December 1, 2010

Happy December!

Nothing much to say about books, other than I need to start reading again.  I've been sleeping a lot since I got home, and this is the LATEST I've been awake.  It's almost 10pm, but I was working on my grad school homework.  My memoir is currently 41 pages, and there are still edits to be made, and about 3-4 more stories to flesh out over the weekend.

41 pages!  I didn't even realize my life was that interesting, and it's only about a small portion of my life.  Crazy how at 23, I have enough to fill that.

My memoirs class has been wonderful.  I am in LOVE with the professor (really, I adore her) and she's brilliant, so when she stopped me in the middle of a rant one evening, I listened to her.  I was saying how I was hoping for more feedback from a small group discussion -- I was not paired up with the best people to get actual opinions and suggestions -- because I am not a writer, so I'm always looking for advice.  And I meant it; I don't write creative prose.  Sometimes I write poetry, but it's never very good.  Although Danny has read a few and liked them -- or so he said.  He might just have been trying to get in my pants.

Just kidding, mom.

But I digress.  So I'm saying to her that I'm not a writer, and she interrupts me and says "No, Leah, you are a writer."  She then went on to tell me what I do really well.

I almost died of happiness.  I've never considered being a writer as a career, nor am I naive enough to think I could become a writer at this point in my life, with no real experience or skills, but to have someone as intelligent as her compliment me?  Man, it felt good.

What does this have to do with my experiment?  Nothing, except that I appreciate the writing process so much more after this class.  The final draft will probably end up somewhere between 60 and 70 pages, maybe more if I have some ideas this weekend.  And I have to pick pieces to share with the class on Monday, about 20 minutes worth of material.

Being a writer is hard.  And scary.  So thank you, to all the writers out there who make reading wonderful.  Thank you for being braver than I could ever be.

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