Since dropping out of the novel writing deal, I've been trying to make up for it with some writing and a lot more reading.

So, this is what I've read since I got home:

Books
Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer (Er... Fiction? Hard to classify).
Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury (Horror, "Dark Fantasy").
No Plot? No Problem!, ( Read more... )

 I've written 2,101 words, and I still don't have an idea. I've tried a couple of approaches, and I hate them all.

I am withdrawing. I have no plot, characters, concepts, themes or tricks in mind. I need this time to develop a third short story for Sarah Lawrence.

Good luck, comrades. Farewell.

 For the next 8 days, I am a capstone.

 I guess I've always considered myself a bit of a romantic. Things haven't been going so hot for me lately, so I tracked down the most romantic song I could find.

Click to view

This one goes out to you-know-who.

Click to view

 Two days (well, one and a half) in the house to myself yielded 2,892 words. It should have been more, but I'm glad to have gotten back in the swing.

 "He [Mel Gibson] admitted to being bipolar and manic-depressive." ~ Whoopi Goldberg, The View

Heard this snippet while cleaning up after the local talk show before it on my local ABC affiliate.

Fun game: pick the most ignorant part of the sentence!

 "Calm, lasting beauty comes only in a dream, and this solace the world had thrown away when in its worship of the real it threw away the secrets of childhood and innocence." ~ H.P. Lovecraft, The Silver Key

 To keep or not to keep -- that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The 'graphs and pages of outrageous readings,
Or to take arms against a sea of drivel
And, by avoiding, end it. To quit: to free;
No more -- and by freedom to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural schlocks
That lit is heir to -- 'tis a stupid Canon
Resolv ( Read more... )

 I've often credited Dr. Wilkins as one of my main influences since coming to Bona's. His teaching and teaching style have allowed me to reap many rewards.*

I've learned to write more concisely.
I've become a better editor.
I've gained experience dealing with difficult sources (him).
I've discovered perhaps the most useful question you can ask in an ( Read more... )