W00T!!

The libraries are getting some money.

MY library is getting some money. We're going to expand over the next four years. Yay!!!

The cost: A total of $636,600, made up of $224,000 for renovations; $273,000 for furniture, equipment and books; and $139,600 for new staff.

Hopefully some of that "new staff" means ME. But regardless, they really, really, really need, and deserve it.

(Some of) the best advice I've received about writing

Some notes from my Storytelling class, copied verbatim:

NO EGO.
Hang-ups, shyness, reticence... be willing to TRY.

The audience is NOT there to serve YOUR needs.

Feel stupid. It's a good thing.

Care. Self-revelation.

I'm afraid that doesn't make very much sense, but it is some of the best advice I've received.

No ego. You can't write very well while you're looking over your shoulder nervous about who you're going to offend or whether anyone's going to applaud you for what you've written. That's a really, really hard thing to learn, and I'm awful at it, yet--if nothing else, I know that I need to learn it.
Shortly before I saw the movie version of "Rent," I was listening to the soundtrack, and I figured out something I hadn't seen in it before (maybe this is really, really obvious to meaghanchan). As long as Roger's purpose is "writing one great song," he's not managing to write one great song. It's only when he cares about something else that he manages it.

"The audience is not there to serve YOUR needs." My prof was referring, there, to storytellers who tell maudlin stories about their own lives for the purposes of making themselves feel better. It's cringeworthy; and it's cringeworthy when writers do it.

Feeling stupid means that you're doing something you don't yet know how to do. If you only do things you already know how to do, you're not likely to learn. But, more than that, I think the better stories are the ones that start from a standpoint of humility; of exploring the territory, rather than deciding in advance what the territory is like.

The last bit is self-explanatory, but the hard part is self-revelation in a way that is for other people, and not for your own selfish reasons. I think the difference is that you must reveal the bad parts of yourself, and not in such a way as to earn sympathy or forgiveness, nor to project how awesomely tough and cynical you are, but with an attitude of honest vulnerability.

(Standard Disclaimer Here: generic 'you,' by which I usually mean 'me').