The Year of 52 Adventures

Updates from January, 2010 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  myndevore 11:05 pm on January 8, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: letters, writing ( 6 )   

  Adventure #1: kicking off the year-long adventures 

  Greetings friends!

  This week I worked on two year-long adventures:

  6. Write down one sentence everyday.

  27. Write letters to friends on their birthdays.

  Adventure No. 6 was inspired by McSweeney’s Issue No. 22. This issue contains three slim volumes cleverly stored in a leather bound cover with a magnetic binding. One of the volumes is titled, “From the Notebook: The Unwritten Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald.” Fitzgerald, inspired by novelist Samuel Butler, began keeping a notebook filled with inspiration and ideas for future stories. Fitzgerald kept a list of ideas, a few words here and there to inspire him later. Some of the entries include: The Dancer Who Found She Could Fly, Driving over the rooftops on a bet, and my personal favorite, Girl and giraffe. McSweeneys selected 17 writers to use Fitzgerald’s ideas as jumping off points for their own stories. The stories are included in the issue. Such a brilliant idea!

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  jeindeer 12:49 am on January 8, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Improv, No pants ( 2 ), organizing, sos ( 2 )   

  Planning: No Pants T Ride 

  This Sunday (1/10) is apparently the 3rd annual No Pants Subway Ride organized through Improv Everywhere. A Boston version is being organized by the folks at Boston S.O.S. (Society for Sponteneity), with the facebook event below. Fear not, it doesn’t involve No Pants Whatsoever; more like Less Pants Than Usual. Shorts are acceptable, even encouraged. Contributions have to fall within the threshold of “legal,” but they also are probably “unwise.” There were over 100 participants in Boston last year.

  I’m a long-time fan of Improv Everywhere, and this is one of my favorite acts of street theater they’ve pulled off (har har har). The effort through facebook doesn’t seem to be very coordinated yet, but if they start putting down some concrete plans, I may just be swayed.

  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=194245607559

  http://boston.going.com/event-706868;No_Pants_T_Ride

  http://twitter.com/BostonSOS

  http://www.soscities.org/

  I say we pack the stands.

  Aggie (anonymous), yearof52adventures, jscribe, and 1 other are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Anonymous 2:46 am on January 8, 2010 Permalink

    Seven of my adventuresom friends and I have decided that instead of making resolutions we would each make a list of things we have never done and will do in 2010. The lists are being shared and they are great. My list includes: make a souffle, go on a winter picnic, visit a local shrine, take a helicopter ride, go to the top of our City Hall and take a watercolor class to paint something to hang in my home. My friends’ lists include everything from making an apple pie from scratch to going to a National Park to watch the moose mate. We will help each other and join each other as we work to do our “firsts”. By the end of 2010 we will have an impressive list!

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    jscribe 3:57 am on January 8, 2010 Permalink

    Anonymous! Join the Year of 52 and share all your adventures with all of us! So exciting!

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    yearof52adventures 4:26 am on January 8, 2010 Permalink

    I have to agree with jscribe. I love the idea and think you should all team up with us. I’ll assign you as authors and you can regale us again and again with your lovely adventures.

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    Aggie (anonymous) 5:50 pm on January 8, 2010 Permalink

    I will share our adventures as we undertake them,

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  jscribe 12:04 am on January 8, 2010 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: 1/52 ( 20 )   

  Adventure #1 – Finding the Words 

  “I’ll probably never write again.” I surely said, tipping back a pint of Stella at DC’s Fox and Hound about 6 months ago. After I graduated from my MA in Writing I put my realism hat on. I knew I’d end up in a desk job, try to make enough money to buy a condo and, in all reality never write much more than a grocery list ever again. There was no market, and I had no great ideas. I told myself that I was ok with this – that I went to grad school to develop a skill not to actually become a writer.

  In the months since that decision, I’ve post a few times on my blog, written a weekly article for TheNewGay.net, drank beers, and watched Netlix. I’ve also felt disappointed. When some one said I was a good writer I said, “Nah, I don’t even write any more.” When some one said I was a writer at all I said, “Nah, I work for a non-profit.” I spent two years studying writing, I love the act of writing, so why wasn’t I writing?

  The answers to that question were pretty simple. I was scared to start new work without support, without feedback, without deadlines. I was scared to fail.

  In comes Adventure #1.

  For the new year, I knew I needed to become a new me. Act instead of react; do instead of desire. I had to push myself. I searched online and found a Meetup Group of writers who got together twice a month in my neighborhood, and after a couple of days of second guessing my confidence and my ability, I replied yes. Yes, I would meet them at the Center on Halsted on Wednesday, January 6th. Yes, I would write.

  Because I knew this was the jumping point for a Year of 52 Adventures, I embraced my nervousness. Like a rollercoaster. I made jokes, shared tips from my writing program and felt my heart go all a flutter as the group talked about parallelism, imagery, structure and repetition. I felt more in my element than I have in months with 4 strangers and a piece of new writing in my hand. I may put on a suit and ride the El to my job at a non-profit everyday, but in the Year of 52 Adventures, I’m a writer.