Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I'll start with the easy stuff first.

I'm meeting with my mentor for the first time next Thursday (because I only have first period that day). We're meeting at Starbucks to talk about the writing I've done so far, the way the workshops have been treating me, the workshop that's going to begin week after next, etc. etc. She's been sending me really great feedback, checking up on me every now and the, and I'm excited to sit down and talk with her.

I also did the buddy assignment for my partner, Michelle Aboodi, this week, and she just sent it to me. I'll do the response tonight or tomorrow--I got it, but I haven't looked at it yet. I haven't thought much about the official parts of the project yet, so it was probably good to have a reminder.

I was up pretty late last night--really late, actually. I really sat down with my papers and continued to thoroughly rewrite Short Story I. I'll talk a little bit about my process so that it won't seem confusing later on. My first drafts are always so rough and vague that it's embarrassing to have them on display (although I have a feeling I'm going to have to do that for my eventual presentation). When I first finish something, I print it out as soon as I can and then wait at least a week. I can't remember where I heard that piece of advice, but if I try to revise something before I've given time to let it settle, I'll see more faults than positive elements and I'll rip it apart unnecessarily. Once that week has passed--sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how attached I am to the piece itself, I do pen-edits on paper (which means that it's sometimes very difficult to determine what I did when). All my drafts are double spaced with the dates on top, with the same stationary, on the same template--I'm very particular about that kind of thing. I make notes on loose leaf paper when it requires more planning and I always try to save my extra sentences, as much as possible, just in case I need them later on.

Once I'm done with the pen edits, I usually let a day pass--if only because the pen edits take me a pretty long time--and then I go back and start again. Someone once told me that there's no worse evil than copy and paste; going through a piece and trying to make edits line by lines is just going to make it messy. It's significantly more time consuming, but I rewrite the entire thing, literally, taking into account my pen marks, the text I already have, and the issues I come across when I realize I've made changes that don't agree, etc. etc.

And then I do that whole thing again.

And again.

And again. Last night I did that part where I rewrote the piece from my pen edits and it took me much longer than I thought it would. I had a lot of things to think about--Shelly's comments, Lynne's comments, the comments of the rest of the workshop. I also had more notes than I could deal with--things I wanted to include and the way I wanted to organize them. It took me a lot longer than I thought it was going to because first of all the story is not very long but is very heavy, very thick. There's a lot that needs to be dealt with and sections that need to be entirely reworked. I did pretty well, I think; at least, by two thirty in the morning I was done. I was proud that I managed to get through the entire thing but the last thing I did before I went to sleep was triple space and print it; regardless of how done I think I am, how many drafts I went through, how many times I have revised, I still have to do more. I'm ready to turn this into Myla Goldberg's class although I kind of wish I had something else to show. I began Interior Space in the spring of last year and the first drafts were just silly, were my first attempt at a short story for no other reason than I needed one. And now it's almost a year later and the damn thing is only twenty pages long--quality, not quantity, I know, but all the writing I've done, how could it possibly all lead to this? I did NaNoWriMo twice--dutifully--I have so many pages, I have so many words on my computer, so many things I've written and revised, but this short story has held my attention for some reason. Of course, I have other things going--Shelly got me good the other day, because I didn't quite try hard enough at the vision exercise, and I've been absolutely failing at keeping up the morning pages--but this short story is what I pull out every time I need to write. I'm glad I've got that document in my backpack, but I'm also sort of confused as to where I have to go now. What comes after this?

I'm also really tired. I don't know if I can do that much work every single night. I have to keep working though, definitely--tonight I'll try to keep doing some more things, if only very vague, just to stay in the hang of it.

Sorry about the long journal entry!