First batch of babbles
Oct. 2nd, 2006 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cicerGrad schools
...I have no opinions on these! Have never attended a grad school myself, so I really can't say. However, several friends and family members have gone to them and tend to describe them as either joyous halls of learning or medieval torture institutions. Hah. Drawing on other people's stories, though, most have mentioned to me that they enjoyed grad school much more than college, largely because they tend to be smaller, more specialized, and full of people who have a genuine interest in learning instead of drunken frat boys. Also, by the time they got to grad school, they themselves were more mature and more sincerely interested in education. The work, though, is apparently considerably harder. Of course, this is all second hand information! Any thoughts from those of you who have gone to grad school yourselves?
Housework
I must admit that I hate housework. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Also, I'm not particularly bothered by a little dust or a few dishes in this sink so I have a tendency to let things stack up. Urg. Housework is so boring and irritating, and I'm so lazy. I haaaate it. I don't really mind little things like laundry and dishes so much and I'll do them regularly without too much complaint, but I will put off dusting and vacuuming until the dust bunnies have become sentient and developed their own colonies. Oh, and I hate cleaning the bathroom too, but I tend to do that more frequently because a dirty bathroom kind of grosses me out. But scrubbing the sink, toilets, and shower are my least favorite housecleaning tasks. Bah. Why hasn't someone invented a robotic maid yet?
How to decide whether to finish a fic or not
This is a tricky question. I almost always finish fics, because I'm obsessive and it greatly disturbs me to have an unfinished bit of something drifting around on my harddrive. Of course, this doesn't guarantee that I will finish the fic in anything resembling a timely manner, and it may be pushed aside for months and months while I work on other things, but I usually intend to finish it. I very rarely (in fact, I can only think of two or three cases) start a fic and then drop in, never intending to pick it up again. In all cases I wasn't very far into the piece (like, less than 1,000 words) before I decided that it just totally wasn't working/didn't capture my interest, so I dropped it like a hot rock. Generally, though, when I start a fic I end up finishing it, so I don't know how you decide whether to finish something or not. If it just isn't enjoyable at all and you have no interest or emotional investment in the story, I would probably advise dropping it. You never know, in six months you could rediscover the story and be inspired to finish it. But I believe writing is supposed to be a joy, at least most of the time, so if a project is not fun anymore, forget it!
How to pick a NaNo project that will be pure fun
I like the idea of NaNo being the jumping-off point for writing 'that story you always wanted to write but never did because it wasn't serious enough/you didn't have all the plot points worked out/you just forgot'. Find an idea that you’ve always wanted to play with, and spin off on that. It should be something that excites you, not that sooper-intellectual, highbrow book that you'll always felt you're supposed to write. Pick an idea that has cracktastic possibilities, because weird things are guaranteed to happed when you're hyped up on caffeine and staring blearily into the blue glow of a computer screen at four o'clock in the morning. When you find you're idea, you should go, "Yeah! Awesome!" and look forward to November first so you can start writing. It should be exciting.
I must also mention story generators, because those can be seriously fun. I got some great ideas from them last year. I like the Seventh Sanctum generators, the Logline generator, and the Archtypes Storytelling cards.
...I have no opinions on these! Have never attended a grad school myself, so I really can't say. However, several friends and family members have gone to them and tend to describe them as either joyous halls of learning or medieval torture institutions. Hah. Drawing on other people's stories, though, most have mentioned to me that they enjoyed grad school much more than college, largely because they tend to be smaller, more specialized, and full of people who have a genuine interest in learning instead of drunken frat boys. Also, by the time they got to grad school, they themselves were more mature and more sincerely interested in education. The work, though, is apparently considerably harder. Of course, this is all second hand information! Any thoughts from those of you who have gone to grad school yourselves?
Housework
I must admit that I hate housework. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Also, I'm not particularly bothered by a little dust or a few dishes in this sink so I have a tendency to let things stack up. Urg. Housework is so boring and irritating, and I'm so lazy. I haaaate it. I don't really mind little things like laundry and dishes so much and I'll do them regularly without too much complaint, but I will put off dusting and vacuuming until the dust bunnies have become sentient and developed their own colonies. Oh, and I hate cleaning the bathroom too, but I tend to do that more frequently because a dirty bathroom kind of grosses me out. But scrubbing the sink, toilets, and shower are my least favorite housecleaning tasks. Bah. Why hasn't someone invented a robotic maid yet?
How to decide whether to finish a fic or not
This is a tricky question. I almost always finish fics, because I'm obsessive and it greatly disturbs me to have an unfinished bit of something drifting around on my harddrive. Of course, this doesn't guarantee that I will finish the fic in anything resembling a timely manner, and it may be pushed aside for months and months while I work on other things, but I usually intend to finish it. I very rarely (in fact, I can only think of two or three cases) start a fic and then drop in, never intending to pick it up again. In all cases I wasn't very far into the piece (like, less than 1,000 words) before I decided that it just totally wasn't working/didn't capture my interest, so I dropped it like a hot rock. Generally, though, when I start a fic I end up finishing it, so I don't know how you decide whether to finish something or not. If it just isn't enjoyable at all and you have no interest or emotional investment in the story, I would probably advise dropping it. You never know, in six months you could rediscover the story and be inspired to finish it. But I believe writing is supposed to be a joy, at least most of the time, so if a project is not fun anymore, forget it!
How to pick a NaNo project that will be pure fun
I like the idea of NaNo being the jumping-off point for writing 'that story you always wanted to write but never did because it wasn't serious enough/you didn't have all the plot points worked out/you just forgot'. Find an idea that you’ve always wanted to play with, and spin off on that. It should be something that excites you, not that sooper-intellectual, highbrow book that you'll always felt you're supposed to write. Pick an idea that has cracktastic possibilities, because weird things are guaranteed to happed when you're hyped up on caffeine and staring blearily into the blue glow of a computer screen at four o'clock in the morning. When you find you're idea, you should go, "Yeah! Awesome!" and look forward to November first so you can start writing. It should be exciting.
I must also mention story generators, because those can be seriously fun. I got some great ideas from them last year. I like the Seventh Sanctum generators, the Logline generator, and the Archtypes Storytelling cards.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-02 11:34 pm (UTC)Unlike most of the people I know - including the people in my programs - I ahd tons and tons of free time during both grad school stints. This is mostly due to my work habits - I am incapable of workign slowly and steadily, and isntead work in a sort of punctuated equilibrium fashion, where I dump a bunch of work right onto the topic shortly before it's due. Also, it felt easier because there were almost no regular tests, instead it was all papers and I'm much better at papers than tests.
Also, my attitude towards grades is that I'm not going to kill myself to get from an A- to an A, or even a B+ to an A- (B- and below was failing). The people in my department who had the hardest time of it were those who were scrounging for that last half-point. For no reason that I could see: your GPA is utterly useless when it comes to getting employed. And fellowships and scholarships at the grad level depend on more than just the GPA.
Note, also, that my anthro/museum studies degree was a bit more traditionally hard than the library degree, which I slept through. There were many in the library program that had hard times, but they were mostly people who hadn't been in the academic world in many years and hadn't learned things like how to read articles (read the abstract, read the conclusion, skim the rest), and that in grad school learnign happens outside the classroom - the prof is there in the class to guide you, not to teach you.
What I suggest you do in grad school is see how many projects other than classes you can get yourself involved in. Any projects that professors are doing, internships, etc. Take the opportunity to get resume-quality experience before you graduate, while the student loans or scholarship are paying for it, and you'll have a really good advantage over your classmates in both experience and contacts when you graduate.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-03 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-04 03:11 am (UTC)Finishing Fics is hard though if your muse has left and seems to not even be in the same solar system anymore let alone returning your calls of, "help help I need inspiration."
I hope this helped your blahs go away.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 08:51 pm (UTC)