Okay, let's get the obvious one out of
the way first:
1. To get a book published
Of course I'd prefer it to happen
rather sooner than later. But I also try to be down to earth about
it. It's more important that I write what's important to me, and spend as much
time writing and editing it as I feel I need. I don't want to rush
because I might just be at my biggest growth spurt as a writer right now.
There's a dramatic difference in skill with the beginning and ending
of the last novel I completed. It's like they were written by a
different person, or at least years apart, not months. I know
my stuff isn't ready yet, but I'm getting so much better all the
time, so I hope that soon something is ready, that I am ready.
At the moment I'm writing for a
contemporary YA novel competition (not my usual thing) and I only
have three months to complete the novel that is still in the
beginning, since my summer job has kept me so busy, so I guess that's a goal in itself, but let it be inside
this bigger goal, since its just one way I'm trying to achieve this.
After that, I have my fantasy series to
complete, which is still probably going to take me more than a couple
of years, since it was only half way through and then I started
writing the first book all the way from the beginning again...
2. To improve my drawing/Strenghten my
style
I've only recently realized how much
I've been trying to draw ”by the book” all these years. How much
I've been trying to do the same as those who are actually good at it.
But it has struck me: Why would I try to draw like people who don't
draw for the same reasons or aren't about expressing the same things
I want to express? I'm bad with anatomy. So what? I don't even want
to draw realistically, so that shouldn't be my main concern. I'm good
with faces, expressions, colours and contrast. And those are enough
to express what I actually want to: feelings and atmosphere. It
doesn't mean I don't need to get better at anatomy. It just means I
should approach it in favour of the things that are more important to
me, on their terms, to strengthen them.
I don't want to draw a mountain so that
you can see in detail exactly what this particular mountain looks
like. I want to draw so that I can make you believe there is a
mountain there, and that it's there for a reason.
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| Not so good, no. |
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| That's going in the right direction. |
3. To improve my flexibility
This is probably my weakest area in
ballet. Well, not in every single place, it seems my sides are more
flexible than average and my attitudes and arabesques aren't half
bad, so I guess my back isn't that stiff either. But I can't do a
spagat, and I've never been able to lift my leg all the way up along
my side with my hand on my heel. I guess I haven't really had to
worry about it enough before, in class it's been enough to just do
everything to the extend you can. But in our last performance we did
can-can and we were supposed to end it in a spagat. There was only one
other person besides me, who had to cheat, hiding the other leg under
the big can-can skirt, since we couldn't get it straight.
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| This was the can-can skirt. |
So, I'm trying to make it a habit to
stretch my legs everytime I'm reading or watching something. So far,
it's really hard. I might have to ask for someone's advice... so far
I've only heard ”Just stretch untill it stops hurting” but the
problems is, it doesn't. It just gets more painful. Either I'm doing
something wrong, or the problem is that I've only been asking people who are
naturally flexible.
My heels are my true achilles' heels,
as well. (Heh heh, not so funny... I'm sorry, I couldn't help that.)
They're just naturally stiffer than those of most non-dancers I know.
Yeah... sad. I'm always worried that someday, they'll just snap. I'm
trying to do something about them as well, since it makes me cheat in
pirouettes, which is a shame, since otherwise, those are basically my only strong suit.
4. To finally start typing fictional
characters on my personality blog
I type all the time. If
I haven't typed someone I've read/watched it's because a) They're
really hard for me to type and it's an on-going process or b) they
aren't realistic enough to type which probably also means they
weren't very interesting as a character.
But for some reason when it comes to
actually writing about those typings, I keep putting it off. I guess
I want to be exactly 112% sure of their MBTI, enneagram tritype,
wing, and instinctual variants before writing anything.
But I want to do this because 1) It's
just so interesting, plain and simple. 2) It's a good field for
discussion, since when you're talking about real people, you can only
really do it with someone who knows the person as well as you.
Fictional characters can have so wide audiences. Sure, you can
discuss celebrities too, but 3) you can get the thought processes of
a character from the fictional work way easier than you can get real
people's thought processes, and that's why, when it comes to the
theory, I find fictional characters a better learning tool than real
people. (Of course, I always recommend watching real people for
practical learning, but the theory is just as important and the
fictional characters are ideal for that.)
5. Finish my degree work
Yeah, the most boring goal. Okay, it's
not like I'm not interested in my subject, of course I chose
something that overlaps with literature, so I have an excuse to read
more fiction: The images of God in self-published Christian fiction.
That's my subject. I've read my material and I know approximately
what's going to be in every chapter, and I think I've found some
interesting spectrums and dichotomies in the way the concept of God is formed and used in these
stories.
But you know, writing fiction and
blogging about personality theories is just so much more interesting
than actually doing the work: the academic writing. (Sorry I'm going
to go Jungian here:) It's. So. Extraverted Thinking. It's always the
same thing for me as an Ni-Ti looper: I don't actually do the work
the way I have to present it. The Te part of the work is the last
part I do. I fake it every single time, I've done that since middle
school porfolios, since you're expected to reach your conclusion in a
certain step by step manner. But I can't do that. I get to the
conclusions first, I come to them in a complicated web of
relationships of cause and effect, and then I have to go back and
figure out how exactly I would've have gotten there, if I was using
Te. And it's tedious.
But, my goal is to be done by
Christmas. Unlike fiction, I write school papers the best in the
morning, when I've specifically woken up to do them. So I'll have to
welcome early mornings once summer's done.
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| This is the book that made me want to research Christian fiction. Check it out! |
So, that's my five. Hope I didn't
forget something important. I'm tired.
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