Sian

Finals over Finally...

I just finished my Latin final, the punch line of which was that the segment I had been stressing over was something we had never actually done.  The professor got her two classes mixed up.  So, I can now de-stress and enjoy what's left of my week, which actually includes a day off with a paycheck.   The university provided me with free "Finals Survival" food today, which is really nice, considering that my other choice was to debate the benefits of one kind of Ramen noodles over another. 

I am still working on the over all problem of enrolling in classes for next semester.  There are a couple which I would like to take, but money... the money issue, again.

Friday really will be my first real day off in about three months, since I've been either at work or in class every single day for that long.

posted by: SianNorah at 21:45 | link | comments

Frustrations galore.

An Author's mommy came into work, yesterday.  The woman had special ordered fifty copies of her daughter's book.  No.  Actually, she bought 5.  yeah.  F-I-V-E.  The general theory was that if we didn't sell them to her, naturally we'd put them on the shelves and sell them to other people.   I think I may have actually blown a large segment of her brain, when I said they'd be returned to the warehouse and shredded.  Well, if she hadn't yelled, lied, condescended....  Well, I might have been a little more diplomatic.

Then, this morning, I called one of my old friends, and was told all about my dearly beloved uncle's latest exploits.  He went to a party she was throwing for her grandfather, and started fishing for information.  About me.  Wondering about that package he sent me.  And then, was shocked to hear that she still talks to me once or twice a week.  Oops.

Today is one of my long days at school and work.  Directly from latin into the store, and then home, just in time to crawl into bed.  So, naturally, I wind up with nothing done on my novel at the end of it.  So, the book is crawling forward.  It really seems so slow I could yank my hair out by the roots at times.  Tomorrow, I'm working from about noon to eight, so not quite as cramped. 

but next week....  Next week is finals week, and for the first time, all semester, I actually have a day or two off which are actual days off.  No work, no school.  Just me and a notebook.  And I'm really going to go at some of the peices of the novel that need work.

Somebody--probably in one of the books about writing that I've been reading-said that a first draft of a novel is just to figure out what it's about.  And the truth is, I really am beginning to understand what the novel is about in more dimentions than "george murders sally, and then he gets caught."

posted by: SianNorah at 18:50 | link | comments

This post probably isn't going to be as long as the comment I just finished writing on Randis' blog, but I s'pose I should make some kind of a note of my existence.  Class was cancelled this morning, but not before I showed up on campus.  So, instead of working on pervy poetry 101, I checked out a computer from the library and read a few blogs.  Half an hour left before the computer goes back.

I finally feel like I'm making a little bit of progress in the editing of my novel.  Just a little bit, but I'm thrilled to be rid of that standing still feeling.  The writer I talked to last week invited me to one of her writers groups, but I don't think I'm going to go.  In the first place, I really don't feel like running all over ohio so I can have the priveledge of sitting and drinking coffee.  In the second place, I'm really not a social writer.  There are one or two people I talk to, from time to time, and when I feel a need for outside encouragement, I take the occassional class, but other than that, I just don't really want to discuss my work.  certainly not in one of those round-robin group therapy type things.

This morning, for some ungodly reason, one of my characters decided to turn a calf.  I had nothing to do with the decision, and frankly, I'm against it, but now that it's done, I'm the one stuck with the unpleasant chore of describing it.  That's a pen and paper thing, of course.  Really not crazy about the click click sound of a keyboard interrupting my calf-turning exercise.  It's the wrong texture.  Wednesday, I typed up the edits to twenty seven pages.  Today I have two, and I'm optimistic that I'll have a couple of new pages to add to the thing by the time I go to bed.

I'm thinking about taking another creative writing class.  It would just be on Mondays, if I did, and I would have to go there in person.  Look at all the people.  I don't know.  Like I say, I'm anti social...  One class and a job, and I'm really all peopled out for the week.

I miss Eric.   yeah.  I know.  That's just sick, and I should seek professional help, as soon as possible.  But every writer needs at least one good, literary enemy to look at his work and say,  "That's a peice of shit."  I have, of course, no idea where he is, now.  But I wouldn't mind his opinion.  Because, you see, in the fifteen years I've known him, he has stolen my barbie dolls, dressed up in honour of Curt Cobains' death, disagreed with me at every possible turn over the status of Herb Caen with the beat generation, and written me into his "erotica" wearing leather and carrying a whip, but he has told me the truth.  100% of the time.  So, of course, he needs to read my stuff.

posted by: SianNorah at 22:18 | link | comments (1)

More novel.

The only things I seem to have time to do are study, work, and write my novel, which frankly seems about right, because with what I'm getting paid, those are the only things I can afford to do.  I'm not sure whether I'm encouraged or discouraged about the novel.  On the one hand, a couple of people have said encouraging things, and I actually got to talk to an author about her agent.  One of the geeks I know says that my manuscript is the only one she's ever seen by someone she knows, and it's one of only two that I've seen, so that has to put me in a fairly high percentile, right?  After all, damn near everybody I know is writing something.  On the other hand, today is the day I'm supposed to be printing out my second draft (according to my own schedule) and it aint happenin'. 

It's all that typing and scribbling and notes in the notebook.  I'm almost finished making notes in notebook #2, and those look nothing like the notes in notebook #1, and I have no idea what the hell I'm doing.  I can't spell.  I can't organize.  I think I may be able to blow bubbles in my spit, but I'm not entirely sure about that. 

I also came up with a ratio of manuscript pages to book pages.  1.5:1.  Which means that my book needs to be a bit longer to be salable.

 

posted by: SianNorah at 16:19 | link | comments (1)

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