College Life – Page 4 – One Thousand And One Parsecs

Some thoughts

This is going to be real quick, since it’s 1:30 am and General Conference is tomorrow. The revision is going along really well for Genesis Earth–I am really excited about this project. My only regret is that I don’t have more time to dedicate to it. As it is, I’m probably putting too much time into it already. But it’s worth it–it makes me happy, and I feel I’m telling a story worth hearing.

Yesterday was also the awards banquet for the English department. It was a very positive experience. I saw a few familiar faces–Chris from my English 318 reading group last year, and slipperyjim from Quark.

The main address and proceedings in general were very interesting. There was a lot of talk about the value of literature, its importance in our society, but more than that, the importance to write good literature. By that, I don’t mean the kind of stuff that has the stamp of approval of some elite clique of stuck up literary types somewhere–by that, I mean literature that has purpose and meaning, that shows us something worth living for, not merely pointing out the absurdities of our modern world. There are plenty of absurdities and paradoxes and stupid little meaningless things, but where does it really get us to be pointing those out all the time?

I came away from the conference with something really valuable: a heightened awareness of all the things that made me want to write Bringing Estella Home, the novel I’ve been working on this semester.

Bringing Estella Home is very tragic, a little dystopian, and has a lot of unrealized hopes–a lot of shattered lives. It’s essentially a tragedy, and I’ve found that I don’t particularly enjoy writing tragedies. When you’ve worked on one for a few months, it tends to grate on you–all of these suffering characters, and you with the knowledge that it’s only going to get worse. Not very feel-good.

But that’s not the thing that made me want to write this book. There were two things that I wanted to get across, two major ideas: sacrifice and loyalty. If that makes any sense. I guess it won’t, unless you read the finished book, but I wanted to show how people struggling to do the right thing in a world turned upside down could find meaning and depth in their suffering, in their trials. Suffering comes and goes, but it shapes you in ways that last forever, and I wanted to show good people becoming better through their suffering. I guess that’s the best way to put it.

I think I’d lost sight of that recently. This novel needs a lot of major changes to it, especially in the middle section, which I was just wrapping up when I put it on hold. But with a clearer idea of the overarching goal of the story–what deeper meaningfulness I’m trying to get across–I think I’ll be able to pick it up again and give it a strong finish. That’s good.

I don’t know if I’ll ever write another tragedy again. This one has been quite a ride. However, I shouldn’t just throw it out and run away from it–I really need to listen to this story and tell it like it needs to be told. I guess that’s the ultimate motivation, or should be. I don’t just sit down and write because it’s what I do, I do it because it is something meaningful, something that can help others see the world in a new, better way, and obtain those truths that will really bless their lives.

Many Bothans died to bring you this weekend

This past week was pretty crazy. Tests, papers, homework…BLEARGH. Less than satisfying. What’s more, I was starting to get cabin fever from being in Provo so long. Every day, doing the same old thing, going the same old places, seeing the same old sights…

…Then I got a call from my friend Ben Fisher, saying that everyone from the old Capitol House was going down for a camping trip near Moab. Would I like to come?

HECK YES!!!

I basically dropped everything to run away with these guys. First, I had a late paper that I had to finish–stayed up until 5am Friday to write it, took a 3 hour nap, then went to class. CRAZY. Emailed it to professor Ricks, with “many Bothans died to bring you this paper” in the body. Got my coworkers to cover for me so I could get out early, met up with Ben, and then we loaded up our car with the girls and the camping stuff and basically ran down to catch Steve, Warren, Mike, and the others, who were already at the campsite.

What an awesome weekend! Ben had brought a couple of dutch ovens and tons and TONS of good food! Dinner was much better than the stereotypical hot dogs and smores (though we did have smores in the morning). We had cobler, sweet and sour chicken, and fried rice for dinner–awesome! Plus, it was fun just to hang out around the campfire and talk. Good times.

We laid out some tarps on the sandy ground, then threw down our sleeping bags and had a big bivouac under the stars. I fell asleep as Ben was telling us all a story that had something to do with galoshes…I don’t really remember it all that well actually…and then I woke up a couple of hours later and didn’t sleep again the whole night. I hadn’t brought a mattress, and man, the ground was hard…ugh. Note to self–get a better sleeping bag and some kind of a camping mattress. Mike Lebben was the smartest–he brought a cot.

hanging out at Arches Got up early, restarted the campfire, and we had a good breakfast–biscuits and gravy, and then smores a little while later. Good times. We took off a little later and went up to Arches National Park to do some hiking.

We checked out Delicate Arch and Balancing Rock, then did some rock climbing out near Sandstone Arch. Lots of fun. I got sunburned really bad (of course), but the weather was really nice! Not too hot, with a good breeze up near the top of the mountain.

hanging out near balancing rock This was my first time at Arches, and despite some problems with the parking, it was a lot of fun. The desert around Arches reminds me a lot of Petra–lots of sandy red rocks in weird formations, making for relatively easy climbing. In fact, the whole trip reminded me a lot of Jordan and Petra.

One of the most interesting things about these trips is the social dynamic and getting to know new people. I knew all the guys from the capitol house, but I met a few new people as well. Natascha was there (she kept telling me to take a candid picture of her, then posed! The pictures above are some of the few ones where she didn’t know I was pointing the camera at her), and her sister Hannah, who I hadn’t met before, plus her good friend Beth, who always bugs me about the one time I didn’t sub for her at the MTC cafeteria when it was her birthday (for consolation, I told her I was fired the next year–I think it made her feel vindicated to hear that), plus a couple of other friends of the other guys. It was also good to see the guys from the capitol house again. Probably my favorite part of the trip was hanging out around the campfire, or the conversations we had driving the three hours up and back.

In a lot of ways, the weekend was a roller coaster. Beth commented that she was really surprised that all of us from the old Capitol House, with our strong personalities, get along as friends without tearing each other to pieces. It was a valid comment–me and Warren weren’t getting along this weekend, for some reason. I think I was still stressed out about the past week, plus I just haven’t hung out with him a lot recently. So that was one of the lows of the weekend. Another low was getting up Sunday morning, after we’d gotten back, and finding out that I had a 102 degree fever. Not too much fun.

Still, there were quite a few highs. On the way back from Moab, Natascha and her sister got me talking about my mission, and I shared a TON of old mission stories with them. Good times, even if I was more than a little loopy (or perhaps it was BECAUSE I was so loopy…). Also, when I got back, I found out that I’d gotten a letter from the English department–turns out I won first place in the Mayhew short story specialty contest!!! WOOHOO!!! Awesome!

So, anyways, that was my weekend. Basically, it was like half of a summer rolled up in 2 days. It was SOOO good to take a break and get out of Provo! Good times!

Slow but steady

Okay, quick post before I go to bed.

Things are progressing in this novel, slowly but surely, as you can see from the wordcount. Unlike past weeks, I’m not pushing myself too hard, mostly because I’ve got a lot of schoolwork right now and if I were to spend much more time on this novel, I would neglect a lot of the more important stuff. Even though my course load is relatively light this semester, I’m a senior and I’m really not as motivated to do this stuff as I used to be. I get done what needs to get done, but just barely.

I have been successfully getting up early, however. And I’ve discovered something very interesting: I’m more productive when I have less free time. Thursday, I didn’t have class until noon, so when I got on the computer at about 6:30 to write, I opened up the email, opened up facebook…and, by the time I had to leave for class, I had only written about 430 words. Disgusting. But today, when I had class at 9:00 am and still had my Arabic homework to do, I got in about 700 words in half an hour.

I still have a lot of self discipline to learn, I guess. 😛 The scary thing is that my idea, up to this point, has been to keep my time open in the summer so that I’ll be able to write. Err…yeah. We’ll see how that goes.

I’ve been getting a lot of comments back from my alpha readers on Genesis Earth, and it’s been REALLY fun! Even the criticism–as long as it’s helpful criticism, I really appreciate it. This one girl in my ward asked me if she could be an alpha reader, then read the whole thing in only a couple of days. She had a LOT of positive comments–in fact, almost all of her comments were positive–and she said she really loved it! So much so, in fact, that she said she was having withdrawals, so I sent her The Phoenix of Nova Terra v1.2. Hopefully, getting her comments back will give me motivation to pick up that old thing and rework it…goodness knows it needs it. Needs it bad.

My first two novels, The Phoenix of Nova Terra and Genesis Earth are completely different in some ways, but very similar in others.

<spoiler alert>

They both have an important romantic element, and they both have generally positive endings. The book I’m writing now is something of a tragedy, at least at it’s core, and there is a completely different dynamic there. No love stories, no happy resolutions–lots of pain, lots of violence, lots of grappling with difficult issues.

</spoiler alert>

I suppose it’s good to try out a lot of different things early on in your writing career. That’s what I’m doing. At the same time, though…I get feedback on the one novel, and I kind of want to work on it instead of the one right in front of me! And when I think about what I did right in the one I finished, I look at the one I’m currently writing and I think “man, this is crap.” Of course, I keep working on it because I recognize that I ALWAYS think “man, this is crap” at some point before I’m done. Knowing that doesn’t make it easier, however.

Jason from the FLSR writing group said something interesting about that, however. He said that writing a draft of a novel is like climbing a mountain: you do it three times.

The first time, you climb it in your mind as you plan it out. You’re excited and motivated, and busy with all the preparations.

The second time, you actually physically do the work of climbing. It is long, hard, and frustrating, you get lost a few times, the summit is anticlimactic, and the return is boring. You can’t wait until you’ve finished and it’s all over.

The third time is when you look back on the experience after you’re safely back down. No matter how excruciating the climb was, you look back on it fondly and remember all the best parts. You thrive on the memories and wish that you were back up there, standing on the summit, enjoying the experience.

Right now, I’m on my third climb for Genesis Earth and my second climb for Bringing Estella Home. I can remember how miserable I was when I was still in the middle of Genesis Earth–for a while I seriously thought about throwing the whole thing out and doing something else. However, now that I’ve been letting it sit for a while, I’m getting really, really excited about it! I can hardly wait before I can get back and write the second draft.

But that’s not going to happen until I finish Bringing Estella Home. And, no matter how difficult it gets, I swear I WILL finish this book! I’m a chapter away from act III, and that’s too deep into the thing to quit and start something else! This book WILL be finished–if not by April, then by sometime in May!

LTUE 2009

Wow. Life, the Universe, and Everything 2009 is over, and it’s hard to believe that only three days have passed. It feels as if this symposium has been going on for a week, and that’s a good thing. Friday and Saturday, I spent practically every waking moment in the Wilk, the student center where the symposium was held. By the end, I think some of the professionals there were starting to recognize me and strike up conversations with me instead of the other way around. Kind of interesting. Way fun. Loads and loads of helpful advice and information to process. I’ll be lucky if I can soak it all in before the end of the year.

I’m glad to say I was able to open up and talk with a lot of people these past few days–in fact, I got a chance to talk with just about everyone who was on a panel that I’d attended. It was fun to shake their hands, compliment them on what they said, and strike up a conversation around that. It was surprisingly non-threatening, to be honest. I definitely feel more prepared for World Fantasy 2009 now–definitely.

By far, my favorite part of the convention was Tracy Hickman’s main address. It was titled Creative Reading 201, and it was all about how the reader and the writer are both collaborators in the creative experience, something that’s fascinated me for a long time. The implications of this simple fact are tremendous. First of all, it means that a story does not come to life until it is read. Anyone can get published, especially with the technology today, but all of those words are empty symbols until someone takes the time to read it. Second, it means that the spirit speaks to us in the white spaces between the lines. Just as people with different needs take the unique message they need from the scriptures through the power of the holy spirit, so each work of fiction speaks differently to us. Finally, all of this means that stories change as we change, even as they inevitably change us. As we grow, the stories that touched us the most simultaneously grow with us even as they help us to become better people.

Tracy Hickman then shared an incredible story about a book signing he and collaborator Margaret Weis had recently at a veteran’s home. A man in a wheelchair came up to them with an extremely tattered copy of one of their earlier works, about a knight who sacrifices his life in battle to save the order, even though all of his fellow knights in the order look down on him as less than a true knight. This wounded soldier then told them that this tattered book had traveled with him in his pocket throughout his military career, through parajumps, underwater operations, and into war theaters like Afghanistan. While fighting in Afghanistan, this soldier was shot in the lower back. As he went down, his first thought was “what would the knight in Tracy’s book do?” He saw the Taliban forces setting up a mortar on the opposite ridge, and in spite of his wounds and the risk to his life, he took down the enemy and saved twelve of his fellow soldiers fighting in that battle. The soldier then presented his purple heart and bronze star to Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, for writing the story that inspired him to be a hero.

Sometimes, as I’m sludging away with my writing and wondering what I’m going to do in 2010 when I finally graduate, I wonder if I’m somehow being lazy. I worry that I’m somehow being irresponsible by not going into some other profession, some kind of respectable 9 to 5 job in an office, the kind of thing that everyone else goes into. I wonder if I’ll ultimately become some kind of a parasite on society, trying to make it big as a writer. In the worst moments, I worry that even if I make it big, I’ll still be some kind of parasite, not really producing anything respectable or useful. After all, fiction is entertainment, especially in genre fiction–don’t we have enough of that already?

Then I remember the impact that one good book can have on people–the way it changes us, the way it opens our eyes and helps us to become better people than we were before we picked up the book. Then I realize: what could possibly be more respectable than telling good, honest, life-changing stories? And then, as I think about it a little more, I realize that that 9 to 5 office job isn’t what I think it is. I realize that I’m not slacking off by trying to be something more than a cog in the corporate machine, producing widgets.

If I strive to tell the truth as a storyteller, and to write the kinds of stories that truly inspire people to do marvelous things and become better people, what greater career is there than that? Teaching, I suppose, comes close to having a similar impact, as well as some kinds of therapy work. Certainly there are other careers that have tremendous opportunities to sacrifice and have a meaningful impact on one’s fellow men. However, my talent is in writing and telling in stories–and it’s a talent that I cannot suppress, from which I cannot escape. So long as I live, I will always tell stories–it’s just hardwired into who I am. Certainly I can use this talent to serve my fellow men in a way that is both respectable and meaningful. And really, for me personally, what else could be better?

It doesn’t mean that it isn’t scary. However, thanks to LTUE this year, I feel that I’ve learned a lot that can help me break in and make it. Whether it was something said in one of the panels or just the experience of attending, it was a truly awesome experience for an aspiring writer like myself.

As far as the files, I’ll post links to the audio files from the conference after I get them uploaded. I should be able to do that sometime within the next 24 to 48 hours, so look out for that.

Quick update

Just a quick update on what I’ve been up to, since I don’t write often enough on this blog anymore.

The past week was really busy–at least, it seemed to be, because I was constantly doing things. Whether those things were productive or not remains to be seen. However, I’ve broken the 37,000 mark on my novel, and moving along steadily. Things going fairly well there.

Still, I figure I’m about a week behind where I’d like to be in the novel. Still on the first chapter of part II. I had to do a lot of thinking and conceptualizing to figure out what needs to happen next, but I’ve come up with a plotline that I find really satisfying. Now I just need to write the thing. 😛

Life, the Universe, and Everything has been going on these past few days, and it has been AWESOME!!! I don’t know if I can emphasize that enough! Tons of writers, tons of interesting panels, lots of interesting people…it’s been great! I went up to the first panel at 9:00 am (a panel on being LDS and writing SF&F–the challenges, the strengths, etc. Skipped a class to attend it), and honestly I did not leave the Wilk until 8:00 pm. How crazy is that? The only hour I wasn’t at a panel of some kind was 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. It was tiring, but definitely worth it! I’m so glad I went!

More updates on LTUE later. In fact, I’ve recorded just about every session I’ve been to, and plan on recording the rest, so if there’s enough interest I may post some links to the recordings on my site. I have my own hosting, and I’m fairly sure that my hosting service can handle all the bandwidth and other issues, so if you guys are really interested, I’ll put them up for you to download.

I’m a little bit worried that I’ve been too shy this conference. Since I plan on going to World Fantasy 2009 to sell my novels there, LTUE is good practice for approaching editors and authors and other notable people within the publishing industry. All morning, though, I pretty much kept to myself, kept at bay by sheer awe from all of these awesome people–however, by the afternoon, I figured out that it does absolutely no harm to shake hands with someone in the hallway and compliment them on something they said on a panel you attended.

So that’s the approach I plan on taking tomorrow, more for myself and to get used to talking with these people than to actually try to sell anything of mine. Because really, even with all the famous writers, there aren’t a whole lot of editors or publishers here. A handful, but mostly for YA, and that’s not what I write.

I’m sooooo looking forward to tomorrow! Another long day of SF&F awesomeness!

It’s been a while

Man, it’s been a while since I wrote on this blog. I guess I’m caught in the semester tailspin or something.

Writing’s going really well, though. I’m about 100 pages into Bringing Estella Home right now, and even though I’m probably a day or two behind where I’d like to be, I’m generally right on schedule to finish it in April.

I say that tentatively because I’m a discovery writer, so I can’t really predict when I’m going to finish it since it’s probably going to do something crazy and surprise me. However, I feel reasonably confident that I can finish this thing by late April.

To help out with this, I’ve engaged in a little friendly competition with Aneeka. She’s finished her 1st draft (‘skeletal’ draft, I guess you could call it) of her next novel, but she’s going to go through and do a major revision. We’re racing each other to see who’s going to finish first!

Hehehe…I am so going to win this. After losing our last contest, I’d better make it up this time!

I had a surprisingly satisfying day today. My classload is really light, but there was one midterm I had to take this week, and I took it this morning. I spent all yesterday studying, which is why I only wrote about 500 words, but I got a 98 on the scantron section so I think I’m in good shape. And really, I don’t have any midterms in any of my other classes (hard to believe, but true), so I think the worst of the mid-semester crunch is past me!

Man, it’s nice having almost no school obligations!

I’m starting to think I should stay here in the US this summer. After all, if I’m trying to get ready for World Fantasy, I should put a lot of work into my stories. If I do stay here, though, where will I go? Maybe I could teach Arabic at one of these summer seminar things. Maybe I could go to the East Coast doing that. Maybe I could stay here in Utah. I don’t know. It’s so complicated…and meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

Another confession: part of me wants to go to Iraq to work for a year right after I graduate. Why? Well, the money would be nice. But really, I’d want to do it because of the way that experience would enrich my writing. Make it a lot more gritty, the conflict that more real. It might even qualify my to write military sf–who knows?

Don’t worry–I’m not crazy enough to listen to that part of my brain. At least, not yet. 😛

Star Wars Euphoria

Ok, here’s a funny story.

Sunday, I usually don’t go anywhere, so when I parked my car on Saturday I set it to play the main title of Star Wars as soon as I put the keys in the ignition. I figured that by the time I needed to drive anywhere, I would have forgotten all about it and it would be a pleasant surprise.

Rewind a couple of weeks. An old roommate of mine had been wanting to set up a double date with him, me, and our dates to go to the BYU planetarium. We went a couple of weeks ago, just to check it out, and it was really cool! Definitely fun. Also, I’ve got all the stuff to make some really delicious homemade granola, so we could do that as well. Food, girls, astronomy–how can you go wrong with that kind of a combination?

So then, rewind a little more. There’s this girl in my FHE group who I’ve been wanting to ask out for a while. She’s pretty cool, easy to talk with, funny, and interesting. She sometimes likes to commandeer a booth at Wilk with her friends and put up a sign that says “free advice.” I had a lot of fun hanging out with her a couple of times this past semester, and she seems really friendly.

Fast forward to yesterday. My old roommate and I had decided to do this planetarium date thing this Friday, and I figured it would be a great opportunity to ask out this girl from my FHE group. Of course, during and immediately after FHE there wasn’t much of an opportunity to talk with her, since everyone else was there, but afterwards I went over to my apartment and did dishes for a little while. I figured I’d drop in on my way out to campus.

Now, I’m a senior at BYU, and I hate to admit it, but I still find it really difficult to ask girls out. I mean, I’m not as awkward or scared of it as I used to be, but still, it’s not the easiest thing in the world. I have to work myself up to do it, and even then, there comes a point where you have to stop thinking and just go for it. The adrenaline builds up, you’re playing out all the worst case scenarios in your head, and some part of your brain starts coming up with excuses for why you shouldn’t ask right now.

So there I was, finishing up the dishes, trying to work myself up to doing this. I mean, come on? Anime characters who are ten years younger than me do this kind of stuff all the time, and half the time they are scrawny misfits! What does that say about me?? So I threw my stuff in the car, closed the door, and walked over to this girl’s apartment…

…and she said yes! Hooray! She seems really interested, too! Victory!

So then, in this post-adrenaline state of euphoria, I hoped in my car, stuck the key in the ignition, and…

…SHEBAM!! STAR WARS THEME SONG!!!!

Oooh yeah! Life is good!

Productivity breakdown

I’ve been thinking a lot about the writing I accomplished in the past few semesters. In some ways, I worry that I’ve become a lot more disorganized and a lot less productive than I was a year ago.

Back in winter ’08, I took a couple of really difficult classes, got up early each morning to work in the BYU Bookstore stockroom, wrote a handful of very difficult research papers…and still managed to write about 120,000 words. Oh, and I wrote on this blog almost daily. I finished my first novel, started my second, read a dozen other novels, wrote reviews of them all…
I accomplished quite a lot.

In fall ’08, however, my workload was much lighter, my classes were ridiculously easy, I didn’t have to get up early to work…and yet I only wrote about 70,000 words, didn’t hardly write for this blog, only read a couple of books, etc etc. Much less productive.

Though, I guess you could say that I made up in other areas. I started working for the FHSS Writing Lab, and that took a lot of my time and mental energy. Also, I think the quality of my writing improved quite a bit, and I experimented a lot with things that I hadn’t tried previously. Right now, I feel that Genesis Earth, my second novel, is a much better work than The Phoenix of Nova Terra.

So maybe all of this “oh my goodness where did my productivity go” is just me worrying for no reason. It’s hard not to worry about it, though.

I know for certain that I could be much more productive with my time. I come home tired, with less than an hour before dinner, and I usually squander the time on the internet or with video game emulators. I tend to put off homework, and only do the stuff that will get me in trouble if I don’t do it (though some would say that that’s a life skill…hmmm…). On any given day, the last two hours before I go to bed is filled purely with time wasting activity. I could use an extra two hours of sleep…

Meh. I guess it’s always a struggle. A year from now, I’ll probably be saying “I can’t believe how productive I was back in winter ’09!” That, and “holy cow, what am I going to do after I graduate??”

Back in school

So, school has started again! As fun as the vacation was, it’s good to be back.

I think I’ve more or less finalized my schedule by now. I’m taking an Arabic grammar class, a poli sci class on Islamic politics (taught by an Arab guy who drove ambulances in Lebanon during the Israeli invasion/occupation in the 80s), a class on modern Middle East history, a class on Islam and contemporary society, and…English 318! The one taught by Brandon Sanderson!

I took this class last year, and it was a lot of fun. Brandon Sanderson is the best selling author of the Mistborn fantasy series, as well as the Alcatraz YA series and Elantris. He also teams up with Howard Taylor and Dan Wells for the excellent writing podcast, Writing Excuses. Genesis Earth, the novel I’m currently working on, is a novel I started in his class last year.

Last semester was really miserable for me because few of my classes were challenging or interesting; most of them were easy, boring classes that I was only taking because they were required. Not so this semester. Even if two or three of my classes this semester turn out to be tedious and draining, English 318 is going to make it all worth it.

Here’s the thing, though; I’m not sure if I should rewrite one of my older novels or start a completely new one for English 318 this year. Brandon tends to encourage us to start with something fresh, but I would really like to revise the novel I wrote last year. I was originally planning on doing that, but then I thoought about it for a little bit, and realized that I wanted to do something with the Mongols in space idea before it drifts out of my mind.

In some ways, though, this throws a wrench in the works for my long term plans. I want to have three novels polished for World Fantasy 2009, and I was originally thinking about doing The Phoenix of Nova Terra, Genesis Earth, and Hero in Exile. However, if I were to start something completely new, that would mean throwing out all the work I did last semester for Hero in Exile and doing something completely new.

I don’t know, but before I can do anything, I’d better finish Genesis Earth, and fast. The first English class is in two days, and I don’t want to juggle two novels. That means I’m going to have to sprint these next two days to finish this novel.

Freedom!

YES!!! Exams are over! Finished them just a couple of days ago, and now I’m at home back in Massachusetts. Ah, sweet freedom! No school obligations, no stresses for papers or projects or grades or anything! Lots and lots of free time!

…and with that free time, I’m going to undertake something almost ridiculously impossible: finish Genesis Earth 1.0, the novel I started (but never finished) last year for English 318. The one I was going to write over the summer but never really finished. The one that got all caught up in clumsy rewrites and edits even before the rough draft was finished.

But that’s ok, because Jurassic Park just came on on Pandora, which means that I can do it!

Seriously, I think I can do this. If I can ramp up the wordcount to 3k a day and totally immerse myself in this world, I think I can finish it. Plus, I already know where I want this story to go. I’ve already discovered most of the main ideas and I know how I want it to end (at least loosely). Now that this miserable semester is over and I don’t have to worry about it anymore, I can focus on this stuff.

Blah blah blah. Yeah, I think I’ll be able to do it.

I’m at home now: had a very interesting trip out here. I was originally going to go to my cousin’s wedding in Washington D.C. with my parents, then drive back to Mass with them, but two major snowstorms are hitting the East Coast this weekend, and my parents don’t feel comfortable driving nine hours up and back in whiteout conditions. You know, they’re getting older and all, so they don’t have energy for that sort of thing. Honestly, I don’t blame them.

I had thought that I was going to have an exam on Thursday afternoon, so I had Pop book me for a red eye flight that left at midnight Friday morning. There was a connection at JFK, but I cancelled it and bought a train ticket from Penn Station, New York.

So I left Utah at midnight, tried to catch some sleep on the flight (it was really hard…not the least of which because of the TV shows you could watch on the inflight screen, like This American Life! Great radio show, great TV show!), then caught the subway at 6:00 am and rode it to Manhattan.

This is when I realized just how insulated I am in Utah: I stepped onto the subway car, and everyone was black! After living in Provo for so long, that was something of a shock to me, but I got over it before too long.

So I had a four or five hour layover in Manhattan before my train left, and…no, I didn’t do anything really cool. I did walk around a little bit outside, bought breakfast from a street vendor, checked out the Empire State building from where I stood…but didn’t really go anywhere. Boo.

I would like to come back and spend some time in New York City, though. My friend Steve wants to go there after he graduates, and it would be a cool place to spend a few years. I don’t know what I want to do for grad school yet, but I wouldn’t mind living and studying in or near NYC. Plus, that’s where most of the publishing world is, so it would be easier to make contacts and hit up the conventions if I were in this area.

The layover at Penn Station was long and somewhat miserable, but not too much so. Got some breakfast and lunch, napped a bit, and caught the Vermonter up to Springfield.

I love trains! They are so much more comfortable and relaxing than airplanes, even if it does take longer to get from place to place. The chairs were so wide, and reclined back so much! Must more restful than the airplane.

I did a little bit of work on my novel while on the train. Basically, I’m trying to catch myself up to the point where I left off, so that I can pick it up and start writing tomorrow. You’ll notice that all of the wordcount meters are dismally low right now–that’s because of exams and general end of semester craziness, not to mention this huge shift in direction. It won’t be down so low for much longer!

So then, met up with my dad outside of the station, rode home in the blinding whiteout of the storm that’s raging outside right now, enjoyed dinner with my parents, and now I’m getting ready to FINALLY get some sleep. That’s what I’ve been up to all day. It’s a dramatic change of scenery from just a week ago, but I think it will be good. Very good.