I’d like to tell you a story. Several years ago, economist Tyler Cowen conducted a survey asking participants to describe their lives in a few words. People responded with “a battle,” “a journey,” “a race,” and even “a carousel.” No one responded with “a mess.”
When most people write biographies, they take a similar tack. They try to sum themselves up in one or two words. I am not most people. Here is a word cloud.
Some of these things are related to each other. Many are not. They are all, however, part of my story. As Cowen points out, reality – mine, yours, everyone’s – is a mess. It’s the storyteller’s job to create some narrative, some meaning out of that mess.
I spent over a decade making movies. Yes, real movies. Here is a screenshot from the credits of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender.
A few years ago, I returned to school and earned my MFA in Creative Writing from Drexel University. I found that I enjoyed being back on campus and helping students work on their own writing. Plus, no one is ever going to ask me to teach a class outside, in the rain on a Friday night. Today I am an assistant teaching professor at Drexel University, and I continue to write fiction in my spare time. This blog shares my process, what I’ve learned along the way, and the occasional, messy musing.
Vargoing 