Contest Entry: Novel Updates and Plans for 2009

In 2008, I finished a poetry class, and completed the book of poetry that was required for a final project. Little Miracles, a musical I co-wrote with a friend (she did the score, I wrote the book and lyrics), was published and produced as part of Humana's New Voices series in the 2008 Humana festival. I recycled my only completed short story for my writing portfolio yet again (three cheers for top marks!) and recieved a small scholarship for my writing due to a nomination by my fabulous English teacher. The start of college, however, meant that creative writing was put on the back burner in favour of writing lengthy research papers on rolly pollies.1

I'm currently attempting to toss out most of a rough draft of a Spill Canvas inspired novella/novel (we'll see) over winter break, which goes through the first month of 2009. This year, I would really like to get a draft done of He Ping. It's the first novel I tried to write, but when I started it, I wasn't in a place where I had the life experience to properly connect to the characters. Now that I'm a bit older and have been through a bit more, I think I'm in a position to treat them as they deserve. I need to finish mapping out the characters, get a more solid plotline (I know the story arc for each character, but I need to work out how it can be one cohesive story), then simply write. That will be the easier part - I've done a million different writing exercises with these characters, so I have a good idea of their voices and personalities.2

I also want to write some more poetry this year - it isn't my favourite form, but it's a useful skill to keep up with. I also want to work on playwriting some more. I'm not actually a huge fan of playwriting, but I've written several plays that have been produced and well-recieved, so since I'm both apparently okay at it and an actor, I figure I should work on it. 3

Finally, I want to take a creative writing class during the Fall 2009 semester. I have to get another IB transcript sent to my university so I can get credit for the prerequisite course, then I should be in good shape to take fiction writing 203.