Cleaning Backstories

Words written on novel since last post: 0
Miami Vice episodes watched since last post: 2.5


My roommate's been on a massive summer-cleaning binge. I guess her closets are now clean and tidy - nine years worth of clutter are in big plastic bags in our little hallway. She's smaller than most of the bags, which somehow strikes me as funny. I wonder where she's kept all the stuff - a bit like how you wonder where really thin people put all the food when they binge.

Am terrible at cutting out backstories. Was talking to a friend the other day who asked how a mutual pal was doing. Didn't know what to say without adding probably-not-OK-to-share-with-other-people details of the mutual friend's recent worries and concerns about her relationship, her career, her family, her place in the world, all that stuff. Just said "Yeah, she's doing really well" and edited in commentary about a new job or living situation or something else both superficial and seemingly significant.
Never realised that my belief that people sort of make sense when you know them would be a problem in my fiction writing. I mean, no-one else but me is ever going to care that one of my characters had braces when she was twelve, ones that her parents got her different coloured rubber bands to keep in place and keep cheerful. And that my other character has slightly askew bottom teeth, not terirbly but noticeably tea-stained, and has kept her old amalgam fillings because she hates going to the dentist, and she's worried that the dentist will pull out all her teeth and give her fake teeth that she has to put in a water glass by her bedside when she sleeps.
(What happens to amalgam fillings when you're cremated? Both she and I need to know this.)

My room is a horrific mess - I still haven't cleaned it following two weeks of houseguests. The middle of the room, the bit I love to dance around in and enjoy the feeling of floorboards, is still consumed by a giant inflatable bed. Still made for people that aren't here. It's easy to fix - just deflate, fold and put it in the closet. I've been walking around it for weeks, and until Saturday there was a reason for that. Why I haven't done anything about it since then is anyone's guess.