1) laugh at people more (see #2) [will explain in more detail at a later time]
2) Read Anne of Green Gables
3) read C. S. Lewis' The Four Loves
4) finish reading The Iliad of Homer, The Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, and Anna Karenina (bonus: Augustine's Confessions)
5) plan a book club
6) finish writing (or editing) at least one novel
How many have I accomplished?
I'm running a book club. And I'm "holding meetings" on Saturdays. But that doesn't really count as planning a book club. I'm just winging it as I go, and it's not really working out…….
One of my goals should have been about my blog. I don't see one there, do you? Well, goal for the last bit of the summer? Throw caution to the wind and get passionate about blogging again!
Yeah. It's gonna happen this time. It's gotta happen this time.
I haven't finished any of those books. Instead, I started reading The Moviegoer by Walker Percy and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.
Why do I want to laugh at more people? Because people are annoying. But you know what. Rachel in Anne of Green Gables is kind of an annoying character. And yet, she's funny. I mean, there are all kinds of irritants in our lives, but it's amusing when you step back and look at it all. I don't have it that bad, you know? I just gotta sit back, grin, and take it as it comes. I'll deal with it as it calls for.
I started a couple writing projects this summer…. I haven't gotten very far with them. I think I'm afraid. I'm afraid to get caught up in the lives of my characters and get actually attached to them. But character is what I'm interested in, so I can't keep writing like my stories are plot driven. They're character driven. And I need to fess up to that.
I think I might try to finish my story code-named "Victoria." It's code-named Victoria because, I think, I originally named the main character Victoria, changed my mind, and decided the story would be focused around the characters' focus on personal victory. And how they were truly victorious in the end. I've written up to the part where he's about to willingly lose her by selling her in the slave market to get her off his hands. I have to write that deeply emotional scene and then write about when he, haunted, goes to buy her back and subtly communicate to her that he loves her – in a way that their two very different (and fictional) cultures don't really allow for.
It's not an ideal love story. It's two imperfect people from two very imperfect cultures finding, in their hearts, an unlikely love. I think it's possible, however unlikely, that two people without any examples of genuine love and affection could possibly, maybe find love. I'm a romantic, I know….
Hey did you ever see Happily Never After? I thought it was funny. Anyway, the prince is reading a book about how to be Prince Charming, and he reads: "Be roman tick. … Be roman tick. Be romantic!" –I was just reminded of that.
It's amazing how much of your life you don't think about on a daily basis, isn't it? I wonder if there's a book to be written about that. …Or if there already has?