I have five weeks off uni for Easter - a ridiculous amount of time, I know - but I need them, because I have been sucked into a Black Hole of Essay Doom. I have three assessed essays to write, adding up to a total of 12, 500 words. That doesn't seem like a lot when you consider that for NaNoWriMo I had to write 50,000 words in four weeks. It's different, though. For NaNoWriMo the words could be a complete pile of twaddle (man, I adore that word!). These words have to be clever words. They have to be words which will get me good marks - my degree is riding on this! And the topics I have chosen to write on are really quite hard.
Hence Emma's Essay Nightmare. I will probably update this blog moaning about my progress, or lack thereof. Here's where I stand at the moment:
On a slightly different topic - (creative) writing progress has been made! I realised that the reason I've felt absolutely no motivation to write Into the Blizzard (the Storm Awakened spin-off) is that I had no plot, and couldn't see where it was going. When I did manage to write a few paragraphs, I was writing aimlessly. So this evening I sat down and focused all my energy on writing a detailed, comprehensive plot.
Guess what: I actually got somewhere! I mean, I have a plot that I actually think is decent, and it's fairly complex, too! It's all a bit of a muddle at the moment, and I have only plotted about 3/4 of the story, meaning I still need to find a way to wrap it all up and then locate and destroy any plot holes - but I can see the story going somewhere now. I have enough material to write at least 20 chapters. That's right, it's going to be another long one. This is going to keep me distracted from those essays for a while!
Hence Emma's Essay Nightmare. I will probably update this blog moaning about my progress, or lack thereof. Here's where I stand at the moment:
- Essay 1. A 5k comparison of Crime and Punishment and Hunger on the theme of subjectivity. First draft, written in barely comprehensible English, complete. I have spent literally all week sitting at my desk doing this. It drove me crazy. Today my dad drove us out into the forest and we went on a walk, just so that I could remember what fresh air and sunlight were like.
- Essay 2. A 5k essay on feminist themes in Possession and Alias Grace. Haven't even started researching yet.
- Essay 3. A 2.5k essay on 17th century text no one has ever heard of, which I have to research and then make up - gasp! - my own opinions about. Have not even decided what I'm going to write about yet.
On a slightly different topic - (creative) writing progress has been made! I realised that the reason I've felt absolutely no motivation to write Into the Blizzard (the Storm Awakened spin-off) is that I had no plot, and couldn't see where it was going. When I did manage to write a few paragraphs, I was writing aimlessly. So this evening I sat down and focused all my energy on writing a detailed, comprehensive plot.
Guess what: I actually got somewhere! I mean, I have a plot that I actually think is decent, and it's fairly complex, too! It's all a bit of a muddle at the moment, and I have only plotted about 3/4 of the story, meaning I still need to find a way to wrap it all up and then locate and destroy any plot holes - but I can see the story going somewhere now. I have enough material to write at least 20 chapters. That's right, it's going to be another long one. This is going to keep me distracted from those essays for a while!
1 comment:
Good luck with the essays! Good luck with your new story as well. =]
Post a Comment