Monday, November 17, 2008

Day 15: The Deadlines are Coming, the Deadlines are Coming!

I remembered a few things on Saturday:
  1. I have 3 major research papers due in a bit over a month. That's only 4 weekends.
  2. I'm planning to make a 513-page 19th-century novel the centerpiece of one of those papers. In order to do that, I'm going to have to re-read it at least twice, if not three times before I write the paper.
  3. I have some fascinating papers I'm writing this semester, and one of them is nearly ready to write. But I've got a lot of other reading, researching, and writing to do too, both for the others and for other smaller assignments.
  4. Thankfully, I have fewer classes this week and next, but I need to get serious about these upcoming deadlines along with the other writing projects I have due outside of school. Not only so that I can meet my deadlines and produce good work, but also so that I can squeeze some of these paper word counts into my November NaWriMo word count, and make sure I can reach my November goal.
  5. If I can just plow through my word count this November and include a lot of final term paper words in that count, my December is bound to be a lot less scrambly and much more filled with creative writing and revising.
Whew, glad it will be a quiet week and weekend, what with much of the department going to the National Communication Association conference in California. Now if I can just avoid a repeat of last year's performance, in which my neck seized up the morning before NCA and took weeks to recover properly, I should be able to buckle down and get myself on the right track to a proper word count.

Note to self: Don't forget to do those neck stretches.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Deb, I guess I don't understand the 'word count' concept. You talked about it as a need for in class, as well as, out of class. What are you writing outside of class? Are you working as well as going to school? I know I had to work through college to make payments but some smart people like yourself may have gotten scholarships...just curious.

Just started reading your blog this morning and I am enjoying it. Your writing style, that is, not the hardships and trials you face. You can go this, girl!

Deborah Leiter Nyabuti said...

Hi Amy: Ah, well, for one, once you get to the PhD, you're expected to take your papers you write in class and sometimes turn them into papers and see if you can present them at conferences. But other things I'm writing outside of class are articles for catapult magazine, occasional other essays for other venues, and the occasional bit of work on my novel projects. Oh, and I just wrote a Thanksgiving meditation for church this Thursday.

The point of my word count is as long as it's work that's meant to ultimately go out into the world, I get to count it, whether it's for a class, for an academic purpose, or for another venue, I get to count it, so as to see that all of it is writing.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm glad you like the blog. Feel free to come back anytime.