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walhiskaHappy New Year!
All is relatively well in Ireland. I am writing fiction again after a long and reluctant break away from it. Currently, I'm actually writing what would unavoidably be categorised as fanfiction, just to stretch my muscles a little bit. I also signed up for a short online course in fiction writing, which seems low-maintenance enough to cope with my irregular schedule, and full of interesting people. It's also free, which was my priority if I'm being fully honest. I'm hoping that doing some very short writing exercises will provide a sort of relapse-gateway-drug effect in order to get used to writing (fiction) again.
The short project I mentioned is an epilogue for aMads Mikkelsen Nicolas Winding Refn film called Valhalla Rising, and isn't ambitious but I'm just enjoying the process - no pressure regarding word count or anything else. It's at about 3000 words at the moment, or just under that. The adjustable target is about 5000-6000 but it all depends on how closely it keeps my interest.
In fact, as I mentioned a film above, I thought I'd say that I'm watching much fewer films these days. I took it as an assignment to give myself an intensive course in film over the last few years. I had seen about 5 or 6 films in total when I entered university, and only began to slowly appreciate the medium under the kind and willing tutelage of a friend of mine. (We still watch movies together, by the way, even though our tastes differ wildly). The last film I watch ed was And Then We Danced. Truly fucking life-changing film. I loved it. Will anything else measure up, ever, I wonder? In any case, most of the remaining films that I want to watch aren't yet released, or else I can't find them (and I'm good at finding films, believe me).
Before I start to bore myself and you, moving on.
Language targets:
I am actually going to leave this here at the moment, but I intend to also make a dedicated post with some reflections on what I want to read this year, both in terms of fiction and non-fiction. I have been working on trying to cut down my overly-intimidating to-be-read list.
Thanks,
Michelle
All is relatively well in Ireland. I am writing fiction again after a long and reluctant break away from it. Currently, I'm actually writing what would unavoidably be categorised as fanfiction, just to stretch my muscles a little bit. I also signed up for a short online course in fiction writing, which seems low-maintenance enough to cope with my irregular schedule, and full of interesting people. It's also free, which was my priority if I'm being fully honest. I'm hoping that doing some very short writing exercises will provide a sort of relapse-gateway-drug effect in order to get used to writing (fiction) again.
The short project I mentioned is an epilogue for a
In fact, as I mentioned a film above, I thought I'd say that I'm watching much fewer films these days. I took it as an assignment to give myself an intensive course in film over the last few years. I had seen about 5 or 6 films in total when I entered university, and only began to slowly appreciate the medium under the kind and willing tutelage of a friend of mine. (We still watch movies together, by the way, even though our tastes differ wildly). The last film I watch ed was And Then We Danced. Truly fucking life-changing film. I loved it. Will anything else measure up, ever, I wonder? In any case, most of the remaining films that I want to watch aren't yet released, or else I can't find them (and I'm good at finding films, believe me).
Before I start to bore myself and you, moving on.
Language targets:
- I really dislike how much I've jumped around over the last six months as regards what language I'm aiming to learn. I was very used to having the structure of formal language education (re. Irish and French) and/or the presence of a native speaker that I wanted to impress (re. Russian). Since August, I've mentioned Italian, Arabic, German, Danish and Belrusian all as languages I'm learning, and obviously I have been learning little bits of them, but it's time (January) to pick like, maximum three.
- These three, in order of priority, are: Italian, Danish, and Scots Gaelic. I'm leaving Arabic rest for the moment entirely, having learnt the alphabet to a decent standard, and will come back to it later. As regards Russian and Belarusian, both are beautiful, and I have maybe an A2.2 / B1.1 standard in the former. Having lost 80% of my fascination with certain Russian authors (ahem. Tolstoy.), on which most of my motivation to learn the language was based, I think I can be happy with a decent-ish conversational standard which might help me through a holiday in Saint Petersburg or something. As for Belarusian, which I just started being interested in lately, I maintain that I sincerely want to learn it and become fluent, out of pure cultural and linguistic curiosity, but that my Italian must come first.
- As such, I am going to commit to doing a half an hour of Italian every day, a quarter of an hour of Danish every day, and a little bit of Scots Gaelic, even if only five minutes, every couple of days. It's not so much the scheduling that I needed, however, as the discipline to say that everything else is stricted verboten, barring some maintenance work in French, which mostly takes the form of occasional new vocabulary I come across while reading.
I am actually going to leave this here at the moment, but I intend to also make a dedicated post with some reflections on what I want to read this year, both in terms of fiction and non-fiction. I have been working on trying to cut down my overly-intimidating to-be-read list.
Thanks,
Michelle