Some Writerly Musings

It's been a while since I've posted anything on my writerly endeavors of late, and I think this is in large part due to some procrastination and writer's block issues I've been dealing with. Being a grad student isn't just one extended holiday (okay well sometimes it is). For one thing, teaching takes up a considerable portion of my time, and most certainly more than the supposed 16 hours I am being paid a week! I really enjoy it...most of the time at least. This semester I have a particularly bright class and they are making coming to class a very pleasurable experience. That coupled with the other responsibilities I have tends to take time away from research. But I digress.

So I haven't really gotten any major writing done on my dissertation in a while. I have notes and I've been doing research for the next chapter, but I sometimes have a hard time being able to say enough, it's time to start writing and stop reading! I can be a bit OCD about it actually. So anyway, January sort of flew by and February is dwindling away quickly. My brain finally kicked into gear and I've set a deadline for myself (next Friday) to get a draft of the next chapter to my Chair. Then I'll have some time to get feedback from her and make some revisions before I send a shortened version out to a journal that's having a special issue on the very subject of my chapter! Yay! I'm very excited about this, but I'm also irritated with myself. I'd hoped to get this chapter done much earlier. *sigh*

But on a more positive note, I just got the proof edits for my article back! At first I was totally psyched, realizing that I was going to have my first publication out there in a few short months. But then panic descended. Holy crap, my first article. I can't make any mistakes! What if people hate it? What if it's a bunch of drivel? What if..... On and on it went. So I didn't look at it anymore for about a day. Then I gave myself a mental bitch-slap and got cracking yesterday. Fortunately, the edits they suggested are all pretty minor and I agree with most of them. Today I'm finishing up my last once over on the draft and then I'll be overnighting it back to them tomorrow. And then dear readers, you shall see moi in print around late May/early June. I'll keep you posted!

On the completely opposite writing front...not much has been done on novel #2 of late. I somehow got myself stuck plot-wise and I'm not sure what happens next. What I really need to do is sit down and sketch out the rest of the narrative in more detail. I already pretty much know how it will end and I've envisioned several of the key scenes I still need to write, but I'm not quite sure how I want to order them and how they're all going to work together. But every time I sit down to do this I get major guilt that I should be working on my dissertation, so I steer clear of the creative writing and typically end up doing neither. Instead, I surf the Net or madly search for more articles in online databases. Not the best or most productive course of action, as I've come to realize.

I did hear back from one literary agent who had requested the first three chapters of novel #1. Alas, she wasn't interested. But her rejection email was very nice and encouraging. Along the lines of "it doesn't really fit for me but with someone else it could." So not a total crush to my fragile writerly ego. Looking back, I re-assessed some of the author's she represents and I think my work might be a bit too racy for her. She typically handles tamer G to PG rated books with more traditional storylines. Whereas my book is full of cursing, non-virginal chicks, sexual jokes, innuendos, and well...sex. So, if nothing else, this has given me insight into which kinds of literary agents I should be approaching. Never one to take rejection lying down, I immediately went online and began searching through some of the RWA recognized literary agencies and found four more to apply to that I think might fit with my work. Now I just have to wait another 2-4 months before I hear anything back. I still have stuff out to one other agent, but I haven't heard back. The process goes on and my new goal now is just to get an agent by the end of 2006!

NOTE: I've updated my music playlist for any who care to take a gander!