Sister Act!

I graduated in May. Commencement at the Chicago Theater was really exciting. They gave gospel legend Mavis Staples an honorary degree. She spoke and did a little singing, and I caught the spirit and started dancing in the aisle, pretending that my gown was a choir robe. My neighbors were none too pleased. The event provided terrific closure on my career as a grad student at Columbia College Chicago.

Cool. Now, what next?

I’m still working for Storycatchers, learning how to do new things for their programs and trying to make myself as valuable to them as I can. And, since I graduated, I couldn’t be a Grad Assistant in Multicultural Affairs anymore, but I did get a new part-time job doing writing and editing work in a different Columbia office two doors up.
I’ve got my professional life lined up, but what about my creative life?

Do I miss the structure of needing to turn in writing for class every week?
Yes.

But…

Did turning in work every week get me in the habit of writing regularly?
Yes.

And, if being out of school means that the semester never ends, then I should be able to keep producing work, right?
Eh, kinda.

Instead, I decided it would be smartest to set a goal…then tell a bunch of people, so I’d have to stick to it for fear of getting made fun of.

Here’s my goal: Finish my novel by Labor Day Weekend.

The darn book is hovering around 80% done. I could keep it that way forever, making little tweaks here and there, or I could build up momentum by working on it regularly, keeping a list of changes I want to make, then rereading it for discrepancies and holes.
I should be able to do that in the course of what I’m calling my Summer Semester. And I’ll follow through if I keep telling myself that I have to do it to keep from failing…at life. Writing is what I love to do and what I want to do, so I need to stay driven.

So far, I’ve been good but not great. At first I was like, “I just graduated. It’s OK to take a little break.”

Then I was like, “Well, let me work on these shorter pieces that I’ve been neglecting.”

Then I was like, “GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND DO THIS. YOU DO NOT NEED TO WATCH ANOTHER EPISODE OF ‘THE KILLING.'”

So, I took some advice from my Big Books professor Audrey Niffenegger and wrote each problem with my book on a Post-It, stuck it to the wall above my desk and started peeling them off as I progressed.

So far, so good.

Ready, set…summer.