Working on the MS
Not every post will be a essay-ish in nature, I think. Today, for instance, I'm happy to report that I began the day with writing. I worked on my manuscript for about an hour. Then the boy woke up, and the dog took that as a sign he should burst into the girl's room and wake HER up, and then we were all up and no more writing was to be done.
It was really wonderful, though, to sit down and have direction for once. I began with a poem that I'd drafted earlier in the year and set about trying to put it into meter. I was able to complete the first stanza -- an 8-line stanza in iambic hexameter with the last two lines being a rhyming couplet. So far . . . good. Not great, but it was something. It wasn't too difficult to wrestle the words I'd already written into the new form, which is a good sign, I think. And when I was finished with that first stanza, I wanted to work on the second stanza. That, too, is a good sign.
I want (read: need) to stay excited about this manuscript and its poems if I expect anyone else to be excited about it, too.
In other news, I couldn't get my act together enough this morning to run, but I'm in a mood to forgive myself since I managed to write. I met with a student today (a Spring Semester Independent Study that spilled over to the Summer -- yes, I find students who are Just Like Me with this write/rewrite/procrastinate crap!) and the rest of the day was filled with lots of errands and the picking up of the children.
When I picked up the boy, his teacher told me she'd found him lying down on the stack of circle-time mats. This isn't a typical move for him, so she took his temperature -- and he has a fever. Who gets ill at the end of July? I thought this crazy heat had killed all of the germs. Anyway, he's complaining of a sore throat, so I guess that tomorrow we're visiting the doctor!
And now, I may do some dishes before going to bed. Or I may leave them in the sink until tomorrow morning. Take that, Fly Lady!
It was really wonderful, though, to sit down and have direction for once. I began with a poem that I'd drafted earlier in the year and set about trying to put it into meter. I was able to complete the first stanza -- an 8-line stanza in iambic hexameter with the last two lines being a rhyming couplet. So far . . . good. Not great, but it was something. It wasn't too difficult to wrestle the words I'd already written into the new form, which is a good sign, I think. And when I was finished with that first stanza, I wanted to work on the second stanza. That, too, is a good sign.
I want (read: need) to stay excited about this manuscript and its poems if I expect anyone else to be excited about it, too.
In other news, I couldn't get my act together enough this morning to run, but I'm in a mood to forgive myself since I managed to write. I met with a student today (a Spring Semester Independent Study that spilled over to the Summer -- yes, I find students who are Just Like Me with this write/rewrite/procrastinate crap!) and the rest of the day was filled with lots of errands and the picking up of the children.
When I picked up the boy, his teacher told me she'd found him lying down on the stack of circle-time mats. This isn't a typical move for him, so she took his temperature -- and he has a fever. Who gets ill at the end of July? I thought this crazy heat had killed all of the germs. Anyway, he's complaining of a sore throat, so I guess that tomorrow we're visiting the doctor!
And now, I may do some dishes before going to bed. Or I may leave them in the sink until tomorrow morning. Take that, Fly Lady!
Comments