Heart of the Ocean - Current Project - Part II

Two months and two parts. :) Here's the next little bit of "Heart of the Ocean."

Heart of the Ocean - Part II

Heart of the Ocean - Current Project

This is my beloved pet project. I've had the idea for a long time, wrote a little bit of it last year, and finally came back to it this year. My families come from Ireland and Scotland, so those countries and everything that comes with them are near and dear to my heart. In other words, I'm a sucker for anything having to do with them. I love the people, I love the language; I love the landscape and the mythology. Just, everything.

So, here is the first little tidbit of my homage to my Irishness.

Heart of the Ocean - Part I

PS: I know that's the title of that song from Titanic. It was the name of a traditional Irish song first. ;)

PSS: Some of the names are in Gaelic. So here's a pronunciation guide.
-Teag: Tyg
-Inis Oírr: Inisheer
-curragh: kur-ah
-Caireann: Kahr-inn
-Faolan: Fway-lahn

No story. Just musings.

I've been working, for the better part of the afternoon/evening, on a story that I've had rolling around in my head for a while now. I got it started last year, worked on it a little bit this semester, turned it in, got some good feedback on it, and now I'm trying to churn out more to turn in tomorrow. It's going well, but I've realized just how much of a writing routine I've established. It's kind of amusing.

1) I need it to be completely quiet.

2) I need music. Music really sets the pace and the tone for me, and the right type of music gets me in the right frame of mind to write for a specific piece (for example, the story I'm working on takes place in Ireland, a couple of hundred years ago, so I've been listening to Celtic Flutes all day).

3) I need darkness. Weird, right? Not pitch black, can't-see-my-hand-in-front-of-my-face darkness, but I don't like bright lights glaring on me. Diffused, rainy day light is the absolute best, for some reason. Right now, I'm sitting in my bedroom with nothing but a single desk lamp lit. It's working.

4) I can't have people reading over my shoulder. That just creeps me out. I get very self conscious and freeze up. So that leads into...

5) I need to be alone. Or at least, feel like I'm alone. Right now, my roommate is in the living room, working on her paper. That's fine, because I have the bedroom all to myself.

So, that's my routine. Everyone always says writers are quirky. I guess they're right. :)

"Learning to Live Again" - October 2007

This is a much more recent exercise. My current professor asked us to write a piece in which the narrator was subjective - had an opinion about the events in the story and the characters, told the reader things about the characters that the characters didn't know, revealed parts of the plot that had yet to happen, etc. I was in a time crunch, so this is based off of a Garth Brooks song of the same name. It was fun to write, and the professor had me read it out loud as an example!

Learning to Live Again

"Something" - April 2007

This is a very short story - more or less. I don't think there's enough conflict for it to actually be categorized as a "short story," and I've been told that the ending sounds a bit too much like a punchline, but - don't tell anyone! - that's kind of the effect I was going for. :)

Something

Panoramic Exercise - February 2007

My Techniques of Fiction professor asked us to write a "panoramic opening." In a panoramic opening, the narrator begins a particular piece like the base of a triangle; or, completely zoomed out over a planet/country/landscape/etc., then slowly zooms in, focusing on smaller details and smaller details until the only thing left to describe is action from a character. Steinbeck does this in the beginning of Of Mice and Men. Here's my attempt.

Panoramic Exercise

Getting Started.

I'm starting this "blog" as a place to gather my various writing experiments and projects. I have a lot of them, and (if I can say so without sounding conceited) a lot of people who'd like to read them. So! This saves me paper (and thus, money) and time, and I don't feel like I'm forcing my writing on anyone. If they'd like to read it, they can come here!

Let's get started, shall we?