[Fic] "Houseguest" -- original

Gacked from lasultrix:

"Write what you know."

What aspiring fantasy or sci-fi writer hasn't heard that advice and cringed? We don't want to write about *us* - our lives are so boring and mundane. Or are they?

Everything you do that seems deathly dull is probably unknown and new, even alien, to someone somewhere else. Even if it's not, as a writer you should be able to make it seem that way to your readers.

Pick up the challenge. Take a slice of your normal, dull, boring daily routine and write it the way you would a fic. Keep it true but make it interesting. Write yourself in third person, the hero/ine of the newest chart breaking novel about a student/office worker/mother/net geek/whatever. Write what *you* know best.

( Houseguest )

Hmm. The thing about writing that never fails to interest (and irritate) me, is that when I'm feeling down already, I have a tendency to write myself into feeling even worse.

Eh. Whatever.

While the above is in some ways an accurate picture of my life, it's definitely one-sided. There are good things too, like church, watching football games with my housemates, taking a moment to experience the waterfalls in the area, the comfort of a phone call to absent friends, the glow of writing (when I'm writing), etc.

And I do kind of flirt with gloom. I think it's a reaction to having periodic clinical depression; I'm always tracking my mood and wondering if I'm slipping again, despite the medication. And there's a certain thrill in letting myself wallow in a slump for a day or two, just so I can pull out and thumb my nose at the world. "See, it's not really depression anymore! And I can have bad days without letting my whole life spiral out of control again!"

Something like that, anyway.