I’m writing a short story. It’s another descendent of Circle Games, and focuses on a a character’s reminiscence of her (limited) place in a key historical event. In some ways it’s a holocaust survival story, but this is one of those things that I’ve realized only after the fact.

The writing, thus far, has been all long hand, and this has helped me really get into the character--because it’s basically a journal entry. In some ways, I think I was able to be so successful at the novella, beacause the tone and structure was similar, at least in terms of it being built around journal entries.

Which I know you might be thinking: “but you’re a blogger, why are you writing fiction that in much the same mode that your blog is written in?” Ah, I say, but I think this is actually a pretty crucial part of my project.

Without giving too much away, as I’ve probably said, I’m tearing myself to shreds in an attempt to go to graduate school to study how people internalize and process history and historical narratives. While I’ve been pretty good about focusing on this as a unifying theme for my fiction writing1, I’ve been less successful at recognizing the links between my academic fascination/methodological focus on individuals' in-the-moment production of these stories. By exploring journal forms and epistletory(?) modes, I think I’m able to bring things all together in a way that I really like.

I’ve been listening to the new (2007) Linda Thompson Album Versatile Heart, and it’s really really good. The title cut is great. “Katy Cruel” is amazing (but it always is), and there’s something really divine about “Whiskey, Bob Copper, and Me.” I’m also geeking out on some old School Richard Thompson, particularly “The Dimming of the Day,” from Pour Down Like Silver, which all around great. I’m moving back to a more obsessive engagement with a few songs, which is something that the “random setting” on the ipod had beaten out of me And it’s comfortable.

And I’m writing long hand, and I’m getting things done on TealArt, which is not yet perfect, but is damn close: I think it’s safe to say that I’m beyond my previous “block” on this project…

I think I’m back. Alert the news.

Onward and Upward!

  1. One of the reasons that Circle Games didn’t really work out the first time, is that the entire story is built around some ill-gotten notion of loyalty and social organization. While it’s not as bad as that description would suggest, I realized while I was writing--or shortly after--that I wasn’t really particularly interested in this subject on some larger scale. So it’s good that I have something new to focus my attention on. ↩︎