Revised revision plan

I did not get to revise anything this weekend, as I had planned. I did finish laying out the alumni newsletter I'm working on for my grad assistantship, and that took all my work time/energy. So... now I need to spend this week revising stuff to submit for my MFA residency. This is how I plan to proceed:

Tonight: Make notes on the main characters of the tougher of the two stories I plan to revise. Identify scenes that need to be added/deleted. Use a chapter of Prep (a book I'm currently reading and loving) as a model for how much showing and telling to do.

Tomorrow: Begin rewriting

Wednesday: Continue rewriting

Thursday: See Steven Cramer read (see previous post for more info)

Saturday: Revise 2nd story (which needs less work, in my opinion)

Sunday: Finish up whatever I haven't gotten to in both stories.

What to submit?

I'm taking the train to New York this weekend for some pre-Thanksgiving
friends and family parties. I want to bring printouts of the two
stories I need to revise for my MFA residency so I can read them over
and take notes. This, of course, begs the question: which stories
should I revise??

I wrote three this semester. One that I definitely plan on revising needs a good deal of work--especially in terms of that oldie but goodie
of "show don't tell." One of the other stories I'm pretty happy
with--it needs some revision, but it's definitely on its way to being
done. I haven't received comments from my mentor on the third story
yet, but I am assuming it will need more work.

So what I'm wondering is: do people submit
stuff to workshop that they know needs a lot of work and will therefore
be ripped apart (in a supportive way--one hopes!)? Or do you submit
stuff that you're pretty happy with to see if others feel it's "done"
too (and maybe, just maybe, to get a bit more praise than you would
otherwise)?

Package 2: sent

I sent my second MFA submission yesterday, which means that I'm officially half way through my third semester. Gulp! (The feelings that go along with being close-ish to done with my MFA program deserve another post.) I feel pretty good about what I sent, in as far as I ever feel good about sending someone my SFDs (Shitty First Drafts).

I experimented with the omniscient point of view in both a long short story (20ish pages) and a short short story (3 pages). I'm proud of myself for stepping into this unknown and scary territory. After all, the omniscient POV means you (the author) have to make many more decisions than you would if the story were told from one person's point of view. Which characters' heads do we get into in the story as a whole? What about in each particular scene? What would you gain from hearing the thoughts of each character? What would you lose? Is it OK to be in a character's head in one scene, but then not another? (If anyone would like to comment on this issue/these questions, please do!)

I usually try to take some time off between submissions, but unfortunately this week will be devoted to more work, though not for my MFA. I will:

* Revise The Rest of June, a story I'm submitting for my Harvard MLA thesis.
* Revise the prologue for the medical memoir I worked on for my IS last semester.
* I also want to try to take some photos, especially of my garden and knitting projects and post them.

Submission: Sent!

Though I literally waited til the 11th hour, I got the last submission of the semester done in time (I sent it out at 11pm last night!). It's very rough. The ending is insanely rushed. But it's out there.

For next semester, I'd like to work on really perfecting my annotation writing. It's something I seem to fluctuate on, with my biggest problem being that something that seems obvious and clear to me is not to an outside reader.

I have a few more to work on my last IS submission (which, to be honest, I haven't even started!). It's just editing two 2nd drafts of chapters, though, so I'm not too stressed. I can't be--because I have to squeeze it in to a very hectic week work-wise and personal life-wise.

I'm SO looking forward to this weekend. For the first time in like a hundred years, I will have NO work to do. In fact, I plan not to turn on my computer. Brian will be away, so I will have plenty of time to myself to regroup. Ahhhh...

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.)

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