Don,
I'm done. I made it – My Nanowrimo Goal: 20,000 words in 30 days; I did 20,222 words in 28 days. The story I that I thought could be told in less than 20,000 words is now really just the plot action part of the story. There is little characterization, little to no description, and I'm still about 20 pages from the end of the story. But I met my goal, I kept my promise to myself.
I'm done. I made it – My Nanowrimo Goal: 20,000 words in 30 days; I did 20,222 words in 28 days. The story I that I thought could be told in less than 20,000 words is now really just the plot action part of the story. There is little characterization, little to no description, and I'm still about 20 pages from the end of the story. But I met my goal, I kept my promise to myself.
I think that keeping that promise to myself was the
hardest thing I've done recently. If I hadn't signed on to the Camp Nanowrimo website and publicly accepted
the challenge, I'm sure I would have backed out. It is so easy for me to keep a
promise to others, but not to myself. When
I confirmed the word count and the certificate showed up, I thought I'd cry –
like I'd just won $1,000. Amazing. Don,
thanks for being patient and waiting for me to get done.
I'm not sure my writing process was all that good. I'd write by hand for about 30 - 40 minutes every night before I went to bed. I had 8 pages of information - this was nothing more than a basic outline. By the time I had time to sit in front of the computer and type, the story had expanded in my mind and I had to fill in all the holes that I had. I finally had to set aside a day - lock the door, not answer the phone, don't look at email... in order to get it done. The last 2,000 words just would not let me sleep! I finally got up early early in the morning and typed out the last part of the story. But it's done.
Lesson? For me, writing a bit every day is very helpful! But I still need large blocks of time to get the story typed, worked out and readable. Writing is not for the weak of will.
I also managed to keep abreast of the grading
that I've had to do over the last month. As far as MBH is concerned, if I wasn't attached to the computer, I had a pencil in my hand and I was muttering "What about this don't you understand?"
Now all he will just hear is "What don't
you understand?"
I think this question is in line with the news that
comes out of Texas A& M – a professor fails his entire class due to cheating,
swearing, lack of maturity, disregard for authority ... I'm sure his list is
fairly long. What I found absolutely not acceptable was the response from the
"Political reports" that state that "Higher education has not
adapted its standards and practices to allow for a smooth transition from high
school to college ... colleges need to adjust their introductory courses" because students arriving on
campus lack reading and critical thinking skills and are unable to deconstruct
math problems. I got the sense that I was being told that I needed to "Lower
My Standards." I'm hoping I have that wrong... Seems to me the failure is not college - the failure is public school, maybe even just the politicians. They failed to keep their promise to educated.
I think my all time favorite news this week was when a mother discovered her son was rioting, went out and brought him home. I'm sure the student is hiding under the house afraid to show his face because he believes his mother embarrassed him to no end. I applaud the mother. She had enough guts to go get her child and keep him from doing harm; she cared enough about his life to save him from being stupid. I'm sure there are those who will say that she was "abusing" him in some manner or form. If it comes to that, hopefully enough mothers will stand with her, with their children, so we can reclaim our rights as parents. She kept her promise to raise her son in the best manner possible and to keep him from harming others.
One of our instructors keeps telling me the student is the client, the customer. And in many ways that might be correct. At least, that is the way I felt until recently. I'm still working on the book about student loans and I'm beginning to think that my customer is really the public. Students are taking out loans, defaulting on those loans, taking the money and not showing up for class because it is, after all, not related to their major degree, or they aren't interested in the subject or (heaven forbid) they have to do homework, and then they are complaining they can't get a job and pay back their loans ... My customer is the public. They loaned good money to students so they could contribute to society - so they could learn what is of value, be able to critically think and make sound decisions. Students didn't keep their promise. Not all, but enough that the system is now breaking and students are deep in debt.
Some will say that as a society we have not kept our promise to the younger generation by providing jobs for them after they got out of school. Not sure I agree. I don't remember anyone promising me a job after I got my degree. I was pushed out of the protective umbrella of college and told to "go for it! What you do now is entirely up to you!" My promise was to pay back the loans and do the best I could. I realize that I didn't owe $30,000, but the average salary a 100 years in my past was $.75 to $1.25 an hour - not the $8 - 10.00 + it is now. If we made $10,000 a year, we were hot stuff! We couldn't afford the pricey latest phone or a fine new car (a used one with new tires was about it) and we rented for many years. We were stepping up when we were able to buy our first color TV on a 13 inch screen instead of the 9 inch black and white we had.
Promises. What an interesting can of worms.
As you can tell, it's been an interesting long week. Hope you are doing well.
Have a great week everyone,
Carolyn
I think my all time favorite news this week was when a mother discovered her son was rioting, went out and brought him home. I'm sure the student is hiding under the house afraid to show his face because he believes his mother embarrassed him to no end. I applaud the mother. She had enough guts to go get her child and keep him from doing harm; she cared enough about his life to save him from being stupid. I'm sure there are those who will say that she was "abusing" him in some manner or form. If it comes to that, hopefully enough mothers will stand with her, with their children, so we can reclaim our rights as parents. She kept her promise to raise her son in the best manner possible and to keep him from harming others.
One of our instructors keeps telling me the student is the client, the customer. And in many ways that might be correct. At least, that is the way I felt until recently. I'm still working on the book about student loans and I'm beginning to think that my customer is really the public. Students are taking out loans, defaulting on those loans, taking the money and not showing up for class because it is, after all, not related to their major degree, or they aren't interested in the subject or (heaven forbid) they have to do homework, and then they are complaining they can't get a job and pay back their loans ... My customer is the public. They loaned good money to students so they could contribute to society - so they could learn what is of value, be able to critically think and make sound decisions. Students didn't keep their promise. Not all, but enough that the system is now breaking and students are deep in debt.
Some will say that as a society we have not kept our promise to the younger generation by providing jobs for them after they got out of school. Not sure I agree. I don't remember anyone promising me a job after I got my degree. I was pushed out of the protective umbrella of college and told to "go for it! What you do now is entirely up to you!" My promise was to pay back the loans and do the best I could. I realize that I didn't owe $30,000, but the average salary a 100 years in my past was $.75 to $1.25 an hour - not the $8 - 10.00 + it is now. If we made $10,000 a year, we were hot stuff! We couldn't afford the pricey latest phone or a fine new car (a used one with new tires was about it) and we rented for many years. We were stepping up when we were able to buy our first color TV on a 13 inch screen instead of the 9 inch black and white we had.
Promises. What an interesting can of worms.
As you can tell, it's been an interesting long week. Hope you are doing well.
Carolyn
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