The Workshop and How to Continue

I would just like to start off by saying that reading twelve iterations of the same comments on my story makes me very sick of my own writing. Blech.

Writing my short story was very, very hard for me, mostly because it didn't want to stay short. I had all of these ideas that I knew I couldn't properly expand on, given the time and page limit, yet I went ahead anyway. Ahem.

The reaction from my classmates to my story was very, er, strong. All in all, people were wrapped up in the confusion of not knowing what exactly the world was about. Hmm.

Maybe it's just because my writing is influenced by authors such as Neal Stephenson and Neil Gaiman (both of whom this story was compared to. I couldn't have been happier when I heard that), but I'm used to not knowing what is going on in the world the characters are living in. I have no problems with knowing just enough to get by, and focusing instead on the story and the actors in it.

Apparently most people would like to know exactly what is going on.

Which brings me to my next problem. I know that I need to expand on my story, and I have several scenes formulating in my head, but what is really stopping me from continuing onwards is the fact that I don't know how much people want to know. I could give the readers pages and pages and pages of background on each of my characters, and while I personally would find that fascinating (even if I hadn't come up with it myself), I don't know if other, non-geeks would also like this, or would just get bored three paragraphs in.

And then I have to wonder... Who will be reading this? Should I subject them to my long and drawn out descriptions and screw their boredom? Also, how exactly am I going to accomplish this without seeming like an immature writer (which is often why I shy away from long, drawn out descriptions)?

Being re-bitten by the writing bug,
-J

Civic Duty >> Cookies

So in the past week, I've received two packages from California. One was from my parents, who made me baked goods (bread, not cookies, technically) and sent me a flower, and the other was from my county, sending me my ballot. o.O

This being the first year I could vote, I was very excited for the latter (she says, as she eats the bread sent to her. Nom nom nom). I know that California will be going blue, but there were several California-only propositions that I wanted/needed to vote for/against, so getting my ballot in time to send it back out and vote made me very, very happy.

The "I voted" sticker they sent me is currently living on my laptop.

-J