24 posts tagged “uni”

I got an email today, telling me that I can pick up my copy of Wuthering Heights on Monday. I have to read it for Tuesday.

SparkNotes, here I come.

In fan-bloody-tastic news, I'm collaborating on a short story! This is something I've wanted to do for a while now. This week, a friend from the Permuted Press forums suggested we work together on a short story for the Giant Creatures anthology. He has a concept, I have time to write. We're in the process of bouncing ideas off of each other right now, and so far it's looking good. If it turns out as intended, it'll probably be the best things I've worked on.

At first I was a little nervous about working with someone who's a better writer than me, but the brainstorming process has been going so well that I'm actually pretty sure that the story we're working on will turn out better than my regular stories.

Also, I'm going to have to start work on the new Angler soon. The meeting for the next issue will be either Monday or Friday of next week. I'll most likely be interviewing the boss of Permuted for the lit-related articles they want me to do, and I might have to do another article on an Anglophone country. I hope I don't, to be honest. I've already run out of Anglophone friends, and I don't like writing about countries that I've never visited.

Actually, I know a load of Yanks, but I think it's a bit silly to write an article about America. The less obvious Anglophone countries are a lot more interesting, and will have much more on offer that the audience won't already know.

Also, went on a big reading spree this weekend. It was mostly to avoid reading Huckleberry Finn (it's probably fantastic but the language annoys the hell out of me). So, I started and finished both Breakfast of Champions and Every Sigh, The End.

Next time I'm procrastinating, I'll probably type some reviews up. This will probably happen later on tonight, knowing myself.

So, I've been working on OCR. I sent it off last night, heard back today.

Right now it might go into the 'probable' category, but that could change at any time. I'm going to edit OCR up again and re-send it when I feel like it's done.

I'm still in the running for GT's TBW anthology. The official TOC has been announced, but they're having troubles finalising it completely. I haven't had a rejection or acceptance yet, and according to their forums, that means I could still get in. I'm counting on not getting in, so I'm basically just waiting for a rejection mail in the coming week or two.

Also should be hearing something from CGC at some point, although nothing's certain.

Right. That's it for writing updates. Other than that, I've been chilling, basically. I passed all of last semester's exams, which is awesome, and I've been enjoying the fact that I don't really have to do anything till the beginning of February. Of course, now the beginning of February is coming up, so I'm going to have to get my behind into gear.

And get my sleep cycle back on track.

So, I completed NaNoWriMo. This is great - not only do I have a third of a novel done, I've also proved to myself that my 2005 win wasn't a fluke.

All that writing left my brain a bit dead, though - I'm much more suited to binge writing rather than a thousand words a day. If I have an idea, I sit down and write. If I don't, then I don't force it. I think that when I move away from short stories and on to novels, I'll change writing habits. However, I don't think that will happen any time soon.

Right now I'm quite happy just writing short stories. There's a certain magic to them that a novel misses.

I've currently got 2 short stories being considered for anthologies - CGC at Permuted and TBW at GST. I'm not expecting to get accepted, but I haven't received rejections yet, and that's good enough for me.

This weekend I'm going to be taking it easy. I need to recharge before attacking the two essays and a creative translation next week. It's the end of the third semester - half way through my bachelor's already, what a horrible idea - and the deadlines are looming once again.

But, all that comes Monday. Right now, it's Ramsey Campbell, Phantom Hourglass and brainstorming for future short stories. Oh, and a new haircut and a shopping trip tomorrow. Relaxation is good.

I've found a new way to motivate myself into writing. What is it, you may ask? Why, it's 250 euros worth of book vouchers!

The University of Leiden are having a competition. Whoever writes the best University / student-related Christmas story (less than 2500 words) wins 250 euros worth of book vouchers. The second and third place entries get 75 and 50 euros worth of vouchers, respectively.

It has to be in Dutch, but that's okay. And I'll just incorporate it into my NaNo, so I won't have to feel guilty about wasting words. It's a glorious, glorious thing.

Recently I've been waking up at about seven in the morning, even when I don't need to. Even when I wasn't able to fall asleep till 3 in the morning. Even when I go to sleep thinking, I CAN AND WILL HAVE A BLOODY LIE-IN.

My plan of mentally willing my internal alarm clock to STFU isn't working. Although, this morning, I did stay in bed for another two or three hours listening to audio versions of Sherlock Holmes stories, just because I could.

So, I'm tired. Tired Leah is struggling Leah, at least when it comes to writing. I'm now about a thousand words behind on my NaNoWriMo, and I also have two articles due for the Angler... tomorrow. Luckily I've got the basics of both articles down, it's just rewriting them and making them non-embarrassingly bad. Seeing as a large part of the Leiden English students will be reading these, and my name will be at the bottom. Not fun.

This is the first time that anything that I've written by myself is going to be out there for people I don't know to read and think, "Wow, this chick sucks at writing, yo." I hope they won't, obviously, but it's possible, and therefore somewhat nerve-wracking.

Right now what I really want to do is curl up and go to sleep, and not wake up till half-way through December. There's so much stuff that needs doing in the next few weeks, and I feel extremely unmotivated due to this constant tiredness. Still, four weeks and then the semester's over. Then I can just chill out and revise for two weeks, and enjoy my dad's cooking for prolonged periods of time. Oh yes.

I've got a head cold, which rejoices in giving me a splitting headache. As a result of this, I can't sit at the computer for too long.

I decided that it would be better to give myself a break, so yesterday I didn't work on my NaNo at all. I felt a bit guilty about that, I will admit, but I think it's better in the long run.

Today was my first day of catching up, and I'm now at 10943 words, whereas I should be at 11669. So, I'm only about 700 words off of my target. That's quite doable.

Unforutnately I have to write two articles for the Angler this month (one on NaNo itself, one on Malaysia), and although they're only about 500 words each, it's still time I'm going to have to spend writing something else. I also need to make a start on the two essays due for December. Come to think of it, I also have one for Philology, and I have no idea when I have to hand that in. Will have to look that up.

Luckily, other than that uni isn't taking up too much NaNo time. Once I get rid of these headaches, I'll be fine.

Once again I've attempted to revive last years NaNoWriMo project. It has a lot of potential, plot-wise, so whenever it pops back into my mind I'll give it ago.

This time I've tried doing it in first person. So far it seems to be working out quite well. The writing, in itself, is probably my best in forever.

Tomorrow ye olde english. Argh.

So, recently I have been doing exactly jack shit when it comes to fiction. Well, I've been thinking about plots and wondering about things; I've been reading a lot. But the thing is, I haven't been actively creative in the typey-typey-new-words kind of way.

One reason for this is the huge amounts of stress I've been under recently. I can't be actively creative when I feel down or stressed - I need passive entertainment.

Another reason is that I've just been very busy - uni is starting and guess what, I have to have two novels read for Tuesday and my very first Old English translation done by Monday. I'm also currently active in the English department's periodical.

Yet another reason is that, for the first time in years, I have a very close friendship with one person, without there being any romantic connotations. We see each other quite a lot, which is wonderful. However, it still leaves me with less 'I'm bored so I'm going to write a story'-time. Once again, I have to say I really don't mind. It's great having such a close friend once again.

But, I think the biggest reason I can't write is because I'm due to hear back on a fiction submission any day now. I can't deal with uncertainty, it drives me up the wall. It's the uncertainty about various things that has had me so stressed out recently. I'm a bit of a control freak, in that way - I need to know what's going to happen. If things could go either way, I tend to start worrying about the matter. It plays on my mind and renders me incapable of doing anything useful.

I'll sit down with a vague idea in my head and after about five minutes, I'll think, damn I'm due to hear about that story soon. Then, just to be sure, I'll check that it actually is September, and that it is 2007. (I'm ridiculously forgetful when it comes to dates. At some point this year I somehow managed to get it into my head that it was in fact 2006.)

I start wondering and hoping and despairing, and I eventually end up going 'oh bugger it' and I'll go read a book. Not that bad, considering the amount of stuff I have to read for my two Lit classes. Remind me never to chose another Lit class as my minor EVER AGAIN. I've got to have Caleb Williams and My Ántonia read by Tuesday. I'm determined to read EVERYTHING for my Lit classes this year - no more slacking off like the last two semesters - but my resolution is being put to the test already. I hope the pace in My Ántonia is a bit higher than in Caleb Williams because it's getting pretty damn tedious.

Recently I've been worrying about my gums. They were irritated and just didn't feel right. I am, however, perfectly capable of convincing myself that there's something wrong when all is fine, so I went down to the doctor's for him to have a look before I went and bothered the dentist.

Now, my GP is a bit shit, to be honest. He doesn't take people seriously and he's never even lived in the same country as 'tact'. So, he took one glance at my gums and said that I would start losing teeth soon if I didn't get something done.

I immediately called the dentist. A week and one appointment later, he tells me there's nothing wrong with my gums - they're just a bit sore. He gave me a special tooth paste and told me to come back in six months. Apparently my wisdom teeth are about to come through and they could give me some bother.

This just reinforced my violent dislike for my GP. I spent a week wondering if I would need false teeth at the age of 20 because he's such a callous bastard, even though my teeth are in good condition, even if they're not glaringly white.

And so I'm now currently writing a story about teeth. It's almost disgustingly optimistic, as my work tends to be. I'm not cut out to be a horror writer - my work is too damn happy.

I've also been busy sorting my books out for the coming semester. I ordered through my student association, but something's gone wrong and now I don't have books for half my subjects. Oh, I have a lot of books - but they're all for my two Lit subjects. I have no books for Philology or Linguistics.

Also, I heard that I am one of only two people in the whole of Leiden taking American Lit as an extra subject. This is a subject that is available to all of the thousands of students... and there's a grand total of two taking it.

I'm only taking it because I like Lit and I don't want to do the teacher training course till next year, but STILL. Damn.

Still, this means that there will be more third year students in the work group for me to meet, which I consider a good thing.

The writing just hasn't been working recently. I've been in a bit of a rut, finding it much more pleasant to be passive rather than active. I've been reading a fair bit, as well as just generally dossing about.

A fair amount of time also went into the rearranging of my furniture. Compared to most people here in Holland, I'm quite short. Being the only vertically challenged person in this hallway, we don't have a ladder. So, when my light decided to die  this week, I had a hell of a time trying to reach the damn thing.

First I went without a 'proper' light for two days because I didn't have any lightbulbs spare - not very smart, I admit, but I've only ever had to change them once, and that was quite soon after moving in. Besides, I got Marijn to help me that time, what with him being over six feet tall and all that.

Then, I picked some lightbulbs up when I went to do my shopping. I get home, rearrange the furniture, change the lightbulbs and I am happy.

Half an hour later, one of the bulbs goes out. Fine, I think. That one must be down to the fitting, seeing as that particular light has never worked properly. But, I've gotten by with one light bulb for almost a year now, I'm sure I'll survive.

An hour later, the other one flickers on and off for about a minute, before giving up the ghost. And then starting again, only to once again expire.

Annoyed, I rearranged my furniture again and made sure that the light bulbs were screwed in properly. They were. The only thing that wasn't secure was the actual fitting itself: I'd never really noticed how the light was hanging off the ceiling before.

So, my dad's going to come up to the place next week and help me put a new light up. To make things better, there's no way of shutting down the power in my room without doing the same in about 150 other rooms, so this is all going to be live. My dad says he knows what he's doing, and I'm sure he does, what with the jobs he's had in the past, but I'm still nervous about it.

Now I'm just using my desk lamp. It isn't very bright, but it certainly makes my room more atmospheric, which is nice. It doesn't really have any atmosphere at all - I haven't really personalized the room in any way. No posters, paintings. I didn't bother painting it, but that's because it would have been a lot of hassle and I would have had to paint it white again before I left, which is annoying. When I moved in, I wasn't sure if I was going to be here for a long time or not.

Right now I don't have any plans to move out - if I get another room with the SLS now, I'll be stuck with a campus contract. If I stick to this room, I can stay here as long as I want.

Anyway, I'm fed up with my boring albeit atmospheric room right now. Also, the people I hang out with here in Leiden are all busy or on holiday or something similar. Add up to that that I haven't seen my parents in about a month, and a load of washing that needs done, and you have a Leah going to visit her parents for a few days.

I'm not planning on doing anything except hang out with my parents, get stuff done that needs to be done, and maybe - big maybe - go out Saturday, but I'm not counting on it. The upside to having a bit of a slump is that I no longer feel the compulsion to be around people all the time - it makes things a hell of a lot easier.

Oh, and you know what a truly glorious thought is? The fact that I'm not going to have any exams until another Christmas has come and gone. In itself it's quite scary, seeing as last Christmas wasn't long ago at all, but the thought that exams are so far away cheers me up like no tomorrow.