The Daily Writer #1

So, in addition to being possibly the worst blogger ever, I'm also a terrible procrastinator. I can't make myself do anything or focus on much. If you know me or have been reading this thing, you know that I've wanted to be a writer my entire life, and I consider myself quite good at it. The problem isn't my writing, you see, it's actually putting it down on paper (er, computer screen). I'm kind of a binge writer. I'll write loads in two hours, then not touch it again for months. I know that this is a problem many writers face. I'm convinced that I could be published and read if I could just get myself together enough to write a decent draft.

So! In order to help myself with this task, I've picked up a book (yes, another one). It's called The Daily Writer, and it addresses exactly the problems I have. It gives a short blurb on various elements of writing and then offers one or two exercises, intended to make you write every day! Isn't that fabulous! Well, it obviously starts on January 1, but I figured I could just skip to August 1 and make my way around it like that. I read the first two prompts and they're very interesting. I offer them here for your enjoyment:

August 1

1.) Prepare a synopsis of a short story organized into the three stages--departure, initiation, and return--of the hero's journey.
2.) Write a fantasy or real world short story based on the synopsis you prepared for number one.

Here are my thoughts for the first part:
- Departure: A classic young male hero's village is infected by a terrible plague. The hero, being young and strong, is sent to retrieve a rare medicine from another village by an elder. The village is several days' journey away and there is a terrible snowstorm.
- Initiation: The young hero braves the storm and many dangers to find the medicine and deliver it back home.
- Return: The young hero returns home to find that his entire village has already perished while he was away. The hero realizes that the elder sent him away to save him from the plague, not to fetch necessary medicine, as he knew that it was too late for the rest of the village.
- I'm interested in a kind of parallel between the young hero and the elder, where they both go through these stages in the story, but you don't see the elder's journey until the end. For the elder's departure, he sees that the young hero is the only healthy one in a dying village. As there is no hope for the rest of the village, he realizes that he must somehow save the young hero. Elder's initiation: He must concoct a convincing story to lead the young hero away from the plague, ensuring his safety. Elder's return: I'm not sure. Maybe he can at least be thanked by the young hero's parents or something for saving their child.

Anyway, that's the first part. I'll tackle part two tomorrow when I get home from work. :)

The Grapes of Wrath

Just a quick update for now! I'm still plowing through The Grapes of Wrath (get it? "Plowing through?" I crack myself up), but it's slower going than many of the other books I've read. It's a longer novel, of course, but the language is also very intricate. It's not always easy to follow, especially when Steinbeck goes off on a little tangent. Luckily, the tangents are nice to read.

Overall, I find the plot intriguing so far, but not much has really happened. I'm enjoying the story and the characters and Steinbeck's writing is quite beautiful at times, especially his descriptions of the desolate landscape. Who knew the Dust Bowl could be beautiful? However, sometimes I think he gets a little bogged down in all those purdy words. It slows the plot and makes me less connected to the story.

In other news, I've decided that I need to put in a few hours a day in my writing. What do you think is appropriate? I want to get up to six hours, but I think I should start small for now. Maybe an hour and a half for now, then move on to three hours, then move on to six hours. Now that I've graduated, I really want to complete one of my novels and start looking for a publisher. It's exciting, but a bit terrifying. I think if I can just make myself focus and finish something (for once), it will turn out well. Here's hoping...

There's a hard freeze moving in tonight. I can hear the leaves crackling already. A good day to stay inside and read and/or write, don't you think?