Joe Vasicek

Um, yeah…only 66 words tonight…

But at least I wrote SOMETHING. Around 10:30 at night, I went and visited my old roommate Steve who’s a film major. He was trying to finish a screenplay and get it in before midnight, so I decided to come and write with him in the same room. So then, got home, took a shower, had a bowl of cereal, called my parents while in the car on the way…and finally sat myself down writing at about 11:15. And then he sent in the screenplay at 11:45, and we ended up just hanging out and talking about stuff: life, girls, school, work, feelings and emotions, spiritual impressions, marriage, regrets, finances, Israel and the illegal settlements, Yasir Arafat and Black September (ok, I did most of the talking there–but at least I kept it short! And Steve WAS interested, otherwise I wouldn’t have talked about it!), classes in the coming semester, pirating illegal music, the singularity, the possibility of space travel in the Millenium…basically, all kinds of stuff. Man, friends are really awesome!

So, I’ve been thinking about the goals that I’ve set. Back when Aneeka inspired me to actually give this novel idea a shot, she said that I should set goals. I reviewed that conversation tonight, and was thinking about it. I’ve got a 500 word per night goal…but I don’t always keep it. Usually, I can just tag how many words I miss onto the next day, so if I miss one day, I’ll make it up by doing 1,000 the next. Or 1,500 if I miss two days in a row. But anything longer than that, and I just end up never making the goal at all.

So, I’ve been thinking that I should approach this writing with two goals: the first is to write 500 words per night, and the second goal is just to sit down each day and at least write something–even if it’s only a sentence or two. That way, I’m still doing what I’ve been doing, but if I can sit down for even ten minutes, I can at least feel like I’ve accomplished something. Also, if I can really get into the habit of writing daily, then that alone will probably do a lot to help me move from a hobby writer to a semi-professional one (about as semi as you can get…). We’ll see.

Thank God for Political Science!

Man, I am SO happy that I’m a Political Science major! I can’t say it enough! I will NEVER have to worry about looking back and saying “man, why didn’t I major in Political Science?” That right there is a mightily compelling reason! But there are a lot more reasons as well! A LOT. For one, the stuff that I’m studying here for Political Science is REALLY giving me a lot of good ideas for writing fiction! Man, the Middle East is such a complicated area of the world, with so many conflicts and such diverse cultures, religions, and ethnicities…there is no shortage of questions to ask and stuff to explore! And Science Fiction (and fiction in general) is one very valid and interesting way to explore it! I mean, take any aspect of the Middle East, and say “what if we do this to it?” Put it in a sci fi setting, and you’ve got the potential for an amazing story! Or take the problems that we’re struggling with in the region, isolate them, and write a fictional world where the characters struggle with those same problems. Add in some imaginative stuff, some awesome technology, compelling, well-written characters, and all that, and you’ve got something EXTREMELY relevant to the real world! Even more so because it’s fiction, because if it’s written well, you’ve put it in a setting where people can look at the problem without being so burdened by their silly and irrational prejudices! But besides that, just from studying something like Political Science, I’ve tapped into an AMAZING source of ideas and inspiration for my own writing! Even if I just wanted to write fiction for the sake of writing fiction (and honestly, I really think that almost any other approach is going to backfire–ESPECIALLY the dogmatic approach), by studying Political Science, I’ve opened a fountain of ideas in embryo that are just screaming to be born! MAN! I am SO happy that God put me in a place where I could study Political Science!!!

There was an amazing lecture today at the BYU Kennedy Center. Reza Aslan, author of No God But God, gave an excellent lecture on Iran and US-Iranian relations. Just in case you don’t know, relations between us and them are…well, let’s just say that they’re pretty freaking bad.

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE pray that we don’t start bombing them! Just when you thought the US couldn’t shoot itself in the foot any more (because the freaking Neocons have been doing a @#$@! good job of that since Sept 11th–either they’re EXTREMELY stupid, or, for all intents and purposes, they are traitors to this incredibly wonderful country we call the USA), Dick Cheney and his neocon goonies start sounding the war drums. Right now, just about every missile in the Middle East (and we have troops in EVERY COUNTRY bordering Iran) is pointed at some target inside the sovereign Islamic Republic of Iran. Not good…definitely not good!

But I learned a little bit today WHY it’s not good…and the reason was very surprising! If we launch airstrikes against Iran (and we almost certainly won’t do a ground invasion–not because the Neocons aren’t stupid enough to make that blunder, but because our military simply doesn’t have the capability to do it!), it will play right into the hands of the extremists and tyrannous clerics who rule (under, may I add, upwards of a 90% popular disapproval rating)! In fact, according to Mr. Aslan, EVERYTHING we have done in that region FOR THE LAST THIRTY YEARS HAS PLAYED INTO THE HANDS OF OUR ENEMIES!!! It’s been an unrelenting disaster! Reza Aslan made a very compelling argument that if we were to end sanctions, recant regime change as the stated policy of the United States, and do everything to open up that country to the rest of the world (“we should be prying it open with a crowbar,” he said), the horrible, cruel, autocratic clerics wouldn’t have a leg to stand on! It would be like China–you look at it now, and it is DEFINITELY not a communist country! I mean, in name it is, and it’s not yet a democracy, but it’s a far cry from what we saw under Chairman Mao–that spawn of Satan himself!

And the big difference is that Iran ALREADY HAS almost everything a liberal democracy needs! It has a thriving civil society, with all kinds of NGO’s, Foundations, Institutions, etc, it has a rising middle class, it has a constitution with legislative, judicial, and executive branches, it has regular elections…it’s just that all that power rests with a handful of tyrannical clerics! And the only way that tyrants stay in power (according to Mr. Aslan) is by isolating their people! Man, if we would just OPEN UP to that country–I mean, if they weren’t so scared of us, it would be a LOT harder for Ahmedinejad and his cronies to get people to support the Iranian nuclear program! I mean, the average Iranian cares a lot more about the economy than their nation’s foreign policy! That’s the only reason they elected Ahmedinejad in the first place–and the reason why he’s so unpopular back home right now! Everything we’ve been doing in the history of our dealings with the Islamic Republic of Iran has either helped our enemies or hurt our own interests, and it’s HIGH TIME we had some change!

</political rant>

Ok, I’d better calm down (note to self–breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out). But MAN! You see why I’m so happy that I’m a Poli Sci major! And the cool thing is that this stuff really has some potential for some good stories! I mean, just about every time I learn something new about the Middle East, I think to myself “Oooh, that would be really awesome to put into the story I’m writing!” It’s gotten to the point where there’s just too much stuff to cram into one novel! Fortunately, I can write others. But man!

I mean, I felt like my eyes were totally opened today! Up until this point, I’ve seen Iran as this scary, totalitarian nation led by a crazy, maniacal leader, bent on the destruction of all that is good and holy in the world. Even when I’m rational enough to realize that that’s probably not all true, the idea has been lurking in the back of my paradigm. But this lecture painted the picture of a completely different country! A civilized, rational, highly cultural, and essentially peaceful people who are working, despite the interference of the United States, to free themselves from the rule of a few bad men! Man, this lecture made me want to study Farsi and travel to Iran, for heaven’s sakes! I might just do it! I just might!

At the very least, I’m going to read this guy’s book and subscribe to just about every raw news RSS feed that I can (AP, NPR, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, Agence-France, etc–basically, the ones that Drudge links to) so that I can have a heads up on what’s REALLY going on in this wonderful world! I mean, I just learned from Mr. Aslan that representatives from EVERY MUSLIM SECT got together a few months ago to sign a document calling on the Christian world to help improve relations and fight extremist fundamentalism in both religions! I mean, imagine the press we’d be hearing if all of the Christians sects did something like that! It’s unprecedented! I don’t even think it would even happen! And yet…where was that in the mainstream media? Buried somewhere. Time to start digging it up.

Man, I am SO GLAD that I’m a Political Science major!!!

1,100 words and a very fun Nanowrimo writing party!

I’ve been wanting to organize some more informal get togethers with Quark. I heard from Gamila that it’s really the informal get togethers that Aneeka threw together back in the day that got the ball rolling with the writing group. Of course, when I was talking online with Drek about this and venting / bouncing ideas off of him, his response was “doesn’t informal mean that it isn’t planned?” Well…maybe…

So, today was the first day of Nanowrimo, and Drek and his wife Kyla were kind enough to host a sort of “informal” (but planned) writing party. It was a lot of fun! We basically all got into the same room and wrote in our stories together–while listening to music, snacking on food, sharing our wordcounts, playing with the cat, etc. After long days and lots of studies, it was very relaxing and a lot of fun!

I gave Danke and Onlera a ride to Drek’s house, which is pretty far away from campus. It was really just the five of us, but I think we all had a good time. Onlera hasn’t really made it out to too many meetings before, but she seemed excited about it now. And Danke has been showing up to almost every meeting, but hasn’t yet submitted anything. I think that’s about to change, though. As writing group leader, I’ve taken it upon myself to help everyone overcome the shyness and lack of self-confidence that seems to prevail among aspiring writers (holy cow! It is easier to write 50,000 words in a single sitting than it is to convince Aneeka that her novel is not the worst story in existence! Even with empirical proof!) 😉

I was a little bit surprised that I only got 1,100 words in two hours. 400 of those were from something that I realized I needed to insert in a certain place, in order to give the novel a little bit more direction and build up the tension earlier. Basically, Ian and Aaron consult with each other on what they should do, after they make it to the capitol city, and they figure out that the coalition rescue fleet will arrive in about nine months, so they decide that their highest priority is to find out what hit them and do what they can to disable it before the fleet arrives and gets hit. Other than that, just continuing the scene I’m at right now–at the feast where Ian realizes that by local law, he won all of the bandit women as slaves when he killed their husbands in self-defense, and he makes the extremely unusual decision to free them. More cultural awkwardnesses and misunderstandings! How fun!

So, basically, the writing party was a TON of fun and I’d love to do it again! I don’t know if I’ll be able to host parties here at the FLSR, since there really isn’t a space that’s empty and relatively quiet for 2 full hours. I’ll see what I can do, though.

I really hope I get into this class!!! (and other thoughts on Brandon Sanderson)

MAN!!!!!!! Today was the first priority date to sign up for classes, and every slot except for one filled up in English 318 section 3 (the one taught by Brandon Sanderson)!!!! MAN!!!!! I SO want to get this class!!!!!! My sister told me she’d try to hold it for me, but last I heard she had a hold on her account…and so did two other senior friends that I asked! Well, if I fail to make the date, I suppose I can try the add-drop card approach. And I’ve already emailed him (not just a fan email–I asked him if it would be alright if I worked on this novel in his class). Many of my friends in the writing group have taken his class, some multiple times, so I suppose that it’s possible…I don’t know. I’m stressing over it.

I’ve heard Sanderson interviewed on a couple of writing podcasts that I listen to. The most notable one, IMO, was Adventures in Sci Fi publishing. Apparently, he’s been doing a book tour out here in the West with Dave Wolverton (maybe that’s why he hasn’t responded to my email 🙂 )

He said a couple of interesting things on the podcast. The first thing was really frightening, actually (I forget if it was him or Dave Wolverton). One of the two of them said that the major publishers are so paranoid that they’re rejecting new authors who even have the support of big name reviewers. Apparently, a publisher in NY turned down a new sci fi novelist who had his draft reviewed by one of the big name book reviewers over there, as well as having other credentials. Ouch. As an amateur writer who only has vague, nebulous dreams about getting published…this is really scary. And, even though I’ve attempted to write a novel like five or six times, I have yet to succeed in even finishing a rough draft. So…I’ve got a lot of road ahead of me. And I have no idea how long it will take–decades, maybe. Yikes!

The other thing was about him and science fiction. Someone on the podcast asked him if he planned on writing science fiction, and he said that he just wasn’t well versed enough to participate in the conversation. That’s really interesting that he called it a “conversation.” Coming from one of the social sciences, it really struck a chord in me. Academia is like a conversation, and the important thing isn’t about being right so much as it is being relevant. You need to do a lit review and know what the debate is like, what the sides are on the issues–otherwise, either you’ll waste your time with research that’s already been done, or you’ll end up answering a question that nobody is asking.

So, what I took from that, is that I really need to read more sci fi, if I want to write it! Man, as if classes weren’t enough…but this is something I love, so it shouldn’t be hard. Maybe I should set some kind of goal, like one novel per month? I have no idea. But yeah, I want to write something that’s worthwhile, and possibly get it published eventually. Like, if I can…

UPDATE: ok, so in the time that it’s taken to write all of this (interspersed with interruptions, like driving my friends down to a disgustingly huge Halloween party at the Hollywood house and hanging out with some of my other friends), I just heard from my sister Kate! She was able to hold the class for me!!!!! YAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’M IN!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1,233 words on this hot date with my science fiction novel

I’m past the part that I was hung up on, and now I’m in a good part. The story is advancing quickly, and it’s really coming together quite naturally. Yay! I didn’t write yesterday, but I more than made up for it today.

I love it how when you have vague ideas before you sit down and write, they come together in a way that makes sense and can even surprise you by showing an aspect of the story that you hadn’t considered. It’s like that when you’re writing about the different charactes’ feelings, and then as you consider what the character should be feeling at that time, it leads you to think a little more about how this character relates to the other character, which helps you to flesh out the characterization and the story around them. It’s great. That’s why I don’t go into writing fiction with a clear, well laid out plan of what’s going to happen. I like to let the story itself surprise me.

And so, now that you all know that things are going well, I’m going to sign out. I REALLY need sleep. I’m awake as long as I’m moving, but when I sit down, I start to get droopy eyed. I realized this today as I was driving to a family get together in Salt Lake city. Fortunately, I have some good ocremix techno to keep me awake. But now, I’m getting loopy.

Goodnight all!

Yay! 790 words!

This is going to be really short, because it’s very late and I’ve got to sleep (preferably not in church tomorrow). I picked up the novel tonight and got another 790 words in. Yay! So I’m not stuck as bad as I’d thought! I’ll just have to rewrite that one part at some time. And I’m at this really good scene, too, where some pivotal things happen! The first contact / cultural shock continues, with all kinds of misunderstandings and complications that set the stage for what comes next! Yay! What fun! If I weren’t so dang tired, I’d just keep on writing!

Now, I’d better get to bed before Aneeka comes online again and starts chastising me for neglecting my sleep…

One of the first stories I ever wrote

I was looking around in some of the old files that I have, and I came across this old piece. It’s one of the first stories that I ever wrote–probably the first piece of creative fiction that I wrote outside of school. I remember writing this! It was back in 5th grade, so that would make me about ten years old! I wrote it on the family computer–an old 386 that died during y2k (well, not really, but we had to use a fix to get around it, and then we forgot how to use the fix and my Dad gave it away. Gave it away!!! What I wouldn’t give to still have that computer!!!!!). I wrote it back when I was reading books on African wildlife and the Goodals, and my goal was to become a naturalist someday. A lot of that comes out if you read between the lines here. Of course, I had already decided that I would be a fiction writer, but that would be a part-time thing–I’d still need a day job.

I think the real significant thing about this story was that it was the first one that I did independent of school. I was really fortunate in that my elementary school had a strong creative writing program, so I’d already “written” a dozen or so books already–mostly stories that were about 500 to 1,000 words long, with pictures that I drew. This one was about 3,500 words long, and when I finally finished it, I felt really tired and really proud of myself! I don’t remember how long it took, but it took several weeks, and possibly even months. This story marked the starting point in my life of writing creative fiction on my own. After this, I went on to write about five more hyena stories, then I started a science fiction piece based off of one of my imaginary universes, and then, after maybe a couple of other projects, I started my first attempt at a novel in the 8th grade. Ever since then, I’ve always had this writing bug. Even when I was on my mission I had it, and at one point even scribbled a few chapters for an allegorical story based on Lehi’s dream.

So, you could say that this Hyena story was a milestone for me. It’s not something I’d try to publish now, but I do think it offers a wonderful view into what I was thinking and writing back then as a budding creative writer. Enjoy!

A couple of awesome Quark meetings

So, this week we had not one but two Quark writing group meetings. And they both were really good! There was a surprisingly good turnout at each one, and I think that everyone went away with some good feedback for their stories. Plus, some of the newer guys are getting motivated to write stuff of their own, so we’re really having some success!

The general feedback I got from several of the members was that we needed to either split the group or meet more often. I added in my own idea into that, which was to lower the number of stories we look at. Drek says that the ideal size for the writing group is about six. I think that we can still do good with ten or twelve people, but we’ve got to add more time for the stories–which means that we only look at four stories instead of six.

And actually, during both of these meetings, four seemed just about right for what we were doing. A half hour for each story seems like enough for everyone to say everything they wanted to but short enough to keep up focused and on task. Or, rather, to keep me focused and on task, because I’m probably the biggest tangent starter in the group!

Tuesday’s meeting was interesting because, to my knowledge, everyone there was either a freshman or new to the group this semester. And we had about ten people, and an excellent meeting! Word has been getting out about us.

Also, I think that the group is doing really well because we all seem to be doing a good job taking criticism. There was this one story this week that I really had a lot of criticism for, and I was a little bit worried about hurting the author’s feelings, but she really wanted to hear it and really ate it up, then thanked me later. There were a couple of other stories today where people had a LOT of criticism, on a lot of different things in the story, but I think that the authors came away with a much better idea of what they were doing. Hillary in particular said afterwards that the writing meeting today really helped to point her in the right direction with one problem she didn’t know how to fix, which was how to have an obnoxious narrator at certain parts and third person limited POV at others.

And really, I think the key thing for the meetings themselves it the quality of the discussion. It’s better to give criticism that will be helpful and useful than it is to hold back for fear of possibly hurting someone’s feelings. Of course, you need to be careful in the delivery of that criticism, but if you’re talking about the story itself and not the writer personally, I don’t think there really should ever be an issue. And really, the serious writers are going to WANT criticism, so the key is to make it worth their time. That’s what’s going to really keep this club alive and powerful–useful criticism.

Still, I wonder if we could raise our ability to critically read fiction. Maybe if we did like the book club, and had the bookstore discount certain books like Strunk and White’s Elements of Style or Orson Scott Card’s Character and Plot, then encouraged everyone to read them (and yes, I know that OSC is the “nemesis” of the writing group, but he does have some very good and useful things to say about writing). Maybe we should team up with the English department and get some faculty to share with us a short discussion on fiction and how to read it critically. Maybe we should get Brandon Sanderson to come and speak at one of our meetings. I don’t know. I’ll see what I can do!

But I also think it’s important that we do some things informally as well–such as having social activities outside of writing meetings. I hear that that’s what really got the writing group solidified in the beginning, and you can still see that in the strong friendships between the oldtimers (as well as the HUGE number of them who got married thru Quark!) . I’m encouraging people to hold different writing parties for the month of November, where we can just hang out, write, have word count races, talk about our frustrations and the good times, etc. I’m going to try to host one or two up here at the FLSR, but it’s a pretty noisy place so I don’t know if I can find the space. But hopefully, it will work.

So, things are going VERY well–and I think that most of it has more to do with what everyone else has done and is still doing than anything I’ve done of myself. I’m just providing the framework–the dates, deadlines, the space, and the reminders–but YOU guys are making it come to life! Thanks to all of you!

OLL

I thought this was supposed to be fun…

Well, it is. At least, the net effect is fun. But the day to day writing can be kind of…difficult.

I’ve made some progress in the last few days, even though I neglected to write about it here. Mostly, it’s just been between classes or insanely late at night, so I haven’t had time to write any blog entries. But I’ll write a quick one tonight.

In the last section that I wrote, I introduced this new character who believes that Ian is some kind of a holy figure and decides to become his disciple. The feedback I got from the writing group was that the way I introduced Master Elijah from his own POV was very good, so I decided to do basically the same thing. That is, from a limited 3rd person point of view, give a very brief summary of the character and any aspects of his life story that tie directly into what is actually going on in the action. The result is a short synopsis of the character’s life that transitions nicely into the action in the particular section, without feeling too info-dumpish.

I tried to do the same thing here, and threw in a couple of ideas about cleavages and tribal friction that we’ve been learning in my Political Systems of the Middle East class. I want to take a lot of the ideas of stuff that we’re learning in that class and apply it to this fictional society. I don’t want the culture to exactly parallel Arab culture, but to take enough aspects from it that it gets the same flavor. Besides, it’s kind of a fun testing ground for experimenting with the ideas that we’re learning in class. And it’s an excellent class, btw. I’d highly recommend it, if you’re interested at all in the modern Middle East. PLSC 357 with Dr. Bowen.

However, I was very disappointed with how this section turned out. I wrote it in about three chunks over three days, but each time that I sat down to write, I was doing it more to reach the 500 words a day goal than because I felt inspired to do it. Basically, I sat down and forced myself to write. And…it wasn’t as fun as it usually is. The words didn’t flow. I was falling asleep at the computer in the LRC. Things didn’t seem to be meshing together properly. It was WAY too info-dumpish, and I had to make up a lot of the information there on the spot, which made it even more difficult because I had to force myself to start coming up with new ideas. It hurt a bit, but I came up with a few good ones. Hopefully I can develop them more and better a little bit later.

Now, I suppose that you can’t just expect writing to be fun all of the time. It does take work, which can in some ways be unpleasant. And it’s not practical to just wait to feel inspired all of the time. At the same time, you really do have to enjoy what you do, and you can’t force inspiration. Ideas will come and hit you at times when you aren’t expecting them, and you have to be ready to take them and fit them into a framework, otherwise they just slip through your fingers.

So, I suppose that good writing is some kind of a balance between hard work and pure inspiration. And the direction my story is taking me at this time is hard work.

And I’m willing to go that way–so long as it makes sense to do that. Tonight, for example, it’s freaking late and I need to get some sleep, so I probably won’t write in my novel tonight. It just doesn’t make much sense to me to trudge through the required wordcount and come up with some barely cohesive prose and crappy story elements. It makes much more sense to me to work myself up to being excited about the next part, and then writing 1,000 words of good prose and good story tomorrow.

Of course, the balance to this is that if I keep putting off writing, the ideas that I have will die. So, I really can’t just do this all the time. Sometimes, you’ve just got to trudge through it. But…I don’t know. I just hope I can keep this story going strong until it finishes.

(btw, this dilemma is why I chose as a teenager that I would not become a professional writer. I knew enough to know that if writing became my main source of income, I wouldn’t enjoy it anymore. At the same time…I can’t just expect to reap the fruits when I didn’t nourish the seeds. So…I don’t know.)

680 words and some updates

680 words tonight. I did stay up a bit later than I’d wanted to, but meh, I don’t have class until 1:00. It really didn’t take that long to write–what took up the time was the few games I played, and also the surfing around wikipedia and other random places on the web. I am sooooo ADHD. But yeah, the story is still rolling and it shouldn’t be that hard to get at least 500 words in every day.

I’m reading Mistborn my Brandon Sanderson right now for the Quark book club, and it is really good! It’s been a while since I’ve gotten into a book like this! The world and the magic system are interesting, the characters drive the story and are also interesting, especially the main character Vin, the conflict is pretty intense and the good guys aren’t involnurable. Each new chapter makes me want to read the next chapter, and I’m really interested to see how Vin changes and grows, and what happens to her. Plus, the magic system and other elements of the story have really stoked my imagination. It’s a good book! I’m looking forward to discussing it at the Quark reading group meeting this next November!

Speaking of which, November is nanowrimo, and I’m a little bit worried about it. We haven’t planned out too much for the month as a writing group, it looks like we’re just going to have a few informal writing parties at each others’ apartments, and probably some kind of a party at the end of the month where we share our stories with each other and do other fun stuff. But really, that’s probably all we need. It’s going to be crazy–and I’m not even doing nanowrimo this year!

Yay! My friend Reigheena won a contest for her short story! Good for her! I hope things just keep getting better for her. And man, she’s about to have a baby as well! Crazy! Good luck with everything!

I’ve been reading Aneeka’s story in any of my nonexistent free time. She sent me five chapters but I’ve read only two so far. I was really impressed with the dialogue, pacing, characters, and setting in her rewrite of the first chapter. And…I’d say more, except that I know that she reads this blog. Since she’s pretty sensitive about anyone criticizing it at this point, I figure I’d better not go into much depth here. Sensitive, as in I sometimes worry she’ll jump in front of a train or something…before she sends me the rest of the story! My goal is to eventually read the whole thing. Hopefully, that will be before it’s published, but we’ll see. We shall see.

We’ve got another writing meeting tomorrow. We’ve only got four stories this time, so we shouldn’t be rushed at all. I just hope that it wasn’t a mistake to schedule the next meeting only a couple of days later, on Saturday. Several of the members seem to favor meeting together more often, and I’m hoping that if we do that, we can lower the number of stories we look at at each meeting and not be so rushed. But secretly, I’m kind of worried that I’ll lose track of the schedule and miss some of these meetings. I’m so ADHD, it might just happen…