Writing…not…happening…

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

Read the title of this post like a dying William Shatner character and you’ll understand how I feel.  I have writing momentum.  I know what I want to write.  I wrestle a little on the sentence level, but that’s what writing is about.  I am ready to write this novel. So what’s the problem?

Everything else.

I know I should be writing regardless of everything else, no matter how thin my time allowance or how important my distractions, but in the realm of priorities, the novel is on a lower rung.  Tests are the main distraction.  My students take their end of course test on May 3rd (even though the course continues until the end of May).  And of course there’s that blasted Praxis on Saturday.  I’m still writing when I get a window, but most of the windows are getting filled with other things.  Next week will be clearer with the Praxis behind me.  May gets even better with the EoC behind my students.  Then the bliss of summer.

There will always be disruptions and distractions.  I find I work better with a bend-but-don’t-break mentality than with a Postman’s Creed mentality.  So the novel will get there…eventually.  Once I break the 10% mark it should be smoother sailing, or so my calendar suggests.  *crosses fingers…then uncrosses them to type*

Down the Drain

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

Did you know that a sonnet has 14 syllables per line?  I didn’t…because they have ten.  Even a first grader can count syllables.  But the Cliff’s Notes Praxis II study guide says it’s 14, as in the number of dollars I spent on the book.

It’s in the answers to the practice test that itt comes up.  It also states that said sonnet is written in iambic pentameter (which they are) but provides an answer that denies this.  Arraagh!!

So what?  One little mistake isn’t that bad, is it?  No, not if it’s one.  Upon reading the Amazon reviews of this book I realized that there is a lot of misinformation in the book, both the study notes and the practice test.  And excuse me for not knowing whether Graymalkin was the cat or the toad in Macbeth.  Really, that’s the type of thing the Praxis will ask.  I hope not.

So I will take my practice test grade with a grain of salt and check my wrong answers with other sources.  Then I’ll double-check the ones I got right but wasn’t sure about.  And somewhere in there I’ll make sure I’m ready for my Pedagogy test.

Are there laws protecting people like me from bad information?  If I fail the Praxis due to answers from this book’s faulty information, can I sue Cliff’s Notes for my eighty bucks (cost of the test)?  Hopefully I won’t have to find out.

Things other than Communism that sound better on paper

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I was going to try to kick my way-overboard caffeine habit this weekend. I made it 30 hours.

I got hit with the obligatory debilitating headache around 4 AM Saturday (still Friday night to me) after avoiding the big C all that day.  I woke up miserable but intending to fight through it.  Then my wife pointed out my schedule for the next few weeks.  I drove to the nearest market for a two liter Mountain Dew.

Let’s break the schedule down.  Next Saturday is the much-blogged-about Praxis tests that will determine whether I will teach a creative writing class or not.  I need to be to the campus, registered, and seated by 7:30 that morning.  (Is that possible without caffeine?)  Between now and then I have to be sure I am ready for said test, which means cramming like I haven’t crammed since I was an undergrad over a decade ago.  (More caffeine.) Oh, and I am teaching my Algebra students to use the graphing calculators we JUST got…and they need to be proficient by May 3rd if they’re going to be worth the effort at all.  (Caffeine may not be strong enough to help clean those stables….no charge for the random Hercules reference.)

I could have navigated this weekend with the hangover-from-hell style headache, but it would have sucked, and I ran the risk of scarring my daughter for life in reaction to her very natural tantrums.  (Worst case scenario, but you get the picture.)

On top of all that, I’m trying to write a novel (ha!), teaching regular classes, raising a three-year-old, enduring feuds, scrimping to save money to afford the new car we bought (Kia Sorento, quite nice)…I even mowed the lawn today.  So I have much going on.  I need not add caffeine withdrawl to the mix, so I won’t.  We’ll save that for the future.

Full disclosure: I have been caffeinated most of my life, but the few times I was able to wean myself, I really had a lot more energy.  Unfortunately, even though the headaches dry up after a couple days, the energy boost takes a week or three to really kick in.  So yes, I intend to get there eventually and try to stick with it when I do, but it’s a tough bridge to cross.

It Has Begun

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

I have officially and formally begun my as-yet-untitled YA novel.  I’m aiming for somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 words, so let’s call it a cool 50,000.  (Maybe I’ll get a progress bar set up some time.)  

I’m currently sitting at 1500 words.  That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s 3%.  Woohoo!  At that rate, I’ll have a finished draft in 67 days (2 days to get those 1500 words).  I do intend to speed up a little.  

I’ll aim to have my first draft by June 15th.  It would be better if it was done by the beginning of June, before I go to ConCarolinas.  We’ll see how it goes.  Hopefully my outline will help ward off writer’s block.

No to go home and get another 1500 or so tonight.

Frankenstein

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 4 Comments

Got through the nearly 3-hour Frankenstein Rocketbook.  Whew.  But drawing up the outline for the pedagogy test was a snap.  I hope the story is on my list!

I managed to find two major literary characteristics without touching on either Gothic or Science Fiction literature.  I opted for Romanticism and Metanarration (narration that draws attention to itself, particularly Robert relaying Victor’s telling of the monster’s story) and the questions of reliability this brings about.

Anyway, next up is Beowulf.  Only an hour again this time, thank goodness.  I’ve got good assignments for this one, particularly the write-you-own-epic-poem assignment, one I actually did in high school.  Our string of limericks for Frosty versus the Sun was memorable.  (Frosty lost.)

In other writerly news (which is what this blog is supposed to be about, right?), my novel outline moved along well until recently.  I haven’t tried it much of late.  It has deliberate attempts to sit back and let the story progress instead of the short story technique of pushing the plot along as fast as the narrative can support.  It shouldn’t take more than an hour to finish the outline.

After that, I’ll move on to character sketching.  I have an urge to start writing again, but it’s still too soon.  Maybe I’ll write a few little backstory scenes to help get the feel for the characters, scenes that won’t go in the novel.  (I’ll sell them in the future when the novel is a huge commercial success.)  Prewriting is important.  I am still resisting the urge to skip it.  But I need to get moving if it’s going to be ready by mid-August.

Mysterious Testing

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

Yes, I’m a little preoccupied with this Praxis test thing.  It’s just over two weeks away,

I took the 90-question practice test out of an ebook and got 75 of them right.  75 out of 90 sounds pretty good, right?  That’s 83 percent.  To pass I only need…I don’t know.

The tests each have a raw-to-scaled conversion table based on the test’s relative difficulty.  I need a scaled score of 157 out of a possible 200 to pass the content knowledge test (minimum score of 100).  Al I can be sure of is my raw score.  Supposedly there are conversion tables for specific practice tests out there, though no general conversions.  I can’t find any of them.  If some other practice test told me that 83% translated to a 183 or a 143, that would at least give me a ballpark idea of where my current performance falls.  [Note: the real test has 120 questions, but I can use proportionality to get some idea, can’t I?]

This is a test that includes some education theory.  Part of education theory (even questions relevant for the test) say that students should be aware of the scoring ruberic and/or passing requirements before they take the test.  Ironic that the real passing requirements are such a mystery.

I have ordered another test prep book.  It was cheap and I should be able to recoup half the money reselling it, so I went ahead and bought it.  It may provide a conversion table, but I don’t know.  It should help.  I may be cramming for a test I could have passed the first day it was suggested or I may be wasting time prepping for a test I will never be ready for.  I’d like to know one way or the other.

Analyzing Writing and Writing for Analysis

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I’ve been working on my pedagogy test outlines.  So far I have reasonable outlines for The Hobbit, 1984, and The Great Gatsby.  If I can remember enough from those outline, I suspect I can score at least 4 out of 6 points on the test.  Not terrible, especially since I’ve only read one of those.  (Yeah for Rocketbooks and SparkNotes!)  

As I prepare to approach the test, it makes me wonder about how my own stories would be analyzed.  What are the literary characteristics?  Ah, who cares.  The question that really sparks my interest is the one that asks what barriers students would experience in trying to read/analyze my stories.   Hmm.

I’d like to say that the science gets a little too technical, but it doesn’t.  That’s usually deliberate, wanting my writing to be as accessible as possible.  There are some dark themes in some of my stories, particularly the importance of drug use and incest in “Poison Inside the Walls”.  

Does every story need to have two distinct barriers to comprehension?  Or just the ones deemed worthy to study in an English class?

Ooh! A rejection!

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I only have about five stories out right now, so it’s been a while since a rejection came in.  Well, I just got one.  Strange Horizons doesn’t want “Leech Run”.  *sigh*  Form reject, as usual.  This story is running out of promising pro markets.  Maybe one of the upstarts, like Bull Spec.  (Lightspeed already passed at a rate appropriate to its name.)

Rocketbook: 1984

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

Let’s face it, a one-hour video summary and analysis is not the way to experience classic literature.  I am probably robbing myself of some of the joy of reading and experiencing these novels by getting them spoonfed to me in indigestible lumps.  On the other hand, who can read a novel in an hour?  Not me.

I was already familiar with a lot of 1984’s symbolism and ideology.  Big Brother, 2+2=5 (or as Picard would say: “There…are…four…lights!”), even The Party’s influence over history.  I find the details of Newspeak fascinatingly horrifying.  I feel like I have a better idea how to answer the 3 questions for 1984 than for Great Gatsby.  A lot of what made Gatsby a great book was in the actual writing whereas more of 1984’s greatness comes from the ideas.  I’ll prep responses for both.  I want to start doing 3 a week so I’ll have a good 9 or 10 to draw from when I reach the actual test.  I really suspect I’ll be writing about Shakespeare since it’s pretty well guaranteed to have something of his on the list, but we’ll see.  It would be nice if I could write on Orwell or Tolkein instead.  But as long as I don’t have to B.S. something about Pride and Prejudice, I’ll be happy.

I think this technique is proving effective.  If I get a block of free time (hahaha), I’ll watch 1984 over the computer with Netflix.  I also plan to nose through a few SparkNotes online since Rocketbooks’ selections are limited.

Next up: Frankenstein.  I read it the summer before 9th grade; it was on a required reading list.  I didn’t get it then.  No time for the reread right now, but I can Rocketbook it.

I hear mixed comments regarding the accuracy of different film adaptations of Frankenstein.  Which is more accurate, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with DeNiro or the made-for-TV version with Luke Goss?  Input from scholarly types appreciated.  (You too, Tracie.  🙂

My First Rocketbook

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I thought I already wrote this post.  Senility in my middle age.

Anyway, I watched the first Rocketbook video from Netflix: The Great Gatsby.  Let’s face it, it wasn’t earth-shattering by any account.  It wasn’t especially entertaining.  It wasn’t more clear than Cliff’s or Spark Notes are.  The illustrations were only mildly helpful and only mildly decent.  It was late when I watched it and I nearly fell asleep a few times.

On the upside, it was quicker than trying to read a text-based study guide and Mach speeds faster than reading the book.  I got a much deeper sense of the literary elements than watching the movie would have given.  I effectively went from zero to test-ready with The Great Gatsby in an hour.  Not bad.

But am I really ready for the pedagogy test?  (The content knowledge will be too broad to fully cram for.)  Well, let’s see.  You English-teachery types out there, keep me honest.

The Praxis pedagogy test will ask three questions about a list of high-school-relevant literature.  The questions are always the same, but the list of works changes.  They are (abbreviated):

  1. describe two literary features important to the work (with examples);
  2. describe two obstacles to student understanding (specific to this work); and
  3. describe two assignments that address answers from 1 and 2.

I considered trying to answer these questions here, but they were long, boring, and woefully incomplete.  I need the full story to go with the nice tidbits I gleaned from the Rocketbook.  Sure, the doctor’s eyes on the billboard symbolize the judgment of God, but what was he judging?  The green light symbolizes Gatsby’s misguided and illusory goal of getting Daisy, but why was that misguided again?  Nick’s rejection of Jordan symbolized his rejection of high society, but what led to that?  Was it the hit and run?

Question 2 is probably the hardest to answer with the knowledge I have now.  The twenties time period might be an obstacle.  Maybe the gray characters rather than raw good and bad?  Tom’s racism might catch a few kids off guard.

I think a nice, loyal-to-the-book video would make a nice companion to the Rocketbook.  Yeah, yeah, reading the book would be better, but I take the test in a few weeks.  I just don’t want to spend too much time on Gatsby because there’s no guarantee it will even make the list!  I’m trying to troll the waters for potential tidbits.  I’ll be okay if a Shakespeare piece I know hits the list of works: Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar, or MacBeth.  I know Midsummer Night’s Dream okay, but I doubt it will be included.  Animal Farm, Beowulf, Scarlet Letter, a couple Poe shorts, The Hobbit — those I can do.  (What would it take to sneak Ender’s Game or Fahrenheit 451 onto the list?)

The good news on this test is that half of it comes from an analysis of student writing.  That I believe I can do.  (Thank you, Critters!)  A passing score can reportedly be ALMOST achieved from just one of the two parts.  So if I can squeak out half the literature points, I’ll be in good shape.

I plan to fully write responses for a few different works (maybe including Gatsby, R & J, MacBeth, Hobbit…just to be indulgent, Scarlet Letter, Frankenstein, Beowulf?) so I can push through them faster on the test.  It seems the smartest approach, not unlike the exhaustive study process I used to prepare for college history tests.  *shiver*  As long as I pass it, the school will reimburse the cost of the test.  Big incentive to study hard.  Fingers crossed.