Worked a lot last night! Everything finally feels like it's beginning to thread together. I have the vast majority of the work, maybe missing a poem or two to connect some dots. But it's mostly there, and now with ordering things and fine tuning words I'm finally feeling more at ease about how each poem connects. I haven't worked on a project this big--in the fall I thought ordering my chapbook was challenging and that was 1/3 of what I've written this time. It's been easy to get overwhelmed, lost in the work. I can't imagine writing a book--having to find ways to bring it back to life again and again and not lose sight of the big picture.
As much as I'm happy about my work I am looking forward to it being finished. I think it was a mistake to expand my chapbook now... but ah well what's done is done. Just some of the poems were conceived at least a year ago, so it's been difficult to continue to feel compelled by the subject matter. I'm really looking forward to the project or just writing I hope to do when this is all done. When I'm done writing about my family (for now) I wonder what I will have to say! It will be a whole new process of discovery ha.. I write a lot about what I know, snapshots of moments, and I'm looking forward to expanding my style. I hope to stay in touch with other graduating seniors and continue to encourage one another in our work, possibly continue to exchange over email or something. I will miss the workshopping! On that note, looking forward to talking about people's work tomorrow.
It's great that you're looking forward to expanding your style. I know that for the last four years I feel like I've been writing about the same thing over and over again. Motherhood. Injury. Time. Escape. And my thesis feels like a culmination of all that, so it is weird to think about what I'll actually write about once I've finished this and graduated and everything. Will I ever move on? Maybe not. But I will grow nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're feeling like things are coming together with your writing!
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to feeling of being overwhelmed, I also haven't written anything as long as my thesis so it was really difficult to not get sidetracked or bored or discouraged, feeling like I couldn't make that page count and what not!
Also yesss about missing the workshopping! haha I love to get feedback on what I write, so I definitey think I'll miss that too once I graduate :P
You are still flowing! And you bloom on.
ReplyDeleteA chapbook opportunity sounds excellent! As an continuation of your poetry project, what jacket color did you go with and how does its outer appearance capture the some of the lyrical content?