We Write To Live

[talkingsoup]

It is exquisitely cold here. And I mean exquisitely not in its normal positive connotation, but because there is really no other adjective to describe how very cold it is. I guess it was something like 9 degrees today, and that was with the sun shining. I hate wind chill.

I love my Sociology of Religion class because the content is awesome, and also for the simple reason that the professor uses chalk and a blackboard. It's really a lost art, despite inhaling all that chalk dust and dying of that pneumo-disease I can't pronounce at a young age. I like a teacher who can take the time to actually write up his notes as he talks about them, and on a chalkboard no less. It's just got something that PowerPoint doesn't have.

My Social Movements professor does the same. I love her and she's sweet and all, but you can tell she's still feeling things out.

I'm also sort-of-almost-kind-of-officially-but-not-quite-yet in the Sociology major, which means a double major of Writing and Sociology, which means no more relaxing semesters like this one--18 credits from now on, it's looking like, and I don't know how I'm going to fit in a study abroad program or an internship, but I dunno. I hope I can pull it off.

I read this awesome book for Women and Writing called Writing a Woman's Life by Carolyn Heilbrun, and I would recommend it for everyone because it's awesome.

In ASIC last night we watched a few eps of Monster, which I have to say, I really like the manga a lot better. Something just seems to be lacking with the anime--tension, maybe? You got palpable tension out of the books, even in the beginning when everything with Tenma and Johan was just beginning. The anime feels, I dunno, thin. We also watched an extremely fast-paced few episodes of something that I don't really know the name to...um...Cross Something? Plenty of bishies with strangely colored hair and eyes (CLAMP did the character designs, apparently. No wonder, then). I wasn't really following; pretty much a lot of people were dying, and by the end of ASIC it was looking kind of like the beginning of Gundam Wing (the original), with the whole "girl-meets-boy-and-they-sorta-have-to-kill-each-other-maybe." Or something. In short, I'm looking forward to next week, which is the beginning of Outlaw Star and XOMG squee! Honey and Clover. Woot.

Haven't been writing all that much since I got home. I've been a bit stuck on this scene with E and Kail, and I had another one of those moments of "oh my fucking GOD it's so LONG and will NEVER SELL" when I realized that the target length of a manuscript is 200-250 pages on Word, since it equates to about 100-150K words and 400-500 pages depending on book size and how the FUCK can I ever stay under 300 pages, but oh well, I'm okay now. I've also been having to reexamine some things about their relationship.

God, am I just long-winded?

...

Hm...don't answer that one.

There was also a moment when I was thinking about abandoning certain other projects because there's so many, but then I kicked myself and told myself that I'd be betraying both myself and my characters, and I can't do that.

Fuck.

Comments

[ddrussianinja.livejournal.com]

It's not that cold. It just feels that way because you spent the last month in California.

It was Code Geass. I thought it was kind of unoriginal in a few respects. Then again, I never really care for CLAMP. I was a bit bemused with Monster as well. I found it predictable and it didn't have a very good flow. I'm sort of glad we aren't watching those all semester.

You shouldn't abandon projects, but you certainly can put them somewhere for later. That way, if you ever get writer's block, you can return to an idea that you have on hold. Don't force yourself to write something because you feel like you already made a commitment to it. Do things when you want to do them. If it really is a good idea, then you will inevitably return to it at some point.