More of my school supplies from my buying frenzy of two weeks ago have arrived, and along with these two gorgeous notebooks (one from Jet Pens and one from May Designs) I received Blackwing pencils and another daily notebook that I will use when my Unicorn Notebook runs out of pages.
It’s been a fast week, as we were snowed in for a bit and had to contend with some frigid temperatures. But now, snow and ice are melting and we are moving into what seems to be more of a normal winter for Southern Indiana.
I’m trying to sort out my school supplies into strict purposes. I am not one for a paper and pen journal anymore–Facebook and blogging took that need away–but I use them for organization. I have a special Moleskine Professional Notebook I bought to organize my post-tenure life, and I use it to set up research projects and schedules. I have the new Assessment notebook specifically for my job on campus as Assessment Coordinator, and the new Gryphon notebook for what, I don’t know yet. But school supplies are clearly the best, and clearly the reason I went into academia: notebooks, folders, post-its, and pens and pencils!
As for writing, I have been writing every day the past two weeks, without one day off, and I feel fantastic about it. I’m still writing until I don’t feel like writing, so I’m averaging about 2-3 pages a day, some days more, some days fewer. I think I’m going to give myself until February and then start to set small goals: 30 minutes of writing, or, 3 pages a day. I’m over 52K on the MARVEL project, and I see the big movements coming into play.
I don’t write from outlines, not as a creative nor as an academic writer. I just write, sloppily and out of hand and fast. I then revise, revise, revise. For creative, I revise as I go, reviewing previous days’ work before getting into new work, but I do big revisions after I’ve written the bulk or the entirety of the MS. Academic is a bit different since I do so much research, but I’ve worked on a project the past two weeks in my online writing group (Fridays 9-11 a.m.) and I feel confident I am close to finished.
The Postmodern Bluestocking 