As the idea that Spring Break means half the semester is gone starts breathing down my neck, I find myself dichotomized.
Here is my situation. I am in need of at least two twenty page stories this semester. One, I need for Fiction. The other, for a little thing called "SENIOR THESIS OF DEATH AND DOOM". Okay, so maybe it's not quite that dramatic, but it's kind of overwhelming (kind of like when you take Advanced Composition with Sandy and the last assignment simply says "write your best essay"). So that's the first half of my mental dichotomization.
The second part of my dichotomization is this: For those of you who may have missed our greatly enlightening "What Can I do with an English Major" panel last Tuesday (Technical writing, anyone? Anyone?), Will Holmes was on the panel and made a really interesting comment about learning to write on demand. He made a reference to the quote "Inspiration is for amateurs" (the rest of the quote is "...the rest of us just show up" and it's from Chuck Close). So I should be able to pound out a decent story on demand, yeah? So then why am I having so much trouble finding stories that I want to tell? I keep finding elements that I want to include, but that vital little thing called "narrative thread" is eluding me viciously. If any of you see it, trap it, cut off it's legs and give me a call letting me know where it is, would you?
So, what would you do?
And, now that I've found the secret key to coaxing blogspot into letting me into my account, I will attempt to post more frequently, even if they become posts similar to Charles' insomniatic typing sprees or Bret's real-life commentary.
3 comments:
Since Chelsea stole my style, I'm trying to develop a new one. At the moment, I'm sort of mentally vomiting onto paper and then sorting out the chunks into something halfway interesting. After I do that, I have to go back and add the "narrative thread" that disappears when you cut out full paragraphs and full sentences in the middle of paragraphs. I'm not saying that it is going to work, but it's worth a shot.
How did Chelsea steal your style? I wasn't aware that style was a thievable commodity...
I'm still searching for the secret to "writing on command." Perhaps it lies in the experience I do not fully have. Perhaps that's the benefit to sitting down and making oneself write everyday. I don't know.
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