State of the Union

One down, two to go. Weeks on this job that is. Negative 27 cents in the bank (long, long story... my fault, good intentions meet the road to hell once again). Whatever. I've made it through the first week of my three weeks' notice--the carpeted walls of my cubicle are looking sparse. Yesterday I took home the money tree--the flowering jade and placed it directly in front of my kitchen window. Should a money tree be in the kitchen? I don't know if that's good placement or not...

We discussed the story (one by Courtney Eldridge,"Unkempt.") I submitted last week. It's decidedly a voice-driven piece and it intrigued me for this reason. Very structurally solid. It brought up this point, though. There is this one woman in the class who is always commenting that she "wants the character to do something else here..." no matter what the premise of a story, no matter what. That is the main thrust of her comment. I'm never totally sure what she's getting at. To be sure, I know what she means, I'm just not sure how her assessment is accurate a good bit of the time. There's no patience with the native, inherent contradictions a character might have. I personally delight in that. She wants every action and thought of a character to be structurally indicative of that character's overarching problem. Maybe my take on characterization is messy, but I think that's art imitating life.