Changing Roles, Changing Writing Needs

[kathys_shadow]

This week, as part of her final VCFA residency for an MFA in writing for children and young adults, my mom, Sarah Blake Johnson, gave a presentation on character roles. Unluckily I wasn't able to attend the official lecture, but I did get to see one of her practice run-throughs. My mom wasn't talking about archetypal roles (for example, a Christ

Comments

[olmue]

Well, being a mom (especially of a newborn!) sure takes a lot of all-hands-on-deck energy! Most people are just exhausted for *quite* a while, and walk around in a haze. Some people get tremendous creative ideas (but again, are too tired to do much about it!) If you're in the second group, do keep a file for ideas so that someday when things open up again, you can come back to them. But other than that, yeah--biiiiiiig role changes ahead! (Definitely good ones!)

[kathys_shadow]

That's a good idea to keep an idea file, because I suspect that even if I do get good ideas, I will be in the exhausted category. :-)

The nice thing is, more than anything, I am so excited to be a mother. And there's lots of great mothers I know (like you) to look to for examples.

[boreal_owl]

Lovely sonnet! It makes sense that you'd be writing in shorter forms for a while. We all have to adjust our priorities from time to time.

[kathys_shadow]

I'm glad you liked the sonnet. :)

It's interesting--I haven't even had the baby yet, and I'm already having trouble keeping longer forms in my head. So I do agree with you--it does make sense to transition to shorter forms.

[robinellen]

I hope you can still find time (and desire) to post here occasionally -- I'd love to hear how things are going :) Being a first-time mom is very consuming (in mostly good ways), and I don't know if I'd have been able to blog when I did that...but by the time I had two kiddos, I needed that time for myself!

[kathys_shadow]

I hope I'm able to find time for lj as well, because I really love keeping up with everyone. Fingers crossed. :-)