Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Who knew?

Right about now I’m wishing I had some legitimate writers’ training other than the single creative writing course I took my first year of college—my only year at Ohio State. Quite literally, I remember absolutely nothing about that class except one seemingly innocent assignment. We were supposed to pick a subject (assuming I remember this correctly) and play up all the sensory details of a little moment in time or a memorable vignette. I wasn’t living on campus, and on my way back home, I’d sometimes stop at McDonalds to pick up lunch. No one knows why (least of all me), but for some reason, I settled on the idea of writing my paper on the simple enjoyment of a McDonald’s cheeseburger. The very idea sounds foreign to me now—it’s been forever since I’ve had a Mickey D’s burger. But, whatever happened to be going through my co-ed mind…I wrote the paper. And I was rather proud of it too. Even more so when my professor decided to read it aloud for the class—she only read two or three. Imagine my surprise when I started seeing the smiles…then the snickers. Evidently my classmates thought there was something slightly (or overtly) pornographic about my ode to the cheeseburger. I have to admit—I never got it, but I showed the paper to my then-boyfriend, now-husband, and he agreed that indeed it was. I still have the paper. But I really don’t think it should be posted here—otherwise I might be slotted as a writer of erotica…

So you see…absolutely nothing came out of my creative writing endeavors—unless something is left up in my subconscious. So I’m really eating up all the tips I get on blogs, in conferences, and even in craft manuals. But I think I need to stop. I need to get on with my writing and just see how I do. My summer excuses are beginning to look quite lame…

3 comments:

Lucy said...

Oh, go ahead and post your ode to the Cheeseburger. :-)

Tempest Knight said...

Okay, now you got me (very) curious about the ode to cheeseburger. *g* I think because I eat burgers every Friday, I don't see it as an erotic activity, so I'd like to see how eating cheeseburger can be erotic.

Alyssa Goodnight said...

I didn't think it was the slightest bit erotic. In fact, I was a little freaked out that it was taken that way. To say nothing of that poor defenseless cheeseburger...

I'll think about posting, but it would have to just stay between the three of us--the sum total of my commenting readers. ;) Hi Tempest! Please come back to visit.