13 Ways of Looking at the Novel

by Jane Smiley. I just bought it from Kramerbooks and reading the introducation gave me a couple incredible sources of inspiration for projects. Isn't if funny, I'm only on page 14. I'm still working on my poetry book Whisks Wrapped in Leopard Print Ribbon. I was going to submit this manuscript to the Yale Series of Younger Poet's competition this year which is the last year that I can submit a manuscript to that competition. It's not going to happen as the premise for the book is that I would bake 200 new recipes, and write a poetry draft for each baked item. Then when I have 200 first drafts, I would edit and edit until I have about 50. It's been over a year since I started this project, and I just completed recipe 68. I'm still working on it because I haven't stopped baking, but it just won't be ready this year.

However, with this new Jane Smiley inspired project I'm going to write 200 Hours. I will go for walks totaling 200 hours. A walk from my work to the Union Station metro is an hour, and I know a nice long 2 hour-ish walk that I can do. Anyway, after each hour of walking I will draft a poem. I LOVE to walk. Walking an hour is just the thing for me. It makes complete sense that I would walk to write poetry. I don't plan on writing during that hour. A long walk, I may stop to draft a poem, and then when I get home draft another poem. During the summer the amount of times that a poem will be drafted will decrease dramatically because of the gawdawful weather. I'll probably knit more then.

The second project is to read 100 novels all written in 2000 or later. I don't know if I should include some of the brain candy I read nowadays; the Elm Creek Manor Quilts series, or books by Christopher Moore. If I don't read them then I may become boring; especially if I don't read the Christopher Moore books. I'll still figure out if I'm going to include them in the 100 books. Also, I should maybe designate the list 100 books so I can include non-fiction. I really LOVE fiction, as much as I LOVE walking. I'll start the project once I finish this Jane Smiley book as after that time I may have more guidelines as to how I will discuss the books. The books will be discussed online in this blog. The poetry will not be posted until it is finished. However, this is the first poetry project that I will save on the computer as opposed to in a journal. Some of the drafts will need to be handwritten first before I save them in the computer, but it will decrease the chance that I won't understand my handwriting, which can be a chore to read. Anyway, I'm very excited!