End One Semester and Plan for Another
This semester doesn’t really end for me. Well, it does in the sense that I have reached the last day of school and two of my classes will shortly fall by the wayside. My other class, though, is thesis, and thesis does not quit.
I suppose I could take the summer off from thesis, except for two little details: first, I would risk losing momentum, and second, I hope to finish it this year. Charming little detail that, but taking two months off when I only really allot myself twelve strikes me as a foolish notion.
Not that this should be read as a burden. I don’t see it as one. My thesis will continue to consume a fair amount of my time, true, but I aspire to write novels for a living. Well, I aspire to write for a living, and expect most of my output to be novels. If I found terror in the notion of continuing to develop my thesis on “my own time,” then I would be pursuing the wrong line of work.
Besides, summer lasts until August. Since I’m currently revising the first draft, I may be able to have this novel in reasonable shape by the next residency. Not perfect, but perhaps at the point where I need to fine tune and tweak it, rather than make large scale changes.
It’s a goal, anyway.
Next semester I’ll be taking ten units of thesis, the same level of commitment as two full classes, so I expect I’ll be deeply involved in this story right up until it gets final approval. A full load of classes is fifteen units, so for the other five I will be taking Craft of Poetry. I am both excited and nervous about this prospect.
I haven’t studied poetry to any great extent. A little undergraduate work is all I can point to, beyond high school. So in one sense, this class should be very good for me. In another sense, though, I don’t have a solid idea of what I’m getting myself into, or how well I’ll take to it. I find the prospect uncomfortable, but one thing I’ve learned about writing: you need to dig at what’s uncomfortable if you want to grow.
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Submissions Update: Since the last time I posted, I have submitted to Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, Stymie Magazine, and Tin House.
