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 Well, not so much fun and leisure as...get some damn writing done, you fool! |
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A while ago, I attended a writers' workshop and the lady who hosted it told us all to go away with this bit of advice - to write for just ten minutes a day. I was determined to go ahead with it and I did...for two days. So today I remembered that I'd resolved to do so and I whipped out my journal and wrote for fifteen minutes. I'm typing out pretty much the same thing that I wrote earlier, with some differences. I find I can go a lot more in-depth when I'm typing than when I'm writing by hand. Writing by hand is such a chore! I've struggled with loneliness a lot throughout my twenty-nine years. I struggled with it when I was the only one home with my mum when I was a teen and everybody else had other places to be. I struggled with it after marriage and when we moved into our own house for the first time. I struggled with it after my son was born and I felt torn between pursuing my writing and being a good mum, because my culture seems to indicate that a woman has absolutely no chance of living her own life - or at least, she has no chance of attaining any goals she hasn't already attained - once she has children. I feel it occasionally still, even though I get so little time to myself nowadays that any alone time is simply awesome. I've tried to come to terms with the idea that being alone isn't a bad thing - and a lot of the time, it isn't. My friends don't live nearby so I don't get to see them often, and even when I do, I feel like there isn't much depth to our conversations. I'm surrounded by people who do not think like me, who do not share any of my interests and hobbies. I feel like I've become desensitised to isolation. Loneliness is my preferred way to be. I walked into my college cafeteria at lunch today and it was the usual hubbub of activity. Youngsters walking around, chatting animatedly, shouting across the room, laughing, eating, socialising. I could recall how that clamour wouldn't have bothered me ten-twelve years ago, when I would have been one of the youngsters talking excitedly with her friends. But, as this moment, I just found an out-of-the-way little table and sat down. I watched the crowds for a while, wondering why it was only at moments like these that the sense of isolation became so strong. In the middle of a crowd, I feel most alone. |
| 14:20 I thought I was doing well with my short story but I'm not. After just over a thousand words, I'm at a bit of a standstill. So I figured maybe I'm going about this all wrong. Although I don't like to base my novels around a single clear incident in my head - or rather, I don't like to force myself to do that but I will work with such moments if I get them, of course - with a short story, it's different. There is limited space to work with so the incident has to be made clear as soon as possible. So I'm thinking, it's about an Elemental and it's the story of how she became an Elemental so what incident could motivate her predecessor to choose her as an apprentice? It has to be something that shows her capability as a leader, or at least that she is willing to put her people's lives before her own. So how does an underdeveloped teenage girl (among people who have wings, she has yet to develop hers) show her compassion? What incident could motivate her to stick her neck out for others? One of the things I thought of was that she could be someone who is very kind, who gives in charity and is basically an all-round good Samaritan. But her character as a stoic and graceful older lady with an unbending will has already taken shape in my mind and I don't want to change that. I mean, I guess she could be kind and charitable even with that aloof persona but I think she'd come off more as a pacifist if she were a good Samaritan. If she likes helping people so much, why would she ever feel the need to hurt them? And she has to be able to hurt them because she's one of the main characters in an action-fantasy story. I don't know, I guess it still bears some thinking about. Eleven minutes! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
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