%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 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. |
| 10:54 I've always felt a bit curious about how characters interact off the page. Do conversations ever peter out with friends, family, and life-partners? This has been a bit of...a concern, I guess. Not just as a writer, but a reader too. Particularly if one of the characters is portrayed as a bit standoffish or arrogant. I guess family and friends aren't that big of a deal - if the character has friends, then they know what he/she is like and have chosen to accept them as they are. Family is family - there will always be complications, right? But what about the person they see every single day? Sometimes for the entirety of those days? Then is the relationship that is presented between these two people believable? Or does all the important stuff in their relationship happen on-page, leaving it to the reader's imagination to figure out how the rest of it goes? If characters only ever talk about what is currently happening in the story, then what do they discuss in mundane situations? Do they just stay quiet? I know I'm mincing over details here. But it's always been a bit of a concern of mine that, even in real life, at some point or another, there will be no more topics of conversation and everyone will just stay silent. But this is from a long time ago, when my world was still idealistic and I trusted people. I know now that conversations will never stop because if you run out of good things to say, or at least things that concern only you, you could always turn to gossip or all the crap that's happening in the world. The topics are endless. There's some new drama happening somewhere in the world. Or maybe next-door. This was what I came to when thinking of what I should write about. I hope it's been a good read. I guess I could have done better. I'm trying not to start my entries with "I'm so tired" or "I'm feeling so lazy". Because that's just...yeah... 11:06 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
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