Slow Progress - Again

I spent the past Thanksgiving weekend on the road. Between lengthy drives in the daytime and being with my mother in the evenings, I could not do ANY writing on the road.

In addition, as soon as I came back, I was doing 12-14 hours of work a day. When not at work, I was too busy sleeping, trying to shake off the road trip fatigue.

Needless to say, I missed the deadline for this week's assignment - something that I've never done. I had written one scene early this morning, but that wasn't enough, as I needed two scenes. Late submissions get no credit, so I will have to get a zero for the week. Fortunately, I am taking the course pass-fail only - but I am still very upset about this.

Between lengthy workdays (including weekends), family feud, and my pathetic living arrangements in a reactionary suburb, conditions couldn't be worse for working on a novel. I've now decided that I will not be enrolling in any more novel classes until I am in a better living arrangement - namely a private apartment in a neighborhood closer to urban life. At that point, joining writing groups will also be possible, and I expect to get a much better feedback from people.

In addition, I will make sure to take more of those writing trips to San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver (and possibly elsewhere) - and instead of just blogging and brainstorming, I will actually get some writing done while away. I hope the Christmas trip to San Francisco - my third writing trip there - will work out.

Two transgender role models for Sarah

A statue of Kwan Yin in Shanghai

As I progress through my novel class, I am starting to realize that two longstanding transgender symbols will be of major importance to Sarah.

The first is the Buddhist figure of Kwan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion, who was at first depicted as male, but modern East Asian depictions all show as female.

The second is the chess queen, who used to be a male advisor to the king with identical moves, but as chess made its way to Europe, evolved into not only a woman, but the most powerful piece on the board.

I've already made Sarah a chess player, so the queen will be very relevant to her. As for Kwan Yin, Sarah won't be as familiar with her at first, but when she travels to Asia on her work assignments, she will find out more.

Wikipedia entries:
Kwan Yin
Chess queen

A few thoughts from the class

I had to write two climactic scenes from my novel as this week's assignment. So far, I've written one - the re-write of my September 11th scene which I had sent off to Epinions.com last year.

Sarah loses her lover Martha on Flight 93, and the sheer sorrow and anger she feels, especially toward W and the Muslim community, really shake me. So much, that I couldn't bring myself to write the other climactic scene right away (I will wait until tomorrow).

But I am glad that I am getting the groove back on my writing, after having lost it back in the spring. And this may be the most important thing - to enjoy writing once again. This is something that all the traveling I did to the Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest couldn't achieve (though those trips gave me some inspirations, so they were not wasted).

I am hoping to enjoy the rest of my writing, and hopefully return to the Bay Area again during the Christmas week.