"Whatever you decide to do with your life...."

"Don't stop writing. There are two people in that class that have that extra flavor that makes a great writer, and you're one of them."

Hell of a compliment from my Creative Writing teacher. I had to drop off copies of my fiction paper (a chunk of Jane, not even a full chapter, and it still went about double the upper word count guideline) for tomorrow's class, since I'll be at the dentist's instead of in class. I also gave her the writing exercise that we were supposed to read tomorrow, so that she can share it with everyone. That's another compliment... we were given a scenario in which four friends, two couples, are having dinner. Shrimp is passed, two people take some, leaving none for the end of the pass-along chain, who says she didn't want any anyway.

The kicker is that there are various complications to this scene, and we had to write them in as subtext. The prompt came out of the book and there was a list of complications, but not enough for the whole class, so I got to make up my own. I gave one of the men explosive diarrhea from his buddy's wife's cooking.

Meanwhile, back at the conversation we were having, she was telling me that I needed to continue with a writing group after this class was over. I just threw up my arms and said "This is BFE. There aren't any." Of course, I was wrong about that, there is a writing group here, but it's very Christian. I smarted off that we should start our own writing group, and she thought it was actually a good idea. So, once the semester is over, I may continue to work with my creative writing instructor and have an actual writing group.

But I'm feeling pretty danged good about my writing about now. Speaking of Jane... I'm still working on Chapter Three, guys. It's just not cooperating with me, and the dialogue is feeling extremely forced. I may take the laptop tomorrow and work on it some more, since I told Traci (my creative writing instructor) about the premise of the book and the troubles I was having with the third chapter, and she was interested in seeing how I worked it out. Not to mention that as much of Jane as I have done at the time, and a synopsis of the entire book, will be my final project for the semester, and I'd like to have a sizeable chunk to hand in. But I haven't forgotten about Jane, she's still poking at me and letting me know that she's waiting.

And there are two stories for me to read and write responses on waiting, too, and I promised I'd have them to her by Friday, so I'd better get on it.....

Fantasy Rodeo

I bought a fantasy rodeo team yesterday. It was just ten bucks, and if I picked the right people, I get tickets to the last three rounds of the National Finals Rodeo.

The whole point is to pick the people that you think will get the most points, all together. Since the official season spans the semesters, I picked people who already had points. Plus E. I can bug him that he has to get some points so that I can go to NFR.

We'll see. Once the fantasy rodeo team fundraising drive is over I can check on their progress on the college's website. I have a whole new reason to cheer the rodeo team (or... parts of it) on!