decisions, decisions

Today was going to be about characters - all about characters - but as I got to around the halfway point and I looked at the clock and realized that it was 11:27 pm and I'd been writing for over an hour...I edited my ideas. See, ultimately I could write about character for a week straight and not run out of things to say. I could. The way we view characters in our heads and the relationships we develop with them could take up an entire entry; the things I've learned about characters from various books on writing or on characters as well as experiments that can be played with characters - that could be a complete other entry (two, even); good books and websites on characters, naming characters, creating characters, getting to know characters, etc., as well as exercises to help develop characters - that could be a completely different entry as well! I can keep going on and on with character on Monday and Wednesday, and still have more to say on Friday.

So I will.

Next week, prepare yourself folks (all one of you): it'll be Character Week. Because I have an over-obsession with characters.

Today, I'm going to discuss my writing. Which means I'm going to talk about my writing classes, because that's really all the writing I've been doing lately.

I'm a little stuck right now for my fiction class; we're supposed to write up a six page short story rough draft, 11 pt font...1.5 spacing. That's great, really it is. One problem: I can't decide what to write. I've got two options, at least, and it ultimately boils down to which style I want to use.

The first story I want to write would be continued on from a two page expansion that we wrote for that class. The prof has already pointed out, in class, that she thought it was effective where usual stories of its ilk are not. In the barest terms, the story is about a woman finding out that she's pregant, but there's a lot more going on than just that (mostly because of the characters - see? They're very important elements). It's an overdone topic that most people just can't pull off [apparently]. According to the prof, I succeeded. In two pages, whoop for that. And, ultimately when I was writing it - I wanted to expound on it. However, now I'm worried that if I do, I'll just ruin it - and I'm not so sure I want to write it because it's basically the same style as the other two expansions we've done this quarter and this story will be the one we work with the rest of the quarter.

On the other hand, I've got this other story - it's essentially a prequel to the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo, which I'm trying to rewrite. My NaNo novels tend to be a lot more whimsical and "random", and this one would involve the main character saving the dinosaurs from aliens who want to possess their giant bodies so they can win and intergalactic swimming contest. The MC then, after saving the day, has a party. She gets drunk. Her adopted mother bets her a penny that she can't hit Earth with an asteroid. She takes the bet. She rides the astroid, manually changing its trajectory so it will crash into the Earth. Wakes up the next day. Has an OH SHIT! moment. You get the point.

It's hilarious, but I'm not sure if I can write the story in such a small space and still get across what happened, as well as the characters, and the proper tone.

Then, of course, I always have to take into account the possibility of starting something completely new. Unrelated to either story.

*Sighs*. What to do, what to do? I'll have a conference with the prof to discuss it on Friday, and the first draft of 6-7 pages is due on Wednesday of next week, so we'll see.

I also have a rough draft for a nonfiction piece due Friday for my creative writing class. I'll have to write that tomorrow. Work until five thirty, six o'clock ish, should probably cook, and then writing. I think I'll also try to write a little bit of the second option story, just so I have a good beginning to go from. I can decide better then, and maybe get an idea from the prof.

Anyway, it's technically 3 minutes after midnight here so I'm technically posting this on Thursday. I might have to rearrange the days I write so they still manage to get posted on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That means there will probably be another post up a little past midnight tomorrow, as well.

Take care, readers! All one of you...heh. =)