JuNoWriMo & Project Journal

[chelseagirl]

I've just found out about JuNoWriMo, and less than 24 hours later, I'm all signed up and on board. I could never do NaNo, because November is an absolutely terrible month for an academic to try to write many many words -- between the semester ending early in December, getting ready for Thanksgiving and the early prep for Christmas, plus if you're me and sing in a Lessons & Carols in mid-December . . . yeah, not good timing.

June, on the other hand -- sure I'll be teaching an online class for Summer I and overseeing some research projects (we have more money left in the writing center budget than we should, so I've asked staff if they'd like to get paid to produce some training materials before the end of the fiscal year on June 30) and taking Statistics on Khan Academy because Quantitative Research is not going away . . . but I won't be going out to New Jersey more than once every week or two (meetings, accessing my professional library which lives in my office because we do, after all, live in a one-bedroom apartment, making sure the plants don't die), so it's as good a time as any.

I need to take Anne Lamott's good advice and write that Shitty First Draft, because I tend to write individual scenes or chapters and polish them to perfection *before* actually getting the whole thing together, and I would probably spend the next two years just doing background research as a way of hiding from fear of failure. (SEE: The Way Catherine Wrote Her Doctoral Dissertation.)

So . . .

Also, I have never publicly stated this before, but I have a project journal on here, which usually every summer I use to list an ambitious summer research program, and then get caught up in teaching and freelancing and ignore it. But I'm hoping to keep it going on a more regular basis. It's mostly academic stuff so there's no harm/no foul if no one's interested, but the username is Christabel (<3 Coleridge, even if he is the patron deity of unfinished projects himself, including "Christabel," of course) and you're welcome to friend me there.

Comments

[skieswideopen]

I tend to write individual scenes or chapters and polish them to perfection *before* actually getting the whole thing together, and I would probably spend the next two years just doing background research as a way of hiding from fear of failure. (SEE: The Way Catherine Wrote Her Doctoral Dissertation.)

That actually sounds very similar to the way I didn't write my doctoral dissertation, until I eventually slunk away from graduate school in shame.

JuNoWriMo is a brilliant idea! I'll have to look into this, because I can never do November. Good luck with it!

[chelseagirl]

I took . . . over ten years to finish and defend. My advisors were immensely patient and kind. I got caught up in adjuncting, freelancing, and personal life stuff. It's really less surprising that I didn't get a TT job and more surprising that I ended up with the amazing writing center director gig that I have.

The mystery will feature original characters I developed in fanfic (a fandom that was unusually tolerant of such things) twenty years ago.

I am . . . someone who gets there eventually.

Yes, come play!

[skieswideopen]

Even over ten years, it's an impressive accomplishment. (I don't really mind too much having not finished. Academic jobs don't seem to be what they once were, and my current job stays at the office every night, which is something no academic job would do.)

The mystery will feature original characters I developed in fanfic (a fandom that was unusually tolerant of such things) twenty years ago.

That sounds like a fun starting point! Is this the historical premise that you talked about before?

I think I'll probably sign up this weekend. And then see if I can get the idea I've been slowly fleshing out over the past few months in shape for June, or if I want to go back to a different, older, potentially easier idea that's been on the back burner.

[chelseagirl]

Yes -- it was/is a fandom that is unusually tolerant of original characters (there were only two main characters in the show every week, so basically, you needed other people for them to interact with) and I ended up with a whole small Western town. Now I plan on pulling out some of those characters and sending them to NYC at the same time period -- as well as repurposing others.

I've been working through my ideas slowly, but I also started writing in the fandom again to get myself comfortable, and of course I've gotten too distracted by that . . .

As a writing center director I get to both a. be on campus during regular hours like an admin and yet b. bring work home with me. Worst of both? Actually, I love my job . . . and this summer, though summer writing center funding makes more work, I'll only be on campus one day a week on a regular basis.

[lunabee34]

I am running up against the wall of not knowing how to write quantitative research. It's annoying; I've had zero training, and that section of papers is always full of crazy math and wacko words. I don't even read that part; I just skim until the Discussion section. LOL So I totally can't write it, and I am really worried that this article I'm writing isn't going to be accepted anywhere because of that one section; the rest of the article is really good, though if I do say so myself, so maybe I have a chance.

[chelseagirl]

I've been relying on my research partner to help with the quant stuff, but he's in admin now so things happen slowly. Can you find a collaborator among your social science colleagues?

One of the good things about being at a STEM institution is that my home department, although it lacks people to talk about Victorian novels with, is filled with people with whom I can do interdisciplinary collaborations.

[lunabee34]

I'm definitely going to talk to someone in social sciences/education; I don't know if I can find a collaborator, but I hope to maybe get pointed in the right direction of a class or two that we offer that I could take that would help me.

[chelseagirl]

I'm doing statistics this summer for certain; I'd like to take some research methods classes across the street at Rutgers-Newark next year but we'll see what's possible.