Ok so I haven't been writing anything on my other adjacent fiction only blog as of late.
Part of the reason - honestly is laziness. The other is after wandering around bookstores and reading blurb after blurb on amazon I felt as though there are no new stories left to be told. I know, I know this is not a news flash. There are only so many plots and the difference is in the meat of the writing, the fleshed out charachters coming to life - reaching across the page and sucking you into the vortex of their world. blah blah blah.
So I was moderately discouraged-- but I will push that aside and try to be more active on that other blog. Plus the long cold winter can be a great motivator for said writing. So keep tuned in.
But then I had to write something for work - and my friend Jacque said that I need to write more becuase she loved my motivational letter on "Being a Fred" (based on the book Fred Factor)
SO I will toss all my insecurities aside and there will be more on Gladys and the crew.
I'll start tomorrow.
So it looks like I might have to get this book -- looks scandalous!
http://www.amazon.com/Other-Peoples-Love-Letters-Never/dp/0307382648/ref=pd_ts_b_2?ie=UTF8&s=books
and this looks like it would be interesting:
http://www.amazon.com/Book-General-Ignorance-John-Mitchinson/dp/0307394913/ref=pd_sim_b_title_3
Sooo I've been looking for my collection of really bad poetry to see if indeed it is as bad as I remember. Once located -- if ever? I might post some of these delightful excerpts, probably not -- maybe the one about shaving my legs -- I think that one was funny -- but out of my portfolio, whereever it is - one poem about shaving my legs is probably the best thing out of the whole kit n kaboodle.
It's funny, I used to gobble up poetry -- and I had this fantastic time explicating lines of poems- and then breaking them down into meter -- looking for hidden symbolism, influence, historical reference - now, I could really give a crap, 2 craps, etc. -- I have some favorite books that I hold dear on a bookshelf - and some include favorite poets, but lately --- I'm banning the literary. I'm embrassing the grocery store novel, the used mass paperback, the "this is not something trying to hard to be revolutionary but it has a storyline and isn't trying to be edgy or raw or stark or have an underlying reference to the humanity of all especially when you compare and contrast it to the works of Rilke,[insert old dead guy's last name] and Joyce -- no, I want to read a book that has a story- is well written with proper charachter development and I have some what of an emotional attachment to the story - it makes me laugh - yes, out loud or sniffle/cry, or [enter wide array of emotional responses]. And when I'm done I feel like it was worth reading -
I don't want to waste my time with something that I get done reading and I'm all WTF? Maybe, I just like different things now, or that I've read so much of the literary end that I'm bored - unimpressed etc. and I like my cheap paperback fiction now and I like throwing them away or turning them to Goodwill. I still really like finding new authors - like Laurie Graff -- she's pretty unknown and her first book was fantastic, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs". Maybe my whole issue is --- I'm done reading about things that are set in [ pick a different century] -- I may not have and ipod but I'm really quite done with anything pre-modernist movement. Ok well my sudafed has officially kicked in and it's time for bed.
My apologies for any run on sentences and fragmented thought or [grammatical/spelling errors]
Soooo main character Gladys has some details,
She's a nurse at a small town hospital --- think Winona or Princeton or something equally as small. She loves her job, but she's not the best at it, she klutzy and is alway knocking over bed pans, running into wheel chairs and basically any inatimate object found on earth, and she's known as The Bruiser when it comes to drawing blood and inserting IVs. But she's great at listening and caring for people and she's smart when it comes to working in the field -- she just lacks finess.
She a little chubby -- think size 12, which is really not that chubby morelike standard -- but you know everyone thinks in terms of the size 0 -- per societies lame, yet perpetual shove of unrealistic-unhealthy ideal down the throats of the american public at large -- ok off my soap box -- so she's not Barbie, probably Barbie's opposite, she's shorter - 5-4 ish , (in my book that's tall!) brown curly hair that -- (has a frieghtful reaction to humidity) modest bust size, she's not ample, but she's not concave (all though, that could explain her klutziness?) She likes to run and go canoeing on the river, but refuses to do aerobics cause the thought of spandex freightens her. She has blue eyeballs and a cute nose. Her overall appearance is that of everywoman -- not a super model , un-super model, tv star, heck she's not even an anchorwoman -- but then again she wasn't beaten with an ugly stick either.
She lives alone, ok she has a pet --- a pet rabbit, FooFoo who is always escaping, hiding and destroying but she loves him and so she tolerates his quirks. Her home is a quaint house, she had a hypochondriac of a patient leave it to her in her will, the woman had ailments miles long and no family to tell them to so with her frequent visits to the hospital Gladys and Ruby build a friendship as Ruby lives vicareously through Gladys tales of an almost-but not quite 30 something. But as funny as some of Ruby's ailments or suspected ailments are -- she gets ill and passes and she leaves her small stucco home and tacky furnishings to Gladys. And Gladys misses her - so she leaves some of the furnishings including the pink bath room as Gladys left them. She tries to bea good homeowner --- but she has a several disastorous episodes, but with the help of her new friend Louis who happens to work at the local lowes/home depot/ menards/ hardware/ lumber / home improvement extravagza store.
She's dating -- she's had a series of boyfriends - dates and flirations but everything seems to back fire -- until she meets mystery man --and decides to give up on the whole love thing all together. or alternatively -- she falls in loves - puts a picket fence around her tiny home and grows cabbage patch kids... haha ok just kiding. Ok so I don't know how the love life is going to play out exactly....
She's got the best friends -- Fran, Leila, Delaney they plan a trip to go to Seattle for some ridiculous coffee bean enthusiatist hobby she has. They have mini- adventures annually and Gladys' friend Delaney sends a scrapbook to her each year. She has friends from town, friends from the hospital, friends from college and childhood friends that pop in and out of Gladys life -- but on a daily basis she feels a little alone -- since she's not married, not putting up the white fence and not poping out babies -- this is why she enjoys the company of Ruby so much -- because she's old and alone -- and aside from being a little medically confused she's had a great life. But Gladys still likes to live vicarsouly through her friend Sheila and her tormented marriage... Roger and his litany of boy toys, Anna and her swelling baby belly and pastel addiction. And of course several other people and almost cliched situations --- I know this part needs work.
But it's progress so far even if it is all rough and somewhat scattered.
With my new years resolution to read more, I've decided that I'm going to try in purge the book in my head on to paper.
Right now, I'm in this outline process -- and as Gwennie learned this weekend - I'm not so sure about much -
I have this character - I call her GIRL or more recently Gladys per Gwen's suggestion. She is an average girl - brown curly hair, freckles, a little chubby --- she has a sister who she is in constant competition with over dumb things - but at the moment Gladys is just mad that her sister got a much better name.
Gladys has some problems, a goal and several obstacles. I know I'm being uber vague at the moment - just nothing is super official.
Gwennie thinks that Gladys needs to evolve throughout the story and she doesn't need a better job a fantastic boyfriend or a significant weight loss to be happy --- I agree but I'm having issues getting from the begining to the end and I just thought I'd have a little rant.
On the same lines -- I'm thinking of using a pen name -- since well this chick lit stylings is less than my literary background -- any comments?
