The Wall, a Final Push
Thesis Diary 15-22 April 2021
The title is play on multiple words. And perhaps the “wall” is wrong.
I have come to the end of my schooling, sort of. We’re talking last week, wherein I hit two proverbial walls. The first Wall, Finals. The Second Wall, Feedback.
Class Finals
Not as big a deal as I had thought they would be to be honest. I thought I could just take previous assignments and cobble them together into one mega paper. Which is kind of how the classes are structured to be honest. But I found that my tone and my thoughts at the beginning of the class did not match my thoughts at the end of the classes.
To wit, I had to rewrite all of the papers to make them a better cohesive whole.
Between both finals I rocked in at close to thirty pages written. Not the most I’ve done for my finals, but still enough to put a dampener on all other activity for the week.
Though in a good twist, I had to write this Thursday’s Post, the Call of Cthulhu Campaign post to finish my assignment, and let me tell you I think it came out perfect. I’m super excited for you all to read some of my philosophy on how to make my ambition work.
So, look forward to that my dear readers.
Feedback Wall
Despite all of that work on my finals and the Thursday post I did in fact get a bunch of revision done. Last week I mentioned that I only had 2 chapters left before I ran out of material that had feedback.
Well, I revised both of those chapters and I’m now at the point where no one has read the novel.
While I feel that I can go through and fix overlong sentences and tighten up here and there. I still worry that I’m in a void. What if there is a glaring issue and I just don’t see it? A plot thread I dropped and though was adequately snipped away?
Beta-Readers?
I have no reliable beta readers, and I realize that asking someone to read just the last 100k of a book is very daunting. Besides being dropped into the middle of things, you also have a LOT to go through. I did think of trying to see if someone would like to take just 2 chapters, read them, get back to me in a day or two and I’d give them another two chapters. And so on. But even that seems daunting.
I think what I’ll have to do is just wing it. Tighten the prose, cut the words down. And hope that the very well workshopped first third of the book is strong enough to sell the work. Then work with an editor.
Going forward with the next novel I might see if I can start an exchange with some of my peers from school, or some of my other writer friends. Maybe a chapter exchange.
Starting the Next Novel:
So, at the beginning of the year I made a schedule for my writing. It was overly ambitious.
I had the start date for the next novel, the amount of time outlining, my revision schedule, my query letter schedule, etc.
If you’ve been reading these posts every week then you know I totally dropped everything on that damn schedule.
I managed to get the basic outline started on time, and even most of the way done. The I got the revision started on time, and then it stalled out.
I then quickly assessed that I had not adequately taken into account my work load in my last two classes and I started to change the schedule. First by I pushed the first batch of query letters out to when the second batch was supposed to go out and I pushed the start date of the novel from April 1st to April 25th.
That’s right. Today, as you read this, I am supposed to be writing my novel that is only half outlined.
And you know what? I’m starting it. I’m getting going. I am not giving myself a huge goal for the first week, and I’m going away next weekend, but I’m still going to make the effort.
The Rest of the Week
Besides starting the novel, I also have to start writing my query letters. I only have three of them written and one of the agents is currently closed. That means I only have two… and I haven’t checked to make sure THOSE are still open as well.
What I should do is just write all 25 letters now, and leave the dates blank until I send them.
Also, skipping a very long story, I celebrate Orthodox Easter with my friend, and that is this weekend. Since we both got our jabs, we can finally see each other. So, I’m looking forward to a lot of good food and fun for the whole weekend.
You all will have a Thursday post to look forward to, if you want to read the first post in that series go HERE.
Next Week
We have our 9th revision post and our first New Novel post!
Things are starting to move faster. I will admit that I was slow for a while. I really did believe I could make all the deadlines I wrote out. But between the pandemic, school, stress, and everything I just couldn’t summon the power to work through everything.
I’m sure that many of you feel the same way. And I understand, and I see you. We all have to think of mental/emotional health as well as our physical and to be honest I have let all three falter. But I am getting into a better place now.
The thing is you have to be able to forgive yourself for not making every goal. You need to take the time to pull back and not burn yourself.
Though you still need to have something driving you forward. These posts help drive me forward. The fact that many of you are returning readers, keeps me motivated to produce these.
To be accountable for my failings, but also to offer ways to make up for those failings. Despite not knowing what you’re thinking, I still want to apologize and offer solutions. Whether you’re judging me or not, I’m still holding myself accountable to you.
Let’s call it here.
