Another interesting day. Chip gave us a great lecture on good writing, talented writing, and the differences between them. It’s difficult to describe, but good writing is a set of things not to do (many of which I still cannot follow consistently). the other hand, talented writing is a bunch of things you should do, which I definitely am not able to do (yet). Just hearing the lecture made me want to dash up to my room and revise my story. Unfortunately, it was far too late, because twenty-some copies came into the room only moments later. Yes, my story is going to be critiqued in four or so hours. I’m pretty nervous about it, but I don’t think that I will break down in tears or anything. The story is an honest example of my writing ability, so the problems with it are things I should know about.

I meant to write yesterday, but I was so tired from the push to finish my story on Tuesday. I went to sleep at 4 PM and woke up at 1 AM, meaning I missed Chip’s reading at the library (which kind of sucks, but it was sort of a choice I made). I think that this means I am mostly caught up on my sleep debt to date. Other than this, not much to report. After I get my critiques back today and (probably) have my meeting with Chip, I might think more about how to apply these lessons in my next story. The story I just wrote was long, near future sci-fi, short on description detail, first person, and was heavily plot-driven. So i think the next story I write will be short, fantasy, have lots of description and detail, third person, and unplotted. But that’s just a thought.