In which I ramble about writing

[katiefoolery]

I’m not going to put my ficlet up this week because gah.  Yes, gah.  When I think about it, the only response my brain can come up with is the wonderfully pointless gah.

I don’t know why I hate it so much, although I have been thinking about it.  Perhaps it’s because it was trying so hard to fit in with the other two ficlets based on the same characters (for ’twas another Rena story).  Or maybe it’s just that Rena and Nevin were being very boring and stupidly cryptic in their dialogue.  But I won’t complain too much, for ’tis another five hundred and fifty words towards my November word count which, may I just add, is already the highest monthly word count for the entire year.

I’m sort-of doing NaNo, although I’m not aiming for fifty thousand words and neither am I devoting myself to writing one story exclusively.  Instead, I’m aiming for a word-count of ten thousand by the time the month is over (at least ten thousand, that is.  I’ll accept more than ten thousand with pleasure...) and putting my word-count towards keeping Melbourne ahead of all the other Australian capital cities.  And it’s working!  Melbourne, quite simply, rocks.

In other writing news, I managed to write an entire LorF episode the other night while my Timothy-of-the-heads was sitting more or less next to me, playing his nerd game.  I guess I must have been in an “obsessively absorbed by what I’m writing” mood as opposed to my more normal “Ack I can’t write because he’s right next to me WATCHING MY EVERY WORD!” mood.  It was a fun piece to write, though.  Lots of dialogue and playing around with words and hinting at things to frustrate all the other LorFers...  Yes, a great deal of fun indeed.

Here is where I express my newly-rediscovered joy of writing.  Yes, right here:

Ironically, though, I don’t think I’m actually capable of expressing how delighted I am by this.  Gone is the self-doubt and reluctance and negative-attitude towards writing that was gifted to me by university.  I can’t quite grasp that, really.  I never thought it would go... but it has.  I’ve finally crawled my way out of the writing funk that has plagued me since uni and I can now dance about the house, grinning like a loon because I have stories in my head and I really want to write them.  And I mean, I really want to write them.  Not some time next week.  Not once I see that pig flying past the window.  NOW. Right now.

I take my stories to work; I write in between cataloguing and yelling at printers; I scribble notes on the bus; I... ooh, look!  I just used a whole bunch of semi-colons without thinking about it! That’s a punctuation break-through for me.

Er, but back to the point.  I love writing again.  I can say it without secretly suspecting myself of lying.  It’s all very, very good indeed.

Comments

[alankria.livejournal.com]

Hooray! At loving writing again, obviously, not the troublesome ficlet. And now you will work on Black Fiddle, yes?

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Ah, that ficlet.

*stabs*

Stupid boring thing that it was. Weirdly, it also involved two people walking along a path.

Ah yes, Black Fiddle. I wish I could be enthusiastic about it, I really do. So, I will just say "maybe" and leave it at that.

[alankria.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, Black Fiddle. I wish I could be enthusiastic about it, I really do. So, I will just say "maybe" and leave it at that.

Fair enough :)

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I wish I could be more enthusiastic about it, I really do. At the moment, I think I shall commit myself to finishing the scene-breakdown and then seeing where I can go from there. It might inspire me!

[alankria.livejournal.com]

I hope so :)

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to let you know that I was shown the cartoon that your icon is from today, and I am traumatized for life. Also, I am going to smite that unicorn if it says "Charlie" one. More. Time.

I still like "Shun the non believer! Shuuuuuunnnnn!"

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

[alankria.livejournal.com]

Hee hee. "ShuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuN!"

That cartoon never gets old :D

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

SQUEE!

Now, if I could just get that Jane letter written...I have ideas bouncing around, yes indeedy...

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

SQUEE indeed! Am very happy about it all.

Jane was bugging me about something she wanted to send to Lizzie the other day so she'd be most delighted to hear from her again. Not that you're busy with study and life stuff or anything... :)

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

I can definitely sympathize with university sucking a lot of the writing energy out of one. *nodnods* Cassandra and Lizzie have both been feeling rather neglected of late.

*chuckles* Lizzie has some pretty major news for Jane...as well as an excellent excuse for why she's taken so long to write.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Now Jane will be running around in my head like a mad thing, wondering about this major news. Eeee!

My main problem with uni was that I used to write instead of doing my homework. And since I was actually studying writing, my homework was writing, so it was rather difficult to avoid it by writing, because then I'd be doing my homework... It was a big, confusing circle of procrastination, really.

And then there was the ridiculous prejudice displayed towards anything that wasn't literary fiction. That didn't help.

[naelany.livejournal.com]

*has mad images of Jane running around your brain flashing before my eyes* Yes, I realize that that was bad sentencing, but I couldn't figure out how else to put it lol

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

I have been distracted by the Dreaded Final Feast Paper, but I am still making progress on Lizzie's Letter. It will probably be posted on Wednesday, as I will no longer have any papers to do and can relax in the knowledge that most of my projects are done.

It doesn't help that Cassandra waylaid me the other day, rudely shoving Lizzie aside and demanding that I write this scene right this instant. She is very seldom so insistent. I actually sat down and wrote about a page and a half (I think). It felt like taking dictation, except that I refuse to let her have it all her own way. There is timing to think of, and plot. Plus, I can't let her get uppity on me.

*shakes head* I assume that your professors had that ubiquitous prejudice against science fiction and fantasy?

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Ooh, splendid! I'm looking forward to that. :D

Alas, my lecturers had a prejudice against anything that wasn't literary fiction. If you wrote in any other genre for any other audience, then you weren't worth their time.

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

I am almost through page 8 out of 10 on this paper now, and that pleases me greatly. Once I have put in all of my references so that my instructor understands that I am not just pulling everything out of my head, I should have the 10 pages that I need. And then, joyous for-fun writing! I am looking forward to seeing precisely what Lizzie has to say--have you noticed that, occasionally, Jane offers something in her letters that you didn't necessarily think of putting there? Lizzie has been doing this lately.

Rawr for genre prejudices! Rawr! That's happened to me before. Thank goodness that, in one of my classes, my teacher accepted a twisted faerie tale (remember "Frog's Life?") and a story about a hyperactive Muse.

Also, what is the definition of "literary fiction"?

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Oh, Jane's always pulling bizarre things out of nowhere and foisting them upon me. Wretch. Mind you, I must grudgingly admit that they're usually good ideas, so I might forgive her for it.

What is literary fiction? I'm a bit jaded, so I'm inclined to say it's the boring, worthy crap that no-one reads unless they want to look pretentious, but that's not really true. Wiki's not quite as jaded as I am, so feel free to see the definition there (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_fiction).

[rigel-7.livejournal.com]

Yay! LorF!

*must-read-and-obsessively-decipher-for-obscure-clues-and-come-to-improbable-conclusions*

Yes... Ryn is really a man!

Yeah Baby!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Damn, I was hoping you'd forgotten about the Ryn-is-a-man theory. :P

[silver-pegasus.livejournal.com]

Ok I demand to see what this lorf phenomanon is. I never got around to really looking during Moonfair, but now my interest has peaked.
Also very glad for you that you're now enjoying your writing. It's always terrible when you're forced to do something you enjoy. Often takes a lot of the fun out of it.

[silver-pegasus.livejournal.com]

On and we were discussing earlier about how people's icons often make you think they must look like that. The one you've got on here creates interesting mental images (although that's good cos they're replacing the cockroach mental images)

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Ah, the cockroaches!

*reminisces*

Is this icon any better?

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Yes, writing at uni wasn't a lot of fun. I didn't like what I was writing and my second lecturer wanted me to write in a different genre... so nobody liked what was happening. All of the writing lecturers were so prejudiced against any form of 'genre' writing that I spent three years feeling guilty because I didn't want to write literary fiction.

But onto something more fun: LorF! The community is here: life_or_freedom and if you think you'd like to join, even just as a reader, you need to email the_kaytinator and just tell her a bit about why you're interested in becoming a part of it. She's very protective of the whole project, so she likes to know who we have on board. :D

[naelany.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm glad you love writing again! I'm sure it'll show in your writing. Now, what are you doing on here, go, write! ^_~

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

*salutes*

Yes ma'am!

*wanders off to write*

[naelany.livejournal.com]

^_^ You know you love it ^_~

[sirgallivant.livejournal.com]

Here be a small, late and inconsequential message to say: HURRAH! for your discovery.

HURRAH!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Good Tara, an HURRAH! from thee is never small, late or inconsequential. :D