We went back to school the next week. I don’t know how I survived that first week with Samantha. She was so helpful and cheerful it gave me a toothache. Dad was in heaven, of course. They sat in front of the evening news and talked about what was going on in the world. If they disagreed on anything, I didn’t hear it. Mom and I found excuses to be elsewhere as often as possible. School was a relief. I didn’t even care that it was a new school, the high school. Sure, it was a little intimidating, this huge building with hallways you could land an airplane in, but it was just a school. Manju wasn’t so calm. She found me as soon as I stepped off the bus. “Janine! I am so screwed.” She clung to my arm, her eyes giant and white in her golden face. “What’s wrong?” I asked, trying to keep looking at her while the crush of students pushed us inside. “My parents. My parents are insane. Do you know what they want to do? They want to put me in AP classes. AP!” “Why the hell would they try to put you in Advanced Placement? That’s college credit.” “I know!” “Do they even let freshmen in AP?” “I don’t know! They’re coming to the school to talk to the vice principal,” she looked ready to burst into tears.” “Manju, calm down. The school will never let them do that,” I reassured her. “It [...]
Being tired/down has definitely hurt my writing this week. Levels of business will not be going down, so I have to shore up what reserves I have. Word warring has definitely helped, thank you, Sreya. 8372 words is 10.5% of the total 80k. I am supposed to have 16002 words by the end of Saturday. Godfuckingdammitall.
[Formerly titled "A New Grading Period"] I didn’t want to get out of bed the next day, so I stayed there until noon. Mom and Dad were both off at work, so it was just me, trying to doze in the growing sun. I also tried to ignore all the sounds coming from outside, or tell one from the other. Why should I torture myself by picking out the sound of Saul’s lawn mower? As always, Clara saved me. She called me three times in a row. The third was almost over by the time I answered. “Hey.” “Hey! How are you? I missed you!” “I missed you, too.” I looked at the clock. It felt early and late at the same time. “How was camp?” Sport camp, for volleyball, specifically. It came as a complete surprise to pretty much everyone, but then again, not really. Clara had been trying on identities since long before I knew her,and athlete was just the latest. In middle school she was goth, and before that she was a flower child. I don’t know what made her ‘get serious’ and try something that actually recorded effort and interaction with other people. “A lot of work. More like boot camp. You’d think we were training to go pro.” “Aren’t high school teams really competitive?” I picked at a piece of lint on my pillow. “I mean, they are an important step to someday going pro.” “Ahmaigawd, yes. You wouldn’t believe how seriously some people take [...]
80k goal for 11/3: 8,001 50k goal for 11/3: 5,001 Actual total for 11/3: 4,655 Yeah, not doing so well. Life interferes. Depression interferes. Sleep will help counteract all this. Zzzz.
So, I met my goal last night, and even exceeded it slightly. Tonight I had to teach my last class for RP and so I don’t have any more energy to work with. My last act before bed was to upload what I have here. Happy, Sreya? I wanted to finish the scene for you, but it’ll have to wait. (Muaha.)
July 17th, 2009 This is the most amazing thing ever. Absolutely ever. And I can’t tell anyone about not. Not even M and C. They wouldn’t get it, or they’d yell at me. But I don’t care, I wouldn’t stop for anything. I had sex. I have had sex. I am having sex. Not right now, obviously. But a lot. Like, so much it should be illegal. Only not really. That would suck. Nobody knows, but I have to tell SOMEONE. It’s too amazing not to. He lives next door, and he’s in college. I won’t tell you his name because that totally goes against the purpose of this site. HELLO WORLD, YOU DON’T KNOW WHO I AM. He doesn’t know I’m writing this. And he will never know, because we are not in A Relationship. Everyone thinks girls are all about being LOVE. I don’t care about that. He’s hot, and he’s sexy. And he wants me like I want him. It’s win-win. So there, world. This blog is proof that you can be a girl who has sex without falling in love. Comments wow good for u, u had sex BFD. we dont care. – wakkawakka July 21st, 2009 Wow, wakkawakka you have gr8 spelling, no joke. I don’t care if you don’t care. It’s my blog and I can say what I want. This IS a Big Fucking Deal (B.F.D.) Because he is in college and I am not. You know how rare that is? It’s basically [...]
A good start so far: 2,734 words in the first two and a half hours. That’s also about 3/4 of the first chapter, so that, too, is awesome. I managed to finish plugging my outline into Scrivener JUST before midnight, so I finally feel more settled on that front. (Also, Scrivener is awesome. Definitely still in beta, but SO AWESOME.) Despite writing a decent amount, I do feel that this first part is a big clumsy. Part of that is intentional–the first section is Janine’s old blog. I’m worried that that’s too sophisticated. And then the text immediately after it looks too juvenile. I didn’t get back into the flow until the scene in the kitchen. I think I’ll be ok from here on in, though.
So close, and yet so far away!
I got the idea when I was in high school. I have some issues with age of consent laws, primarily that people act like anyone under the age of consent is an innocent child. This is particularly ridiculous when that age is something like 17. Seventeen-year-olds are not children. They are not adults, but they are not children. I dreamt up Janine, a high schooler sleeping with a boy older than her, but not TOO much older. Most consent laws give a 5 year window–a seventeen year old is ok with a twenty-one year old, but not a twenty-three year old. My first draft had spunk, the spark of this initial concept, but it didn’t have plot. It meandered off into cliche, and I abandoned it. But the people who read it at the time were very enthusiastic. This surprised me, because Janine is actually something of a bitch. But, hey, people like a certain amount of bitchiness. I’ve toyed with the idea of returning to SS on and off over the years. I considered making Saul much older than Janine. I debated how she would spend her time after the break up. I didn’t want it to be a typical love story. And I wasn’t at all sure how I wanted Janine to feel about Saul. Some things that never changed? Janine herself and her family. I knew I wanted her to be the child of a second marriage, someone’s little step-sister. There is tension in her parents’ relationship [...]
NaNoWriMo begins on November 1. The rules state that you may not begin to write prior to this time. Chapters will be posted as they are completed.
