Kate's Week 6 post

Last Friday our group decided that we would blog this week about what is currently inspiring us to write. So, here is a list of what is currently inspiring me.

·      Going out on dates. As much as I don’t want to admit to going out on more dates when I should be doing more writing, I have found the “where the hell is my story going” question to be blocking me from moving forward in my writing. Then I thought, maybe I need more material to work with. I went on three more dates with one ‘new’ guy and every time I went out with him all I could think was this is it. This is the end of my story. So maybe my inspiration is actually going out and experiencing more of what I am trying to talk about.

·      Watching the T.V. show Charmed on Netflix. I’m not entirely sure what inspired me to start watching this 90’s show, but once I did I was hooked. Its about three sisters who discover they are witches and deal with a series of mysterious obstacles throughout the years while also dating and trying to keep their witchy ways a secret. But in relation to my story: these women are dating in mass numbers and they have no idea what they want or what they are doing with their lives. This is definitely relatable with my character and is helping me hash things out and slow things down in the sex scenes because I am taking into consideration all the things that women think about. And since we think about everything all the time—even during sex—every time I watch it—I go into my story and start making immediate connections on how I can make this idea work in my story.

·      Reading my required reading for American Literature 2. I don’t know why, but for some reason all the books, or most of them at least, that I am reading for this class have parallels with my story. For example: Maggie, Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, is about a girl whose environment and status as an invisible woman push her down the path of prostitution. While my character is not a prostitute, this story forces me to consider the fact that women do things because or are programmed to do things by first taking consideration of the male gaze. Male Gaze is strongly interwoven into our society and this book makes me consider how this construction affects being a woman and being a sexual woman. Why is my character concerned with the fact she is acting slutty? Why is she even aware of the fact that she is being what is considered slutty? Is my character silenced by the men she dates, how she thinks she is expected to act on her dates or by preconceived notions of what is engrained into her psyche of what it means to be woman? Another book we just finished reading is The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is about a man and a woman who fantasize about being together but never can sexually because of his penile war injury. This is another interesting dynamic because in this novel the woman is very promiscuous but can never actually be with the man she truly desires. Two books that I did not expect to pull from, but really got my inner thoughts moving on my story.

Inspiration comes when you least expect it sometimes I guess.

Cheers