The THESIS Is Done... Well, to a certain degree. Rewrites will follow.

Yesterday morning, some time after 2:30 am, I completed my thesis and submitted 50 pages to mentor and 141 pages (that includes cover sheet, preface, revised prologue, abstract and lucky 13 chapters) to the university's BlackBoard. 

I had uploaded a draft version but panicked and officially submitted it. Any changes to be made, I will let the school deal with me being able to re-upload. 

This has been a struggle and has taken plenty out of me. How my favorite writers churn out books seems beyond my mortal ken. Just writing, rewriting, work-shopping and researching has done me in more than any other writing endeavor I've undertaken. No wonder I immediately gravitated towards short stories!  

My novel-in-progress has mutated in a wonderful way. It has metamorphosed from a half-eaten caterpillar to raggedy cocoon and finally a brightly-winged butterfly that is trying to get away from me. I wondered often why writing was likened to childbirth and child-raising and I have caught a glimpse, possibly a hairsbreath sliver of what mothers who have raised children must go through. To see a child one way and watch that child become a completely different individual than what the parent could have imagined.

This story has changed in gargantuan ways I didn't foresee. It has changed me in a shorter time as a writer than those sixteen years of professional writing I went through with my short fiction and handful of art. 

There can be no complete explanation of the changes that have also taken place within me. I feel more courageous, more daring and this contented introvert can risk humiliation knowing she has tried.   

And in the middle of what I coined "Thesis Mania", my writers' guild published a second guest post of mine. I will be uploading the link to my bibliography blog "The Angry Goblin". I completely forgot about this! Oh well. It's there and it does speak about my MFA experience and being an anthropomorphic writer.

All this maternal imagery and changes? Just in time for Mother's Day! :)

Ahead of the Game

Ok. Working on this thesis. But had to get a four-book annotation out of the way. Just used my work lunchtime to continue to add, omit and edit my dummy 'curriculum' I'm suppose to teach as a graduating student in the summer term. Can't wait!

Time Is Of the Essence

Graduation is fast approaching. My graduation.
Goals are being made.
I am outlining and taking this novel to the next level and pushing to try new things with writing.

Now it's November and getting down to the wire! So many things due: annotations, creative portions, 25-page essay, and the feedback and research that one accumulates in a semester...

I have so many questions for myself and what I might try to do.

Evernote(r) is an app that can cross platforms for simple note-taking, rigorous note-taking, research-gathering, posting images, recording and clipping web articles. It is such a handy app that I had to download it to both net book and desktop.

Unless you have used it, you have no idea how helpful it's been since a student at my campus told me about it!

I can't count when I was pressed for time (what with the job and looking into extra-income opportunities) and how, with only my cellphone, I hurriedly typed out an entry, bookmarked and clipped a webpage for research, or recorded a reminder (Ok. I only did that once, but it doesn't mean I won't continue it into a habit).

Had to turn in some more deadline PDFs... Ay, and I'm still working on the novel. While taking time to catch up on personal reading, I try to remind myself to always have time for other creative projects.

Here's to hoping to catch up and keep up! *Whew*!

The Long & Short of It

How about reading for pleasure? Again? In the midst of trying to tie down the novel-in-progress, I've noticed that the imagination is being fired in other directions.
I will be changing my job-schedule dramatically this semester. Not only to have more time and concentrate on the grad work and keep on deadline but to evaluate where I want my writing career to go.
After all the hooplah of beginning an MFA program, I find myself already in my third term -- two more terms! -- before I graduate. This has posed a new dilemma for me: do I begin a career hunt or do I step up what I am doing now or do I veer off the beaten path to continue seeking different writing adventures? I'm kind of leaning on the first and third scenarios. There are projects I MUST work on, ideas that have come to fruition, and a community of like-minded people that I can lean on and count on to keep me on the straight and narrow.
Let's see what adventures lie ahead!

In-between

Ten days ago, I finished and turned in my packet. Now I'm drafting the next packet so I can have a workable body to edit as the next deadline is fast approaching.

I have sketches to work on as well as an art commission. Not looking forward to all this work! I don't mind that my novel is coming along. What I mind is there are other projects vying for control: personal comic story, art and illustration, and a critical essay that is blessedly due in two months.

Tune in for future posts that will be a bit more positive!

Still plugging away

So, it's getting closer to residency, and this month (May) has got to be one of the worst for me!

It's not only in the middle of a college semester, so I'm not getting paid, but I have three deadlines to keep up with!

One was for the first of May: the 20 page (if poet) or 25 page (if fiction or nonfiction) submission to workshop while we are attending the June Residency.

I am now in the first week back at work and have the packet deadline, my last for this term (May 15). This will be the shortest one I do! I am so exhausted!