A Curious Girl: Caution: Writer's block ahead

I'm sorry Diarylanders, I fear I am backsliding... it's just that Blogger is so cool... You'll find entries you haven't seen (plus this one) at http://sweet-indigo.blogspot.com.

I am a computer-illiterate hick who can't connect her stupid laptop to the internet. Sigh. It is very frustrating.

So I'm back at the wonder that is the Evil Eye Lounge.

I'm on holiday from work, although not a proper holiday, more a "I'm fed up with work and want a break" holiday. And I have another show at the end of the week! Last dress rehearsal tomorrow! I have a whole solo line! Bah. Last night I went through, in my brain, all the men that have parts; they all seem to have two parts and they all have more lines than me. One of my friends wants to write a musical in which women have good parts and the female chorus gets to do the best songs.

I have been vaguely planning for some time to write a musical of "A Little Princess" (by Frances Hodgson Burnett)... but not only would the entire chorus be pre-pubescent girls, I have another problem. Sara Crewe (the "Princess") has a friendship with a young scullery maid called Becky. Sara tells Becky that they are just two little girls, just the same, only they aren't. Even when Sara and Becky are equals in the eyes of society (Sara's father dies and she ends up a penniless orphan) I never get the feeling that Burnett quite considers them equals. She seems rather smug to have created a character so brilliant that she considers even scullery maids equals... I long for someone to come in and rescue Becky, possibly to reassure her that she has greater worth than just as a random peripheral peasant for Sara to practise her goodness on. It would have been nice, for instance, if Sara's friends had come to recognise Becky as their friend too. Am I asking too much from a Victorian author?

I wanted to write... all these intentions, tsk! ...I wanted to write a different sort of Sara-and-Becky story in which the maid and the princess become genuine friends and at the end, "Sara" gets to properly rescue "Becky", only it wouldn't work, in my head at least. I had this wonderful vision of the young princess storming into the palace and demanding they adopt her friend as their daughter too, only I don't credit royalty with being that nice and I didn't think "Becky" would be especially eager to accept anyway, because my Becky would be extremely sensible and have a touch of spirit. She wouldn't want to be patronised her whole life. So maybe I haven't given Burnett enough credit. Besides, everything works out with a bit more equality in "The Secret Garden".

Writing is so frustrating. I swear it was much simpler when I had no standards. Why do I have to want to write well? Isn't just writing enough? There is so much to think about. Hopefully when I have worked out how to connect my poor little laptop to the internet I can get back to using writing websites like Fictionpress.com etc, which means getting feedback from people I don't know. And hopefully some encouragement. I have attempted to get a novel started only there is just sooo much to write, and already I'm getting that angsty "But what if it's rubbish?" feeling. It's stupid. I'm fairly sure I have a plot with potential, but I want lovable characters, I want sizzling dialogue, I want zeitgeist, dammit!

Anyway, that's me done for now, thank you for reading :)

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