Backwards Schedule

I'm doing pretty well on my revisions, but I'm getting nervous that I'm not working quite fast enough. So, the remedy of course is a backwards schedule:

April 1--Thesis draft due to Advisor
March 17-April 1--Make final revisions on all stories.
March 17--Get third draft of Purpose to Advisor and fifth story (Untitled, second draft) to Advisor
March 8--Get fourth story (Purpose, second draft) and third draft of Queen to Advisor
February 22--Get third story (Queen, second draft) and third draft of Northern Exile to Advisor
February 12--Get two stories to Advisor, one will be the second draft (Northern Exile), the other will be the third draft (Sit, Stay)

This schedule is super tight, so I'm guessing I might need to push the April 1 date a bit. I think (and hope!) Advisor will be OK with that. I'll double check as the need arises...

Retreat report, backwards schedule

The retreat was wonderful! I was really worried about being silent for a whole weekend (and silence included not reading, writing, knitting or basically anything other than walking, sitting, eating, and doing bathroom stuff).

But it was easy! And pleasant. It's amazing how much I/we talk and think above and beyond what's necessary. I can't tell you how many times I had the same thought, about the same mundane things like, I'd like to find a low-calorie recipe for chocolate chip cookies...

And eating mindfully is wonderful! Food is so much more satisfying when you're actually paying attention to it instead of concentrating on what you're going to say next, etc.

Now it's back to reality, but hopefully a more mindful one. I even got up 10 minutes early for a brief meditation this morning. And that's saying a lot since I had to leave the house at 6:45.

One part of being back to reality is getting back on track with my MFA work. Here's my newest backwards schedule:

October 8: Submission due. Write letter to Tony, mail packet.

Oct 1-7: Add in new sections/revisions to the electronic version of the story.
Write about the new Lorrie Moore stories in essay form.

September 24-30: Journal/free write about the areas I marked up in previous week.
Read second Lorrie Moore story, take detailed notes.

September 17-24: Read over story I'm revising, mark up hard copy as to major things to change/explore/expand. Close read one Lorrie Moore story, take detailed notes.

This month is going to be a little tight timewise... I think I gave myself too much of a break by not working last week or this weekend. Oh well. Pedal to the metal now!

2 new backwards schedules

I've got a lot to get done this month, for both my MFA and MA programs. Luckily my teaching assistantship/grad assistantship don't start for another month, so I can focus my energies, as following:



Next MFA submission due: Sept. 10 (consists of 1 new story, 7 pages of 15 page essay)
Sept 1-9: Revise both as needed
August 24-31: Spread time equally between essay and new story, getting a draft of each done
August 17-24: Concentrate on expanding essay, continue to write at least 1 hour on most days
August 10-17: Free write on story every day (1-3 hours)


Next MA submission due: Sept. 15 (consists of expanded 25 page essay, 2 revised short stories)
Sept. 7-14: Revise Rest of June
Sept. 1-7: Continue writing essay
August 24-31: Write new parts of essay
August 17-24: Revise Trying
August 10-17: Finish braindumping on new short stories I am adding to essay, and revise/expand other sections of essay

And what's up with no one commenting on my blog this week? Is no one visiting? Am I a pariah???

Backward schedule

Another semester, another schedule. Here we go:

July 6- 10
Find books that deal with the topic of ending a short story/work of fiction (Any ideas, bloggers?) Think about scenes/character of new story
Read Alice Munro's new book (View from Castle Island)

Week of July 10- July 16
Start writing 2 hours a day of story
Read next book, The Gifts of the Body

Week of July 16-23
Continue writing 2 hours a day of story
Read some stories from Lorrie Moore's Self Help

Week of July 23- 30
Come up with outline for essay on short story endings
Write/revise new story

Week of July 30 -Aug 6
Finalize prologue and outline for essay
Finalize short story

Another schedule

Yes, I just made a backwards schedule not so long ago. But I have since fallen WAAAAY behind. So, with mere days until my final MFA deadline of the semester, here's a new one:

Tomorrow night: Write madly, for however long it takes to get a first draft done.
Saturday: Enjoy J.P.'s spring festival and M's baby shower.
Saturday night: Revise both annotations
Sunday: Revise, revise, revise.

I got myself a week extension on my IS project (since my advisor was late with comments. My hope is to spend two nights next week working on that, and then be done enough to hand it in. I love how my standards have lowered to include "done enough."

Another (f'n) backwards schedule

Can you tell I'm both a little behind and a bit annoyed about my last MFA submission of the semester?

Here's a backwards schedule to help me get there:

May 7: submission due
May 6: proof and finalize submission pieces, write letter to advisor
May 5: Concentrate on IS submission; do first edit of story. (Aghhh!)
Friday, May 4: Edit annotations.
Next week: Write two to three hours a day to get a draft of story done by Friday.
This weekend: Write second annotation. (Workload here is light because I'll have a house guest and a friend's wedding.)
This week: Do in-depth character study of main character (a suggestion from my mentor), read as many short stories as I am able to find topic for second annotation. (I did one this weekend.)

This week

This week, I need to schedule my time, even my day-work time, which I never do on here. But it's getting a tad insane in my little corner of the world. Normally my job is difficult, but not stressful, which allows me to do all my other stuff without feeling insane. Now, it's difficult and stressful, so I'm either going to A) explode like that asteroid I posted previously or B) schedule myself like crazy. Luckily I finagled a work at home day tomorrow so I can plow through stuff without all the office B.S. to interrupt me.

So, here goes:
Tonight
Staighten up (just the stuff that will drive me insane if I don't do it)
Start revision of chapter for IS project.


Tues
Morning goals: yoga/meditation, walk Chloe

Daytime goals:
* Finalize infertility content (2 long pieces , 2 shorter infertility supplements). Choose artwork.
* Edit heart piece, get it approved. Choose artwork for piece.

*Get fact checking back to the Men's Health doctor for review

Evening goals:
*Get down as much of a revision of the chapter for my IS project as I possibly can.
*Laundry, knitting as I can manage

Wednesday
Daytime goals
*Get infertility/heart content approved and out of my hair
*Interview intern candidates
*Update back content per new developments in heart disease
*Get press release ideas to freelancer


Evening goals:
*Start French class
*Finish draft of revision

Thursday
Daytime Goals
*Finalize cold and flu report
*Carryover from Wed.

Evening goals
*Finalize revision of IS chapter
*Possibly knit with friends if time allows

Friday
Daytime goals
*Clean up/pick up on all the stuff that I wanted to get done earlier in the week but didn't.

Evening goals
*Leave for NY! This weekend we'll be at my parents' house, and I'm going to try, try try to really relax for the first time in a while. Whoo!

Counting Backwards

I'm way behind and I'm having a hard time concentrating on my MFA work this week, so I need a backwards schedule to get me going. Here goes:

This weekend: Draft 1 annotation, read three short stories and decide on theme for other annotation. Write for at least 2 hours a day to get a full first draft down.

Next week: Draft second annotation, spend at least one hour each night revising story.

April 6: Finalize story

April 7: Away--no work!

April 8: Revise annotations, proof story

April 9: Write letter, send in submission

Final countdown

With only 6 days* to go until I need to submit my next MFA work, I need a backwards schedule. Here goes:

This weekend:
Finish preliminary revision of my story, finish first drafts of both annotations (which will involve rereading one story)

Monday:
Do a revision focusing only on making sure each sentence, scene, word is necessary. Also start thinking about the heart of the story and whether it is best expressed (Thanks TI)

Tuesday:
Another focused revision, this time going into each scene and making sure it is strong enough. This will mostly mean doing what I said in my last post about getting fully into the scene and making sure it is described well. Also what BostonErin said about making sure the reader can "see" each scene well.

Wednesday
Go over the mechanics that Carolee suggested in my last post's comments.

Thursday
Read story aloud.

*I'm going away on a yoga retreat next weekend and so I need, need, need to be done with everything on Friday so I can fully relax all weekend.