(no subject)
Back at school after a week off, and finding it hard to get back into the swing of things (or as into the swing of things as I ever was, which wasn't very much)--it feels like I've been gone for much longer. This week was made up of about 15% travel, 10% drunkenness, 20% organizing the back room at Borders, 5% hanging around doing nothing, 25% spending wonderful time with Elise, and, er, whatever's left over sleeping. But it was 100% awesome.
I'm trying to workshop a story right now, and it is not going well. You see, it appears to be almost wholly autobiographical, and it is the story of a young woman visiting her aging, senile, pathetic grandparents, interspersed with interludes into the grandmother's wandering mind, and it is so poorly written it makes my head hurt. Or, no, that's not quite fair. Some parts of it are actually rather good, but that really only makes the bad parts (of which there are many more) seem even worse. So my problem is, how do I tactfully tell her that she is doing a grave disservice to her grandparents by writing their story so terribly? She doesn't even use proper grammar half the time. Not that I'm a huge stickler for grammar, but I do know that commas, colons, and semicolons are different punctuation marks and cannot all be used interchangeably, willy-nilly, whichever one your finger happens to hit first.
It actually makes me rather horrified to think about my own writing. I mean, this girl can't think her story is as wretched as I do--she probably thinks it's pretty good. And I've always thought my writing is pretty good. So what if it is actually wretched? What if I have some absolutely deranged idea of my own skill? Bah. It's too stressful to think about that. (Also, I might be sort of fishing for compliments here, so, don't give any. Let's just leave it. Although, if anyone has problems with my sometimes excessive use of dashes, let me know.)
Dammit. I was supposed to read 'Hiroshima' for tomorrow. I don't even have a copy. I would just skip the class, but I honestly like it too much. That leaves the library then. It's a tiny book--I can probably read it in a couple of hours. Right?
Also, tonight's "Studio 60" was by far the best episode of the season. I am madly in love with Nate Corddry.
I'm trying to workshop a story right now, and it is not going well. You see, it appears to be almost wholly autobiographical, and it is the story of a young woman visiting her aging, senile, pathetic grandparents, interspersed with interludes into the grandmother's wandering mind, and it is so poorly written it makes my head hurt. Or, no, that's not quite fair. Some parts of it are actually rather good, but that really only makes the bad parts (of which there are many more) seem even worse. So my problem is, how do I tactfully tell her that she is doing a grave disservice to her grandparents by writing their story so terribly? She doesn't even use proper grammar half the time. Not that I'm a huge stickler for grammar, but I do know that commas, colons, and semicolons are different punctuation marks and cannot all be used interchangeably, willy-nilly, whichever one your finger happens to hit first.
It actually makes me rather horrified to think about my own writing. I mean, this girl can't think her story is as wretched as I do--she probably thinks it's pretty good. And I've always thought my writing is pretty good. So what if it is actually wretched? What if I have some absolutely deranged idea of my own skill? Bah. It's too stressful to think about that. (Also, I might be sort of fishing for compliments here, so, don't give any. Let's just leave it. Although, if anyone has problems with my sometimes excessive use of dashes, let me know.)
Dammit. I was supposed to read 'Hiroshima' for tomorrow. I don't even have a copy. I would just skip the class, but I honestly like it too much. That leaves the library then. It's a tiny book--I can probably read it in a couple of hours. Right?
Also, tonight's "Studio 60" was by far the best episode of the season. I am madly in love with Nate Corddry.