Tag: Blog

I Go To Music

Rey BP pic 1In the beginning was the word. And that word was very heavy, full of life and anguish. The word was existence but also the end of being. The word carried nations and dropped kings with the same move. The word embodied imagination, making us gods over the realms that we produce. So, in the beginning of my creating process, of becoming the god to a world that may exist solely by my observation, I listen to music. It starts from a random rhythm. Either it pumps my pulse up, to meet its tempo, or it drags my heart beat down, to drown me in what it wants to convey. Either way, I go to music before placing finger to keyboard (because there’s no pen to paper nowadays).

I really can’t get into my writing without this overlaying, outside shroud that the harmonies become. I find the right song or playlist that carries the emotion that I need for the piece- whether it’s a raging rock album or soft, liquid dubstep mix. Then I follow the strongest feeling back to its home inside of me (usually in the gut area) and try to pull it out onto the page. I imagine the scenario and everything that is happening in order to mold the experience for everyone to feel. Either that or I know what emotional experience I want to convey already and I use the music as an enhancer to help myself become caught up in that emotion enough to find some kind of words to describe it. I never go in anticipating a masterpiece or a message to the world. I just go in wanting to say what I’m thinking or feeling. This allows me, for the most part, to get out whatever it is. After that, well that’s not the beginning. That’s the rising action and it varies by how I feel. For the most part though, I’m satisfied with myself for bringing this thing into existence.

-Rey Mullennix, Fiction Editor

Ushering in 2015

While we have been taking a break from Blogging over the Holiday season, the Elan staff would like to share a few of our New Year’s Resolutions with everyone. A new year brings with it new opportunities, new goals, and new writing to create and explore. What are some resolutions that you’ve made?

My New Year’s Resolution this year is to win the Batten Award Scholarship and not pay a single cent for college!                                                                                                                            -Mariah Abshire, Editor-in-Chief

I don’t know if this is weird, but this is my very first New Year’s Resolution, which is fitting because 2015 will be a start of something completely new for me: college. In the year 2015, I want to 1) figure out my future, 2) hold off Senioritis for as long as I can, and 3) be ready for anything!                                                                                                                                             -Shamiya Anderson, Creative Non-fiction Editor

I want to maintain relationships with people from school after I graduate and continue to write poetry.                                                                                                                                             -Taylor Austell, Layout and Design Editor

I want to continue to write after I graduate, and I want to devote more time to studying (math especially)!                                                                                                                                    -Sarah Buckman, Editor-in-Chief 

I have never been the person that made New Year’s Resolutions but I have decided to try something new this year. In this upcoming year I have decided to be happy, find my Zen. I want to keep a positive outlook on life despite anything bad that may happen in this upcoming year.                                                                                                                                         -Anna Dominguez, Junior Poetry Editor

My New Year’s Resolution this year is to write some bomb fiction next semester and meet Blake Griffin!                                                                                                                                            -Madison George, Social Media Editor 

This coming year, I hope to expand my writing into more personal endeavors. I’ve been slacking, in terms of writing outside of school, and I think it’s starting to take a toll on my overall enthusiasm for writing. I’m going to work on taking it back next year, and start to immerse myself in some writing that is really close to what I want to see coming from myself.                                                                                                                                                        -Ruvi Gonzalez, Junior Fiction Editor

I’ve never really stuck to my New Year’s Resolution but since this is my last year at home, why not stick to it? This year I’m going to get a job.                                                                        -Grace Green, Poetry Editor

It shouldn’t take a set date to make changes for the better. A New Year is a new opportunity, but so is a new day; acting on a decision to change should happen at any moment, not just at the turn of the year. Ironically, my resolution is to keep that in mind.  -Jordan Jacob, Junior Editor-in-Chief

In the upcoming year of 2015 I hope to come to some sort of resolution in terms of what I want to do as a career in life. I will be a senior by next Autumn, and I really want to have a good grasp as to what I want to do later in life.                                                                                -Briana Lopez, Junior Social Media Editor 

I don’t normally do New Year’s Resolutions because they typically get forgotten. Plus, why wait until a New Year to make a new you? But I think I’ll play along this time. Next year, I’ll be funnier and more responsible. There it is. I think it’s ambiguous enough to follow.    -Rey Mullennix, Fiction Editor 

Resolutions are embarrassing. My resolution when I was seven would probably have been to stop picking my nose. My resolution when I was nine would be to stop sleeping with a night light. My resolution this year is to stop eating so many Reese’s. I eat them for breakfast sometimes, I eat them when I get home from school… It’s a problem. Maybe I could start eating some cantaloupe or kiwi or something. Anything healthier would be an improvement.                                                                                                                                           -Kat Roland, Art Editor

I resolve to read more poetry books, care less about the Kardashians, and most importantly, to feel how I feel and do what I want instead of letting other people’s expectations be in charge of my actions and thoughts.                                                                   -Savannah Thanscheidt, Web Editor 

This year I want to have more spontaneous moments. Being a senior and having less than a year before I run off toward another adventure I want to not worry about stuff and have more genuine moments of fun.                                                                                                            -Chrissy Thelemann, Submissions Editor 

I do not have a resolution for 2015. I don’t think people should focus on changing because a new year is coming up and everyone is buying into the “New Year, New You” perspective, but people should instead focus on change because they are striving for personal growth. I think making plans are good for yourself on a yearly basis, but for myself personally, I’m still trying to make good on the ones I promised years ago.                                                          -Stephanie Thompson, Marketing Editor

Creative Nonfiction

I’m drawn to a certain style of writing that only specific genres can bring. Of course I love to curl up next to a fire scented candle in the winter and read a good fiction story. But fiction doesn’t have the honesty that I strive for when I read poetry. And Poetry, loaded with ambiguous language, can send my mind into another galaxy. So I look for one of my favorite genres, creative nonfiction. It is probably one of the most over looked and underrepresented genres in writing but it is a mix of truth, honest, imagery, and figurative language that connects like no other genre.

People neglect that Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is actually a creative nonfiction story. Under the lingering coarse details of a family murdered in Kansas, there is a pile of truth that no other fiction story or poem could reach, though creative nonfiction doesn’t have to be that dark. David Sedaris has written many essays and even published a book titled Me Talk Pretty One Day exploring his move from New York to Paris with a satirical witty approach. These writers both take either their own or other’s trials and tribulations in life load it with thought provoking and striking scenes before feeding it to readers.

-Chrissy Thelemann, Submissions Editor