Orientation assignment

Write us a short bio including

Lesson-Orientation –Brandy

My handle here is SWPoet, but I am fine with being called by my first name, Brandy. I signed up for this class to work on fiction writing because I have heard some of the same comments with prose pieces I have done on WDC and I want to improve on these areas. I have several novel starters, but seem to sag in the middle. I would like to finish those, even if only the rough draft, before trying to edit them, but I don’t want to continue making the same mistakes throughout the novels. My future plans include continuing to work for my state human resources department as a social worker and to get some poetry books published in addition to finishing some of these novels I’ve started. I intend to work in social work as I have 12 ½ years with the state already, but writing is also more than just a hobby to me.

I enjoy reading books from newer authors and those that lean toward literary fiction and more realistic topics. I also enjoy Diana Gabaldon’s books, the Outlander series, due to their detail and realistic dialogue. Another favorite is Doug Crandell. I met him at a writer’s conference and we have exchanged emails with each other for the past year. He is a great mentor and encourager.

According to the feedback from the Young Adult Fiction group and other reviewers, I tend to do dialogue well and the Southern accents come out naturally since I live in a small town in Alabama and hear it all day. On the flip side, I tend to do info dumps in the early paragraphs and am having trouble, on the latest novel attempt at least, with deciding whether I’m targeting young adults or adults. I also need work on the “work habit” side as I tend to drag in the middle and then start something new. I would like to finish at least one just to show myself it can be done.

As for the bio, I am ¾ of the way through the 30’s, have been married almost ten years and I have two boys, 4 and 7. I’m a social worker but got my undergraduate in English and Psychology and masters in Social Work. My official bio is in my portfolio under the folder entitled Memoir Poetry. It deals with the inner bio versus the positions and school backgrounds. I’ve been writing periodically since childhood but so much more since finding WDC in September 2007. What a great community for writers! I am looking forward to this class.





DT - Orientation-Brandy

I don’t write in a journal daily but I keep a notebook near my bed or bathroom for when an idea comes up. I also write poems at times that serve, to me at least, as a page in a photo album. I know what I was thinking or what went on that inspired the poem. I did keep one daily during the month of December based on prompts. I enjoyed the process and I think it might be beneficial to try that again. As for starting a story, I think on the prompt or an idea and maybe even write the idea down on the back of my checkbook or on a piece of paper in my purse. Then when I get to a computer, I just go for it. I type fast so I can get it all out and then go back through later, reducing the words or expanding parts of the story if there is a word limit. I don’t do many short stories but I want to work on my prose writing since it is not as easy for me as poetry.

I see blogging as a place to share ideas, reactions to political or cultural happenings, prompt ideas, or responses to daily interactions with others but not really a personal journal. I don’t really like reading blogs that go on and on about one’s own boy/girl friend or very personal things but I do enjoy them if they make me think about something I hadn’t noticed or if they prompt me to write about something. I think it is more of a public journal, or rather, I enjoy those more than public diaries.