Writing Course: Day One

I have a schedule, an agenda for the next two weeks. Today we did not complete said schedule. Today was simply another realization that we are destined to forge our own path through the forest of writing. *sigh* I'm happy though. It seems the floodgates of creativity have been opened, just not how I had planned.

We started well with a discussion on words. We dissected the Gettysburg Address by highlighting the powerful words. We discussed the impact of a three minute speech that chose the correct words over a long drawn out one. We then read a Shakespeare Sonnet. Number 18. Powerful and rich in language. We read through a paraphrase to understand the meaning. I reminded him that someday he might want to date a girl (like when he's 30!) and that she would think it was cool if he could recite Shakespeare to her. This is when we talked about having an audience for your writing was important. At which point I ad-libbed a Redneck rendition of Sonnet 18. Z loved it. So for your reading enjoyment:

The Real Shakespeare Sonnet 18

SONNET 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date: 

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; 

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest: 

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Paula's Redneck Version:

You are just like the sweatball hanging off my nose

Except you look better and don't smell

Even though the wind will blow the sweatball off my nose

and this summer is awful,

and I'll be sweating more because

because of this infernal humidity.

Don't worry about them grey hairs, 

that fact you never lost the weight from our last child,

You still look hot in that tube top. 

Even when you die I won't think of you that way

because whenever I have a sweatball hanging off my nose I'll think of you

So long as people step outside and start to sweat for no good reason

You will live forever. 

After this we took a lunch break. Apparently at some point the floodgates of creativity were opened. Z came back to class with a renewed enthusiasm for creating...a world in Minecraft, nothing to do with writing, nothing to do with the rest of schedule. *grin* We spent two hours together designing the world. He drew a rough sketch on the dry erase board (great investment!) and then drew a scale version on some graph paper I found in the basement yesterday. 

The joy on his face was unmistakable. We had a great discussion on what needed to go where, how to stay symmetrical in his design (his choice), and why he wanted things to appear as such. We only completed one more of the assignment I had hoped, but today was a good day. 

He'll remember me helping him be creative more than he would the assignment on paragraphs I had so diligently planned. *sigh* I did remind him that tomorrow we needed to do more to make up for today. 

Someone also linked this video when I mentioned our diversion in sonnets. It reminded me that there are many ways to use a Shakespearean sonnet. This one made me laugh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxB1gB6K-2A

I can't wait for tomorrow. I have a schedule, we'll see what happens.