get me off this crazy thing

I'm home today and tomorrow, as I try and scrub this book clean of typos and give it a better shape. Yay! Of course, this means I *should not* be wasting time mooning over the Doctor. :D It's difficult, though. He's so eminently mooning-over material. He's, like, made for mooning-over.

My rushing headlong slow slide into carefully flirtation with Doctor Who continues apace. heh.

But that's not really why I'm posting! No! ( Click here for quick Torchwood thoughts )

Hm. Maybe I need a Rhys icon...

So, the last post was the happy, preeny post, (and you all are great with the congratulations and whatnot!!! *hugs you guys*), and now a bit of a reality check. heh.

I'm *almost* done with this thing (as done as it's gonna get for the thesis part of thesis-writing, and gradumacation). I will be turning it in sometime next week.... EEEEE. However, I'm not yet happy with the first chapter, which had to get rewritten quite extensively and is still not there, and the whole thing needs hammering, some characters need to be more realized, and subplots could do with a go over. Some of this will get done before I turn it in, and some of it not. I'm happy with it, though. There are bits that I love, and much I don't, but that's how it goes, and yay.

Also, I always get this note from instructors re: my original fiction. The "What is this about?" note (meaning, theme, I guess) and I'm always blindsided by the question because I'm like, "well, it's about what it's about!" (duh). But they're quite insistent about this -- and I can't really argue with it. A story needs to answer the question "What is this about?"

I'm thinking this is a handicap I have in my writing, largely because I write from character, and relationships and really hardly pay attention to theme. To me, the answer to the question is that it's about these characters. I never write from theme. I don't need a theme, to write. And many times a theme pops up, but usually it's sort of an accident, or something that develops naturally. Possibly this is because I started writing fannishly first, before original fiction? And with fan fiction, I'm all about the relationships.

Anyway, so, ( here's a poll: )

I'm going to preen in my LJ, because if I can't preen in my LJ then where can I? *g*

I just got this email from my thesis advisor.

( cut for preening )

~~~

He was pretty glowy throughout, which is, you know, nice. heh.

Returning to work after having days off is a special kind of hell.

I took Monday through Wednesday off to try and motor through the rewrite on the thesis, and, well, there was less motoring and more putputering (although I got more than half done). I can only imagine I would have gotten much less done if I had to have been at work those days, so, not wasteful, but now I'm getting back in the headspace of work, which is annoying. The phones, they won't stop. /o\

snd hlp plz.

Last night I met up with some of my fellow writers in my grad program. It was nice to see them, since I haven't been let out of my cave all semester while I've been writing. Also, most of them are writing their thesis, too, so there was a lot of:

"How do people write novels without a thesis adviser??"
"How do people write novels, period."
"I don't know how people write outside of grad school!"
"I know!"
"My adviser said Wise Thing of None Time-Wasting, and I didn't listen. But then she was right! But I was already 200 pages in and had to start over."
"OMG, I did the SAME THING. Mine said 'No no, you're story is *here* and I said, 'No, no, my story is over *there*. But he was right! And I had to dump 200 pages. Granted it was 200 pages of CRAP."
"And then she said, 'Write a 100 pages by this date, so that you can be on your THIRD DRAFT by this date. And I was like. OMG3RDDRAFTWTFPBBQ. Silently, to myself, of course."
"Sometimes I think it's all crap, but other times I'm like 'OMG I am a GENIUS!!'"
"Hah. Right.'I'm the best writer EVAR. Oh, wait, this sucks.'"
"Not sure I can willingly put myself through this again."
"Seriously. Next time I'll choose something sparkly and poppy like 'Vampire Bunnies Take Manhattan'"


~~~

In other news, I shall not write about Torchwood, since I think most people's reactions have been spot on and I'll just be repetitive, ( except to say )

I have a draft. I have achieved draftatude. I'm draftimicated. All draftidifide.

*sobs in relief*

And now, the rewriting. oi.

eta: oh. 81,000 words. woo.

Highlander fans check it out: hlh_shortcuts. New Highlander stories! Several of them are crossovers, some more traditional. I think amand_r is posting a few a day and then there will be a reveal. wooo.

It was *wonderful* playing in the HL sandbox, and writing my hlh_shortcut story was a highlight this fall for me, but then Highlander always is a delight. I loves it like mad. Highlander forever!

~~~

Thesis has passed the half-way mark (for the second time. don't ask). Yay? I gotta say, for all the angina this thing has given me, it is definitely a learning experience, which is, I suppose, the whole point. I've never written anything this long, nor this... well, novelly, if that makes any sense. Or this literary. Part of me wishes I chose a genre to write -- one of those pop novels where the chapters are two pages long and the story travels at a quick pace. But that probably would have just been angina of a different sort.


~~~

Yuletide is going to be a close call this year. Much closer than any other year. I trust I shall pull it out of my ass, and I do have over a 1000 words done, but I probably should not have signed up. Not with also writing the hlh_shortcut. But, at least I actually got a request that is not horrifying.