what I am to you is not real

- Volcano, Damien Rice

Writing fiction is a process that I'm trying to become more familiar with. I'm writing my first short story as a final project for my creative writing class, and creating original characters has been fun! I think writers must become attached to their fictional characters by the end of a story, because their back stories have to be so richly imagined and fully fleshed out to make the characters believable. Finishing a novel must be quite depressing then, because the author is forced to say goodbye to the characters that have followed them in their head for day and night.

On the other hand, you have to be careful to not get too attached to fictional characters. When tragedy has to happen in a story, the author's sentiments can't get in the way of the inevitable ending. It's hard to take away happy endings from characters though, especially as I'm writing, I feel emotionally close to the people in my story. Sometimes I feel like I could be close friends with these people, if they actually existed. I've never had the experience of writing a novel, of course, but I imagine it must become a much more extreme attachment. I also find myself spacing out a lot more in my daily life because I'm dreaming about imaginary people. Hmm. Maybe I'll attempt to do NaNoWriMo again next year, not that I have the discipline to write a novel!

I always manage to take on too much. My goals for this summer are starting to seem overambitious. I got a letter from the IIPP program, and apparently I'll be taking classes from 9-5 for seven weeks, with mandatory evening activities on some evenings. I don't know when I'll have time to paint, research, and write fiction! I'll manage somehow. Optimism! <3