Revisionista: Update & Goals

First off, I wanted to thank y'all for your support and comments on my locker room post. As City Girl said in an email to me, I was mourning the loss of the novel. I think I was also mourning the loss of the version of myself that wrote the first draft & planned the second draft of the novel. I mean, going from a novel to a short story isn't that big a deal, but realizing that deep down the story I was trying to tell was much darker and more complex than the one I'd originally conceived of kind of shook me up.

I'm taking a break from that story until the Fall SWIM begins, but in the meantime, I'm having oodles of fun exploring what I want to write about next.

Classes start next week and I'm pleased to say that I'm feeling pretty good about the semester ahead. In the past, I've often felt as though I had to shift into professor mode, or put on my teaching persona when fall semester began. But this summer I think I've managed to integrate my research, fiction/creative, & teaching selves (under the heading of storyteller). So even though my vacation is over, the crafting, journaling, fiction writing, artist dating, reading, etc will all continue into the semester. I'm officially saying goodbye to the idea of separate selves/personas, especially since Kiki's fabulous series on work/life balance has given me new perspective: Life is just that, life. And right now my life includes teaching some days, artist dates others, advising thesis students, writing my academic book, learning the craft of fiction writing, cooking, playing, yogaing, running, etc etc etc

That said, I think I'm going to keep my SWIM goals focused on the writing and crafting I want to do each week. The teaching & silly admin stuff will get done because it has to. So, I want to reserve this space to advance the very important goals that can sometimes get neglected during the semester when seemingly more urgent tasks are distracting me.

Here's how I did last week:

YES! (14 hours!!)*Aim for 7 hours of novel time
YES! *Type last week's novel pages
*Freewrite 5pp of Intro for Le Rsch Book
*Notes on Vol. I of Estelle
*Add changes to TS Article
*Proof, copy, & BB 417 syllabus
*Proof, copy, & BB 310 syllabus
YES! (finished & posted a review of Spoiled) *Finish 1 fun book
YES! *Send City Girl pearl of wisdom
YES! *Artist Date: bookbinding workshop on Saturday

So, I didn't get to the teaching and research stuff, but I planted some important seeds in my metaphysical garden that'll hopefully continue to grow this semester.

This week I want to do the following:

*Artist Date (no idea yet)
*60min of writing practice (10min/day)
*5pp of intro for academic rsch book
*Add notes about changes to TS article
*Finish 1 fun book
*2-3 blog posts
*1-2 Italian podcasts (I listen to My Daily Phrase Italian on itunes, Kiki)
*Plant 1 or 2 new seeds in my metaphysical garden
*2-3 days of journaling/morning pages

I think I have 9 ideal goals listed. Let's see if I can accomplish at least 4-5 of them this week.