Not a lot of physical activity, but at least I hit the 10,000 word threshold. I was super-lazy in the morning and that contributed to a lot of the issues.
First day of classes was today. It went well. I’ve been listening to books on writing and doing more reading than usual. Started Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Give Me Up. I don’t like it, not in the sense that I don’t like it, but in the sense that it’s clear that there’s some sinister mystery he wants us to uncover and he’s being very coy about it.
Of course, that’s not to say that it’s a good story in and of that. Ishiguro is very patient as a storyteller, and he’d better pull off an explanation worthy of the slow opening. I’m stuck comparing the novel to something like The Lord of the Rings where dozens of slow pages in the beginning match more engaging sections later on and also carry deeper and hidden meaning.
Ishiguro’s a master, so I trust him, but the opening so far has been something of a stretch, when you compare it to Zamyatin’s We, which is brutally and oppressively fast as a rule.
On the up-side, I’m getting to the point where I can think about plot and pacing in a fairly sophisticated manner, even after just a single day of class! Okay, to be fair a lot of that was already within my repertoire, but being pushed to do it makes it no less fun.