The Year of the Towel

Obviously, blogging isn’t everything.

I just turned 43 (The Year of the Towel come to an end without the answer to life, the universe, and everything…), and I didn’t even blog about the day.

I’ve lost my way. A long time ago I told true stories…but that well is empty.

I came across this video series I really like. Here is one episode.

Obsession x Voice (Failed Writer #6) from Yuvi Zalkow on Vimeo.

And now I’m pondering what my obsessions are. Well, writing, art, the brain, Doctor Who and Torchwood, speed skating, and women’s rights. Some things I’ve avoided for fear of upsetting folks…but should I be worried about that? Really?

Lots to think about. Watch the video. Watch the other ones too.

No Witnesses

I’m reading this book about the films of John Hughes. Of course, I’m rethinking those dreaded high school years.

Sure, I hated high school, but perhaps my animosity towards former classmates is a bit unnecessary. My classmates were not that awful. Many teens have far more unpleasant experiences. Anyway, while reading one of the essays on Molly Ringwald, I realized why I want next to nothing to do with classmates from high school.

Witnesses. They are witness to that life.

And who wants those?

The Nicest Guy!

Because of facebook, I now know that a certain individual from my hometown is having serious health problems. He and I are not facebook friends, but we’ve known each other since we were five. Well, he was five and I was four.

Anyway. On facebook a mutual friend posted about his illness and asked people to pray for him, and she added, “He’s the nicest guy you could ever meet.”

And I, perhaps a bit ungraciously, thought, “No, he isn’t.”

Not that you shouldn’t pray for him if you believe in that sort of thing, but there is a reason why I’m not facebook friends with him even though thanks to the alphabet we sat next to each other for years in school. I’ve long though him a jerk.

Not that he doesn’t have family that loves him. He isn’t evil or anything. If prayer works then by all means he should be prayed for. I mean, if you believe in prayer, do you have to have a “nice” measurement to decide who to pray for? Obviously he has been nice to some people.

Of course, facebook is a natural habitat for hyperbole. Exclamation marks are the rabbits of the social networking!

But I was thinking about character and who we like and who we don’t the other day as I edited novel number one. In the story is a guy who is kind of a jerk. He isn’t a truly bad guy (like the antagonist). He tries to do some good things..while still being kind of a jerk. And I love him. And my protagonist grows to like him too.

Part of me thought…some readers will be annoyed that she likes this guy. He’s a jerk! She should slap him! Yeah…probably…but still…deep down he’s a nice guy.

The nicest guy you’d ever want to meet!

Characters that are too nice are boring, aren’t they?

But I wonder if this novel is ever read by anyone else, how they’ll see this guy. Will they find him oddly charming or a smarmy jerk?

You could pray for him, of course. But as the creator of my little world, I’m not going to intervene.

The Wrong Explanation

Why I Write by George Orwell…have you read it?

Many other writers have taken this title and run with it. Have you?

When non-writers ask, “Why do you write?” maybe they should be asked, “Why don’t you?”

What if all written words vanished? What if every written word in the world–in every language–drifted up into the atmosphere never to be seen again? No words in books, no words on billboards, no words on cereal boxes, no words on the Internet, no captions, no words anywhere at all. What would you do? What if you took out a pen, wrote your name on a piece of paper, and saw it disappear?

Would you value writing then?

Why are people so afraid of writing? Why do they balk at writing when they can express themselves and take time to consider what to say? Why is that so hard?

If the government decreed there would be no more writing–all writing banned–would it become more meaningful?

I don’t know. I am full of questions…