Journal Report #11

Big news! I finished a good draft of my thesis novel! And it may have been my music choice (the How to Train Your Dragon and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtracks) but the ending seemed more epic than ever. I am giddy, yes, and it will pass. I still have a lot to do before it's done. In my revising I had an epiphany about Thomas brought on by the critique my short story about him got in class. After hearing what people said about maybe giving Thomas a different kind of magic or not giving him any at all, I decided I wanted to give him magic because I'm interested in how he would react if he suddenly got what everyone else had (sort of), but the truth is he is different. He's different in the novel too.

So here's my epiphany: humans have a very scientific kind of magic that is more the channeling of a force of nature like electricity or gravity. It's called magic because no one got around to changing the name from what people centuries ago called it. However, the magic of the gnomes and dragons, and now Thomas, is what we would usually call magic, aka, a renewable power that comes from inside a person that uses special language to command the world to do your will. Adding that to both my short story and my novel really enhances the character of Thomas and helps distinguish the two worlds. Discovering this meant I had to go back to key scenes and add/subtract lines, but I think it was worth it.

Reading for this week: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. Awesome, witty, very feminist story. I think the main character took things a bit too far, but I'm with her in the whole wanting to be respected by guys rather than told I'm cute and considered sweet and harmless. That doesn't mean I don't want to be sweet, only that I want to be respected for gifts other than physical appearance and things expected of me because I'm a girl. But don't worry, I'm not about to go criminal mastermind like Frankie did. I'll leave that to my characters. (On a related note, I think I may have been handed this book on purpose given my history with underaged criminal masterminds).

Well, it's about time for me to work in earnest on my final project, and I know what I'm going to do. Speaking about criminal masterminds...Jeremy Wilderson has a lot more for me to write about him. And Becca certainly has a voice in this. I just need to decide if I want to write from Jeremy's or Becca's point of view. They're both very entertaining in my head. Retrieval specialist or detective? Whichever I choose, it will work great. There's a large caseload in my head for these preteens.