a stick and a carrot

If I can get the first draft of the novel done by August 30th, then I will allow myself to seriously consider an MFA program. How's that for a carrot? And if I fail, then no carrot for me. That's the stick. Talk about making your life a gamble.

Home from vacation

The last two weeks--a tiny netbook. Typos multiplied by ten. Searches for the right keys on the too-small keyboard. Computer avoidance.

My laptop is large. Amazingly large. If I were goo, I would pool around my large, large small laptop and sigh.

I like writing. It's the best thing in the world to be completely engrossed in writing a story and forget to eat. I feel elated when I finish something I put a lot of work into. Forcing myself to slug through difficult scene is hard, but satisfying (and a huge relief) when it's done. I might even feel good about what I've written.

But then I read what others have written, and realize, to my dismay, that I'm only middle-of-the-pack. I have such a long way to go. I just hope I can get there.

This was highly entertaining: text adventure (Writer's Quest)

College Application Essays that Never Got Sent

I was cleaning out some old high school papers when I found this paper, as follows:

Create an acronym that represents your life. What is it, and what does it stand for?

BLARGH. B=braggart L=loser A=arrogant R=rude G=gloomy H=haughty

Imagine you are the offspring of any two famous people. Who are your parents, and what qualities have they passed on to you?

One of my parents is some famous writer. Yeah. The other one is a person. A famous person named Saddam Hussein. From the famous writer, I would get writing skills, and from Saddam Hussein, I would get power and such and such. I would produce propaganda that is capable of brainwashing the world and making all bow to my greatness.

Driving into downtown Chicago, there is a building visible from the Kennedy Expressway adorned with a mural of well-known Chicago personalities. If you could paint anything (other than your own likeness) on the building, what would it be, and why?

I would paint a piece of sushi, because it is yummy. It would look so real that sushi lovers from all over the world would try to eat it, but they would chip their teeth on the cement wall. Heh, fools.

In the spirit of Northwestern's trandition of collaborative learning, please provide us with an original essay topic or short statement you'd like to see on next year's application.

What is your name? and why is it ugly?
**The last part in red was added by my brother.

Notes

Morsels from my notes:

"K: She is a snarky, clever girl, but she has plenty of decency."
I love the word snarky. I love having a snarky character. I wish I were snarky.

As I struggle to figure out what the plot is:
"Plot? What plot?" (No, this is not that kind of story. Not at all. T_T)

Chapter 3 (done!)

Waaah. I don't know. I feel like Chapter 3 wasn't quite up to standards. I revised a tiny bit more today and then sent it to my prof and my other reader, but I don't know. I feel bad for sending a sub-par product because I know it could be better, somehow, but I'm just so sick of looking at it and blabbing on and on about how I'm going to get Chapter 3 finished. It's time to pack up and move on. I need to figure out what the rest of the story is about. And along the way, maybe I can pick up some actual writing and storytelling skills so that the next time around, I can make everything make sense and sound good.

Picking up a recent, modern novel like Snow Crash has made me realize just how much my writing sucks. *deflates* T_T