notes from the battlefield

Today I woke up feeling not-so-great. So instead of forcing myself to write another scene that I can't think straight about at the moment, I thought I'd come post an update on my life and work this past week.

I've written several more chapters over the last week. I really am going to reach my most important goal of finishing the draft by the end of the month. Woot! I also learned something rather interesting about myself in the course of the week. Here's what happened: for the first two days I was able to meet my arbitrary goal of 2000 words a day and was feeling pretty good about life. Then on Wednesday I ran errands in the morning and never really got much written. And that evening I had a date to watch LOTR: ROTK EE with Liberty and Nancy Wilcoxson, so of course I wasn't going to be working later. And for a while I felt really bad about it, like I had failed or something. Then I realized that being depressed wasn't going to help any. Besides, one day of little writing does not equal a failed project, or even necessarilly an unmet goal. The only goal I failed to meet was completely arbitrary in the first place, so there was n ogood reason for me to beat myself us over it. So I enjoyed my evening in Middle Earth and wrote another chapter the next day. I think that the reason I've had trouble in the past is that I tend to slip up a little or miss one day in a routine I've planned for myself and then give up because apparently I've already failed. But that's a stupid way to look at things, and I'm not going to do it anymore.

In other news, we had our first read-through for pit orchestra last Friday. Man, is that going to be a lot of work. I'm still the only violin, playing a part that was written for six. It's a good thing I enjoy this, or the next few weeks would be miserable. On the bright side, Jeff said we could take things down an octave whenever we want to. No more sixth position for me! I'm geting really excited for this show--it'll be nice when I finally get to see the plot that goes with the music that keeps running through my head.

I drove to Brookings Saturday night for the Hy-Vee Christmas party. It was at the bowling alley. It was really awkward at first, since I don't know all that many of my co-workers. I ended up spending half the evening with my manager, which was (I'll just be using this word a lot) awkward because of all the alcohol around. Eventually I found someone I knew to bowl with, and I did have a good time.

Yesterday was Mandy's 21st birthday, so we all went to Inca for dinner. It was a good time. Tonight Mandy and I are hanging out again to see the movie Freedom Writers. She needs to see it for her education class, and I just want to see it. Perhaps it will be the topic of my next post.

-Kim


Random fact: one translation of the Latin word "campus" is "battlefield."

another week, another plan

Well, I guess I really can believe that it's winter now. Not only do we have wind chills below zero, there is finally a good layer of snow on the ground. It made for interesting driving going to my writers group on Sunday, but I'm glad to see it nonetheless. After all, now we can maybe go sledding! It's kind of funny to see campus covered in white, because the plowing of sidewalks is rather irregular. And there's already a well-worn path of packed snow from Sully to the caf, because few of us bother to go the long way 'round on the sidewalks. Of course, it's narrow enough that it's currently awkward to pass someone going the other way.

Anyway, back to the activity that is driving my life these days: writing. As I mentioned, my group met this Sunday. It was quite possibly the best meeting we've had. We didn't even get into any specifics on my work, but I think I benefitted more than any other time. We were discussing editing more generally, though I did bring up some specific things in Caleb's work, which led to a lengthy discussion on the design of a musical instrument. We all even seemed to be getting along better, which may have had something do to with the fact that we were sitting closer together than we usually do. Anyway, everything we discussed left me feeling energized and excited to get back to work, and with a new plan for getting it done. I'm still going to keep track of how much time I spend working, but the real measure of success will be the word count. Professional writers (including Caleb from my group) write about 2000 words a day. They can reach that number in only a couple hours, and then they spend the rest of the day editing and experiencing life to get more material. It takes me quite a bit longer to make it to the 2000 word mark, but since I'm free of any other obligations, I'm still determined to reach the daily goal. When spring semester starts everything will change again, but for now this can really work. And it will ensure that I finish in time. Today I wrote an entire chapter, which feels great. Actually, it's parts of two chapters, but that's pretty much the same thing. Now I'm rambling, and I think I've lost track of what I was initially trying to tell you. Oh well. It probably doesn't matter...

-Kim

benchmarks

Well, I've made it to Thursday. What do I have to show for myself? Not nearly as many hours as I had optimistically hoped for, but I'm meeting my content goals. I've already finished the chapters of the middle section that have been holding me back for so long. Now I can move forward to the really fun and complicated stuff at the end. That's going to be even more difficult to write, but I look forward to the challenge. And one big reason that the total hours doesn't measure up is that my class was meeting this week. Going to class and doing the reading effectively eliminated two otherwise prefect writing hours each day. Oh well. After tomorrow I'll be done with that.

Whenever I'm not writing I seem to get sucked into outings. On Tuesday night a bunch of us went hot tubbing at Ian's house, and last night I found myself at the Fryn' Pan at midnight. Apparently Perkins is only open 24 hours on the weekend, which was disappointing to learn. Oh well. At any rate, that meant that today I had breakfast right before going to my 12:00 class, and now I'm completely off-kilter. Whee!

Class has been very interesting. Some of what we've talked about has ben affirmation of things I already do and just don't do often enough. I like to be completely alone, without even music playing when I get serious about prayer. Since words are so important to me, I find it's easier to concentrate on God if I write out my prayer to him in a journal entry. It helps me put my ideas in order, and then in perspective. But looking back through that journal, it's easy for me to see that I don't do it often enough. usually it will be when I'm feeling very strongly about something, good or bad, and just need to talk through it, and that doesn't happen on a regular basis. I guess what I've taken from this class is that prayer--real solid prayer, as in listening to God without distractions--is far too important to only enter into once in a while. Of course it isn't realistic for us all to become desert hermits (that wouldn't be helpful anyway), but taking a few more minutes every day to approach God in reverent silence would make such a difference. That being said, the trip we'll be taking in May will make us all hermits for a little while, so we'll see how that changes things.

-Kim

new year, new life

Hello all. I realize it's been a really long time since I posted anything here, but I'm not going to apologize for it or anything. Even the summary will be short. I survived finals, I had a great break, and now I'm back for interim. There. You get nothing else on the past. Unless I change my mind later. Anyway.

I've done something different for interim each year, but I'm still going to go with the idea that this is my strangest J-term yet. My roommate has left the country, for one thing. Check out her blog to read cool things about England. I'm not gonna lie--the first few nights with the room all to myself were a little weird. But now I'm loving having the space to myself. The best part might be that I can actually turn on the lights while getting ready in the morning. Well, the solitude for writing is probably the real best thing, but I thought I'd mention the other reasons too. And don't worry, I'm not turning into a recluse. Last night I had a bunch of people in the room playing Apples to Apples, which was great. Corinne and Mandy came over and random other people showed up as we went along. I also went ice skating last night with Corinne and Brittany. When we got to the park we discovered that skate rentals were free for the night, so that was pretty much amazing. Yes, I do have a class this interim, but it doesn't start until today at noon. I'm really excited for it, actually. Of course, we won't be doing the fun part--the week-long canoe trip in the Boundary Waters--until May, but discussion this week should be good too.

And now to the really important bit. I have more free time right now than I have had since I started grade school. Having used the first couple free days to relax, rearrange my room and see some people, it's time to get to work. I want a career as a writer, so this month is my chance to practice living that life. My mom has suggested I try to work a 40 hour week writing my book, so right now I'm trying that. Today it's looking like all my hours will be coming after lunch. This writing doesn't count as work, though it does sort of work to "prime the pump" and get me in a writing mindset. Yesterday I spent four hours working and wrote about half a chapter. I was also bouncing around doing bits of editing, which would explain why it took so long for me to get through only two pages of new text, but I think that's okay. Once I get used to this whole writing all day lifestyle I should be able to produce more at once. The best part of all this is that I should be able to finish the draft of my novel by the end of the month. That would be absolutely amazing, since it's been half finished for the last couple of years. My writing group is meeting again this Sunday, so I'm hoping to have finished the last couple chapters of the current section before I see them. It shouldn't be a problem, since I only have maybe four new scenes to write. Wow. It's actually hard for me to believe that I'm that close. I wonder if I'll know what to do with myself once I finish things. Well, I know that I'll have to do a huge ammount of editing and then write a plot summary and cover letter and start sending it out to publishers, but emotionally I'll be a little lost. I mean, I've been working on this one story for as long as I've really been serious about writing. I guess it's a good thing I already have an idea ready for the sequel so I won't have to leave the world completely. I'm getting ahead of myself now, but it is something I've been thinking about. You know, I'm even more glad to have found my group when I stop and realize that I have no idea how to go about getting myself published. But my new friends do--at least some of them. None of them are published yet, but they have experience in how to submit work, who to send it to and all that. Their help seems proof to me that now is the time for me to finish my book. Well, that plus encouragement from so many other sources and this sudden gift of free time to write. All these blessings coming at the same time seems like God giving me the nod, telling me that yes, this is what I want you to do, so go ahead and get it done. It's a great feeling.

-Kim

That long?

Has it really been since before Thanksgiving that I posted anything for you to read? I'm terribly sorry. I guess I'll have to catch you up a bit on life before I begin my musings. I have three papers left to finish before finals, which seem to have snuck up on me. Can it really be only two weeks from today that I will be finishing my grammar course? Wow. That class has actually been a lot more interesting than I thought it ever could, but I'll still be glad when I no longer have to diagram sentences.

We're halfway done with Madrigals now. Last week's preparations were pretty stressful, but now that everything is rolling we're all okay. We've had a couple good shows, and I can't wait for my family to come see it next weekend. Oh, and there's been a bit of dispute over my costume. Yes, I am actually wearing pink again, but that's not the issue. While most people see fit to just tell us that we all look great, a couple of the guys decided to go a bit further. David told me I looked like a field girl, by which I think he meant shepherdess or something. Steve and Clint, on the other hand, decided that I look like a German bar maid, and have taken to calling me the beer wench. What will those Ferducci's think of next?

Yesterday was Christmas chapel. The only part I feel is worth mention was "O Holy Night," which was performed as a dance. Liberty played piano, I played violin and Jeff played oboe. The whole thing was just gorgeous, and I was so glad to be a part of it. I admit that I was nervous before--the room was so cold it could have put my instrument out of tune--but once I started playing, the experience was one of pure joy. I rarely get to play with other musicians, and to do so with such talented musicians and as an act of worship was indescribably great.

On a related note, Maria said the sweetest thing the other day. As I was leaving my lesson she got all motherly and made sure I zipped my coat and put on my gloves. She told me that the gloves were important because my hands are "precious." Of course she's right--without them how could I play the violin and make music? But it was the way she said it that made me smile. And this was at the end of a lesson that had already gone very well. She kept pushing the metronome up so that I would play my solo piece faster, and it was actually getting better as I got faster, to a certain point. Sometimes we just need to be pushed past where we're comfortable in order to make things even better.

And that's probably all for today, since I do have papers to write and novels to read.

-Kim