sleepytime forced writing

News reading, October 10, 2007. Check. I read The Independent this evening. It costs only 30p at the students’ union. Today we have a brief respite from the Royal Mail strike—I still didn’t receive any mail. Tomorrow and Friday are scheduled to be strike-free, too. But the Royal Mail workers and management have not reached an agreement, so there may well be another strike next week.

Virgin Media came by this morning to install broadband internet and a landline. We haven’t picked up a phone yet, so I don’t know how the landline will be, but the internet seems to work just fine. Faster than the random wireless we were picking up earlier.

This whole writing every day thing is a challenge. I don’t really like doing it. I know some people just want to write, write, write, all the livelong day. I sometimes wonder if it’s an inherent editorial characteristic to find writers self-indulgent. It doesn’t make any sense to think such a thing, really, when the writing is what gives me work to do. And I couldn’t get by without reading other people’s writing. So I don’t know why I have this assumption. Tonight Dan was reading through a friend’s fiction. The friend in question is applying for the second time to a prestigious writing program—he was rejected the first time. But he wants to be a part of this program so much. It is situations like this that make me afraid to read work written by my friends. I mean, what if I hate their work? What if it’s crap? What would I say? How would we continue to be friends? Whew, 275 words. Good night, internet.