21st Century Bronte
-
21st Century Brontë #33: The Money Problem, Part 3
21st Century Brontë #33 by Brontë Bettencourt The Money Problem, Part 3 In 2017 I worked three separate jobs. I wondered why I chose Creative Writing as my major. I told myself, “Misery is excellent writing-fodder. Pay attention and learn.” In a previous post I talked about leaving the security of a corporate job since… Continue reading
-
Aesthetic Drift #17: A Truckload of Corpses, or Violence’s Meaning in Narrative
Aesthetic Drift #17 by Brontë Bettencourt A Truckload of Corpses, or Violence’s Meaning in Narrative I am haunted by Tokyo Ghoul. The anime’s pacing was slow and dull and the finale was a hot mess, but one scene left me intrigued and horrified. Kaneki Ken has a good heart but no backbone. He is a recently… Continue reading
-
21st Century Brontë #32: The First Low-Residency Semester
21st Century Brontë #32 by Brontë Bettencourt The First Low-Residency Semester Hello, Readers! Last May I finished my first semester at Hamline University. Every month, I submitted a packet of my work to the amazingly talented Phyllis Root. My packets consisted of twenty pages of new material, twenty pages of edited material, ten annotated bibliographies… Continue reading
-
21st Century Brontë #31: The MFA Begins
21st Century Brontë #31 by Brontë Bettencourt The MFA Begins I kicked off 2017 with my first semester in Hamline University’s MFA program for Children and Young Adult Literature. I stuffed my suitcase full of workshopped stories, books, and more layers than what a Floridian knows to do with. In St. Paul, Minnesota the underdressed… Continue reading
-
21st Century Brontë #30: Holding on to Challenges
21st Century Brontë #30 by Brontë Bettencourt Holding on to Challenges In my undergrad days, I directed several Murder Mystery Nights for the University of Central Florida’s anime club. The event combines scripted scenes and improv. The characters are chosen from anime or anime-related content based on that evening’s theme. With other writers, we created… Continue reading
-
21st Century Brontë #28: The Shelf, and Finishing the Draft
21st Century Brontë #28 by Brontë Bettencourt The Shelf, and Finishing the Draft I finally started writing the first book to a series that I’ve been imagining for years, and it’s awful. By awful, I mean the writing process. I feel like I’m slamming my head against the paper until my blood somehow congeals into… Continue reading
-
21st Century Brontë #27: Just the Right Amount of Noise
21st Century Brontë #27 by Brontë Bettencourt Just the Right Amount of Noise When I worked in unemployment, I needed background noise in order to break the silence, to be able to focus on the tedium. Radio and music stopped working after a while because eventually they just became part of the tedious silence. That… Continue reading
-
21st Century Brontë #26: Grace Paley, Writing, and Romance
21st Century Brontë #26 by Brontë Bettencourt Grace Paley, Writing, and Romance In April I drove to Georgia with my friends, Sammie, Leah, and Sally. During the eight-hour drive riddled with traffic jams and sidelined accidents, the topic of weddings came up in conversation. I learned that three out of four of us had numerous,… Continue reading
-
21st Century Brontë #25: Breathtaking Characters
21st Century Brontë #25 by Brontë Bettencourt Breathtaking Characters Last Saturday, I went to see Kubo and the Two Strings. The movie begins on a small boat at night, during a storm in the middle of an ocean. A lone, distraught woman is about to be swallowed by a massive tidal wave when she parts… Continue reading
About
The Drunken Odyssey is a forum to discuss all aspects of the writing process, in a variety of genres, in order to foster a greater community among writers.