Title comes from a song. Kudos if you know the song.
The biggest problem I have when it comes to school or writing or much of anything in my life is the problem of distraction. It's not that I have a short attention span. I've always been the person who is perfectly content to sit still with a book. I can concentrate on pretty much anything, even difficult German novels in translation. (Seriously, if you haven't read The Tin Drum, read it now. It's worth it.)
But when there are too many difficult things going on that I know I have to do, I start avoiding everything like the plague. I have writing assignments in my German class that piled up and I'm finally finishing weeks behind. I worry about German - it's my biggest stumbling block in my undergraduate career, aside from the chemistry and physics I took at the start when I still wasn't a humanities major.
So I avoid. And this avoidance bleeds into other things, my writing included.
I hate it and I don't really know what to do.
I have a story percolating with an unreliable narrator. I'll probably work on concentrating on The Tin Drum to help me.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Changes
Lots has happened since that joyous November 1 post. You may notice that previous content is gone, the header has changed, and this whole blog in general has undergone a bit of a makeover.
Why? Well, make yourself a cup of coffee and pull up a chair. I'm serious about the coffee. We're both gonna need it. Don't worry, I'll wait.
To put it simply, life got very much in the way of NaNoWriMo. I know it's a shoddy excuse, but that's the one I'm using. I also know that first drafts are shit, as Hemingway said, but my first draft was abysmal. There were glimmerings of hope, for sure, but I was looking at a product that I knew I could never be proud of as even a first draft. It was going nowhere. I probably should've outlined and done more preparation work, looking back. Now I know.
I know lots of things, actually. The positive things I learned from this mean that my week-long attempt and 12,000 words were not a waste of my time. I learned that I can write great dialogue and need to work on my exposition. I learned that I still don't know exactly what genre I'm best in yet, though I think everything I do might have a bit of a Southern spin to it. I learned that above all else I love writing. At the end of the day, putting words on a page is something I can do that I can love doing. It's not a waste of my time. It's an incredible learning experience and the very thing I can picture myself doing for the rest of my life.
I came to a crossroads during November and now have set a long-term goal for my life. This is exciting and scary. I want to get my MFA in creative writing. From here on out, this blog is detailing my search for programs, my projects, the remainder of my undergrad time, and whatever other drabbles come out.
Here's to it.
Why? Well, make yourself a cup of coffee and pull up a chair. I'm serious about the coffee. We're both gonna need it. Don't worry, I'll wait.
To put it simply, life got very much in the way of NaNoWriMo. I know it's a shoddy excuse, but that's the one I'm using. I also know that first drafts are shit, as Hemingway said, but my first draft was abysmal. There were glimmerings of hope, for sure, but I was looking at a product that I knew I could never be proud of as even a first draft. It was going nowhere. I probably should've outlined and done more preparation work, looking back. Now I know.
I know lots of things, actually. The positive things I learned from this mean that my week-long attempt and 12,000 words were not a waste of my time. I learned that I can write great dialogue and need to work on my exposition. I learned that I still don't know exactly what genre I'm best in yet, though I think everything I do might have a bit of a Southern spin to it. I learned that above all else I love writing. At the end of the day, putting words on a page is something I can do that I can love doing. It's not a waste of my time. It's an incredible learning experience and the very thing I can picture myself doing for the rest of my life.
I came to a crossroads during November and now have set a long-term goal for my life. This is exciting and scary. I want to get my MFA in creative writing. From here on out, this blog is detailing my search for programs, my projects, the remainder of my undergrad time, and whatever other drabbles come out.
Here's to it.
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