The Big Idea

I have 60+ pages written of the first draft of my novel manuscript. These past couple of weeks have been great. I’m writing six pages a day with about two days off a week. I can see some pretty big holes in my writing: undeveloped characters, elements of the setting not clear, and some plot points need work. But I have an entire year to re-write, edit, and rework it. Also, I will have two writing groups to bring it to in the Fall.

So for now I’m focusing on getting a completed first draft. I have about three more weeks until the Summer Writing Program to get it done. That’s plenty of time.

Here is an excerpt from my final paper in my Notes on Architecture class where I review the process I’d gone through last semester towards beginning the [...]

The semester has ended, for what it’s worth. If I had to give a grade to Naropa for the Fall semester it would have been an A+, and for this semester a C. I guess that comes to a B average which isn’t bad, but the kind of writing I am doing didn’t seem to get a lot of support.

Toward the end of the semester I was considering transferring to another MFA program. I just wasn’t getting what I wanted from The Jack Kerouac School.

The last month I talked with Bhanu Kapil and Indira Ganesan about it. Bhanu gave me some very helpful insights. She helped me realize that I was wanting to transfer to a program that would focus on my strength’s rather than challenge my weaknesses. That’s not how I like to do things. During my undergrad [...]