Writing Experiments

In which Beth goes to Hell (merrily)

Florentine Scribblings

I have the greatest term paper topic ever. I’m taking a class on Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio this semester, and for my term paper, I get to pull together my own version of Hell.

Yes.

So what does this entail? Well, May’s short story will be written by Thursday (nothing like a little pressure). And I get to explore Hell, complete with my own guide, decide which sins end up where, the punishment, and so forth. It’s going to be great.

At this point, I’m part of the way through Hell. I’ve been through the antechamber, down through the first two levels. By this afternoon, I’ll have made it through all six. Why six? From what I remember from my Biblical literature courses, six is an imperfect number. There will be seven sections to my Hell, and an eighth section occurring outside of Hell (creating the seven days of one’s life and the eighth day of the Resurrection…what I’ve learned here in Florence).

Well, I’m off to Hell. I’ll be back soon.

Experiments are fun!

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

Work on PAaA has slowed for the time being; however, I’ve been thinking about the structure of the novel. I’ve had a renewed interest in writing short stories; also, a few interesting characters revealed themselves.  They all have different perspectives that would be very fun to explore as main characters.

So, I’ve decided to experiment a bit.

The book will be written as a series of interconnected short stories, featuring many of the same characters, like “Claude’s Dog” by Roald Dahl. CD is a novella comprised of four or five short stories with interconnecting subplots. That’s how PAaA will run.

Part of the reason why I’m attempting this is because I want to follow EP, a female character, around her job. And as a snippet writer, this may help me from jumping around too much. 🙂