In the Idea Jar

Here are some ideas I have for writing projects:

For Write on Wednesday this week:

• a look at the special connections that form between women writers and how they play a part in the writer's life
• focus will be on Anne Sexton and Maxime Kumin, with mention of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville
• could this be expanded into an article for a writer's journal

Ongoing writing projects to finish:

Trudy: Finish this story by the end of next week, according to my self imposed deadline, and post it here. Have to decide how the story is going to end - (also probably need a better title)

• will it end with Christopher and Sarah somewhere together without Trudy in the picture
• Christopher and Trudy together without Sarah - perhaps Sarah moves on and runs into them in the park, the whole episode helping her see that Christopher is not the man for her after all, that he's too immature
• Christopher finally gets the picture, and gives Trudy away, and in doing so breaks the connection with his mother that's been holding him back from growing up
• Christopher brings home another dog that Trudy immediately bonds with, giving up her obsessive love for Christopher - the idea being that everyone needs the perfect partner, and Christopher has his in Sarah

All these are possibilities - just have to see where the story takes me

Title possibilities: Gone to the Dogs; Trudy's Tale;

Reading Projects:

Check out some short story books, as recommended by Francine Prose (Katherine Mansfield, Raymond Chandler, and, my own recommendation, Interpreter of Maladies (since I loved Jhumpa Lahiri's book (which I lost when i loaned it to Connie and never got it back :(

Study these stories with an eye to detail - close reading as Prose calls it - as well as ways they might help me improve Trudy when I finish it.