It has been almost a full week since I have returned from my holiday in Argentina and I cannot avoid the inevitable anymore. You will notice for instance that the last entry in my blog is dated January 17th 2011, meaning almost a full month has elapsed since I last updated it. And apart from a couple of individual free-writing sessions, I have not made much progression on the fiction front either since my writing classes ended, which was way back in the end of November. I have come up with many excuses: the stress of work, the holiday, the lack of energy, and even the need just to feel lazy this past weekend. Now I don’t want to downplay these reasons, as they were for a large part justified in my opinion, except obviously for the feeling lazy part. But the reality is that despite the effects of the post-holiday depression and the huge pile of laundry on my couch waiting to be straightened out,* I haven’t felt this relaxed and content for a long, long time, and it would be a shame to let such a state of mind to go to waste, especially since if the past is any indication that it won’t be long before I get caught up again in the everyday stress at work. The time has come to once again pick up my writing where I left off and be more serious and conscientious about it, and ride this wave of relaxation and contentment for as long as possible before it all inevitably goes downhill again.
It seems obvious that I would write about my holiday in Argentina (and Chile). My original plan was to write a rather straightforward travel account, but the idea slowly developed to write several short stories instead as I hastily scribbled down various notes during the holiday. I’ve always preferred to live within the realms of my imaginings than within the confines of real life anyway, as people who know me can probably attest to, and I hope they will prove to be a good writing exercise as well. And frankly speaking, constantly writing about oneself does come to feel slightly narcissistic at times, not to mention terribly boring as well, no matter the contents of this particular blog. Not that you should expect any fantastical elements like dragons or elves in the stories I’m planning to write and publish in the coming days. Nor should you expect any earth-shattering plot twists or life-altering revelations. Instead these will be very simple stories populated with not too complex characters. The aim, after all, is not to place too much focus on the characters or the plot, but on some of the things I have had the pleasure to experience. If I am able to even convey just a tiny fraction of the awe, enthusiasm and joy I have felt during the holiday, I will already consider these stories to be a success.
The stories I write will not cover the whole spectrum of experiences I have had on the trip. There are simply too many different subjects to cover and I am limited somewhat by time and to a lesser extent my own imagination, or rather my willingness to keep imagining stories based on my holiday. I do not plan to spend much more than two weeks on these simple stories, after which I hope to move on to other writing projects.
For now however, I hope you will stay tuned for these stories and I hope you will enjoy them.
For those of you interested in the holiday pictures, you can find them here. I don’t think you need to have a Facebook account for them, but let me know if it doesn’t work.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=103208&id=1109389969&l=47d21c9668
* I am quite happy to say that I managed to finish 90% of the ironing between the time I started writing this paragraph and the time I actually published this post.
The Musings of a Dreamer 