The Quadrangle

Issue date: 11/15/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Lara Longo never wanted to play house when she was young.
"I was the kid that wanted to write plays and act them out," said senior Lara Longo, an experienced writer and performer.
Longo is known in the Manhattan community as a poet and short story writer who often performs her work at coffeehouses and Manhattan Magazine's Po'Jazz at the Cornelia Street Cafe. She has been submitting pieces to Manhattan Magazine since her sophomore year.
In terms of topics, she tries to avoid the clichés seen at "bad high school coffeehouses," she said. "There is more to it than heartbreak and suicides," said Longo.
Her work is more about every day experiences, depending on the day.
"Things don't really come to you," said Longo.
Sometimes after listening to music, she is more inclined to write, and other times, she uses moments in her life for inspiration. For example, one of her pieces is about witnessing a man being robbed at gunpoint on the subway.
Her writing process is generally the same with each work, although it varies.
"Late at night I'll think about something, jot it down and it comes together after that," said Longo.
The writing process does not end there though. "I come back to it after a few weeks, the content generally stays the same but grammar and structure will change," said Longo.
"I try not to share it, I won't let people read it until I'm really comfortable with it," she said.
"It is important to have work that I'm proud of," said Longo.
But, of course, everyone has to start somewhere. "I will look back at my work from when I was sixteen, I wrote about heartbreak and I'll cringe," she said.
She feels she learns the most from evaluating her past work. Even if she does look back and cringe, she considers how to avoid the same mistakes in the future.
Her writing process is much longer now: she perfects her pieces to exactly how she wants them, lets them sit, and then goes back over them once more.
Her style is different with each piece. She writes mostly poetry, and long form short stories.
"I like my ideas to be concise, people don't want to read really long poetry or longer short stories, they will just read a novel [for that]."
She also writes each piece the intent of it being either performed or read off a page. "When performing it, you convey something different than if it is read. My writing is more for myself, but I want people to enjoy it. "
Longo has a background in dance and music, which both tie into the performance of her writing.
With her last semester at Manhattan approaching, Lara hopes to read some of her pieces at upcoming coffeehouses. She also hopes to continue with writing later in life.
" It [writing] started as a hobby, hopefully I'll continue with it. I'm going into film, which is another way of putting your ideas into something bigger," said Longo.

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