Monday, October 24, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
You Are Your Most Important Character
I survived the first round of midterms unscathed. My second round of midterms is the first week of November, and I have a paper due in a week and a half. But! I am not thinking about those things right now, because fall break is this weekend! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
I can't wait to catch up with all of you and see what magical words of mighty fiction you have been churning out. I am sure they are numerous and splendid.
I have been feeling a bit guilty about putting aside my extra-curriculars such as blogging and fictioning. But graduating from college is not optional. It has something I have been forced to focus on with razor-sharp concentration. I've been plowing through papers, short and long, week after week. I can't believe it's already the middle of the semester.
My creative side side, as a result, has been feeling a little neglected. "What about your characters?" it has asked me, sniffling a little. "What about developing your voice and devoting yourself to launching your surely splendiferous literary career?" Thus far, I haven't been able to come up with anything to console it other than bottles of wine my meager student budget can afford and binging on reruns of The West Wing.
But last week during office hours, it hit me.
In a weird way, you could say I am working on my fiction while I do my mountains of government reading and taking notes during class. I'm forcing my brain to get smarter and more critical. The stuff I was writing two months ago is not going to cut it now. And I am writing. The typing hasn't stopped. The main characters are just not in my head, but on the world stage. I'm pretty sure my characters are going to get more interesting and nuanced, because I'm training the organ that creates them. As long as you're growing and learning, you're working on your writing. The most important character to improve is yourself.
Happy Pumpkin Month.
Marjorie
I can't wait to catch up with all of you and see what magical words of mighty fiction you have been churning out. I am sure they are numerous and splendid.
I have been feeling a bit guilty about putting aside my extra-curriculars such as blogging and fictioning. But graduating from college is not optional. It has something I have been forced to focus on with razor-sharp concentration. I've been plowing through papers, short and long, week after week. I can't believe it's already the middle of the semester.
My creative side side, as a result, has been feeling a little neglected. "What about your characters?" it has asked me, sniffling a little. "What about developing your voice and devoting yourself to launching your surely splendiferous literary career?" Thus far, I haven't been able to come up with anything to console it other than bottles of wine my meager student budget can afford and binging on reruns of The West Wing.
But last week during office hours, it hit me.
In a weird way, you could say I am working on my fiction while I do my mountains of government reading and taking notes during class. I'm forcing my brain to get smarter and more critical. The stuff I was writing two months ago is not going to cut it now. And I am writing. The typing hasn't stopped. The main characters are just not in my head, but on the world stage. I'm pretty sure my characters are going to get more interesting and nuanced, because I'm training the organ that creates them. As long as you're growing and learning, you're working on your writing. The most important character to improve is yourself.
Happy Pumpkin Month.
Marjorie
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