My English Professor is too nice. At the beginning of the semester, his class was required to write six essays, a thirty page journal, and take multiple quizzes. We still had to do a thirty page journal. Fifteen for the first half of the semester, and fifteen for the last--minimum. That is, fifteen pages each if you wanted a C. If you know me well at all, you can probably guess that I did way over fifteen. Thirty pages each half. Oh yeah.
For Comp. 200's quizzes and essays, however, the professor was surprisingly nice. He canceled a quiz that was supposed to happen before Spring Break. Now, to make it even better, the quiz that we were going to have this Thursday is "optional." Everyone has to take it, but if you get a bad grade, my professor isn't counting it, so it's like extra credit. And instead of six essays, he dropped it down to five. The sixth essay is an optional creative writing essay, so of course I wrote it (and handed it in today, which is more than a full week before it's due).
And on that note: three more weeks and I'm done with my city's state university--forever. No more taking classes to make sure that I could do it after being homeschooled. No, I'm done with SUCO. Finally. Moving on to UArts. And I can't wait.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Killing Characters
I'm 65,000 words into my current novel, and I just killed my first character.
Well, no. I killed one in the beginning of the book around 16,000 words in, but she wasn't a big character. Obviously, she lasted less than 20,000 words in the story. But today I killed one of the main characters.
I have four characters who are the focus of the story. One character--Seth--is the MC, and the story is told mainly through first person from his POV, though there are two others who get view points occasionally, and then the antagonist (who gets POV sections every once in a while) and one other character who I think got a section from his POV once. Other than that, there really aren't any other characters in the story. A few small ones, I suppose, but not even many of them: one aunt and a cousin, a woman who died in the first sixty pages, a queen, and that's really it. The main characters are Seth, Jason, Myra, and Gaven (the fifth is a side character). Compared to my other novels, this is a rather small cast, which is a nice change. Sadly, I had to kill one of them today.
When I first realized that one of the main characters was going to die, I had one of those moments where you think the idea is great. Then I thought about it in more detail, and realized that I really didn't want to kill this character. The idea of killing them still sounded good, yet that meant I wouldn't get to write about them anymore, because unlike my other novels, there is no reincarnation in this novel. I grew used to my trilogy The Otherworld Series which is about spirit guides, so needless to say, there was a lot of dying and reincarnation in those three books. Not in this book. Here, when you're dead, you're dead.
Of course, this character didn't just die in any old boring way. Neh. I had to make it interesting. Or so I hope. I'll have to ask someone if they read this story.
Funnily enough--or not; it's not really funny--I had no problem actually writing the death scene. I thought I would. When I get to the point where I have to kill a character that I like, I usually hesitate. I suppose I've been waiting to write this scene all week (because I'm a bit obsessive and had to finish my research paper before allowing myself to write my novel, even though the essay isn't due until Thursday). I'd gotten past the stage where I wasn't certain I wanted to kill this character, and so it was pretty easy.
This morning I woke up, sat down at my computer, and killed the first main character in my current novel. All before breakfast.
I think only a writer can say they killed someone today and not be totally insane.
Well, no. I killed one in the beginning of the book around 16,000 words in, but she wasn't a big character. Obviously, she lasted less than 20,000 words in the story. But today I killed one of the main characters.
I have four characters who are the focus of the story. One character--Seth--is the MC, and the story is told mainly through first person from his POV, though there are two others who get view points occasionally, and then the antagonist (who gets POV sections every once in a while) and one other character who I think got a section from his POV once. Other than that, there really aren't any other characters in the story. A few small ones, I suppose, but not even many of them: one aunt and a cousin, a woman who died in the first sixty pages, a queen, and that's really it. The main characters are Seth, Jason, Myra, and Gaven (the fifth is a side character). Compared to my other novels, this is a rather small cast, which is a nice change. Sadly, I had to kill one of them today.
When I first realized that one of the main characters was going to die, I had one of those moments where you think the idea is great. Then I thought about it in more detail, and realized that I really didn't want to kill this character. The idea of killing them still sounded good, yet that meant I wouldn't get to write about them anymore, because unlike my other novels, there is no reincarnation in this novel. I grew used to my trilogy The Otherworld Series which is about spirit guides, so needless to say, there was a lot of dying and reincarnation in those three books. Not in this book. Here, when you're dead, you're dead.
Of course, this character didn't just die in any old boring way. Neh. I had to make it interesting. Or so I hope. I'll have to ask someone if they read this story.
Funnily enough--or not; it's not really funny--I had no problem actually writing the death scene. I thought I would. When I get to the point where I have to kill a character that I like, I usually hesitate. I suppose I've been waiting to write this scene all week (because I'm a bit obsessive and had to finish my research paper before allowing myself to write my novel, even though the essay isn't due until Thursday). I'd gotten past the stage where I wasn't certain I wanted to kill this character, and so it was pretty easy.
This morning I woke up, sat down at my computer, and killed the first main character in my current novel. All before breakfast.
I think only a writer can say they killed someone today and not be totally insane.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Being a Writer
My English professor called me a writer today. I've considered myself a "writer" for a few years now--probably since 2008 when I finished my first novel and joined a writing forum to get critiques on it--but I never really thought others considered me a writer. Besides YWOers, my family members, and a few others, I have the creeping suspicion that not too many people read my Facebook updates, and I know not many people read this blog. So most people probably don't realize I'm a writer. Those who do must be tired of my talking about it.
Today in my COMP 200 class, the professor canceled our sixth essay and told us we could do an extra credit essay if we wanted instead. The essay would be creative, using first person from the POV of an object or a non-human. A creative essay? Perfect! Now if only essay number five would go away so I could write number six.
My professor is a bit obsessive when it comes to using fragments. Up until our fourth essay, he wasn't convinced that we knew the difference between a complete sentence and a fragment. Seriously? If you can't tell, Microsoft Word usually can. Or not. Half the time it's wrong. But finally--finally!--we were allowed to use fragments, though only if we bracketed them so the professor knew that we understood what we were doing and it wasn't "accidental." Yeah, yeah, okay, whatever.
So today, after class, I asked if we were allowed to use fragments in this next essay, since it's creative. The professor pretty much told me yes, I could use fragments because I was a writer (which he knows from reading my personal journal, since it was filled with entry upon entry about writing). My advanced college writing professor called me a writer! I just kind of nodded, said All right, thanks, then got my bag and exited the room.
Fortunately, we'd gotten out early so no one else was in the hallway. I left that class and walked down the hall with a grin on my face. No one's actually called me a writer before.
Today in my COMP 200 class, the professor canceled our sixth essay and told us we could do an extra credit essay if we wanted instead. The essay would be creative, using first person from the POV of an object or a non-human. A creative essay? Perfect! Now if only essay number five would go away so I could write number six.
My professor is a bit obsessive when it comes to using fragments. Up until our fourth essay, he wasn't convinced that we knew the difference between a complete sentence and a fragment. Seriously? If you can't tell, Microsoft Word usually can. Or not. Half the time it's wrong. But finally--finally!--we were allowed to use fragments, though only if we bracketed them so the professor knew that we understood what we were doing and it wasn't "accidental." Yeah, yeah, okay, whatever.
So today, after class, I asked if we were allowed to use fragments in this next essay, since it's creative. The professor pretty much told me yes, I could use fragments because I was a writer (which he knows from reading my personal journal, since it was filled with entry upon entry about writing). My advanced college writing professor called me a writer! I just kind of nodded, said All right, thanks, then got my bag and exited the room.
Fortunately, we'd gotten out early so no one else was in the hallway. I left that class and walked down the hall with a grin on my face. No one's actually called me a writer before.
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