see me at all, I think they see me as maybe a nice nobody kind of guy.  Kind of geeky.  Weird.   Poor.  Trailer Trash.  Some of them think I’m a door mat.  A couple of them think I’m completely emo. They don’t know very well at all, really.