Monday, February 28, 2005
Bippity-boppity-boo
Writing
At the beginning of February, I blithely stated a list of goals:
"In February, I will
1) submit "The Middle of Life" to another slush pile;
2) complete the modern pop-fantasy story I’ve been working on piecemeal, find a venue where it might best fit & send it there;
3) find a venue for "Storyweaver" & send it there;
4) draft an outline for the fairy-tale based story in order to get the details out of my head and on paper;
5) and, while I’m cleaning closets in my mind, draft an outline for an as yet untitled project;
6) resume work on an RPG project, with the goal of completing my portion by the end of the month."
At the end of month, and with a certain amount of embarassment, I state that this is what I actually accomplished:
1) Submitted MoL to another slush pile (2.21.05)
2) Submitted Sw to another slush pile (2.21.05)
3) Started what really cannot be called an outline for the as yet untitled project
Ispravljus'! Ispravljus'! Obeshchaju, ispravljus'! OK, well... enough with the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The list continues for March, then... This month I will:
1) Complete the modern pop-fantasy story, tentatively titled "Post-Millenial Fairy Godmothers, Inc." Send draft to critique buddies.
2) Draft an outline of the aforementioned fairy-tale based story; begin rough draft of story & send to critique buddies.
3) Draft an outline of the aforementioned as yet untitled project; begin rough draft & send to critique buddies.
4) Resume work on RPG project: This is short and interesting, and I may even be able to do most of the crunchy stuff myself, so I just need to write it. Mwahahahahaha...
Committing to finishing my to-do list for February is going to have to be enough for now. Should I find myself running low on things to do mid-month, I'll supplement the to-do list at that time.
Job Search
It also occurs to me that I might do myself a favor to keep track of progress in the job search, too. Researching jobs (in international programs/study abroad offices, primarily) and writing cover letters takes up a certain amount of my time, after all. There haven't been a lot of jobs posted that, as a newbie to the field, I'm qualified for, but I'm hoping the trend changes as the director positions that have been posted are filled and more positions that require less direct experience working in the field open up (presumably as the people who held those jobs move up the ladder). I'm also investigating another possible career path, thanks to a nudge of encouragement from one of the faculty members I work with now. I'm a little curious to see how that develops.
Since December, I have applied for these jobs:
Indiana Univ. Continuing Studies AcAd
Marist College IP
UNLV IP (result: ding)
Plymouth State IP (result: ding)
Purdue Univ. IP
NC State Univ. IP
Albany IP
New School Univ. IP
Indiana Univ. Kelley School of Business AcAd (result: ding)
Hanover IP
Hartwick IP
This week I need to submit application materials to these jobs:
UNLV-USAC IP
Oregon IP
Pace Univ. SA
Georgia SA
Purdue Univ. IP
Wisconsin-Madison IP/SA
CEA SA
Goal: This month I will continue researching jobs in an effort to apply for three positions per week. (That's below the average recommended in career counselor circles, but I'm looking for a position in a field that's a bit more specialized than accounting, finance, or other business-focused jobs that are so easily found on boards like Monster.com, so it seems like a good average to strive for, based on the trends I'm seeing in the job ads.)
At the beginning of February, I blithely stated a list of goals:
"In February, I will
1) submit "The Middle of Life" to another slush pile;
2) complete the modern pop-fantasy story I’ve been working on piecemeal, find a venue where it might best fit & send it there;
3) find a venue for "Storyweaver" & send it there;
4) draft an outline for the fairy-tale based story in order to get the details out of my head and on paper;
5) and, while I’m cleaning closets in my mind, draft an outline for an as yet untitled project;
6) resume work on an RPG project, with the goal of completing my portion by the end of the month."
At the end of month, and with a certain amount of embarassment, I state that this is what I actually accomplished:
1) Submitted MoL to another slush pile (2.21.05)
2) Submitted Sw to another slush pile (2.21.05)
3) Started what really cannot be called an outline for the as yet untitled project
Ispravljus'! Ispravljus'! Obeshchaju, ispravljus'! OK, well... enough with the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
The list continues for March, then... This month I will:
1) Complete the modern pop-fantasy story, tentatively titled "Post-Millenial Fairy Godmothers, Inc." Send draft to critique buddies.
2) Draft an outline of the aforementioned fairy-tale based story; begin rough draft of story & send to critique buddies.
3) Draft an outline of the aforementioned as yet untitled project; begin rough draft & send to critique buddies.
4) Resume work on RPG project: This is short and interesting, and I may even be able to do most of the crunchy stuff myself, so I just need to write it. Mwahahahahaha...
Committing to finishing my to-do list for February is going to have to be enough for now. Should I find myself running low on things to do mid-month, I'll supplement the to-do list at that time.
Job Search
It also occurs to me that I might do myself a favor to keep track of progress in the job search, too. Researching jobs (in international programs/study abroad offices, primarily) and writing cover letters takes up a certain amount of my time, after all. There haven't been a lot of jobs posted that, as a newbie to the field, I'm qualified for, but I'm hoping the trend changes as the director positions that have been posted are filled and more positions that require less direct experience working in the field open up (presumably as the people who held those jobs move up the ladder). I'm also investigating another possible career path, thanks to a nudge of encouragement from one of the faculty members I work with now. I'm a little curious to see how that develops.
Since December, I have applied for these jobs:
Indiana Univ. Continuing Studies AcAd
Marist College IP
UNLV IP (result: ding)
Plymouth State IP (result: ding)
Purdue Univ. IP
NC State Univ. IP
Albany IP
New School Univ. IP
Indiana Univ. Kelley School of Business AcAd (result: ding)
Hanover IP
Hartwick IP
This week I need to submit application materials to these jobs:
UNLV-USAC IP
Oregon IP
Pace Univ. SA
Georgia SA
Purdue Univ. IP
Wisconsin-Madison IP/SA
CEA SA
Goal: This month I will continue researching jobs in an effort to apply for three positions per week. (That's below the average recommended in career counselor circles, but I'm looking for a position in a field that's a bit more specialized than accounting, finance, or other business-focused jobs that are so easily found on boards like Monster.com, so it seems like a good average to strive for, based on the trends I'm seeing in the job ads.)
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Ah, winter...
Summing up January
Should you ever find yourself in Seymour, IN, drive away from the so-called outlet mall in a westerly direction, past all the strip malls and chain restaurants that purport to replicate your neighborhood, to downtown, where the storefronts feature lovely and intricate architectural details and you can find a restaurant & bakery called Grandma Carol’s on the corner across from the Chamber of Commerce. You’ll probably find Grandma Carol there along with at least one other family member. If you’re really lucky, you’ll find that the soup of the day is potato, and you’ll settle in for the tastiest bowl of creamy potato soup you’ve ever had. Grandma Carol has creamy peanut butter fudge, moist pumpkin bars, plate-sized cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing, peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and other assorted goodies, too. But mostly you ought to have a bowl of potato soup.
Stalled during the holidays, the job search continues. No interviews yet, but I’m hoping that a couple of the more promising leads will yield interviews, at the least, and offers, at the most. I’ve been advised to make an effort to attend the national conference in Seattle later this spring; while I would love to see Seattle again, I’m not sure I can make that work… airfare, hotel room, meals – these expenses add up. But I’ve got to research my options before nixing the idea entirely.
I joined (an incredibly literate, based on what I’d observed in other games) PBP game a few months ago. This is an exercise in writing, too. It’s been an interesting way to think about character development, and it’s helping me better understand some of the details in the rules that I haven’t necessarily had to pay close attention to in my other gaming groups. I’m curious to see if I can also develop a better feeling for describing combat and action, which is, I think, the aspect of the Eberron writing sample that required the most work – aside from an inspired move with something resembling a peach pit.
Ah, yes – writing… I probably wrote about 200 words during the whole month – and January is a pretty long month! Excuses for not working abound, but I’ve tried reaching out to a couple folks who seem a lot better at the motivation side of things than I am, just to try to find something in their methods that might help me find my own ways to Get Some Writing Done. I am starting to think that the 100-words-per-day plan is beyond feasible. According to the word count feature, at “feasible” this little post is 271 words, after all, and that’s been 10 minutes of my time, grabbed just before lunch.
I’m going to try announcing my writing goals here, as a few others do in their blogs. So in February, I will
1) submit “The Middle of Life” to another slush pile;
2) complete the modern pop-fantasy story I’ve been working on piecemeal, find a venue where it might best fit & send it there;
3) find a venue for “Storyweaver & send it there;
4) draft an outline for the fairy-tale based story in order to get the details out of my head and on paper;
5) and, while I’m cleaning closets in my mind, draft an outline for an as yet untitled project;
6) resume work on an RPG project, with the goal of completing my portion by the end of the month.
Six goals…. Let’s hope that’s a good start!
Postscript: February begins with a bang
Congratulations to my youngest brother, who just learned he received an arts grant of reasonable size, and to my older-younger brother, who has landed a new job which he enjoys and at which he excels.
Should you ever find yourself in Seymour, IN, drive away from the so-called outlet mall in a westerly direction, past all the strip malls and chain restaurants that purport to replicate your neighborhood, to downtown, where the storefronts feature lovely and intricate architectural details and you can find a restaurant & bakery called Grandma Carol’s on the corner across from the Chamber of Commerce. You’ll probably find Grandma Carol there along with at least one other family member. If you’re really lucky, you’ll find that the soup of the day is potato, and you’ll settle in for the tastiest bowl of creamy potato soup you’ve ever had. Grandma Carol has creamy peanut butter fudge, moist pumpkin bars, plate-sized cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing, peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and other assorted goodies, too. But mostly you ought to have a bowl of potato soup.
Stalled during the holidays, the job search continues. No interviews yet, but I’m hoping that a couple of the more promising leads will yield interviews, at the least, and offers, at the most. I’ve been advised to make an effort to attend the national conference in Seattle later this spring; while I would love to see Seattle again, I’m not sure I can make that work… airfare, hotel room, meals – these expenses add up. But I’ve got to research my options before nixing the idea entirely.
I joined (an incredibly literate, based on what I’d observed in other games) PBP game a few months ago. This is an exercise in writing, too. It’s been an interesting way to think about character development, and it’s helping me better understand some of the details in the rules that I haven’t necessarily had to pay close attention to in my other gaming groups. I’m curious to see if I can also develop a better feeling for describing combat and action, which is, I think, the aspect of the Eberron writing sample that required the most work – aside from an inspired move with something resembling a peach pit.
Ah, yes – writing… I probably wrote about 200 words during the whole month – and January is a pretty long month! Excuses for not working abound, but I’ve tried reaching out to a couple folks who seem a lot better at the motivation side of things than I am, just to try to find something in their methods that might help me find my own ways to Get Some Writing Done. I am starting to think that the 100-words-per-day plan is beyond feasible. According to the word count feature, at “feasible” this little post is 271 words, after all, and that’s been 10 minutes of my time, grabbed just before lunch.
I’m going to try announcing my writing goals here, as a few others do in their blogs. So in February, I will
1) submit “The Middle of Life” to another slush pile;
2) complete the modern pop-fantasy story I’ve been working on piecemeal, find a venue where it might best fit & send it there;
3) find a venue for “Storyweaver & send it there;
4) draft an outline for the fairy-tale based story in order to get the details out of my head and on paper;
5) and, while I’m cleaning closets in my mind, draft an outline for an as yet untitled project;
6) resume work on an RPG project, with the goal of completing my portion by the end of the month.
Six goals…. Let’s hope that’s a good start!
Postscript: February begins with a bang
Congratulations to my youngest brother, who just learned he received an arts grant of reasonable size, and to my older-younger brother, who has landed a new job which he enjoys and at which he excels.
