Disorganized & Chaotic

That's where I am with uni at the moment! I am completely overwhelmed. I have too much going on and I have been unable to find my groove so far.

I did this weeks fiction exercise this morning - I had to write from the prompt "The door creaked open..." to flex and stretch the writing muscles a little. Then I had to discuss the normal me Vs the writerly me. The normal me is the person who seems harassed and rushed for time, reading a sentence here, writing a paragraph there in between "mama, can I please have..." and trying to get a million things done. The writerly me sees possibility and imagination everywhere. In a snippet of conversation I overhear at school, in the things that I read, see or say. There is a man in the town I live in, and he sits in his car at the bottom of our hill each morning, reading his paper for hours on end. He is generally gone by lunchtime - I cannot tell you the number of "stories" I have had in my mind about why it is so. The world is different through writing eyes.

I also then had to comment on stories from "The Best Australian Stories 2006" (ed Robert Drewe) and why they appealed, particularly what I found unique in ideas or innovations. I have to be honest and say some of the stories in there had me looking so confused and what the?!?! They were just WEIRD! (Will Elliot's 'Ain't no ordinary ham' comes to mind!) and I really liked 'Emily' by Daniel Wynne. But in terms of innovation and ideas, so far from what I have read, 'Loved her more than lettuce' by Gavin Carver was brilliant. Such an interesting protagonist and plot, so different to the usual read, I loved it (almost as much as I love lettuce!)

Writing is so subjective. What one agent or publisher hates, another may love. This makes me determined to succeed. I wouldn't get an HD in Fiction after just a few months of writing if I didn't have something there to develop, right? RIGHT!? It is also interesting to note that of the 3 stories I highlighted, 2 are by as yet unpublished authors.

I now need to go and read eleventy billion review sites. Not overly inspiring..