A Break In Character

Well, I feel like doing something a little different and writing an actual blog. I suppose this will be more factual than your average story from me, so that will be essentially the difference between this and a very sloppily constructed and probably boring story. Here’s hoping I’ve got enough charisma to keep you interested in the goings on of my life, or whatever it is I might end up talking about. Ah, you know what? I think I’ll write about what’s going on with my writing, that way it won’t be too far out of character for this page, and anyone looking back through these won’t find me a pompous…well, I think I’m only making it worse continuing with that thought.

Anyway, so the semester’s over, and it has turned out to be (for me) quite productive. I’ve written a few letters that will probably never be shared with the person I was writing to, started little bits of chapters or stories or books or whatever, revised or added to some short stories a little or at least figured out some ideas for them, and (as you may have noticed) written a bunch of poems. I haven’t actually counted up everything, but it’s not a bad number, I’m guessing between what could be considered 15-20 real poems. I know I could do better than that, but several of them are three hundred plus words, and all but one were essentially original (I mean original in the sense that I hadn’t already written the words before this Fall and rearranged them). This is turning out rather parenthetical.

Now I figure I can focus a little more on writing some actual stories, or perhaps starting to write some drafts for the novel that’s brewing in my head and fermenting on paper and processor. I would write an outline first, but I’d like to see how it feels to write some of these different ideas and ponder what I’m more enthusiastic about. I definitely need to do a little bit of travel during my break. Nothing big, really, I just need to get out into the middle of nowheres of Texas and see what I can derive from that. I’ve imagined certain themes I’d like to try to figure out, and one of them involves Texas, the land and sky, the place itself, as a central figure. It seems I might as well write a bildungsroman to get my first work down, and what could be better than figuring out my entire time here by writing about it? Of course, I’ll have to change some things, and it will be greatly abridged, but I’ve got this notion that I can glean something meaningful out of it all. I’m not sure just how ambitious I’m going to get with it.

On one hand I’d really like to let my mind run wild and write a raw, experimental, almost “writer’s” sort of work, but then I realize, too, that something like that would be very difficult, both for me and the eventual (hopefully existent) reader. So sitting in my other palm is the idea of a lighter, but not necessarily more whimsical, story using a consistent voice throughout. I’m thinking, however, of trying to combine them, by writing in an alternating pattern of one recurrent voice and a myriad of others, which are still telling the same story (or parts of it). I would like to make it somewhat epistolary, and incorporate some other forms of writing into it, too, namely poetry and short story. The idea is still in the concept stage, certainly, so I wouldn’t expect that to be what you end up reading, but it seems like a cool idea. Actually, as I talk about it, it seems to be crystallizing somewhat. Woo!

I’ve also decided to embark on a bit of self-improvement and begin reading one book a week for, well, for as long as there’s one more book to read the next week. Then I’ll start rereading them all. I’m slacking this week––I’ve been exhausted and a bit sick, but I think a good hour of reading should get me through the end of Nadja, which I’ve only been on for a week and a half––not all that bad. Part of the reason I’ve been so damn tired this week is because I stayed up the other night until about 6:30 making a list of roughly forty-five different books I would like. Some are classics, others are more contemporary, there’s some poetry, and just about all of them should be pretty “literary” in the collegiate sense. I don’t suppose many of them are very original reads, but I figure a good year or two of dedicated reading should get me about as well-read as a precocious high-schooler, so I can talk to people and seem like I might have an English degree (I’m graduating in May, by the way, about which I am very excited and would also like to say: ‘It’s about damn time’).

[(Not so) quick note on the personal side of things: I’m doing pretty well, all things considered. If you haven’t guessed, I got a job recently, and I’m finding it rather exhausting coupled with school. I think it’s just a matter of getting used to it, and starting off in a rather exhausting way to begin with. (A long story in itself, one I may or may not ever find need to write about, but the raw facts would be: long days of work and school crammed together, followed by a long weekend sorely lacking in food and sleep but rich in anxiety and walking, followed by more work, followed by roughly a month now of reeling without routine). But I don’t mind it too much, just more the idea of the whole thing. It’s not forever, however, so I can live with it for now. I’m still rather painfully single. I was always picky when I was younger (when in school as I think about it), and it seems I’ve returned to that. Picky and shy don’t make for an active dating life. But that’s fine––I still manage to create plenty of woe and elation for myself even with my minimal interaction. Um…the cats are good. I’m posting so much this week because a number of miscommunications and proverbial dropped balls led to my power being disconnected for the three days I was home last week, and by the time I was anywhere to post a poem from it seemed I should just wait until the holiday was over and have a proper week of posts for everyone.]

Well, I’m sorry this ended up so long, but thanks for reading it,
–Andrew

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