I do all my best thinking in the shower. (1) Unfortunately, by the time I dry off and dress, those brilliant thoughts are long gone, washed down the drain. But today, I managed to hold on to a glimmer or 2; I hope that’s enough to find my way back to the original ideas.

First, I’m not sure I can pull off my Godred story in first person. I’m afraid I just don’t have the chops for it. BUT, I don’t intend to throw in the towel without at least trying. One piece of writing advice I have never been that enthusiastic about is doing a character interview. Now, however, I think that is exactly what I need. I don’t think I have a firm grasp on Godred’s voice, and that is what is tripping me up on the beginning. I still may go back to third person, but first I’m going to let Godred tell me about himself.

I love analogies. I explain everything via analogy, and a new one came to me today. I was thinking of the differences between short stories and novels, and it seems to me that the main difference is not so much one of length or scale, but of the level of immersion. In a short story, you get just a snippet, a snap-shot of a small part of a much bigger world. It’s like jumping into the ocean without any gear, taking a quick look underwater, and climbing back in the boat. Afterward, you could only describe a small part of that undersea world; your description might be beautiful and detailed, but it can only encompass a limited amount.

For a novel, you get a scuba suit and two full air tanks, or a submarine. You have the time and space you need to immerse yourself. (I seem to have a water-theme running today.)

So in summary, all thinking and no writing, as usual.

(1) My former boss, a PhD in education, once told me that people are most creative when in a womb-like environment, frex in bed or in the shower. Haven’t you ever had a brilliant idea right as you’re dropping off to sleep? She’s definitely on to something, but it doesn’t really seem feasible to spend large amounts of time in bed or in the shower trying to boost your creativity.

I managed to stick with my resolution of keeping work and home separate for the first week, and then I fizzled out. I still intend to keep it, but it is proving very tiring.

I read Septimus Heap, Book One: Magyk this week. It is a kid’s book, labeled for age 12 and up, that I found while looking for books for Hannah at the library. I thought it was well-written and inventive. I did figure out the twist ending early on, but that is my forte. (I knew the “big secret” in The Crying Game the first time the love interest, Dil, appeared on the screen.) Anyhoo, I liked it well enough that I stayed up until 11 one night to finish it, something I try not to do since I know I sleep like crap if I stay up past 9:30. I am 2 weeks away from the end of the semester (and finals), so I can’t go back and dissect it the way I would like to, but I plan to recheck it over the break and see if I can’t put my finger on what I really like about it.

I have become, not obsessed, but close, about my Godred story. I have rewritten the first bit about 5 times in the last few days, because I know that once I hit that, I will have the formula for finishing the damn thing, but I just can’t find the right...style? voice? I don’t know, and not knowing is driving me to distraction.

I figure since the writing content on this blog has been (and may continue to be) somewhat sparse, I could include my book list here instead of on my personal blog. Reading and writing go together like peanut butter and jelly (mmm... pb&j), and writers are readers first, so I feel that it is a natural extension of the original purpose of this blog.

The public library here has very few books in English (Duh! It's Germany!), and even fewer I recognize the authors of, so it has been a bit hit or miss, finding a book I enjoy. Beyond the books I already own, I mean.

I recognized Things Fall Apart, but I don't think I had ever read it before. (I think John read or saw a movie version of it when he took an African literature class back in the day.) It was very interesting, written from the perspective of an African (in what was to become Nigeria) during the period of European colonization. I liked it, but I didn't get really excited about it, if that makes sense.

For my next book, I gave Paul Doherty a try. He has a whole series of medieval novels, according to the book jacket, and I like historical novels, both fictionalized history (I, Elizabeth, Girl with a Pearl Earring) and fiction in a historical setting, so it seemed like a promising choice. But I was just not impressed. All the characters sounded roughly the same, and the description didn't manage to pull me in. Sad to say, I skimmed the bulk of it. The story is actually a murder mystery in a medieval setting, and I wanted to see how it ended, which is the only reason I stuck with the skimming instead of putting the book back in the library book basket.

Welcome to the newly remodeled site! I had faffed about with the old version so much that it was looking a bit ragged. Blogger has made some upgrades recently, so I was able to make this new version look how I wanted it to without having to write my own HTML. Woot!

Despite the rush online to declare one's writing resolutions, I have decided not to make any. My big problem is time management (i.e., getting my work done instead of farting around in the guise of housework), so that is what I am actively working on at the moment. I'll eventually figure out how writing fits into my schedule, but for now I am militantly sticking to work hours M-F, 8-5, for schoolwork and teaching, and weekends for household stuff and personal stuff like reading.

I bought a small spiral notebook and am trying to contain all my writing in it. One bad habit I have is procrastinating via organizing my various bits of writing. Since I am not actually trying to do anything in particular with all the bits and pieces anytime soon, I might as well just keep it all together in one place until I have enough to constitute a story or a blog post, and then type it up. Besides, I like to view my writing output by volume of paper instead of by the number of words.

Otherwise, I am still lurking on the writing site and trying to decide whether to filter one asshat to the trash. I don't know when he actually has the time to write fiction, because each one of his posts is a tome. He also attracts flames like 3-year-old lumber, so I don't know why he sticks around, unless it is to poke the hornets' nest some more. For every 1 thoughtful, useful post, he puts up 9 or 10 inflammatory posts. My finger is wavering over the keyboard on this one, but even if I filter him out, I can go back and read the archives online if I see a response to one of his posts that would make it worth my time to go back and read the original. And if I don't filter him out, I'll know which threads he started so I can delete them en masse. hmmm...

BTW, Kee: The new version of Blogger requires a Google Mail password. I don't know if Blogger will set you up with that when you try to log in, but let me know if you need me to send you an invitation for a gmail account.