Current Ramblings
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
The first sentence is always the hardest.
Those who keep up with my occasional bouts of fanfic have probably realized that I'm having one heck of a dry spell lately. I haven't finished a story since my little Armada one-off, The Last Mini-Con, and that was a good...damn, I don't even want to think about it. Two years? Almost right on two years. Last year was the first year I had not a single new thing eligible for ATT's "Trannies" since I joined the internet fandom circa 1997. (And yet I still got five votes for "Best Fanfic Writer Ever", possibly just due to #wiigii! ballot-stuffing, but I still think it's reasonable grounds to declare retirement.) I've decided I need to start on one of my several ideas now that Graham's back in school, and I've decided the Universe story I've been wanting to write is a good starting point. It's not as overwhelming as my Armada ideas, and it's easier for me to swing into than the really complex, high-concept affair I had planned for my next Firestormers story. But now I'm at a loss. It seems more often than not that the single hardest sentence to write in a story is the very first one. This is actually what's held me back on a lot of my stories, the daunting task of simply writing the opening paragraph, deciding where in the continuum of the story to actually begin telling it. I feel very strongly, though, that once I find that perfect opening for this Universe story (predictably starring Air Raid and Fireflight, for those who might be interested) the rest will come gushing out of me.
In other news, I registered for classes at Columbus State last week. Look! I'm a student!
I even got a student discount when I went to see "The Incredibles" this weekend! (And it was amazing, don't even get me started, just go see it already.) I'm really thrilled to be going back to school. I'm registered for two classes this quarter which will take up three nights a week. I'm taking PC Applications (the beginning computer class for people who don't need "Computer Literacy" class first) and an Algebra class. While I got perfect scores on both the writing and reading parts of the placement test, in math I performed about like you'd expect someone who has not had an advanced math class in 8 years to perform. So I have to take Algebra I and II before I can start the computer-major math course, but that's okay. I'm really determined to make this work. And textbooks are all kinds of thrilling when someone else is paying for them. I have a shiny new TI-84 Plus, and I still need to go to Target and pick up a nice thick notebook, some cheap pens and mechanical pencils, and maybe one really nice pen with a gel grip. This is going to be awesome. And I'm hoping having paper in front of me all the time will help a little with my aforementioned writer's block. But hopefully not to the detriment of my learning like the last time I was in school. Ah heh.
(Oh, and in case anybody was wondering, I'm just skipping political commentary altogether right now. I just don't have it in me. Give me a few weeks.)
posted@1:36 AM by:Trixter: 0 comments