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Writing Updates

The Creative’s Corner #3

It’s official – I am done with all of my finals. All of my essays, tests, homework assignments, and even tutoring – all done until the first week of February. Granted, I am still working on my capstone – but that will be ongoing until the end of Spring 2021.

This has given me time to sit down and do what I enjoy doing – read. In the past two days, I have read I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid and Farewell, Earth’s Bliss by D. G. Compton. Reid’s book was phenomenal – my best friend Mikaela had been recommending it to me for a year and I finally had time to sit down and read it (on top of the fact that it was assigned to me to read). The ending was confusing at first, but I talked it through with her afterwards and it all started to make sense. If you have any time at all, sit down and read I’m Thinking of Ending Things – not only is Reid an incredible author and story teller, but he creates a haunting double storyline that a read cannot get enough of. I rated it 4/5 stars.

Farewell, Earth’s Bliss was fine – I don’t have any strong opinions in favor of this story. It was published in 1966, which makes sense to the crude and honestly upsetting language that is used through the book. Personally, I feel that the character of Jacob was used strictly as the butt of a joke as well referred to in derogatory terms by Simon, who I will call a bully. I didn’t feel attached to any of the characters or even to the plot itself (did it have a plot? I’m not sure, still), so I rated it 2.5/5 stars – my lowest rating of the year so far. Maybe if I read this in 1966 I would’ve enjoyed it more, but the language has not aged well into modern times, and ultimately I was left blindsided by the racist and sexist remarks made throughout the book.

One of the best things about my capstone is that I am assigned not only books to read, but TV shows and movies to watch as well. Recently, besides finishing the first season of Twin Peaks, I have been watching The Twilight Zone and working my way through the 27 episodes that my professor picked out. I had never watched this show before, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I actually enjoyed watching it. There were some episodes that I couldn’t fully watch – one of them being “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” because of my fear of airplanes. However, even with that being said, it is facinating to see how they filmed the episodes back then. My favorite episodes so far have been:

  • Third from the Sun
  • The Obsolete Man
  • The Eye of the Beholder
  • The After Hours
  • People are Alike all Over

Next up on my list of things to watch is the Netflix movie adaptation of I’m Thinking of Ending Things which I’m excited to see. Other than that, I have to catch up/finish watching The Mandalorian season 2 as I haven’t had time to watch any episodes since my semester got so busy.

It is strange to have so much time now. I only just found out that tutoring was over for the semester yesterday, so besides my RA obligations I have no plans as to how I will spend the rest of my time at school. I don’t move out until Saturday afternoon, which means I guess I have more time than ever to catch up on whatever work I need to do.

I’ll be back later in the week with more content!

Much love,

C.E. Egan

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Writing Updates

The Creative’s Corner #2

Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all had a fabulous week, and are ready for some recovery time. What is something that went really well this week? What is something that you’re grateful for? I’d love to know in the comments below.

Next week is my last week of classes before finals – woohoo! This semester has felt like that longest one so far, so I’m eternally grateful that it is almost over. However, I know this next week will be the most stressful for me. I am challenging myself to complete all of my finals and coursework by December 11th. I am doing this because the last week of school, finals week, I have to stay on campus since I work as a Resident Assistant. This is the time where I want to focus on my writing, as well as get some reading done. My professor is having me read and watch I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Ian Reid, so I know that I will need to have the time to do so. The 12th-18th will be my week of editing and working on new pieces.

I submitted “4:30AM” to my capstone professor, and I got some great feedback on it. I’m going to edit it, as well as expand, and this introspective piece is going to be going into my final portfolio for my senior capstone. I didn’t know how I felt about the piece as I wrote it, so it was wonderful to get to talk through it with someone else! I’ve found writing to be a lonely process for me lately, and this class has allowed me to talk about my work and revise it.

Writing is lonely for me because I don’t often talk about my work with others. In the past, I have received constructive criticism that was not spoken of as such, but was phrased more that my writing was not good, and this has kept me from sharing a lot of my work. I can take this feedback, but more often than not it has come off as a critique of not my writing, but me. I had vivid memories of professors telling me that my work ‘doesn’t make sense’ and that I would need to change a majority of what I’ve already done. Or, in some cases, I’ve had peers read my work and tell me that I should give up. This process has been lonely because I don’t share much with anyone.

However, I finally have two people in my life that love listening to me talk about my work. Just yesterday, I was out with one of these friends and we ended up talking about fanfiction and what we thought made it good. I told my friend about one I wrote/have been writing, and to my surprise she absoluely loved it. Little moments like that remind me that I can write great things, and that the people who want to see me succeed in writing will give me critiques directed at my work, not at me.

That’s all I have for my newsletter of the week. Thank you again for supporting me, and I’ll be posting another short story again soon.

Much love,

C.E. Egan

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Writing Updates

The Creative’s Corner #1

Hello again, friends! Its been a hot minute since the last time I posted on here! I’m here to catch up with you all, and update everyone on what’s going on with me – my writing life and my academic life (I’m a college student, after all).

A mental health check in – Covid19 has been on everyone’s minds for months and I want to give you all a space to relax. Take a moment here to do the following:

  1. Take a deep breath.
  2. Relax your jaw.
  3. Relax your eyebrows.
  4. Take another deep breath.
  5. Look around you. Name 3 things that you can see.
  6. Name 2 things you can hear.
  7. Name 1 thing you can touch.
  8. Take another deep breath.

If you haven’t yet, get up and stretch your legs. Drink some water and eat something healthy. Or, eat something your brain needs. Whether that be an apple or chocolate – eat it. You deserve it.

With that relaxation in mind, I hope you’re all doing well and that everything is going as good as it can. Though things are repetitive and lonely right now – you deserve a pat on a back for how far you’ve come and how hard you’ve worked. I’m proud of you.

I haven’t been doing the best at taking care of my mental health, so even typing these reminders has been helpful for me. I hope they were helpful for you too.

As some of you may know, I am a junior in college currently. My life has been swamped with school work, reading, tutoring, and trying my best to have fun with friends. I’m working on my senior capstone currently (yes, a year early – it’s so I can do my internship next year) which entails a lot of reading. The professor I’m working with has given me some awesome recommendations though. I wouldn’t of been able to read the following without his input: The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K Le Guin, Ubik by Philip K Dick, The Tombs of Autuan by Ursula K Le Guin, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Rocannon’s World by Ursula K Le Guin, and other titles that I have not even begun to read. If you can’t tell, I love Le Guin and her work – she writes the genres that I’ve always been interested in and she has written one of my favorite short stories to date: “The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas.”

My goal for this capstone, which is a year long, is to create a portfolio of different kinds of pieces so that I can apply to grad school or even a PHD program after I graduate from my undergrad program. Lots of things are happening – grad school panic is real.

Classes are heavy reading based as well, though I’m only taking one English class. I have lots of history reading that I have to do as well as ethics work – philosophy has been a challenge, but I’m learning and have done pretty well in the class. I work as a writing tutor at my school and everyday I’m booked with other peers to help them with their papers. That is exceptionally draining at times – but I am also a Resident Assistant on campus and thus have the stress of that on my shoulders.

However, on top of all these things, I have been able to read what I want and I’ve been able to write more. I will be talking about all of this in a later post, but as it is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) – I set out on the challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I am proud to say that I hit my goal on November 14th! Thus came my next challenge – finishing the entire novel by the end of the month. And, on November 24th, I finished the first draft – clocking in a total of 70,500 words.

The Astrologist officially has a first draft! As crappy as it may be, it is a draft, and I couldn’t be more proud of myself. This is one of the first times I’ve completed a first draft of anything I’ve written, and I have been relatively emotional about it.

As I said, I’m going to talk more about NaNoWriMo and my process and struggles with working on the project as a full time college student and employee of the college. But, I haven’t given up writing at all: sometimes, I have to push off writing to focus on the more important things in life. I’m working to have a schedule of writing something every single day.

In closing, thank you all for the support that you’ve given me in my absence. I’m going to post more on here as I am coming down to the last 3 weeks of school and so I will have much more time to read and write. Is there anything you want for content in particular? I’m going to write some book reviews for the works that I read for my capstone (as listed above) as well as books I’ve read for pleasure. Is there anything else you’d like to see? Let me know in the comments!

Much love,

C. E. Egan

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Writing Updates

Writing Update 9/7

This post isn’t going to be very long, as I haven’t had much time to write lately. I moved back to college last week, and I officially start classes tomorrow. I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to get prepared for that, as well as tackling all of this while in a global pandemic. I work as a Resident Assistant, so I have also been learning different protocols, as well as learning about a plethora of different topics. It was overwhelming at times, but as this is my second year as an RA – I was prepared to handle these things.

I did find time to read Elevation by Stephen King. Overall, I thought the story was interesting. I found Deirdre and Missy to be one dimensional however, as it seemed that their only traits being shown were that they were lesbians (‘lesbeans’ as a child in the text says). I didn’t know what the story was focusing around either – the race, the restaurant owned by Deirdre and Missy, Scott’s mysterious illness, or some other twist that was yet to be thrown at the reader. Scott was definitely the most developed character by far, as he was the narrator. I am glad I read Elevation, but it is about 3/5 stars for me.

Now, onto the writing. I haven’t been able to bring myself to write much of anything lately (though I suppose this post counts). It isn’t that I don’t have the inspiration, but I am lacking motivation. I have been recovering from a back sprain that I have to go to PT for, and on top of that the transition from home to school has been a whirlwind. Whenever I have a break, I find myself wanting to curl up in bed and hide from reality. However, I have been trying to work on The Astrologist more – meaning I’ve written about another page or so. I have also been editing my play Blue Ends so that has been taking up time.

I am hoping to finish the second chapter of The Astrologist before the end of the week. It is mainly filler, but it is important as a cutaway from the first chapter. I want to get into the flow of the main story line as soon as possible, but I am trying to defeat writers block/lack of motivation at the same time.

Posting may be lack, but I will always come back to the blog. I’m going to try and post at least once a week until I get readjusted with school and attending college in a time of COVID-19.

Thank you for all of your understanding.

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Writing Updates

Writing Update (8/13)

Hello everyone! It’s been awhile since I wrote personally to update on writing. The past few weeks have been pretty busy for me – I was working nearly 40 hours a week and on top of that also trying to get out of my reading slump (more on that to come soon). But, as of yesterday I have been filled to the brim with inspiration.

I have almost been exclusively working on The Astrologist for the past week. Especially yesterday, where I spent two hours researching Irish mythology and most likely four hours just trying to plot things out. I also have been working on characters and their motivations, and as of yesterday I have a handful of characters that I am thrilled with. I can’t wait for everyone to read about them soon.

I would also like to take a moment to thank two of my best friends, Miki and Mikaela, for dealing with my craziness that happened yesterday (8/12). When I’m trying to brainstorm ideas, I need to talk through them with someone. Both of these wonderful people allowed me to talk at them for upwards of an hour (on separate occasions) about the story: from the tiniest detail to the biggest plot points. Thanks to them, I can safely say I have a basic plot outline for The Astrologist.

Something interesting that I’ve learned about myself this week is that I actually prefer to do my plotting/outlining in a sketch book. I have always written everything down on google docs or even just in the notes app of my phone, but as I was creating a map I realized I loved the feeling of being able to control the formatting of outlining on paper. Does anyone else feel the same way? Preferring to outline on paper than online? I am able to see my progress better on paper because I can’t just delete it, it’s still there and I have to think about all these old ideas.

Besides The Astrologist, I have been trying to catch up on reading. I am currently reading The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, who is one of my favorite authors, and I am loving the book. I usually fly through books in one sitting, but this time I am taking my time. The Starless Sea is set up with smaller books inside of it, so I have been reading one book (or section) at a time. I adore Morgenstern’s writing and her storytelling, and this is helping me savor every moment of the book.

That’s all I have for an update as of today. You will be seeing more of these as I work through a first draft of The Astrologist. I also want to thank you guys for 45 followers! Thank you for making my writing dreams a reality.

All the best,

C.E. Egan

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Writing Updates

Writing Update (7/26)

I feel like I haven’t posted on here in a long time, but I know it’s probably been about a week. It’s been difficult for me to find the time to sit down and post due to my work schedule and other circumstances out of my control. I thought this would be a good time to give you all an update as to where my writing is at!

First and foremost, my unnamed novel. Jaelyn’s story is something that I have been thinking about a lot. I haven’t sat down and worked on it, though. Since I forced so much energy into it for so long, I have found it more difficult to work on. Has anyone else experienced this? I don’t have writer’s block, as I know how the story is supposed to go – but I just do not have any motivation to sit down and work on editing as well as perfecting the final scenes.

I’ve also stumbled into the problem of wanting to rewrite the story. When I first started writing about Jaelyn, I wanted it to be about how stepping into the spotlight so suddenly can change a lot about how a person acts. Now, I want to keep that ideal – but I want to include the idea that in her society, people assume a lot about where you come from – Jaelyn is one of the first people to step up and start to change that (whether she wants too or not). If that’s the case, though, I need to rewrite major sections of the story. I knew I would have to rewrite a new draft eventually, but it seems like a huge time commitment. There are characters that need to be developed.

One thing I think I would benefit from with this is being able to bounce ideas off of someone. I have a handful of people in my life that are also writers, but other than that I feel as though I’m stuck only bouncing ideas off of myself. My goal with Jaelyn’s story is to start working on character wants/desires. This way I can think about the plot of the story and also make the characters more concrete.

Second is The Astrologist. I loved writing the piece that I did. However, I realized that I need to do a ton of research in order to represent what I want to correctly within the story. So, I have this story on hold while I read up on the following topics: dream interpretation, astrology, zodiacs, crystals, and psychic readings. All of these topics are incredibly important and major playing roles throughout the story. I don’t want to fake my way through it.

This has given me time to think about my characters though. At first, I only knew that Hayden and Evon were going to be the main players of the story. I had a few minor characters – including Miss Tabitha Hall and Emilia DuPont – but I wanted to have some more to work with. Since Hayden’s life after her mother is such a blur, I have been able to put characters in that area and have them become involved later in the story. One of these characters is now Marigold Honeywell – who I cannot wait to write more about and share her character with you all.

Lastly, my small writing pieces. I include this as my character studies, poetry, small writing pieces, and anything else that I’m forgetting to mention regarding my writing. This part I think has been the easiest for me to work. Every night before I go to bed, I journal some of the feelings I had throughout the day into poetry. I write about a page or so (roughly 3 stanzas 4 lines each) of poetry and have a small booklet. I haven’t decided if I want to share that on here yet, but I have been writing poetry and working on my craft.

I want to post more short creative pieces, but I have a difficult time writing about anything small because I want to make it bigger. One thing I was thinking about doing was writing short stories about other characters within the worlds I have created. One example of this is Jaelyn’s story. I am thinking about writing a piece highlighting Dr. Evelyn Snow’s journey into becoming the world-renowned scientist that she is in their world today. Or even just writing a piece about the Pickers and what they’re lives are like, as you don’t see much of it through Jaelyn’s perspective. I think not only will this provide content and help my writing skills, but also help develop their world even more.

I am trying to get back into my posting schedule, so for right now expect roughly 2 posts a week. I know before I was providing 3 – and I’m working towards continuing that number, but with everything going on in my life and in the world – it’s difficult to set aside the time.

Thank you all for your unconditional support and I cannot wait to share more of my work with you all. I appreciate every one of you.