Tonight is my last writing class - I've been taking a continuing education class at the local junior college titled, "I Want to be a Writer." I just was hoping for something to give my creativity and motivation a jolt, but I haven't really gotten much out of it. It's an interesting mix of people, though - one wants to be a poet, one wants to write her memoirs, and one wants to write about conspiracy theories. Then there's little ol' me, the one who wants to write fluffy, easy reading chick lit.

All we've really been doing is free writes (set a timer for a certain amount of time, pick a topic, and just write what comes to you). While I think this can be a very worthwhile practice (I mean, really, nanowrimo is, essentially, a 30-day free write), it's getting old. Last week when I read my free write aloud, the teacher deemed that it didn't have enough detail to keep the audience's attention. Well, DUH. Since when is a free write supposed to be anything but a first draft? The thing that got to me was right after that she spoke to the "class" and said something like this:

"Some people are meant to write fiction, and some people aren't. If you're not, then don't."

She might as well have picked up a bullhorn, shined a spotlight on me and shouted, "You suck!"

So, as I mentioned, today is our last class, and you know what? I finally got out of it what I was hoping for - some motivation. We were given a line out of one of the teacher's favorite books. She repeated it several times to us, all sing-songy, and told us to do (what else?) a free write that begins with that line. So, I was inspired to write a piece that completely makes fun of that line over and over again. It's not a good line to begin with, so don't start feeling bad for the line. It sucks ass, and the characters in my "free-write" openly bash it. Repeatedly. It's actually a pretty good piece, I think.

So far, work isn't terribly busy today (JOY!). Playing hooky to write in my diary hasn't produced the usual guilt today because I'm not neglecting my duties, necessarily. I do, however, need to go take a shower. Since I've been working from home, this is only the second time I haven't taken a shower and changed out of my pajamas by the time I started working. I feel a bit smarmy.