I was browsing my old posts...and I've been posting on this blog for over a year (I missed my one year anniversary--it was February 5). Originally I started this blog to clear up some writer's block. In some ways it's worked, in other ways it hasn't. I'm still not writing enough. In two days the Wednesday Club contest submissions are due. I only have one thing that's anywhere close to being ready..."The Dodo Egg". It's not that the story is rubbish...I just don't think it's as good as what I handed in last year (and didn't win). So basically, I have a snowballs chance in hell of winning. Not that it's super important that I win (I'd like to). I do need to be writing more. I used to write a lot but didn't read much...now I read my @$$ off (not just for school either) and I hardly write at all. Leah wants me to finish my novel I was working on last year...ugh...my novella over break turned into one 20+ page short story (not very good). I have about a million different ideas...but I have no motivation it seems.
Last semester, when I wrote "The Dodo Egg" I said that the motivation to write came from my failures at school. Now that I'm doing better in school I don't feel the urge to write. My novel that Leah thinks has so much potential...I wrote it over the week, week and a half we spent apart when I lost my head and broke up with her. Why is it that disaster and turmoil are the only things that puts the fire under my butt? I almost want to fuck everything up just so I can make my literary dreams come true.
Tonight is Valentine's Day, me and Leah are going to obviously be together tonight...but tomorrow I'm going to the library and do some serious writing. I know someday I'm going to kick myself for wasting all this time (in college) to write. I know when I have a family and a job I'm going to pine away for these lazy college days.
Anyway, last night I finished up reading TEX by S.E. Hinton. It was better than RUMBLE FISH (I thought) but again, it wasn't nearly as good as THE OUTSIDERS. In fact, both RUMBLE FISH and TEX are very similar Hinton's first book. Hinton wrote THE OUTSIDERS when she was 16 years old, and I think every since then she's been haunted by it. Tom Buchanan, a character in THE GREAT GATSBY, was this hot shot football player who "peaked" in his 20's and spent the rest of his life coming down from that high. There's only one way to go once you reach the top I guess. So, in that regard, I'm glad I haven't peaked or whatever. I'd like to think that I have many, many years ahead of me. How depressing would it be if I was at the height of my prowess now?
My next read is BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS by Kurt Vonnegut. I read SLAUGHTER HOUSE FIVE last semester and really enjoyed it. I picked up BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS over the break, and well, it's on the top of my "to read" pile.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
What's the Wednesday club?
The Wednesday Club is an alumni club started by T.S. Eliots mother (they being from St. Louis) and they're goal is to foster local, creative talent. The contest is offered to anyone enrolled in at least 3 credit hours of english (undergrads only). The prize is $200 and a big fancy dinner.
My British Literature teacher told me about it, he said the money wasn't very much, but that the award itself is very prestigious. My friend Mike won it last year and it's been eating away at my guts every since. I subimitted my "Reading Gatsby" story. This year I submitted a new-er story I wrote last semester (it was published in the Honors College lit. magazine) called "The Dodo Egg."
I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Post a Comment