Hey everyone!
After what felt like years (for me), I've returned with a new post. My absence is due to...school, moving house, buying furniture, parents constantly coming over and...school. In no particular order. So, I'm struggling to keep up with everything and maybe even do some light editing.
The thing is, I've been having a bunch of bad days lately. I can't stand going to school anymore. The subjects are boring, there's the stress of senior year and exams and my friends... are not really my friends anymore. Dang, my boyfriend's right. Watch out for big groups of girls - they'll eat each other alive. I don't really get into that, but I am currently the weakest link and my darling ex-best friends are searching for the spark for an embarrassing conversation and throwing out of the group. I know that. I can feel it. It's happened to me once before, in high school. I was an idiot then, so I'm not making the same mistake twice. It's ignore the signs from here on out. I only have a few months left of college anyway. Why bother?
So yeah, my social life sucks right now. And it's an extra stress reason I didn't need. (For those who don't know, I am graduating law school in June this year, and apart for the horrible graduation exam (we have one of those) I also have an even more gruesome exam to get into judge school in August). So my morale is pretty low right now. And a bitch fight is not on my list.
I don't really care about all that, but it's annoying when they're all planning to go out and deliberately leave you out, or when they start inviting people to their place and ignore you, just because you were busy the first couple of times (I can almost hear them - You never come, so what's the point in inviting you OR, better yet, The invitation was wide open. Of course you could come if you wanted to) Well, girls, believe it or not, I believe in things called loyalty and good manners.
Before you get too depressed, at least things are going well at home. My brother finally moved out and I now live with my boyfriend. And we get along just fine :)
Okay, enough teenage angst! As all things in my life, this had to reflect in my writing. As I said, this thing happened to me in high school too, and my writing saved me then. I murdered my ex-best friend in my writing (not literally killed her, but faced her properly - and it felt soooo good).
In my WIP, my characters have friends. Not many of them, since they tend to be like... five brothers, so they're a lot of people in the family - and they're basically the group of friends.
And after thinking of my own predicament, I've realized that the only best-friend type person I've ever written in detail ends up... betraying his best friend by sleeping with his girlfriend. Okay, I totally did not do this on purpose.
I don't have bitchfights between friends in my book (though one girl does steal her supposed friend's love interest, but the other girl takes it like a champ - talking about Christine snatching Sam from Lisa here, for those who know my characters). I do however have a bit of best-friend conflict.
FREX(I'm too lazy to explain): Jessie - she's best friends with both Kyle and Kay who are dating. Whose side would she take when the two of them end up fighting? Well, if she were fair, she'd stay out of this. But when they both want to vent to her... then it's a little bit harder.
Example number 2: Christine and Angie - they're friends. Best friends from Christine's POV. Yet, when trouble comes, Angie tends to be on Sam's side. Well, depending who is wrong.
Oh, this is going to be so much fun to write. My fifth volume is going to be overly emotional. :p
Right, enough babble. So, um...do you vent through your work? Trash the boss, the bitchy girlfriend, the rude guy at the bar? Anyone? Or am I the only one going through cheap therapy through my own writing?
Sounds like those friends were never much friends in the first place. Writing therapy sounds like a great answer. You have the power to make them really suffer internally...show how sad and needy they are underneath those confident facades!
ReplyDeleteI often work traits I've observed into my characters. I did once base a character on a real-life senior executive by way of revenge. That's in one of my currently-on-the-shelf WIPs so it'll be interesting to see if I still feel the same way about that character when I get back to it. The executive in question was heaved out last year, to resounding cheers around the building, so the need for revenge isn't so great now :)
Hi Ian.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know they're not really friend-friends. It's really hard to find some of those. And, honestly, I'm not even sure they're worth bashing. I'm sure they're not sad or needy - they're just spineless people. Well, some of them are :)
I love writing therapy. It makes everything seem so much easier :)
That sucks :( I went through that once and at the moment, my two good friends left my school and the other (who's a guy, if that makes a difference) is completely ignoring me...so that's fun, lol.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I do that sometimes. When I'm sad I like to write because I can pretend I'm someone else for a while.
Anna :)
Ah, bummer that happens, Anna. The guy might be ignoring you because he likes you :) Not saying for sure, but at your age, they tend to act like idiots.
ReplyDeletePick up a pen and a piece of paper (or your computer:D) and torch everyone upsetting you ;)
So, I'm a bit late getting here, but sorry you've had a rough time. Your friends don't sound like real friends, and you're obviously better off without them.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Anna on the pretending to be someone else thing with writing. Also, it helps to escape into another world when the real world disappoints. That's generally my version of writing therapy anyway :).
Hi Coral!
ReplyDeleteLovely to have you aboard. I've subscribed to your blog too. Didn't know you had one :p
Thanks for the cheering up. I guess writing about it here has been good therapy :)