I'm not one for reverse psychology or other sorts of psychological games, but I have to say that aiming for a 5 a.m. start-time has made 6 a.m. easier than tying my shoes. 6 a.m. feels positively reasonable. So that's something. I don't know whether aiming for 4 will have the same impact on 5. I'm not quite ready to try it. This week's wake-up goal: continue aiming for 5 but be satisfied with 5:30. Sounds like such a game.I completed my easiest MFA assignment: read C.S. Lewis's essay, "A Grief Observed." It's supposed to help me think about how to include reflection in my non-fiction (a funny thing for a philosopher to need to work on, I know). The thing that I learned from this beautiful and human meditation on grief is that reflective writing can be concrete. It does not need to remain abstract. I've got to run through it one more time to isolate one or two ways that he achieves this. The main question behind one of these craft annotations is "how did the author do that?" Second question: "How can I do that in my own writing (if I want to, and in this case I do!)?"
This week involved its share of panic and pacing, but I think I can attribute that to three things (1) re-entry from a month of being away from my life as I know it; (2) looking at my life as I know it beside the list of things I need to do to stay on task for the MFA, and seeing that heroic measures are called for. This had the undesirable effect of hurling me into wheel-spinning mode for just about the entire week; (3) a mid-week, early morning, very lengthy interview by an enormous committee for a position that I really, really want. Logistically, large committees have lots of questions, even if each person asks only 2-3. So it felt like quite the grilling. Anyway, within 24 hours I received a phone call saying that they have recommended me for the position. What this means is that things will get more complicated on July 1, 2007. In a good way, I hope.
I don't think I need to use the past six days as a benchmark for anything that is to come. Things will settle.
5 comments:
Congrats on the recommendation for the position--I know that position will mean great things for your writing when you can take another sabbatical of sorts...and you'll have sufficient course reduction (I hope), which means you can devote some more time to your dreams and passions--yea!
I've been doing the early-morning writing routine as well...it's a struggle getting up (this is funny to me, considering I got up at 3 a.m. for close to seven years...and had been doing it every Saturday morning up until October of 2005). But I feel GREAT mid-day when I'm consumed with the client stuff, yet I know I've already devoted time to my number one pursuit.
I'm hoping to get closer to 5 a.m. as well...I figure that will be a helluva lot easier as daylight gets earlier...we should be in great writing-routine shape by the next residency.
You're doing great work, TI. Keep at it.
Peace,
FC
Wow! Congratulations on the new position. That's such great news!! I hope you're treating yourself well and celebrating.
You are so funny about your early morning rising. The snooze button has become my best friend. First, I snooze twice, then I go in for a silent pep talk, then I guilt trip myself across my apartment. That's my method and I'm sticking to it (for now, anyway).
That's such interesting feedback about needing to reflect more in your non-fiction. Do you find that you reflect on your blog? (Wouldn't it be horrible and weird if we had to workshop our blogs?) I wish I could sit in on some of the other genre workshops. I'm so curious what the process is like for others and what kind of feedback is given.
Did you fill out your residency eval? I did mine last night.
Congrats! I knew you'd get it. Hope it doesn't get in your way, but I know that you have been really needing a change.
I can't even comprehend 5am
So proud of you.
O man. I posted a long comment yesterday and now it's gone. Can you tell me/us more about the position? Congrats!
And BTW, when you get up at whatever time, do you find it hard to get out of bed? No matter what time I set my alarm for, I find it pretty impossible not to want to sleep more. Just wondering if I'm the only one.
Hi Bug. I'll e-mail you more about the position off-blog.
Yes, I like to stay in bed past the alarm, but I can't stay in bed much past 7:30, alarm or not. For the past two years I have been waking up to a meditation cd (Louise Hay, Morning and Evening Meditation), which goes off about 25 minutes before I plan to get out of bed. I sleep through that, then wake up when she says to open my eyes, then go meditate for real. It's pretty gentle.
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