Another Friday sharing our weeks at Conversion Diary.
~1~
If last week was busy, this week trumped it by tempting me with more things to do and threatening me with the compulsory works and such. My mini-project leader was stuck on the M4, so couldn’t make it to our 9am meeting and had to reschedule, so I had an extra hour of going into campus yesterday; in the same way, my physical list gains as much as I cross off every day.
~2~
Our second Swing Dance taster session went well, and there were many enthusiastic and friendly faces. A PhD archaeology student offered a few suggestions for society social ideas, too, such as a cocktail and mocktail, which, with my recent growing interest in the logistics of mixology, is something that we can definitely incorporate.
~3~
These couple of days, it’s been all about music for me. The Duke Ellington piece for the Uni chorus is going well, and I am personally enjoying it more than the other piece we’ve touched on – Elgar’s The Music Makers. I mean, yes, the Elgar is wonderful, melodic and graceful, but I’ve never had an interest in the style of Elgar’s compositions.
YouTube it. Most provide the full half-an-hour-long piece, so I’m not going to post it here.
~4~
In a similar vein: Jazz. A jazz and cocktail night was held at the union yesterday and the band blew me away with creativity and funk. I’m also going to a jazz night in town tonight. Because Friday.
~5~
Writing has been full of interestingness this week. Creative Writing sent me on a screenwriting prompt, which was, I think, successful (see Wednesday’s post). It has also sent me on thinking about the background and the world itself of WTCB, and I created a mindmap partly exploring the worldbuilding stories and vignettes, though it really lacks order at the moment.
~6~
Editing itself has been rather dull this week, though I’ve almost finished my CP’s first six chapters – a longer endeavour than really necessary – and I’m picking up steam again now that I dealt with a few of the supposed issues with my timetable I had this way.
~7~
Yes, my mind still writes despite me. It’s still bleeding the first draft of UTC, and I have very nearly planned what the ending is going to look like, word-wise. In this [short, since it’s quite an intimate scene and it’s not ready to share yet] extract, Laurie is reeling after Jess tells him she’s thinking of dropping out of uni. As the book is New Adult, I wanted to have the two of them dealing with very separate issues and making difficult decisions without their parents holding their hands, especially as part of the conflict is between the parental guardians of both. I also made rather the brave decision to make Laurie 21 instead of 20, as I know so many students here who took a year out, so his age also reflects the modernity and New Adultness of the fiction.
But he didn’t want her to leave – to throw away her degree and the friends she’d made during the year.
And to throw away her talent. She knew how to discern the eras of rocks and she had a knack for reading bones, particularly animal bones. Woman’s touch. She’d get a first if she carried on this way.
First in sex, too.
Alexandrina Brant 