You know what I realized yesterday? I really miss the Pacific Northwest. Like, when I was up there a couple of summers ago, and then again over the spring break ski trip, I just fell in love everything about it. Like, I have a romantic affair with that entire region. Strange, I know, but it's just so, "mystical", we'll say.

May start some kind of infrequent story here on my blog. Don't know anything more than that, other than there are random happenings that I need to get out of my head.

Also, I have read the novel of another YWSer, and after doing so, I am filled with a desire and passion to get some things written out that have just floated around, as well as edit some things that need editing. Hearts in the Sea, my NaNo, will get that treatment, as well as An Iron Sea. I've really been inspired by just seeing something complete like that from someone that I look up to and admire a great deal, and I want to make something that will hopefully inspire someone else in a similar manner.

The funny thing is, this person frustrates me a lot. Sometimes it seems like they ignore me and stuff, and they don't really seem to care how I feel. However, this can also be good. They are very willing to call me out on stuff, and recently, I have needed that to happen when I get a bit too wrapped up in my own problems to see the other side. What's more, they help me a great deal with my math by simply throwing math problems at me occasionally, keeping me on my toes and thinking about math when I usually don't. So, in the end, it's a fun frustration, if that makes any sense. It's helping me to be a more mature person and be able to deal with stuff like that. I may not see it at that moment, but after a bit I will be able to look at it and say, "They are right," and things will be a lot better. I find myself looking up to them and trying to emulate their better qualities. It's interesting.

But, I have decided that I must write out my epic. It's a long, long story. Originally I had like, seven books planned out, but over the past year or so the story itself has changed and the length has shortened to three. Still, it'll be a long story. And even so, there is a large portion of the MC's life left out between the second and third book, if I stick to the outline that I have now. I plan on filling that in with the odd short story here and there that just details a little snippet of that character's wanderings. But, I've been thinking about what might happen if I don't ever get around to writing it. I don't want to regret not finishing it, or indeed, not even starting it at all.

So, I will try to write it. I don't know how long it will take, or if it will ever be enjoyed by anyone, but I'm going to write it. I have to get it out, you see. If not for anyone else, for myself, so that I can say that I did it. Because, I feel I owe something to this MC. He's changed so much since I first got him in my head, and in all his different mental incarnations he's always suffered a great deal. I have to make his suffering mean something, even if that something is just putting his story on paper where someone can read it. He deserves the chance to have his story told. As we all do, I suppose. And we all tell our stories in our own way. It's just, some of us have a responsibility to tell the stories of others.

You could argue that characters are just fiction, that such things don't matter. But, think of how many characters have transcended their fictional nature. Santa Claus is the first example that jumps to my mind. He's not just a fictional character to a lot of people. He's become a symbol for something, for an idea. So have many other heroes throughout the history of world literature. And, even on a smaller level, haven't you read a book and had a character that just really spoke out to you? I mean, one that you just identified with and that really left you thinking? That's what's driving me to write this. This character speaks to me. He overcomes great adversity, having to fight and wander for so long to come back to the emotional and mental point that he was at when the first book starts. I have to let that effort on his part be validated.

Lol, that was long. My personal soapbox on the meta-nature of fictional characters, if you will.

In other news, reading Louis L'Amour's "Lonely on the Mountain." It's a short western novel that I got for a dollar at a used bookstore. I've read it before, but don't remember much of it, so I'm going to read it again. I do remember that I enjoyed it, so we will see if that happens again.

That's all for now. Take care.