Bullying and a New Project

Two very important things happened today.

First, I wrote four pages of new fiction. This is a completely separate project from the one that I'm stirring up for NaNoWriMo 2012. After taking the week off after mailing my manuscript, I decided it was important to begin something new while I let my last project settle in with some new readers.

It was slow, tough going at the beginning, but then I found the story starting to build momentum. Characters began to introduce themselves and I began to see the glimpses of the story that is beginning to share itself with me. And this morning's writing left me with a cliffhanger I can't wait to get back to.

Goal? A 60,000-75,000 word novel by the fall.

Second, my husband and I went downtown to see the movie Bully. As I knew it would, this movie punched me in the gut. You see, something that I haven't really talked about is the fact that in my novel, the one I just sent away, Jezebel's younger brother, David, is a victim of some pretty excessive bullying. This is one of the many reasons why it was important for me to go see this movie.

I was fortunate growing up that I was never bullied. No one ever made fun of me (outside of the elementary schoolboy traditional flirting variety) and I never bullied anyone else. I can't even think of any serious bullying incidents I ever witnessed. Maybe I just don't remember. Maybe I was just lucky.

What I do know is that others aren't so lucky. Too many others. Bully is an important documentary because it starts a necessary conversation. One of the things that social media has shown us, is that people will say things on the internet that they might never say irl. There is a certain kind of anonymity that makes bullies more bold on Facebook, on Twitter.

I know I'm not done talking about issues of bullying. I know as I revise this book, as I talk about it and hopefully one day publish it, this will likely be a topic of ongoing discussion.

But for this night, I think a long walk in the rain is in order.