Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Exploration

The spring/summer session of Ariel's Lit Star Training has started.

My first quick write went well. It's a hybrid piece of 8-minute writing: part memoir, part total fiction. I like it and once I started typing it went smoothly. The prompt had to do with an imaginary friend, which posed a problem. I don't remember having an imaginary friend. Ever. There was an imaginary spirit for a short time, but he was more of a messenger, not really a companion or friend. I didn't write about him, but there was an element of him in the story.

I turned in my first assignment before midnight on Sunday as instructed. Only about 20 minutes before midnight, but I did. It was not complete and it was a first draft; but I was determined to not start this session with being behind. I don't like what I wrote and it had barely started toward where I thought it would go. Part of the problem with that piece is that it was a little too raw. It was primarily memoir, but a few hybrid pieces of information tossed in from nearby times to match the assignment. A couple of years ago I discovered that sometimes I struggle to write real experiences that are too recent. No, that's not quite it, either; that are recent and intense or which were challenging in some way. This was one of those.

But I did it. I turned it in.

Now here I am with two work days left until my long awaited week off. I am so looking forward to this break from work. And yet.

I'm looking forward to meeting my feline charges (or will I be their charge?) at the end of this week. Having some time to hang out in Seattle with three cats, sleep, read, write, walk. And do a little driving, yes. I will be in Seattle and I will be far closer to my favorite sushi restaraunt, so I will have to make at least one drive to there - Blue C Sushi, the one in Fremont. Yum. I'm hoping to finish reading the memoir my partner gave me. And to finish re-reading my memoir to get a little momentum going there, as well, and get the editing and rewriting firmly under way. Oh, and to do my other Lit Star assignments.

A week off of work, a new writing group session, a few days out of town = time to explore and rejuvenate. Through writing.
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