(Much Too) Great Expectations

Comm Studies Award winner!

The fact that it's been almost a month since my last post can only mean one thing: a semester has ended. The past month has flown by in a flurry of presentations and papers and grading and excuses and more grading.  Last week, my eyes watered listening to Pomp and Circumstance. Yesterday, I uploaded the last of the final grades.   Today, I give myself a reflection pause.

It was an interesting semester, one that started really strong. My students were active and engaged.  They read before class and tested well.  By midterm, either they were fading, or I was.  Regardless, Spring Semester 2012 fizzled out, puttered to a stop, limped into home.

Squirrels and Shiny Objects

You:       Hey, T, how's that modified single tasking going?  Did you finish revising that short story you were planning to work on this month?

Me:        SQUIRREL! (runs off chasing real and imaginary playthings).

I used to be highly efficient and extremely productive.  No, really, I did.  I don't know what happened.  I could blame lots of things.  For example, my students in Pop Culture will be debating the influence of digital culture on productivity Monday. I giggled when one admitted that she HAS to check Facebook before she starts writing a paper.  Guilty. Of course, I've been a cyber-junkie for at least ten years, so I'm not sure it's fair to look in that direction.

Drafty

Last night, I was chatting with a friend, and I informed her that I’d be sending her a short story draft in the near future.  I have a particularly high level of respect for this friend’s opinion of my writing, so I told her I was nervous.  Her response: “Drafts are … drafty.  Even when they’re final drafts.”

I tilted my head and smiled.  There was so much to love about that statement, and I instantly knew I needed to blog about it.   At surface level, this would appear to be one of my writing blogs, but stick with me a minute.

Insecure Writer's Group Post: Trends

I am definitely not a trendsetter.  I'm sure I follow trends, however, though I've always been uncomfortable being obvious about it.  In high school, for example, if someone had the same shirt or same pair of jeans, I retired that item of clothing, too concerned about being exactly the same as another person (while desperately trying to fit in at the same time—go figure).  Today, I am less concerned about either following the pack or setting the pace.  I'm generally happy to fall somewhere in the middle.

What Travyon Martin and the Hunger Games have in common

In today's blog, I use my communication professor voice rather than my fiction writer voice. I started a different The Hunger Games inspired blog yesterday, and I'll get back to that later.  Today, a friend tweeted this link, and I needed to talk a little about it. Please take a moment to read the link.

Racist Hunger Games Fans are Very Disappointed


The article showcases several tweets which reveal the way some fans reacted to the casting of Rue, Thresh, and Cinna, in particular. A few examples are beyond vile, but they can be summed up with this one,

"I was pumped about the Hunger Games. Until I learned that a black girl was playing Rue."

Patience

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. 

~Harriet Tubman

Yes, I am a dreamer, and I can totally see myself in Tubman's quotation.  Strength and passion might as well be my hyphenated middle name. Here I go off to change the world. Wait. There was something else?  Patience.  Oh crud. Me and patience?  No so much.

I'm sure there are dreamers who are good at that waiting thing, but I'm not one of them.  I'm more likely to attack the situation.  I also tend to want pretty fast results, and if they don't come, I may get bored and move on.  I realize it's a fundamental flaw.

This morning Elana Johnson's blog that talked about failure, and one of the things she said in failure we learn our weaknesses.  I loved that sentiment.  I tend to think I'm pretty good about figuring out my weaknesses but my lack of patience means I usually either barrel through them or find ways around them rather than taking the time to fix them. (No, I'm not just talking about writing.)A friend of mine began to query her novel.  The requests poured in.  I believe she ended up with a forty percent rate of request for her manuscript.  The agents commented on the strength of her writing.  I might have taken that as a sign to mass mail my query to every agent in the querytracker database, but she did not.  In fact, she stopped querying altogether so she could embark on a substantial revision she believes will make the book better.  Yes, she wants to publish, but she has the patience to wait until her novel is exactly where it needs to be.

Insecure Writer's Post: Is it done yet?

Once in a while, I have to run out while something is cooking or baking.  I will ask my husband to take it out when it's done.  "How will I know?" He'll ask. Then, I have to figure out how to describe something that is often subjective.

• It's exactly golden brown. 
• It springs back to the touch.

• It's crispy just around the edges.

There's a lot of pressure in knowing when something is ready. You can hover around the stove, opening the door every few seconds, maybe even pulling the meal out when it's just a little underdone.  Or maybe you take a laissez faire approach and until someone asks, "What's that smell?"