Whatever you might think of him, consider this: I think that one definition of a successful life how your friends and family react to your death. All that you can ask for is that they celebrate your life: how you touched them, how you pissed them off, and a thousand other things that will make great stories for years to come. So, all things considered, it would seem to me that the crazy-ass party (with explosions!) held for Thompson this weekend indicated that, overall, he totally killed like a champion.

• Writerâ€s ashes going, going, gonzo!

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Hi, my name is Jim Connelly, and I am what that Google ad over to the right refers to as a “First Time Author.” I’ve been writing (and occasionally publishing) non-fiction for a very long time — nearly as long as I’ve known Booksquare, come to think of it — and only recently have decided to try my hand at writing fiction. So this world is all very new to me, which I think is going to be subject of my posts. Unless, of course, I happen to come across something interesting during my daily work-ignoring surfing.

So my big question will be: can I even do this? Can I write and publish fiction? Or is it Fiction? (Frack! Have I just insulted everybody by using lower case? See, this is the stuff I need to learn!)

I have ideas. I have characters. I may even have themes. I understand that all of these things are supposed to be important. What I don’t have is even the tiniest understanding of the process of writing a novel: how to plot, how to develop characters, how sustain interest over (gulp) hundreds of pages. So right now, I am taking an UCLA Extension class — Novel Writing I. Then I’ll take Novel Writing II, Novel Writing III, Novel Writing IV, etc. (My fear is that they’ll just keep adding roman numerals a semester ahead of me, so I go “oooh, look, they’ve got Novel Writing CCXVI” and pony up another $400 as yet another excuse to not actually finish.)

My Annie Hall-y ambivalence aside, I’m taking these classes for two reasons:

1. Craft. That whole thingy about learning how to write fiction. (Fiction?) For example, who knew that characters couldn’t just be interesting in and of themselves, but had to have conflicting goals? Neat.
2. Focus. Having class-mandated deadlines forces me to take time out to actually write and re-write my novel, instead of doing things like blogging about Dylan, Guided by Voices or the new Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah album.
3. Support. Being able to use the phrase “my novel” without feeling like a charlatan or a fool.

Er, three reasons.

Will it work? That’s what I’m gonna find out.

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