Paris Pt. 3

I wrote two follow ups to those strange Paris essays that I wrote when I got back to the States.  Here is the third chunk:

The Paris Cure

You go home after Paris, feeling exhausted, like someone has kept you up at a party far past your bedtime, but your mind is still trying to process all that you've seen.  In any case, you drag yourself home, falling out of bed in your room above the discotheque that never seems to close, and you get in the car and you take the connection to Amsterdam and stumble through the Amsterdam airport that is really like a city, but all you can think about is Paris.

You think about Paris as you hand your ticket to the attendant, and you think about Paris as you find your seat and you think about Paris like you're some sort of character in a romantic tragedy, and you've just remembered that childhood sweetheart that you swore you'd go back to someday.  And you remember Paris like that childhood sweetheart but before you can do anything, the plane takes off and all you can do is read the Dutch airline magazine about some new line of men's watches.

You think about Paris for about a week after you get back from France, before falling blindly back into normalcy and nearly forgetting your love.  It's like you've gone through a very effective, very painless stint in rehab.

And you speak French in class, and you read that book you picked up from that store in France, and you try your very best to remember that annoying discotheque and that mother and her two sons on the train and how beautiful some people look with smoke swirling out of their mouths like little deadly ghosts.

But it's no use, and you've been cured; cured of your sickness, cured of your addiction, and cured of your love.  And you should feel a huge hole in your chest, but you don't.  It's like it never happened.

Later.

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

Finishing and Starting

Finishing novels is really hard on me.  I'm not sure if I've only just discovered the pain that all authors go through or if it's just me and I'm irrationally attached to my books.

But when I finish a novel or indeed any project, I suddenly find myself feeling very empty.  I believe it's because I basically put all of my eggs into one basket and try to power through a book, only to have nothing to do at the end.

If anyone would like to answer this poll, it would be greatly appreciated.  You can see it over there, to the left.

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

Notebooks

I literally just noticed Miss Juliet Horror's comment on my post.  Honestly.  No one ever comments so it caught me off guard.

In case you are periodically checking back, Juliet Horror, here is a post about notebooks.

I have about fifty of the things; lined up according to height on two shelves in my bedroom.  Most of them are empty.  Some of them are full.  The rest have about three sentences to a page in them and are then abandoned.  I adore notebooks so much that I have trouble writing in them; this is because my friends give me tons of notebooks for my birthday, notebooks that are simply too gorgeous to write in.

However, I have just acquainted myself with the novel idea of a scrapbook for my stories.

I have a large spiral notebook that I decoupaged myself with things that I found laying around my house.  It is this notebook that holds pictures, ideas, newspaper clippings, and story snippets.  I find that it is the best supplement to my writing and would highly recommend it to anyone out there who is having trouble either keeping track of things like which color a character's eyes are or needs a good place to write down ideas that don't necessarily present themselves in chronological order.

TTFN

M.K. Wissler

NaNoWriMo Will Be the Death of Me

Honestly, Nano, one month was enough, wasn't it?  One month of painfully delicious writing was enough for us.  One month of tough love from the forums and pep talks from you lovely folk was enough.

But then there was Screnzy, right?  And of course even us novelists jumped right on it.  One more month; what harm could it do?

And now CampNaNoWriMo?  Two more months?  Of course, I know we can choose which month, but still.

All I can say is:

You rock.

Thank you for transporting the idea of NaNo to the summer when I have more time. (Not that I do).

TTFN

M.K. Wissler