Monday, May 04, 2009

Early May, revising thesis while waiting for the rain

My printer is churning out 51 pages of my thesis, for me to carry and examine and color-code in the revision process—the stories of my year working with Karen, The Not-So-Blind. Next I will assess the other 49 pages of my thesis and see what needs to be done before the next due-date in a week. Then three weeks more of revision brings me to the June due-date and the end of my kids’ school schedule, and I’d better be done with my 100 page creative writing thesis by then.

After the thesis, I develop my “craft lecture” for a presentation in July, and finish up my reading. Five or six more books to read and annotate.

And afterwards I will find a house for us, find a job for me, change my family’s fortune, and read long and irrelevant novels that have NOTHING to do with nonfiction or memoir or magazines or how to write. That’s my dream for now: Dostoyevsky. More David James Duncan and Annie Dillard. I will help my kids make scrapbooks, tend the garden, and be amazing.

In this amazing life to come, post-graduation, I’m trying to figure out what my blog needs to be. I will likely craft some sort of website using my full name, with links to my current publications. It might be awhile before I “write casually” again: "writing seriously" requires more time and effort, and I like the results much more. But I miss the “whipping off a note” experience, and I see that people are faithfully dropping by to check in on me.

I’ve been posting more two-line blips on Facebook and one-line blips on Twitter, to keep from spending a whole morning writing a blog-post. I can’t really say what will happen after my graduation. Much depends on job-finding and freelance opportunity. And housing and kid-schedules.

Weigh in with your ideas, if you wish. My blog has been “my on-going letter to friends and family,” and I’ve written much less to you in the past few months, by necessity. Maybe you should write me a letter back? Or tell me what you miss? And I’ll take that into account as I decide what role my blog plays for me, as a writer.

Now: off to revise.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I somehow stumbled across your blog while surfing...and I would miss getting to read your writing, even if postings are infrequent!

Your words contain wisdom and questions and stories and pictures, and they have touched my heart; in my selfishness, I hope that you will continue to share as the spirit moves you and life allows. ;-)

Thank you, and blessings!

(sorry for the anonymous, I'm not set up to use the other options)

Amy said...

Denise, I will miss this blog, should you choose to move on--and Facebook and Twitter updates aren't nearly as satisfying. That said, you need to do what is best for your writing life--and your life. (And as the most inconsistent blogger on the planet, who am I to criticize??)

Anonymous said...

Denise,
I hope you'll continue blogging ... but if it gets in the way of other writing, we'll all understand. Twitter and Facebook don't leave much room for stories, but perhaps a website would work....
At any rate, all the best!
Kathy J
(Houston)