Yay! Sort of

I submitted my final thesis paper on time, Sunday, February 28, 2016. I was extremely pleased that it was a completed novel, including those grand words: THE END at the fini. I have been allowing my brain to start considering other characters for different stories and making tentative mental outlines with the intention of placing them in Scrivener. Started getting a pretty decent impression of Robert’s love interest and started thingking more about who she is.  Logged onto the school site last night and discovered my thesis paper had been graded. On the ‘up’ side, I got 505 points out of a possible 505 and passed the course with a solid ‘A’. Awesome, yay me! On the ‘down’ side [I guess] was a generalized statement saying two areas seemed ‘rushed’ and need more work, flesh out characterization [characters were established many chapters ago] and setting. The comments actually confused me, more than anything… I will say she is correct on some areas feeling ‘rushed’, I kind of felt that after writing them….

So now I need to pull Lynette and Lachlan back into my brain and do a complete re-read so I can rework and revise the entire book, but mainly focus on the last five chapters – those are the ones not peer reviewed. Not a big deal, actually. Revision and editing are part of the process to complete a piece. I know this. I expect this.

Please understand, I’m not bitching here. I anxiously awaited the final critique – more than the grade – to have the comments and review to know what areas presented problems to readers. I don’t know, perhaps I expected the detailed comments such as my peers rendered over the last twenty weeks – which is what the instructor had done, as well. And I didn’t get that. Just a fairly generalized paragraph saying ‘it felt rushed.’ But no details where or when this feeling came about, so I’m a bit confused. *sighs* So, one option I have is to send the final five chapters to the peers I worked with, the closest. Another option is to send the entire novel [I’ll be doing this, anyway! *laughs*] to my daughter, for her views as a reader. And of course, doing a re-read for myself and see if I see the areas or area generalized in the paragraph my instructor gave; it’s been only four days since I completed the book, so actually kind of early to do a re-read, in my opinion.

Okay then, have some mundane things to do [grocery shopping!] and would like to get my hair cut, although I’m not sure I’ll do that today, and go to Starbucks! With that said, I am so outtie….

Progress, of a sort

Okay, first of all, my new bedroom outfit arrived yesterday and is quite lovely. Gardenia bedroom outfit (image) from Rooms to Go  – only difference is my headboard is solid black and I do like the headboard pictured more. *sighs* Oh well. I have the bed, two end tables, the long dresser with mirror and storage on dresser… I opted not to purchase the tall dresser or media storage unit but do plan to buy another black bookcase for my room. I have a TON of books sitting on my floor, all that use to be on my old waterbed bookcase-headboard. And, my new mattress is suppose to be ‘plush,’ (i.e. soft, not firm) but doesn’t feel anywhere near as plush as the showroom model was… but, this was my first night sleeping on it, too.

But I do like the look and feel of my new room. So much so, that when I awoke this morning, instead of playing games while drinking coffee as per my typical routine of late, I spent the entire morning doing homework. Read three peer stories and wrote two critique’s – although I’ve not posted them yet. I decided to take a quick break and check my phone, log into Clash of Clans, and grab my household email, and a few other mundane chores that allow me to move about and circulate a bit. Figured I’d go ahead and post a quickie update to my blog before heading back to my bedroom and homework. Feeling pretty relaxed and more than ready to finish my homework – a day early. I might even get started back on my current novel – the paranormal romance.

Life is good, so I am so outtie….