Evolution of the Novel, Vol. 1

I think I'm writing a book.

I say "I think," because I'm not quite sure that the mounds of scrap paper with clever one-liners, twenty-four word processing files with beginnings of chapters, and six hours of minidisc recordings of me talking in goofy British accents actually amount to a book. Eventually, it might. Hence, "I think I'm writing a book." Right now, it's all a collection of jumbled short stories in the life of a fictional character who's a bit more of me than I'd like to admit, but in time, it could be equivalent to my life's work, as silly as that sounds.

What gives me hope is the fact that the basic premise of the book hasn't changed in the approximately three years since I've been scribbling 21st century proverbs into half-used notebooks. I even have a title -- ironically, "Work in Progress" -- and a set of characters which have been basically unaltered. Everything else, unfortunately, is in constant flux; the motivations behind certain characters' actions, secondary characters that flesh out the main ones, narrative style, novel structure -- these things have been changing constantly to the point where I feel very tempted to burn the paper scraps, delete the .doc files, and wipe the minidiscs so I can start all over again.

Actually, I won't go that far. But I am starting over again. Wish me luck.

Hello, from School Mode

First off, I'd like to say to my friend the Shoestring Traveler that, no, I haven't been ignoring you. I've been working 30 hours a week and going to school, so anything I used to regard as "free time" has been passing me by for the last month or so. But I would very much love to walk your bike path (which isn't nearly as dirty as it sounds) and have a nice chat. We'll totally have to do that sometime.

And, for the aforementioned reason, this post is but an intermediary, "hey, I'm not dead" post. The first four weeks of my summer classes (I still have to take my 2nd year German class and finish an online Polysci course in the next four weeks) were a rude awakening for someone who hadn't been this involved in "academic" (read: not music) classes since probably high school, some, god, seven years ago now. But still, I did about as close to flourishing as I could have, given the circumstances. My Samurai in Film class, a great course but unfortunately second on my list of priorities, was more representative of what I expected all my classes to be; my laziness got the better of me, so I missed a few classes, and some mild cramming for the final enabled me to get my (I think) well deserved B in the class. Indian history was another story. That class now represents to me what I could be -- I learned, I participated, I did all the assigned readings (something which I'm not sure anyone in the class can boast), and I walked away triumphant. I'm glad that class came when it did, for now I have new confidence in my decision to pursue history, which is good.

So, all in all, I'm still in School mode. I'm learning, and I'm liking to learn. So don't be offended, all five of you who may or may not read this blog, if I'm scarce for the next month or so -- but not to worry, I have several topics to opine on, just not right now.

And if you'll excuse me, I have to go find my wallet.