Monday, October 02, 2006

writer at work

Despite a two-week blogging disappearance, I’ve had Calvin on the brain! Our home computer “got sick” a few weeks ago, and I found myself missing the computer labs in the Calvin library. I tried to get some work done at our public library, only to find programs weren’t compatible, and nothing would save to a disk… and just as the library computer spat my CD back out at me, the cheerful computer attendant came to my station to say “Your hour is up and someone is waiting for your spot!” Argh!

And so I walked home—yes, walked, trying to recapture the feel of tramping all over a campus in the fall. Difficult to do, though, as I was walking in gravel, dodging thistles, with cars zipping past at 40 miles an hour, and no friendly students smiling at me. Sigh.

I’ve also been sifting through my Calvin webmail, salvaging anything important there before my Calvin accounts disappear. I came across so many memories! Invitations sent out for a Pirates of the Caribbean party I co-hosted my sophomore year. (Yes, I did go to classes that day dressed as a pirate. Why not?) All kinds of updates from when I studied in Britain. Making study dates with friends at the Fish House. Working out last-minute project details with my sociology group. Those four years went so fast!! But graduation is far from the end, because I’m still as busy as anything here!

So many things have happened in a few weeks’ time. I said farewell to my part-time job on Saturday. It was good work for giving my savings account a shot in the arm, but I felt too divided. Spending twenty hours or more at a bookstore, and then trying to write for thirty hours at home makes for a fifty-hour work week. I try to be an over-achiever, but that’s pushing it!

Today, then, is “the first day of the rest of my life”—the beginning of my full-time writing career. Yikes! Scary stuff, as I still miss the structure of all those syllabi, and the guidance of a host of professors. At the same time… I am relishing the freedom. I am slowly learning how to be my own boss, and how to strive for my own goals. The hardest part is knowing what is a reasonable challenge and what is impossible. I am all too often confused! But I think I’ve found a good plan.

Reasonable Challenge #1: I am taking on the National Novel Writing Month challenge! I had heard rumors of this sort of thing before… It means I will be spending November cranking out 50,000 words on a novel. WOW. (And I thought a fifteen-page paper for Medieval Lit was a steep climb!) The bonus is that Mom and I plan on doing this together, and we’ll be able to encourage each other. Between the two of us, we should have 100,000 words on two different novels, written by midnight, November 30.

This certainly clarifies my work for October! I have an essay I’m preparing for a December 31 contest deadline, and that really needs to be done before I dive into my novel.

I also have soooo much to learn! I spent this morning reading a fabulous book on novel-writing by Donald Maass, and I’m learning more about plot structure from him. And I’m trying to decide which of my two favorite ideas—which I’ve spent the summer developing—is most ready to get the November dose of 50,000 words. I’ll need to do loads of research in October, as well as outlining and structuring. But I’m so excited about this, I feel giddy. It’s the writing equivalent of a marathon…

Reasonable Challenge #2: Right now, I’m planning to go to a February writers’ conference in New York City! Woo hoo! It’s a children’s writing conference, bringing in editors, agents, children’s writers, and illustrators from all over. It’s short—only two days, I think—but it will teach me a lot about the mainstream children’s industry. (I’m not writing for kids, but for young adults, and they’re included in that “children” category. I’m not quite sure why, but there you go.) I’m pumped about taking my second trip to NYC! Again, this is something Mom and I get to do together. (It’s so good to have a fellow writer working in the room next to mine! We have great chats over tea, psyching each other up for the day’s work…)

So there’s the current plan! I am absolutely making this up as I go, but God has been so faithful. I’ve always been more inclined to panic rather than trust, but God is so gracious. He keeps illuminating my path, one stepping-stone at a time. I’ll keep you posted!—jl

Posted by Jenn Langefeld on 10/02 at 12:24 PM
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