Tag: FHSS Writing Lab

September recap

So, September’s over now.  Where in the heck did all that time go?  In some ways, I can still remember the summer…but in other ways, it’s never been further away.

So, what did I do this past month?  Plenty.  I got a good start on school (14 credits this semester), I quit the writing advisor job and replaced it with two TA jobs, and I turned 25 years old.  Quarter century…and still in school.  I feel like some kind of relic. “An elegant weapon for a more civilized age…”

As far as writing goes, I wrote 41,649 words total, averaging 1,602 words per day (not counting Sundays–counting Sundays, I averaged 1,388).  I passed the 3/4ths mark on Bringing Stella Home 2.0 and started work on Genesis Earth 4.0.

Not bad!  I’m surprised I wrote so much; 41k is almost as much as nanowrimo.  However, I can’t help but wonder: how many of those words are good words?

It’s a much more subjective thing to measure, but I do feel that my craft has improved.  Now that I’ve started the rewrite on Genesis Earth, I’m catching a surprising number of sentences and paragraphs that could be much better phrased.  For today, I “wrote” 1,616 words, but only got about 1,000 words further into the story (I measure wordcount with compare documents, totaling all the deletions and additions).  After the last revision–just last July–I felt very satisfied with the draft as I’d written it.  The fact that I’m changing so much on this rewrite shows that I’ve set the bar a lot higher for quality of writing (at least, I hope that’s what it means).

School is still kicking my trash.  I’ve got papers up the wazoo this entire month–3 major ones, two minor ones, and at least one midterm, not to mention all the midterms and papers I’ll be grading.  Oh, and I’m reading about a dozen academic articles per week. Dense articles.  The kind that suck your life out through your eyes.

Because of all that, and because of World Fantasy at the end of the month, I’ve decided to  put Bringing Stella Home on temporary hold until I finish the revision of Genesis Earth. Got to put priorities first, and that’s how it falls.  If the revision takes longer than expected, I may have to change my personal deadline for Bringing Stella Home to Thanksgiving.

But come Thanksgiving, I am definitely starting something new!

First week drama and other news

It’s been a while since I’ve written here, mostly because it’s been a crazy week so far.  Gosh, it feels like Saturday already.  School’s back in session, and while the homework hasn’t been bad so far (and probably won’t be), I’ve been jumping through hoops just to get this semester figured out.

Long story short, my work schedule has been clashing with my class schedule, especially since I decided I wanted to drop this English class that didn’t look very appealing.  But to graduate  with an English minor, I must take an English class this semester, and all the ones I want to take conflict with this two hour weekly mandatory in service class.  My boss will probably fire me if I can’t make the meeting, but you know what?  As much as I love the FHSS Writing Lab, school comes first.  If push comes to shove (and I really hope that it doesn’t), I’ll probably just find work elsewhere this semester.

Augh.  Everything’s complicated by the fact that you have to use add/drop cards for some dumb reason, so you can’t just rearrange  your schedule online.  If you drop a class, then realize that you shouldn’t have done it…tough.  Blegh.

Making things even more complicated are the looming deadlines.  I’ve barely touched the FAFSA (need to get on that), and for Washington Seminar I’ve got a lot of application work to do ASAP.

As usual, though, it’s the little stuff that really gets to me, not the big, earthshaking stuff.  In twenty four hours, all this crap will probably be resolved.  Twenty four hours ago, I was frantically trying to find an English class, and now I’m signed up for this AWESOME wilderness writing class!  I am so looking forward to it!

With all this first week upside downness, you would think my writing has suffered.  Well, not so!  I put in a solid 3k today, writing in hour-long blocks between classes and from 7pm to 11pm tonight.  Very satisfying to get so much done, at least as far as writing is concerned.

Now, I need to get to bed.  I’ve decided to keep working out in the mornings, like I did all summer, but the SFH weightroom closes from 8am to 4pm for classes, so I need to get up around 6:30 if I want to work out.  G’night!