Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

Okay, so last week I put up my own little mini-rant about the Gene Wolfe workshop brouhaha, but now I've been thinking a little more about it, in large part due to Trey's July 25th post, and this post from Hannah.

I think I may have jumped to conclusions. I wasn't there. It is not fair of me to judge these students when I have no personal knowlege of the types of critiques they are complaining about. It's possible that their complaints are entirely justified. Maybe, maybe not. Impossible for me to say. I think that I was feeling a weird combination of feelings about some negative feedback I've gotten recently, and I was stinging from that as well as thinking that the feedback is probably justified. Hmm.

Anyway, it was a little judgemental of me and I want to apologize to anyone who actually cares what I think. ^_^

On another note, I may have had a bit of a breakthrough with Kevin, the boyfriend character from CIAG. It's not ready to go in the manuscript yet, but I've been doing some extracurricular activities with him, and I think some of it is starting to pay off.

On yet another note, the North Carolina Museum of Art is having a jazz concert followed by an outdoor cinema screening of "Chicago" on Saturday night! Woo!! I am so there, and it looks like I may have several others planning to go with me too! Woo! Party!!

Ooh! Ooh! And just now, when I went to get the art museum link, I found out the concert is by Katherine Whalen and her Jazz Squad. She used to be in Squirrel Nut Zippers!! I love them, and her!! This is going to rock!! ^_^

Okay, first, I had the pleasure to chat for a while with Wendy Delmater, who suggested that I study mystery novels and also that I may want to introduce a secondary conflict to CIAG. Very good thoughts, and I will definitely give them some thought of my own.

The other point relates to a letter from Gene Wolfe, who was to be a writer in residence at the Odyssey writing workshop. Apparently, several of his students were very thin skinned and they actually boycotted his class because they didn't like his critiques! So he did the classy thing and withdrew himself early.

Now, I know it can be very painful to hear that something may be wrong with something I've written. It's like a punch to the gut. It's no fun. But you know what? You don't go to these workshops to have fun, you go to them to improve your writing! Unless the critique in question is about personal insults instead of about the writing, I think that there is a matter of tact, but if there is something wrong with the story, the critiquer should say so, even if it hurts the writer's feelings. *sigh* Oh well.

Wow, you know I tell ya, life is funny sometimes. And all because of online chat!
I don't actually go on chat all that often, but I have the last couple of days, because I was actually feeling a little isolated, sitting at home by myself. I even wondered if chat was the right way to handle that. (I think sometimes it is, but not always.) Anyway, yesterday I come across Nikki, an online friend of mine who I haven't talked to in a long time, and then tonight, I come across Manda, the first friend I made when I moved out here to North Carolina! Weird!

Well, in case any of you were worried, I arranged for my company to pay for the hotel directly, so no substantial worries there, just minor embarrassment. But I don't care about that today. I'm writing!

Where do the stories come from? They sure don't feel like they're coming from me. Is it God? Or perhaps he has just given us this capacity to do this from our subconscious mind. Or something else altogether? In truth, I suspect the subconscious, but sometimes it really feels like it must come from somewhere outside myself.

Stephen King, in his excellent book, On Writing, likens the process to digging up a fossil. The story is complete, and out there somewhere. The process of writing is not genuinely the process of creation, but rather the process of digging that fossil up a bit at a time. He elaborates on that further, but I won't go into that here. Suffice it to say that I found it a wonderful analogy.

So, why do I bring it up at all? ^_^ Because "Call It A Gift" chapter three is progressing in just that way. I feel like I'm reading a story written by someone else as I meet new characters and discover new scenes. There I was, expecting the chapter to play out in a fairly simple way. The doctor is a jerk and wants to subject Ginny to more tests, and won't let her leave, but she, with her parents' help signs out against medical advice.

But then, as the scene progressed, I realized that the doctor has a way to keep her there even if she wants to leave. She has demonstrated mental instability in the past, and her car accident occurred under suspicious circumstances. What if he states that he is concerned that she will kill herself? He could have her involuntarily committed for 72 hours. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it is exactly the sort of thing that doctor would do, especially after how much Ginny's mother had antagonized him.

But then, I was worried. If Ginny is committed, that would substantially change the early plot. I didn't know where the story would go if she was sent to the mental hospital, and I was also concerned that Ginny's resulting freakouts would start to feel repetitive. I wondered if her boyfriend Kevin would be able to help her escape the hospital before she gets sent there, but then how would that impact him? I wasn't terribly worried that I couldn't figure it out, but it would essentially throw the rough outline that I'd done out the window, and it would substantially delay certain scenes that I've been looking forward to, some which actually inspired the whole story.

And then, I met Doctor Singh, the psychiatrist.

Originally, he was simply a sort of extension of Doctor Kelly, and he served little purpose other than to make Ginny upset and commit her. But then, he showed up as a fully developed character, an intelligent, compassionate guy, who can see in Ginny that she wasn't trying to kill herself, even if he doesn't fully understand what is happening. He doesn't commit her at all, and instead becomes an ally. How cool is that?

I know I'm hardly the first writer to observe this. I just like it. ^_^

I swear, sometimes I feel like I don't deserve to be an adult yet.

I mean, by any objective standard, I make a pretty good living for someone who doesn't have any dependents, and yet still, month after month, I find myself just barely scraping by. And when I have to travel, like I am at the moment, I don't get reimbursed for my travel expenses until the end of the month, so my budget is essentially screwed. I don't know yet how I'll pay for the hotel I'm staying in right now. I put it on my debit card when I checked in, but then another check I'd forgotten about cleared, meaning that the hold they put on my card for the hotel was most likely rejected. *sigh* I have no doubt that things will work out somehow, probably by having one of my coworkers put the bill on their card, and then they get reimbursed, but it's just so embarrassing.

Travelling to small towns for work + carpooling with coworkers who work 11 hours every day = AAAARRRGGGHHH!

So I check into my hotel last night and pretty much head straight to bed. (Got up REALLY early), and then this morning, I realize that my hotel bathroom has a jacuzzi in it! Nice! I'm a tall gal (6ft) so most bathtubs are too small. This one, however, looks perfect! Plus bubbles! ^_^

I mention it to my coworker though, wondering aloud why the desk clerk didn't mention them when they were telling us what was in the rooms. He said his room has a normal, tiny bathtub.

Oh... *blush* Guess that's why the clerk didn't mention it. Anyway, I'm takin' a jacuzzi bath tonight!