Post Thesis and Beyond!

I'm back! I didn't even realize how long I was gone until I saw the date on my last post. I'm shocked that almost a year has gone by.

A quick update:

1. I finished my thesis. I turned in 70 pages of an unfinished YA novel. I kept telling myself I would complete it over the summer, but TV and Facebook got in the way. Damn you, internet, for being too interesting.

2. I have my MFA in Creative Writing. My friends and relatives knew I was in school, but when they ask what kind of degree, I feel like I'm being obnoxious when I say it's an MFA. I feel like I sound like this woman when I say it out loud.

3. I'm looking for a job. If anyone is looking to hire for a position that involves reading books, writing, and/or editing, hook me up.

Because of that last item, I figured I needed to up myself in the skill set area. I've enrolled in the online Copy Editing Certification Program at MediaBistro. The first lesson was posted today, so I'll write about that as soon as I'm check it out. I have a week to read the lesson, complete the assignment and upload it to the discussion thread for my instructor and classmates to comment on it.

On a completely different note, I took a walk to Dunkin Donuts today for some afternoon coffee and saw there's a bartending school in the neighborhood. They offer a free trial class and I'm tempted to take it just because I have some free time. I've also wanted to try my hand at drink mixing, but there's just one problem: I don't drink. I either have extremely low tolerance or I'm allergic to alcohol. Either way, I get extremely sick after one can of beer.

Is it possible to be a bartender who doesn't taste their own drinks?

Thesis Already?

Wow, three semesters have passed already? It feels like I just started my MFA, but the calendar says that my last semester is coming up and after that, I'm done.

So the fourth semester is our thesis semester. We don't take actual classes... we just work on our final projects and meet with our advisors on a regular basis. Final projects meaning a minimum of 75 pages of written work, preferably something that's going to be published. I've decided to continue on a sci-fi/fantasy story that I started in workshop last semester and I want to complete a first draft by the time May rolls around. I just hope I have the drive to do it. I suppose I can aim for the minimum 75 pages, but what fun would that be? Life is more interesting when you make it a littler harder than it should be, right? And you'll get more satisfaction out of it too. At least, that's what people tell me. I think they're just trying to make themselves feel better.

One thing I definitely know is that I'm going to miss my classmates. Since we're not having our weekly workshop classes, I won't get to see them as often as I did. I know we can all meet up anyway, but everyone is going to be super busy. Some of them even work while going to school! *gasp!* But I'm sure we'll find a way to hang out at least once before we all graduate.

Okay, gotta get back to figuring out how I'm going to manage my thesis. Until next time...

My name is...

I always thought I had one of the most common names. Jane. And you hear it all the time: Dick and Jane, "Plain Jane" (even though I hate that term), G.I. Jane starring Demi Moore. Easy to spell, easy to remember, right? Apparently not.

It seems like Jane is becoming less and less common. Now it seems like parents are naming their kids anything that will make them stand out from all the other kids.

David Beckham and Posh Spice (I forget her real name) called their son Brooklyn. Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter Apple. Some Israeli couple named their kid Like after the button on Facebook.

So should I be surprised when I go to Starbucks and they ask my name after taking my drink order? My conversations with Starbucks employees usually goes something like this:

Cashier: Welcome to Starbucks. What would you like?
Me: I would like a tall iced green tea lemonade.
Cashier: And what's your name?
Me: Jane
Cashier: Jay?
Me: No, Jane.
Cashier: Jean?
Me: No, JANE.
Cashier: Okay. (Calling out to barista) Iced lemonade green tea, tall, for Jen!

Go over to the waiting area, wait for my drink. Stand around for a few minutes. Then I hear:

Barista: Drink for Jan?
Me: A tall iced green tea lemonade?
Barista: Yup, for Jan.
Me: It's Jane.
Barista: Okay, Jay. Enjoy your drink.

Meanwhile, they have no problem with Fiona, Arwin and Janelle.

Perhaps I need to change my name to something more difficult, so that they can pronounce it properly. Maybe if I started calling myself Eilonwy, like the princess in The Black Cauldron, then I'll have better luck.

First year finales

My first year in the MFA Creative Writing program is over. The last class was actually May 11th, but I've been so bad about updating my blog that I'm over a month behind.

What did I learn from my first year? Two things:
1. To be a good writer, you have to read and write. A lot. When you read, you'll find lots of examples of great writing and not-so-great writing. The more you read, the more you can see which of that writing is not-so-great. And read different genres, not just the genre you want to write in. Expose yourself to different styles of writing. When I first started writing, I thought I was going to write humor. As the year progressed it turned into dark humor, which my classmates thought suited me better.

2. Make time to write. I mean, put it into your schedule. Since I worked full time, my thought was, "I'll do my writing when I have time." That meant almost never. A full day of work, come home, eat dinner... and I would usually end up being too tired to do anything else except sit in front of the TV and zone out. I've realized I have to put writing into my schedule so it gets done.

Putting it into my schedule is going to be a lot easier now that I'm not working. Yup, that's right, I'm unemployed. My department was restructured and my position was eliminated. I actually saw this as an opportunity. I've been trying to get into the publishing industry but I don't have any experience in the field, so I had applied for summer internships. Who doesn't want free labor, right? Well, from the ten places I applied to, I only heard back from one company, HarperCollins. It was a very polite email about how I had an impressive background, but they wanted someone who was more in line with industry (read as: a college student who is would be more likely to work for them after graduation). I can understand that. I'm disappointed that I wasn't picked, but I still appreciated that they let me know I was rejected.

So my summer is free. Something I haven;t had since I've graduated from college. I left for vacation with the hubby to Barbados on my first jobless day. We came back a week later and I've been sitting at home since finding various ways to entertain myself. First I ordered all the books I needed for my lit class this fall. Then I cleaned the house. The bathroom has never looked so good. Hubby said I should put learning how to cook on my list of things to do. Not a bad idea.

But now I have free time to write, which I plan to do. I have a new idea for a story and I'm hoping to get a good chunk of it written before school starts. And it means I can update this blog on a more regular basis! I even have a post ready for tomorrow. See, my plan to write more is already in progress. :)

April showers... and then some

April 19th was our three year anniversary. BK and I have been together for 10 and a half years now. So yes, we dated for seven and a half years before finally getting married. Since I had class on the evening of our actual anniversary, we decided we would celebrate tonight instead, my first class-free night of the week.

We're going to have dinner at BLT Prime, which I'm totally looking forward to. I took BK there for his birthday two years ago and they not only had the most awesome porterhouse, but the waiter was totally cool and attentive. And the fact that he strongly resembled Liev Schreiber helped too, cause I like him in general as an actor. So now, every time BK and I see Liev Schreiber in a movie, we always comment on how his job at BLT Prime must have not worked out so he had to find another career.

As for school, I'm still plugging along. I can't believe there's only three weeks of class left. And that means my first year will be over. After this, there's only one more semester of taking actual classes and then a final semester that's dedicated to writing my thesis. It feels like two years to spend on a degree is way too short.

I also feel annoyed with myself because I know I didn't devote as much time as I should have to my writing. I always have the good intentions planning to fire up my laptop as soon as I get home from work and finish writing the Great American Novel, but it never happens that way. Of course it doesn't happen that way. I get home, eat, feel insanely tired and plop myself in front of the TV. Conan, anyone?

At least I know what the problem is. Part of it is because I am tired. The other part is that I have no idea what to write about next. I'm stuck. I have my characters go down the deep dark hole, they've met the enemy, but what now? What do they do to fight back? How do they get back home? I don't know.

So as a way to escape this problem, I've started on another story. I was inspired by Adam Rex's Fat Vampire, which is about a teenage loser who is turned into a vampire and now he's stuck like that for the rest of his life. I thought what it would be like for someone to be in an opposite situation and started working on the woes of a hot vampire. I wouldn't want to try and publish it because it's just such an obvious rip off of Rex's story. But just something for me to work on when I'm stuck on what to do with Story #1.

I hope to post more often since my last submission for class was on Tuesday and I can stop stressing about getting something in on time.

Spring Break

Spring break is finally here. Am I relieved? Yes. Am I doing everything I had planned out? No. Does this bother me? Sort of.

When I put in my vacation request at work, I spent days dreaming about what I would do during my time off. Read all the books I had waiting for me, work on my story, maybe even finish my book so that all I would need to do is bring it in to workshop for critiquing. So far, I've read three four of the books on my list of 15 and I haven't worked on my book at all. Instead, I've done two straight days of laundry with Facebooking in between loads. I have half of my homework done, but it still needs to be revised.

I've had a migraine for the past three days that's making it hard to concentrate. I keep thinking I can try to wait it out, but I gave up today. I went to CVS and tried to get a refill on my migraine medication, but they ran out. Since I'll be out of town for the rest of the week, I won't be able to med up until Monday.

On the bright side, I'm home. I needed this break from work. :)

School, school and more school

I love the new semester. I've heard rumors that my workshop teacher for the Spring was going to be pretty tough, but so far, he hasn't been too harsh. He's definitely a stickler for grammar, but he's also helpful with his suggestions in how to clean up our writing pieces. I admire him for the one thing he said to one of my classmates after pointing out all the things he didn't like about her submission was, "Just because I don't like your piece doesn't mean you have to change anything. There are plenty of great writers who write in the same style as you." So he means that he's giving his opinion, but that's just it -- it's only his opinion and not the rules of writing.

Our seminar teacher is pretty nice too. I like her method of teaching. We read the book, discuss it and then she gives a writing assignment based a theme found in the book. For example, with Johnny Tremain, it was "describe a scene which shows a specific time and place." Or with Peter Pan, our assignment was "a scene in which a character experiences something out of the ordinary."

I feel like my writing skills have improved immensely since the last semester. When I look back on my older pieces, I can see grammatical errors and places where my writing could be tighter or needs more descriptive sentences. When I critique my classmates' submissions for our workshop class, I use to make comments more about the consistency of events or spelling errors. Now I notice I'm making more comments about the quality of the writing as well. My eye has definitely become better at catching these things.

I just regret that I didn't have these skills in the first semester. :(