editing over Christmas break

 

One of the things that I missed most when I started school was having free time to write. Last year, while I was working (and not in school) I finished NaNoWriMo, and then over the summer, I took another look at my baby first draft, and thought this is not right. So I re-wrote the whole book (the worst/best idea of my life), but when September hit, I had no time left to edit. The second messy draft of Seeing Voices has been hanging over my head for a long time, and now that I'm finished with my exams, I've been diving back through the pages that I wrote this year.

Here's a few little snippets of what I've been finding as I read through my notes again...

Clearly, I wasn't that happy with the state of my writing

Oh, apparently I found something I liked

Me on Oct. 16th had no patience for anything

I wish I could remember how late at night it was when I was writing these comments...

Did I forget how to use the question mark on my laptop?? who knows.

Do you ever find hidden gems like these when editing your second or third (or fifth) drafts?? Wanna share some of your favourites?

xx,

Olivia

first semester

first lecture hall
first parking pass
first bad mark in an English class (!)
first major research essay
first year I looked around and realized that I have more best friends than I can count
first ever night class
first time I stayed up past midnight studying
first month I counted the cycles of the moon and knew what they meant
first time driving with snow tires on my car
first time I had fun studying for a midterm
first time I looked around and thought, here I am
first time I absolutely knew I was in the right place
first three-hour exam in a gym with hundreds of other people
first semester of university - check.



on Tuesday mornings I'd walk to the social sci building and set my computer up in the caf, and by the time an hour had passed, the three seats around me would be full, friends stopping by between classes or on the way to work (didn't get much studying done, but whatever).

I never stopped feeling like campus was a castle in England and I was a girl in a book, my backpack a little too heavy (20lbs, to be exact) and my hopes sky-high.

the first time I was handed back a bad mark on an English paper, and how sweet it felt when my next essay was returned with the words "nicely done!" typed at the bottom of my last paragraph. I sat with one of the girls from my tutorial in our lectures, and we'd exchange study notes and try to guess when our prof would hold the next pop quiz.

I fell in love with a local radio station during the half hour drive to school and now suddenly I find myself flipping to the station all the time, even when I'm not driving

lying on one of the couches in the physics and astronomy building in between classes

watching the first episode of gilmore girls in a crowded library with one of my childhood besties - we each got an earbud and crowded around the computer screen while people moved and laughed and walked by somewhere way in the background

study notes on index cards, something I never did in high school but am now in love with. and HIGHLIGHTERS. who knew?

the exhilaration of writing an English exam within a time limit, trying to force an idea to pop into existence and bloom at your fingertips in a matter of seconds, instead of letting it bubble slowly to the surface. the risk of sitting with your chin in hand to think as the clock ticks away your time.


I could go on... oh, forever. I've missed this! What firsts have occurred in your lives this fall? How do you feel about school?

xx,
Olivia