Goodbye college; it has been fun. I've enjoyed your challenges and your trials, but now it is time for me to go. It's time for me to sleep late and spend my time being entirely unproductive. It is time for a break.
I'm not completely finished yet- I still have one exam tomorrow night. But as of right now I've completed all of my writing for the semester and three out of four exams. I'll be heading home the day after tomorrow. It feels a bit unreal to think that I'm going home for an entire month. I suspect that I will come to miss my college life. The freedom is very restful here. But right now I'm basking in the sense of accomplishment that surrounds me and makes me proud of what I've gotten done so far.
And then, come January, I get to do it all again. Oh yes.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Hmph... television.
Discovering that 95% of all House episodes can be viewed online has not helped my writing productivity, or my completion of several papers. This is not a good scenario. It seems that as long as I have time to procrastinate, I will. The only good thing about this situation is that eventually I will run out of time to procrastinate. I have to do my assignments eventually.
Let's do a tally, shall we?
Mythology: 4 page paper (completed- shocking, I know, but it was due last Thursday.)
French: 4 page paper (nearly completed- lacks final editing only.)
English: 4 page paper
Children's Lit- 4 page paper
World Lit- 10 page paper
Total- 26 pages, 18 of which I still need to write.
Oh procrastination, why do we perpetuate this love/hate relationship?
Let's do a tally, shall we?
Mythology: 4 page paper (completed- shocking, I know, but it was due last Thursday.)
French: 4 page paper (nearly completed- lacks final editing only.)
English: 4 page paper
Children's Lit- 4 page paper
World Lit- 10 page paper
Total- 26 pages, 18 of which I still need to write.
Oh procrastination, why do we perpetuate this love/hate relationship?
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Short Stories
Another day has passed in which I haven't forced myself to do any recreational writing. This feels very wrong somehow. I've been constantly nagging myself for these past two days about the short fictional story I closed my NaNoWriMo with. I somehow always manage to forget how much I enjoy writing short stories until I actually write one, and then I fall in love with the genre all over again but fail to write until I forget again. I'm working against this this time.
There really is just something about the short story that I love. I like to leave a reader without all of the information and to give them room to make their own conclusions. I enjoy exploring a character just deep enough so that I feel a hint of their reality, but not enough to make me think that they couldn't exist. I like bringing the arc of a story to a close after only five thousand or two thousand words. In short, I like writing short stories. I think I have even been known to write a few good short stories. I'd like to set myself a goal now of writing at least one complete short story per week. I don't think this is unreasonable, or even particularly challenging. I can churn out a decent short story in less than an hour if I feel inspired. My goal is, though, to produce a story each week that is at least something that I can be proud of writing. NaNoWriMo focuses largely on learning to write even if you're not sure you have something to say, and much of my NaNoWriMo writing was accomplished through meandering self exploration. This has been very good for me over the past month, but it isn't writing that I could ever share with another person. I'd like to open up my audience from one person to maybe five or six, and so I now set myself the challenge of one short story (at least 2000 words, special circumstances excluded) per week. We'll see how it goes.
There really is just something about the short story that I love. I like to leave a reader without all of the information and to give them room to make their own conclusions. I enjoy exploring a character just deep enough so that I feel a hint of their reality, but not enough to make me think that they couldn't exist. I like bringing the arc of a story to a close after only five thousand or two thousand words. In short, I like writing short stories. I think I have even been known to write a few good short stories. I'd like to set myself a goal now of writing at least one complete short story per week. I don't think this is unreasonable, or even particularly challenging. I can churn out a decent short story in less than an hour if I feel inspired. My goal is, though, to produce a story each week that is at least something that I can be proud of writing. NaNoWriMo focuses largely on learning to write even if you're not sure you have something to say, and much of my NaNoWriMo writing was accomplished through meandering self exploration. This has been very good for me over the past month, but it isn't writing that I could ever share with another person. I'd like to open up my audience from one person to maybe five or six, and so I now set myself the challenge of one short story (at least 2000 words, special circumstances excluded) per week. We'll see how it goes.
Monday, December 1, 2008
What Now?
It's a very snowy December 1st here in campustown. I like the snow rather a lot, so it feels like the world is giving me a prize for the mammoth task I accomplished last night.
The thing is, even though I've finished running the guantlet, I still have this urge to write. I've become so used to pounding away at my keyboard in every spare minute that not needing to write feels very wrong indeed. This is not a good development for me at this point in my life. I have three weeks left in the semester, and that means writing final papers and taking finals. I have a semester long paper due in two weeks that I have yet to start. There are other various tasks that I should have been working on for the past month, but I put them all aside to focus on my writing. Now is when I really need to put my writing on the back burner and let it simmer for a few weeks, but it is very, very hard to do so. I want to keep writing, even if what I'm writing is nothing of consequence. I should have known spending 30 days doing an introspective journaling exercise would screw me up.
The thing is, even though I've finished running the guantlet, I still have this urge to write. I've become so used to pounding away at my keyboard in every spare minute that not needing to write feels very wrong indeed. This is not a good development for me at this point in my life. I have three weeks left in the semester, and that means writing final papers and taking finals. I have a semester long paper due in two weeks that I have yet to start. There are other various tasks that I should have been working on for the past month, but I put them all aside to focus on my writing. Now is when I really need to put my writing on the back burner and let it simmer for a few weeks, but it is very, very hard to do so. I want to keep writing, even if what I'm writing is nothing of consequence. I should have known spending 30 days doing an introspective journaling exercise would screw me up.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Yes, That's Right Folks...
Yes, what you see here is a winner's badge from NaNoWriMo 2008, and yes, this means that I did complete my novel. Despite any lack of planning on my part it actually had very cohesive ending that tied in very well with the overall story line and premise I was working with.
I am pretty dang proud of myself right now. I am also very tired. I need to haul myself out of the library and go to sleep. It might be difficult, though, because I have the ending song to Dora the Explore running through my mind right now. "We did it, we did it, we did it yeah!"
Oh yes we did do it.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thus Spoke Zarathustra...
Welcome to day 28 of the 30 day writing ordeal. It's been quite a day.
A note to my future self: Black Friday is named so for a reason. It is not a reason anyone should ever want to experience for themselves. Avoid all major shopping days in the future.
Shopping greatly interferes with the writing process. It's not really feasible to carry a laptop with you to the mall, or even to carry a notebook around. My word count is suffering. I have 11,397 words to go and 2 days, 6 hours and 42 minutes in which to write them. That means that I must write 5,065 words per day in order to finish. I think I can do it. I'm a right regular little steam engine right now. I think I can, I think I can...
A note to my future self: Black Friday is named so for a reason. It is not a reason anyone should ever want to experience for themselves. Avoid all major shopping days in the future.
Shopping greatly interferes with the writing process. It's not really feasible to carry a laptop with you to the mall, or even to carry a notebook around. My word count is suffering. I have 11,397 words to go and 2 days, 6 hours and 42 minutes in which to write them. That means that I must write 5,065 words per day in order to finish. I think I can do it. I'm a right regular little steam engine right now. I think I can, I think I can...
Thursday, November 27, 2008
In the beginning...
Well, it's easy to ask myself at this point exactly what I think I am doing.
You see, I'm supposed to be working on my NaNoWriMo novel. I am very much behind, and with only three more days to work, I really need to accomplish my five thousand word goal for today.
Yes, five thousand words is a lot. That is why I'm here, very obviously not working on my novel. It feels like I'm digging a hole in which to bury my novel, but at the same time I keep hitting my foot instead of the ground with the blade. But I am determined to finish this. This is a real book, with a real premise and other things that novels frequently have. It is not a random collection of story beginnings that my past NaNoWriMo attempts have been. And after I finish writing I can go back and throw half of it away in the editing process while I study for my finals.
Okay. Back to the novel writing. Right now. Really. Only 3700 more words to go for today.
Okay, I just decided that this is the designated "I can't focus on my writing so maybe it will help if I blow off some steam by blogging about my frustrations" blog. Will it help? Maybe. If I can remember to come back. Now I will really go back to the serious writing.
You see, I'm supposed to be working on my NaNoWriMo novel. I am very much behind, and with only three more days to work, I really need to accomplish my five thousand word goal for today.
Yes, five thousand words is a lot. That is why I'm here, very obviously not working on my novel. It feels like I'm digging a hole in which to bury my novel, but at the same time I keep hitting my foot instead of the ground with the blade. But I am determined to finish this. This is a real book, with a real premise and other things that novels frequently have. It is not a random collection of story beginnings that my past NaNoWriMo attempts have been. And after I finish writing I can go back and throw half of it away in the editing process while I study for my finals.
Okay. Back to the novel writing. Right now. Really. Only 3700 more words to go for today.
Okay, I just decided that this is the designated "I can't focus on my writing so maybe it will help if I blow off some steam by blogging about my frustrations" blog. Will it help? Maybe. If I can remember to come back. Now I will really go back to the serious writing.
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