Thursday 5 January 2012

Endings and beginnings...

What happens when you chain yourself to your desk for a whole month in a desperate attempt to get your thesis written? Well, a thesis, apparently. That and a lot of coffee drinking, which of course aided the cause. I have completed the thirty one days of concentrated writing which I dubbed Thesis Month with three chapters (an introduction, one on DeLillo's Falling Man and one on Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist) which total around 22,000 words, 16,000 of which were written in the last month alone. I still have one more chapter (on McEwan's Saturday) plus a conclusion and all of the suggested revisions from my supervisors to write over the next 20 days but the end is in sight and it looks like it is going to be possible.

This thesis will be, by far, the longest single piece of writing I have ever done. Normally I churn out blog posts or articles that are 1,200 words in length without too much difficulty but despite my love of writing, there has always been this weird mental barrier in my head when it comes to writing anything very much longer. Especially something with chapters. Locking myself away for a month has made me realise, though, that what all of the best writers have said is true: Writing is work and you just have to keep showing up at your desk every day until you get it done. Previously I had tended to be one of those "write when inspiration hits" types which, you can imagine really doesn't work so well when there are strict deadlines and academic penalties involved. Anyway, two more months and this thing will be submitted and I will be free of tertiary study for the first time in 12 years! The possibilities of what I will do with the extra time are endless including reading what I want, whenever I want, purely for the hell of it. Heaven is just around the corner.

In other news, I have been given an exciting new job. The place where I work, The Community Services Center in Taipei, has an English language lifestyle magazine aimed at the international community living in Taipei and beyond. Recently, the editor who had been doing a fabulous job of looking after this magazine decided that she was going to step down and to my absolute joy my boss asked me if I would like to consider doing it. Of course I accepted, joyfully and with many fist-pumps. I have just started work on my first issue due out in February. Yet another reason to get this thesis done and dusted so I can focus my attentions on this new project, also known as My Dream Job.

Once I have got the thesis out of the way I will be spending some time thinking about the direction I want to take this blog in and being more committed to writing it on a regular basis. I have been having a few thoughts about what kinds of books I want to spend my time reading and also thoughts about how much Taiwan I want to include here. But I want to finalise one commitment before I take on another to ensure that both get the love and attention they need. It's almost like I can't really and truly celebrate the new year until I finish the thesis because I can't make new goals and resolutions until I have. But that's OK - it just gives me another reason to pop a cork on a bottle of something a bit special at the end of the February!

I hope you're all well and have had a wonderful Festive Season with your loved ones and that 2012 will be a fantastic year for you. Also I want to thank you for bearing with me during this period of blogging silence - I even gained a few new followers which I am most grateful for. Happy New Year!

10 comments:

  1. When I read the title of your post, I thought you were moving away. You gave me a fright! :-) Congratulations on the thesis and your new job, I am looking forward to seeing your first issue.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congratulations on the new job and the lessons learned. It sounds like you have a lot of exciting possibilities ahead!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Catherine - oh fear not, there's no way I am going anywhere any time soon.

    Shannon - thanks heaps! I am so excited about it all. Also thanks for the retweet of this post's link!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations on the new job. I'm glad the thesis is going well. I can't imagine having to do that. You're almost there! I'm sure it will be nice to read at your leisure.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Keep up the good work...I'll be glad when you're done this with "thesis" stuff so we can see more of you on The Sunday Salon. After all, that's what is important. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kristi - Thanks! I'm so looking forward to reading at leisure, I can't tell you!

    Unfinished - Haha, totally. Have to have the priorities straight! :D I am actually planning on participating tomorrow. I will reveal a shameful secret that may see me banned from the book blogging community ;) Stay tuned...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congratulations on the new job! And I know from experience how hard it can be to write a thesis and blog and do every thing else in your life (mine was a master thesis, and I'm not sure what yours is, I have come to learn that Europeans use thesis for bachelor & master thesis, and dissertation for PhD, but tht others may use thesis for PhD only). Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Iris, thanks! It's a masters. If I start note plating a phd I think I will have totally gone mad ;) this is enough academia for me!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Contemplating, even! Darned auto correct!

    ReplyDelete