Time to Make Wishes

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Breathing heavily, the old year is preparing to depart. It has always excited me to turn a page into a new year. I am always looking forward to it like a child to birthday presents. "The way you celebrate New Year's Eve, that's what the year will be like," Russians say, and it works for me. That's why I try to leave no unfinished business in the old year.

And one of my favorite things to do is to write a list of wishes for New Year in order to look back at it when the year is over and see how much progress I have made. The truth is, sometimes we do not realize how much we have actually accomplished. The list helps to make things clear.

But of course, out of ten or so items, there's a lot left undone in the end of the year, and I do not get upset about those things. Everything has its time. The unaccomplished goals will remain on the list for the following year. As long as there is a direction and sort of a plan, everything will work out just fine.

To tell the truth, even though this was not the greatest year of all, with hurricane Sandy, the end of the world prognosis and many other bad news the TV was boasting of, I am very proud of myself looking back at 2012. I have published my first short story in an online magazine and came back to blogging. I have continued the quest for my dreams at Hunter College, and what a fruitful semester that was! I have also learned how to dance salsa and taken a few writing classes, not because I had to, but because they brought me joy and satisfaction.

I like to think of New Year as of moving to another apartment: bringing the best of my belongings with me, leaving the junk behind and making a list for the future. That's exactly what I am planning to do in the next 24 hours. Time to make wishes, ladies and gentlemen!

A Taste for Writing

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www.the-blueprints.com

There finally is a book about writing fiction that does not only teach the readers the tricks of fiction craft through writing assignments they can try when they have free time, but also tells a story of a teacher, who is struggling with her family situation and writer's block at the same time. The book is The Fiction Class by Susan Breen, and it is a pleasant and inspiring read for those who likes reading and writing stories.

The action takes place within ten weeks of Arabella Hicks' fiction writing class in New York City, over the course of which she teaches her students about plot, character, voice, etc. Every week there are in-class and take-home assignments, some of which the students share with each other. The reader feels that he or she is also present in the class learning the writing craft, contemplating the assignments and hearing the discussions.

At the same time, the book is built around Arabella's story. She is a single woman in her late thirties, whose mother is ill and resides in a nursing home. Arabella's relationship with her mother is distant; she visits her mother every Wednesday, which happened to be the day of her writing class this time. As Arabella tells her mother, Vera, about the class, she realizes that Vera herself always wanted to be a writer, and she discusses the exercises with her, wondering what her mother would make of them.

One great thing about the book is the variety of characters, the mysteries unraveled in front of the reader as the class progresses. They have their own joys and tragedies they share as they become more comfortable with the teacher and their classmates. Every one of them has different reasons for taking the fiction class, and many are wondering if they have talent for writing, to which Arabella responds that it is often not the talent but determination that makes a writer.

Of course, the most complex and vivid character is the protagonist, Arabella. She has a few flaws and a few virtues. She has not been a remarkable writer and she has never published a novel. In the beginning of the novel we are wondering if she is qualified to teach the fiction class. Whether or not she is a good daughter is also questionable. At the same time, she is very observant and not judgmental, as every writer should be.

What keeps the reader's attention throughout the book is the variety of themes the author explores. We are dealing not only with writing, but also with family, relationships, romance, calling, as well as life and death. Observing her students, Arabella often makes assumptions about them, which are sometimes right and sometimes wrong, and we see that people are so multi-dimensional that we can never be sure what to make of them.

And last but not least, the novel is well-composed and rich in descriptions, which again makes the reader feel like a part of the class. There is always a new lesson and a new visit to Vera, which we are anticipating with every page, and there is also Arabella's personal tragedy, her loneliness and helplessness that make her doubt herself from time to time, which makes it hard for a reader to close the book before the last page is read. It is definitely a novel one who is passionate about writing will appreciate.

Rate Your Professors: Your Voice Does Matter

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HURRAY! There is this moment you have been waiting for, and for a few weeks: the day after the last exam! You don't know yet how you did, but at this point, it does not matter. There will be another semester in about a month (if you are not taking winter classes, of course), but for now, it's time to do as many fun things as possible.

However, I don't recommend you to forget about school completely. A good thing to do is, before you forget all about your classes and professors, to go to Rate My Professors and leave your comments, in addition to the official evaluations your school has already asked you to fill in.

Why should you bother? Well, there are other students making their schedule right now, and they would like to know what professor they should take. School is expensive, and no one wants to waste their time with the professor they would hate. Therefore, it is important that you leave detailed comments to let others know what to expect from the professor and the course.

I have never been a fan of professors' ratings, and never bothered to read them, but this Fall semester (my first semester at Hunter College), I went online and checked the ratings of the professors I was going to take. I must admit that it helped me a lot because I knew what to expect. Most comments were truthful and helpful.

What I like best about Rate My Professors is that there is a variety of comments on the basis of which I can come to certain conclusions. There are students who use those websites to put the professors down because they did not get the grade they expected, and you can see that. If you read with attention, you can distinguish real feedback from made-up complaints. For example, "too much writing" in a writing intensive section is not a valid reason for complaining.

Thanks to the website, I managed to pick very good classes and very good professors, and I will definitely leave my rating there for the future generations of students, so that they will also have an idea about what the class will be if they sign up for it. And I definitely recommend you to have your voice heard by others as well.

Click here to get Rate My Professors iPhone App.