Goals
I’ve officially been home for one whole day and two wonderfully restful nights. I woke up in the middle of the night last night and had no idea where I was, which is a good thing because it means that I was sleeping very deeply. I really, really, REALLY needed that. I feel human again. And my TMJ has calmed way down, thank the gods.
But now that I’m home I have that familiar overwhelmed feeling. There are so many things that I want to do, and soon there will be so many things that I have to do. I will have to deal with the kitchen remodel, get ready for the start of the school year at work-school, and get ready for the start of the school year at school-school. I have to admit I’m kind of scared of the prospect of two grad classes combined with the beginning of the work-school year. And they are not even fun grad classes, though I’m sure I’ll get all into one dispute or another, over a school of thought in my psych class, or over a critical theory in my education class, which will cause me to be all consumed in whatever I’m doing. Being opinionated is sometimes very motivational.
But there are things that I want to do–not thing that I have to do, thank goodness, because that means I might actually do them. After spending my summer in writer-land, here are my new goals that I hope to start working on very soon:
1. Finish my damn teacher memoir. I’ve been working on it for far too long, and it is about time I get through it, if only to be able to put it to the side and continue on with my writing in other areas.
2. Try to find a way to get said memoir published. I have the names of several people who can help with this quest, courtesy of Bread Loaf, but as of now I’m not ready to contact those people, which puts further emphasis on the importance of #1, above.
3. Revisit my desire to write a YA novel. I know it is not literary in the ‘la-de-da I’m so very literary’ sense, but it is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time, and I really think I can incorporate some ‘la-de-da’ literary aspects into something for young adults, which will either result in something beautiful and profound, or awful and unreadable. We shall see.
4. Take up short story writing again, for two reasons. Reason one–I’d like to be able to try to submit short pieces for publication in obscure journals, as well as attempt to enter some contests just to see what happens. Reason two–I would like to be actively writing short stories myself before I start on my short story writing unit with my students. I’m pretty sure that in the process of doing it myself for the first time in…years…I will come up with some new ideas for my classroom.
5. Research MFA programs and start applying. Perhaps. Maybe I should reword that–decide for absolute certain that I want to pursue an MFA, and then, if I really, truly do, research and start applying. Unfortunately, even though I’ve been home for less than 48 hours, I’ve already started the research part. My husband thinks I am insane, and rightfully so.
6. Start and finish reading all of the books I bought in the last three months that are either straight-up instructional books on writing, or novels that I feel–or have been told–are literary-rich and therefore good examples of what I’m trying to do. The piles are all over my house, which is very daunting.
7. Continue to blog. Which reminds me…
This blog was meant to be a travel blog, but I’m no longer travelling. So it needs a new purpose. As it was experimental, I shall continue to experiment with it in a different way. After this post–which is kind of a cheating post, as I’m typing this on my desktop–I will again be blogging solely from my iPhone. I will be using it for the purpose of writing down things that strike me as odd, interesting, annoying–things that I encounter out in the world that are in any way note worthy, to be used as a jumping off point for writing longer nonfiction, or even fiction, pieces, which I will post on my other blog, This is Not Fiction.
This sounds complicated, and it is, but it is how my overly organized, OCD brain works. Wish me luck with that.