Limping past the finish line

[cicer]

First term of grad school: completed

Sanity: intact (mostly)

Physical status: exhausted

I had a wonderful time this semester, but I am pooped. I get the next three weeks off, thankfully, but then it's right back into the madness. Things are going well, though. I'm enjoying my program. Like my classmates and professors. It's all good. I also (somehow) managed to do NaNoWriMo last month, so that was pleasing. Another 50k words added to one of my novels-in-progress!

I'm making real progress with one particular novel. I think I'll devote 2012 to really wrangling that sucker into shape. Part of the winner's goodies for NaNoWriMo included a code for some free printings of your manuscript over at CreateSpace, so if I can get a good solid draft finished by June, I'll get to see what my novel might look like all printed up all nice and shiny. That would certainly be good motivation to keep working at it and eventually looking for an agent/publisher. I'm learning a lot about all of that through my MFA program anyway, so it's all extremely helpful and encouraging.

...Eeesh. I keep feeling like there was something (undoubtedly many somethings!) I was trying to remember to post about, but damned if I can remember any of it now. I swear grad school has somehow lowered my IQ. Ack.

Hope you are all doing well and looking forward to whatever holidays you might happen to celebrate! Any news I should be aware of? Everybody OK?

Comments

[tucuxi.livejournal.com]

Congrats on getting through the first semester! That's totally awesome.

I'm a few weeks behind you, so I'm still in the downhill race against three deadlines.

And, yeah, I know what you mean about grad school lowering IQ. I swear, my short term memory has gone poof.

[terrayndian.livejournal.com]

Many congrats on getting through that first semester! I completely understand the exhaustion, though. I got that way whenever I did my graduate work. I think it's just recognizing the long road ahead of you and how you'll never know everything, but you still have to work your ass off. Try to do a brain dump during your time off, and maybe you'll be able to recover a bit. That's why I got into FF7 the first time in my undergrad years--2wks of the winter break spent on gaming. My roommate at the time thought I had lost it. XD

And wow, good luck with that novel! I'm so impressed with people who can put together something like that. Hopefully the first novel is the hardest and you'll churn out more after that. :)

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you're done with the semester and hooray for the novel!