Tonight in my writing 3 class, my instructor Joe Janes had us do an odd brainstorming technique that I never would have thought of. During our ten minute break, we were told to go over to Walgreens to buy a magazine. The only stipulation was that the magazine had to be something that we would NEVER EVER under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES buy ourselves. After about three minutes looking at the magazines, I settled on a mag called ePregnancy: America's #1 Monthly Guide for Everything Pregnancy (for more info, because I'm sure you're captivated, head to ePregnancy.com). So after Joe had us buy these silly magazines, he wanted us to flip through them to familiarize ourselves with the content. He said we should pay close attention to any themes in content or pictures and we should try to figure out who this kind of magazine is targeting. That was actually a really interesting mental exercise for me... as I learned that this pregnancy magazine is geared towards an active pregnant woman who doesn't work (or is on leave). It is also a woman's health mag first and a pregnancy mag second... as they seem to play on the same insecurities that other women's magazines play on (weight, appearance, and so on). After we figured out a bit about our magazines, Joe had us pull some of the language out. We made a short list of pulled text... and then he gave us two minutes to write a letter to the editor, as a reader who was personally touched by the magazine or one of its articles. In addition, we had to use to tone of the magazine itself to write the letter.
The result? The creation of an honest character with real integrity that I never would have thought about writing or putting in one of my scenes. It was such a good exercise... and I look forward to learning more about the kind of people this mag is geared towards (yeah... I'll probably read the damn magazine) and maybe including a pregnant woman in one of my scenes. I'm awesome.
Everyone's having a crappy day! I called Andrea feeling really overwhelmed and I was hoping that she'd help me with some of the crap I had to get done today. She, apparently, has felt really overwhelmed as well... and she was as emotional as I've ever heard her. We're talking holding-back-tears overwhelmed, which is honestly how I felt as I thought about everything I had to do. But just knowing someone else felt worse, made me fell like I should just shut up and do what I had to do (which I did... I didn't get everything done, but I got a good portion of it all finished). Then I got a call from Laura who wasn't having a good day either... but not because she was feeling overwhelmed, because her department is full of bastards. We talked until Thom showed up at her apartment (he could help her much more than I could). Hope she had a better night than day. And that's it for me.