Exhilaration

I am so excited right now. I've been spending almost two months writing the first part of my novel, and even though I've been quite excited about the whole process-especially since this is the longest thing I've ever written- I was worried about what direction the whole thing was going to take, since I knew everything I was writing was a sort of Act 1. I'm not exactly a "pantser" in the strictest terms of the word- in fact, I plan everything before I write it. The "pantsing" tendencies that do arise in me are a result of the fact that I don't plan the entire story at once- just the spurts of inspiration that come to me at the moment. Consequently, I don't even know how this story is going to end! But I am pretty psyched about how it's turning out so far.

I'm all about the pastoral setting = festival, chaos and city setting = normalcy, reason. The climax of My Act 1, incidentally, takes place in a forest clearing near a small village, where all of the main characters meet outside of their "regular" settings. The conflict is clearly set up and the consequences are heavy, and there is also an underlying issue that has not been dealt with that will come into play later.

I now have the material for my Act 2, which takes place on the way back to the city center. I had nothing on this before last night, but now, everything is falling into place! And assuming that the story pans out the way I'm hoping for it to, I should have a perfect set up for Act 3, which I haven't gotten to yet, but which I will welcome when it comes!

Right now, I'm just excited that my four main characters have a chance to spend a lot of time together.

Obligations Suck

Ah, the demands of real life. I've had three betas read what I've written of my novel so far, and even though I've gotten a very positive response from all of them, I can't work on it for at least a week. The reason? I've got two papers, several news assignments, six internship applications, and schoolwork on my mind.

It's pretty frustrating, to be quite honest. I don't have class until 3:30 tomorrow, so I have a lot of time on my hands (well, time is relative...I'm meeting a friend for brunch tomorrow, so that will eat up a chunk of my time). I'm in the zone right now and I'm all powered up, but I can't do it because I have a lot of other things to do!

This. Is. Balls.

On the one hand, some of the things I have to do will challenge me artistically. On the other hand, I would much rather be working on my novel.

Well, whatever. If Veronica Roth could do it in between doing her homework, so can I!

...at least I can after I get my papers done.