Writing Journal

This article is about a woman who used to write "sad stories" for the newspaper. By which she means what my 9th grade newswriting teacher would call "fuzzy bunny stories." They're the stories about "the cancer patients,...the bereft parents, the brave teenagers, [and] the toddlers waiting for transplants."

She talks about being able to do it because she could keep her distance emotionally. She says it requires a special talent, and I agree it is a talent to be able to look at an emotional situation objectively. She says that all changed when she had her first child and her "empathy went airborne."

It's a fascinating concept and one that gets touched on in the movie "Stranger Than Fiction." (Starring Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah, Will Ferrell and Dustin Hoffman, I'd say the title fits the cast, too.) Essentially, Thompson's author character is known for writing stories where the main character dies. Ferrell's character finds himself at the center of the book she's in the progress of writing, and there is at least once good scene where Thompson ponders how it's different when the characters she is killing off are real people.

It makes me wonder if I'm going to give my NaNoWriMo project a happy or sad ending.

In semi-related news, my roommate and I cleaned like crazy on Saturday, and cleaning off the table made us realize how empty the one wall looks. The adjacent one looks less empty because it's covered in masking tape & sticky notes laying out her most recent NaNo project. I think I might put mine up on the other wall.

Lay out the characters & relationships, plot events, rising action, and climax. Just as soon as I figure out what all of those are.

Fun story: I was cleaning off my catch-all chair and said, "Hey, look, it's Paradise Lost." Pun not intended, but laughingly allowed.