Some writerly news

1- I am just about done with my new short story. I just have to insert some specifics about baking after I take my French Pastries class on Monday night. I'm really happy with it, though it's definitely a first draft, in all it's not-quite-there-yet glory. But I think I've found a voice that works for me, which is quite exciting.

2- I got a graduate assistantship. It's paid, and I will be working for the director of my MFA program to get their alumni newsletter up to snuff. It will be good experience working on a university's somewhat creative-writing based publication, and I will probably meet a bunch of great people who know a lot more about the writing world (and a lot more people in it) than I do.

3- I will also be serving as a teaching assistant to a creative writing class at Lesley. This is unpaid, and will serve as my Interdisciplinary Study class. I am thrilled to have the opportunity. The downside? The class that best fit into my work schedule meets at 8 am in Cambridge, Mondays and Wednesdays. This means I'll have to leave my house before 7. You know what time I normally get up on Mondays and Wednesdays? Around 8, and that's with a ton of prodding from my alarm clock and Bug. I am going to be one sleepy bug. I'll probably also be insanely stressed trying to balance all this. But I am also very happy and proud of myself, and I know the stress will be worth it.

Learning

I feel like I'm really getting somewhere with my story. More than that, I feel like I'm really getting somewhere with my writing. First semester the most important thing I learned was what a real story was--that it showed movement of a discernable sort and that it was made up of scenes that built on one another and had true purposes. (I probably knew these basic things somewhere, but I didn't know them, if you know what I mean.)

This semester I'm learning a ton about how to bring out theme in a story, how to use details to build up that theme in interesting ways. And I feel like I can see a serious progression in the strength of my pieces from the first ones I handed in last June to this last one I'm working on now (with a serious blip in there to mark the crap that was the first story I handed in this semester).

So, kudos to me. Hah. Just kidding. But I am pretty amazed with how much I'm learning from this program. I should be an advertisement for Lesley College.