Meg Dowell Writes

Did you know that burrs were the inspiration for Velcro? I didn’t either, but pretty much everyone I told already knew, and that kind of killed the excitement of knowing a fun fact.

It’s only the 14th, so we’ve got a little time yet before November 1st, when NaNoWriMo officially starts. Since I’m not allowed to start writing yet (it’s totally not fair–all this waiting is killing me!), I’ve been doing a lot of other writing, mainly to calm the itch to write that doesn’t seem to want to go away. I’ve written a few things that have graciously popped into my head, but it seems lately that my teachers are demanding plenty of writing from me, as well.

We’ve been working on this paper for my lit class for a little over two weeks now, and the due date has finally arrived (tomorrow, actually, since seniors have the day off today). It’s on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which wasn’t really a bad play, but I wouldn’t exactly prefer to write a paper on it. I actually thought it was due yesterday, and spent a good portion of my previous day off finishing it, but it actually wasn’t…due. So I’m going to take a few minutes this morning and fix it up, since I’ll most likely get a C if I turn it in as-is. Which I wouldn’t have minded, if it was actually due when she told us it was going to be.

She totally did. I remember.

We’re also going to write a paper on a tini fragment of The Prelude, which was a very nice fragment, in my opinion. The only problem with this paper is that the prompt asks that we analyze diction, imagery, and tone to prove our point (which is something about the changing of opinion due to outward experience). I don’t really get what’s so challenging about that. When dividing up the essay, you would generally dedicate one body paragraph to diction, another to imagery, and yet another solely to tone. And where do you go from there? You pick out two or three words or phrases or lines for each one, do a little explaining, and then write a fantastic introduction and conclusion.

Is it just me, or is that frightfully simple?

But I’m not complaining, of course, because there’s nothing wrong with an easy A, now is there?

Aside from this class, we’re getting a prompt tomorrow for my other AP English class–one that not only deals with nature, but that asks ever-so-politely for a personal narrative to support our opinions. A personal narrative! Do you know what that means? It means I don’t have to have structure, or to state an obvious thesis within the first paragraph of my essay. It means I get to pretty much write how I want, while still staying in a few boundaries, of course. So in my excitement, I wrote it in study hall yesterday.

My final writing project is for, of course, my creative writing class (it isn’t until I talk about the classes I’m taking this semester that I realize I’m the luckiest high school senior on the planet). The project is to take something that already exists and make it “our own.” Now, I’d been planning to dress up in a pretty dress and do the whole “Popular” scene from Wicked, but it turns out the project is actually due this Friday, rather than next Friday like I’d originally thought (I really need to start writing this stuff down!).

So instead of making a video of me singing and flipping my hair (which no one would ever want to see anyway, so thank my disorganization) I’ve decided to take a really old Disney classic fairytale and modernize it. And it won’t be Cinderella, of course, because that one has been re-done a thousand times and over again. Some of them were really good, actually, like what they did in Ever After-A Cinderella Story. That one was actually better than the Disney-ized version.

I guess we’ll have to see what I come up with. It probably won’t be fabulous, as I know I’m not going to want to do it tomorrow, but I’m sure he’ll give me full credit for whatever I turn in. Which is good, because I didn’t even know it was due in three days until yesterday.

I guess I’ll go work on that now, though I’m really itching to brainstorm more of my novel, whose working title is really starting to bore me. Anyway, I feel for those who are in school right now. I mean, of course, that I feel sorry for you, not that I know how you actually feel. But I hope you had fun anyway, and I hope that you remember to rub it in my face the next time you have a day off and I don’t.

Love&hugs, Meg♥