I've been awkwardly stalled on my Austen and Lawrence reading challenges for the last two months, so I'm gracefully bowing out of them until mid-December when I finish this semester and am not reading for three literature classes.
However, I think I am going to do NaNoWriMo again this year. I had to quit ScriptFrenzy, but there are a few stories I've been sketching out that I really need to push myself to bang out into a solid draft. Knowing myself, I need to write to keep myself balanced (mentally and emotionally) and I haven't been doing it lately. I need to make myself do it because I feel the frustration of unexpressed words building up in me which makes me grumpy and, eventually, depressed.
There are several stories I'm between, not sure which one I'll NaNo- I have a story I wrote a while back but basically completely scrapped, over the sumer I made an outline that restructured it completely and even changed out some characters. There's also my short story, "Target Girl"- I think that could be expanded, as well as a few random ideas I've been kicking around in an abstract way.
Reading is incredibly important and I know I'll never have enough time in my life to read all the great books I ought to- there being created much faster than I can read them and so many were created before my birth- but in the end, I want to write a few great books that are worthy of someone else's overly ambitious reading list.
For a while, books were a great majority of my life and I'm at the point where I'm trying to balance out the time I spend reading with that I spend writing and also the time I spend doing. I think in the end this is a much healthier attitude toward books. I shouldn't only live them.
But, I digress, expect many updates about the story I choose as NaNo gears up.
Good luck with NaNo! :) I'm planning on joining in too this year (didn't do it last year - didn't have any ideas, didn't have the time), writing my Jane Eyre adaptation. So I should probably work on the characters' backgrounds, really... and have some sort of idea what they're going to do in today's day and age.
ReplyDeleteFor the challenge - I've almost finished Lady Chatterley's Lover, but Women in Love has ground to a halt - and I still have The Rainbow and two other novels to go. And it's almost November. Hrm. Yeah, we'll see how that goes, I guess. I keep setting myself ridiculous goals for these reading challenges. Should learn to slow down. I do have other books I want to read as well, but there aren't enough hours in the day!
I know how you feel! I've read excerpts from Lady Chatterley in the past, it's not bad, but sometimes Lawrence is alot to handle.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wish I didn't have to sleep. More time to read.
Oh yes, he's not easy on the pallet. WiL just feels like he wants to have a philosophical argument with someone but can't, and has his characters debate on the page instead. While the discussion is interesting, it just doesn't feel right with those characters and in that setting. Considering ditching WiL for the challenge, along with "The Rainbow" (as it's about the same characters) and read "Sons and Lovers" and "The Plumed Serpent" instead. Or more short stories...
ReplyDelete