College Student Writer's Union: Life on campus the fan-fiction way!

Aww... you guys make me want to go back to school, exams and all! I think if I were independently wealthy (very wealthy!) I would be a professional student. I'd go to culinary school, get a degree in creative writing, photography, history, archeology, heck, I'd probably even see if I could get into med school. But alas, I am not.
I am thinking about getting a Masters in a few years, I'm just not sure in what yet!

Abeja, I did that a time or two and it didn't turn out well. I also tried to ignore an undergraduate thesis that I had to do and ended up doing it in two weeks. (I'm sure there are a few people around here that could tell you about it, I think I whined for quite sometime! Everyone was very helpful, though!) Let me tell you, that was not a good idea!

 

I don't have exams, but I'm currently doing three shows, two of which are being performed within days of each other. One of those two is currently being deadly... we have eight rehearsals to put it together. We haven't even blocked the second act yet. I want to kill myself.

Even the prospect of Reading Week during the last week of February isn't helping much, since it means that everyone is gone (mostly to the Caribbean and various other warm vacations spots) and we don't have rehearsals at all.

Wheeee! Someone please remind me why I want to be an actor again.

 

Remind me again why I thought it was a good idea to ignore the exams... oh well, I did learn for them and I think it'll be alright, but oh dear I feel as if a Stardestroyer has been dropped on me... Reminds to never try the quick-learn-method again- you all were certainly right and I should have known better We like to say here "Nachher ist man immer schlauer" meaning that you know after the exam you should have learned more before

...Tomorrow a spoken exam in Chinese and then only Economics to go....did I just say only?
God, semester holidays where are you???

Sil, I hope you did well on your assignments and the exam!

mavjade, oh that sounds very stressful! (can I use that word? My English fails me at times) In two weeks!? You must have worked all the nights through

Idrelle- you want to be an actor? That's awesome! What are the shows you do about?

 

As You Like It (for which I am not concerned; it's not a full "show" per se, because we're only doing scene work from it, but we have to treat it as if we were doing the full thing); an absurdist play I wrote myself and I'm also directing; and a Canadian play called Shatter about the Halifax explosion in 1917 (this is the one for which I want to kill myself since we're running out of time ).

My ideal job would be, yes, a professional actor - but that doesn't mean I have stars in my eyes, so to speak. I have absolutely no qualms about how hard the theatre world is and I also really, really, really do not want to be a big name actor. I also do not intend to go to the States to pursue a career - I think that too many Canadian actors take that route, and we need to stay in our home country and support the arts that we have, otherwise we'll never grow if we keep giving away our talent. People always complain how Canada doesn't have any good film/TV or major, major theatre - well, if we stayed around and worked at it, then maybe we would.

 

Somehow I haven't actually died yet this semester. I'm taking three regular classes and a dance class, but my workload hasn't dropped at all! One of the classes is eating my brain alive, and won't give me any rest at all. And it's required for my major! Funny enough, my capstone seminar has proved to be no work at all. The professor is such a space cadet that I'm wondering if we're going to have any work at all this semester. Not that I'm complaining.

Scary thing of my life now: job-hunting! Being a second semester senior is terrifying.

 

This semester seems to be going well for me, too! Surprisingly, I've had more free time to work on my writing, even with a recital, two concerts, and a big audition coming up.

If anything is scaring me right now, it's the big audition. Right now I'm at a small-ish liberal arts college as a Vocal Performance major, but the fit isn't quite right, even after two years in. The liberal arts requirements really take away from my music training, the school isn't really performance based (it's geared more for music therapy/education), the politics that go on are ridiculous, there aren't many performing opportunities with the school itself, and there isn't a studio (voice) teacher here that's really good. That being said, and considering the fact that I want to become an opera singer (the MET, anyone? ), I'm going to try and transfer out. I have an audition at a big music conservatory in two weeks, and it's kinda scary. I've been practising like crazy, however, so I'm hoping my intense preparation will ensure that I give a solid audition. Even more so, I hope I'm good enough to meet their standard...

~Celeste

 

Auditioning itself is a talent on its own. I know a lot of actors who struggle with auditions - they are brilliant at acting, but as soon as they are put into the artificial environment of an audition, they freeze up and become almost useless, stumbling over their words as they try to proceed with their performance piece. I've never auditioned for a voice program, but I can imagine that it has a similar effect - so warm-up, be relaxed and remember to breathe. Seems like a weird thing to say, but a lot of people forget to breathe and end up holding it in when they're in stressful circumstances - the more you are able to relax and let go, the easier auditions become.

With that being said - good luck!

 

Oh, yes! It was very stressful and I nor my boyfriend at the time got really any sleep. It is not something I would recommend.
You would think I would have learned to not procrastinate after that but, nope! I still do1


Good luck Celeste!

I agree, Idrelle, auditioning is a talent on it's own. I was always fine during dance auditions, in fact I tend to do better there (and on stage) than I ever did in class. Vocal auditions I'm awful, when I auditioned for All State Choir in high school my voice was shaking something awful. It's been so long since I've done an acting audition () I wouldn't know how I was now.

 

Celeste, I agree that liberal arts schools are strange places. The music majors here also have that same problem with performance- if that's what you want to do, you're actually better off majoring in theatre, as the music department is extremely academic. And college politics make me want to cry in a corner at times; I keep getting mixed up into them due to being a club president and having friends in government. It's unpleasant.

Good luck with your auditions! Opera is completely awesome.

 

Hey, can I join in? Yeah, being in college slowed my writing down pretty much...I hate it when I have the time to write I am feeling too tired to do anything...

 

I miss being a student, if only because it gave me something to do.

 

Hi people! I'm in my sophomore year of college... and new to the JC forums here, although i've been a SW fan for a long time. I'm co-writing a rather long story with my friend right now while taking 12 credits this semester .

 

For graduates of the teenage writer's thread, has anyone else found that writing was much easier in high school? Senior in college now, and my last truly productive creative period was the summer after I graduated high school, if I'm remembering correctly. I definitely think I have more to bring to my writing now (life experience, maturity, crazy stories, etc.), but the inspiration just doesn't come as easily.

On a different note: anybody studying English lit, creative writing, or rhetoric/composition? I'm in a tech writing program now but will be applying to Rhet/comp grad programs in the fall. Was wondering how many of us write IRL.

 

<sneaks in, waving a hand>

Thought I would sneak in and say hello to everybody. I'm a sophomore at a music school on the east coast and love writing stories, though I haven't written any stuff in the vein of "Star Wars" in a while. Hope to collaborate with everybody in the future.

- CorellianJazz

 

Erm, hello. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things re: college and fanfic; has anyone here ever taken an extended leave from both and then had to wrestle with the anxiety of jumping back in? I'm going back to college this fall (I'll be a junior) but I took two years off to work and deal with some personal issues. Gotta admit, I'm excited to be going back, but I'm pretty terrified, too.

 

The most difficult thing about being in any sort of arts program, I think, is that because your school life is consumed by creativity, it's difficult to expend some of that creative energy towards the hobby (fanfic) when it needs to go towards schoolwork. Then, of course, there's times when schoolwork is just a hell of a lot more exciting than fanfic. I miss the time I had to write back in highschool. Some months I literally have no time - I just finished a show, and when I look back at the past two weeks, all of my free time was either spent eating or attempting to catch up on sleep.

 

Luna_Nightshade, I completely agree about school projects sucking up interest and creativity. I am so excited by and involved with my classwork and independent research projects that after a day of intensive, focused writing, more writing is the last thing on my mind.

jedi_of_enith: yes, done both. I haven't been seriously involved in fanfic since I graduated high school, and am trying to get back into it now. It's pretty disorienting to come back after four years and not recognize a lot of the faces, and to process tonal shifts in the fandom. So still adjusting there. However, I also did the leave of absence from school thing (1 semester, a year ago). Granted, it wasn't as long as yours, but like you I was intimidated and nervous about returning to school. I felt that maybe I had lost some crucial element necessary to succeed, and there were a bunch of other reasons besides academic that had me worried, social re-integration being one of them. But it all worked out. The first month was hard. After that, it was like I had never left. This semester is the best I've ever had. Hope everything goes fine for you in these areas!

 

Yeah, I agree about the school projects...Sometimes even when I have the time I don't have the will to write and when I want to write something there is no time for that... Well I still manage to write some snippets but still...

 

I also agree with what you said about school projects, Admiral. Sometimes I also get that weird feeling of just being fed up with letters. There is only so much you can read and after a daily sixty pages session dealing with the Chinese agriculture and the Chinese climate zones, I can't bring myself to look at more words, even if fanfictions are a great deal more interesting than the texts I have to read for university. But even the thought of more words makes my head hurt then.

 

Idri, I completely agree. I'm double-majoring in Illustration and Creative Writing - and the classes for Illustration alone are taking up all of my time. I haven't had time to update pretty much of anything these days... With the creative programs, you have to devote so much outside time to your craft.

 

Finals done (for most of us?)...you know what that means! No excuses for not catching up on fic. Well, less excuses anyway.

 

Finals? What finals?

(I don't have any, aside from the practical music jury and auditions ).

I'm working at school for the next two months, so being on campus makes me feel like I'm still a student. I'm actually thinking of going to the library to crack open the Shakespeare text books again. Oh, and I just got cast in the mainstage production of Orpheus Descending next year. It's exciting, but I doubt I'll be around the boards much or writing any due to commitment to school and the show.

 

Mine are still ongoing but soon they will be over and will be able to get back to writing

 

Thanks everyone for the good luck wishes! I got accepted to the conservatory!! (Which now means moving away to a big city!! )

On topic: So, finals are over now for everyone I'm guessing, but how're we doing on the writing front? For my part, I'd have to say that I'm not doing extremely well. I really have no excuse not to write, especially considering that I'm jobless for the summer (so far), so I have all the time in the world. However, looking back at my post history, I tended to write more when I had 5 million things going on. I'm starting to wonder if I just work better under pressure. I've sat down at my computer to write a number of times, and just ended up with my hands on the keyboard and staring blankly at the screen. And not for any lack of ideas either. I just can't seem to get motivated. Is this happening to anyone else?

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!!

~Celeste

 

I'm not having any trouble writing, just can't seem to get into the fanfic groove. Although I had a plot bunny tonight, so maybe that will change. I do agree with the pressure theory. I'm doing a full time, very high stress internship this summer, and the pressure and time availability is pretty similar to school levels, but am still in a creative upswing. Last summer, though, when I was unemployed and just loafing around home, I didn't write a single word. I think maybe it has something to do with brain activity? Or routine? [/pseudopsychology]