RWW Year 2 Wrap-Up and Summer Plans
Summer has come to the Pacific Northwest, bringing alternating blistering hot days and cooler, cloudy ones. Yesterday I had to take a cold shower in the middle of the day because the heat was so intense, and today I’m bundled up in my favorite NaNoWriMo crewneck sweatshirt. The one that’s been worn and washed so many times that it’s soft as feathers and pilled so badly that I don’t wear it out of the house. I love it and think everyone should have a well-loved garment like this one.
Of course, the coming of Summer means two things:
The end of my second year in the RWW program, and…
The RWW Residency is approaching!
This second half of Year Two was amazing. I had an awesome mentor (Sequoia Nagamatsu) and we often had our meetings with his other mentee who was in Year 1 and was also super awesome. I feel like the collaborative nature of our meetings was inspiring and I looked forward to them every month.
The highlights of Spring Term include: Reading Ryka Aoki’s “Light from Uncommon Stars,” which was frankly a game changer in how I feel about approaching my writing/characters/plotting, and finally nailing down my Thesis project! I’m working on the first act of a novel, set in a magical Victorian-era Britain.
So now I begin my Thesis Project. I’ve been paired with April Ayers Lawson for my third and final year of the RWW program, and I’m so excited to work with her. I have my first meeting with her at the RWW Residency (which begins in a week- ahhhh!) and at Sequoia’s suggestion I will be arriving at the meeting with an outline for both my critical paper and my thesis, as well as a book list for my critical paper.
I’m not participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this July due to the Residency, so I’m making an informal “Camp” for August, during which I’ll work in earnest on generating revised content for my Thesis. I work best when I have a goal and a deadline, and I fully expect to be revitalized and inspired by the Residency like I was last year, so August is going to be a great month for my writing.
In addition to the Creative Thesis, I also get to complete a big Critical Paper for my third year- which will be my big project for the Fall. I’m planning to write on the topic of Time in Fabulist Literature, which was something I started developing with my First Year Mentor, Renee. I have a couple of books I’m planning to read for that paper during August, and I want to start drafting portions of the paper as it will be my longest critical paper to date ( the length is 25-40 pages, I’m aiming for a steady 35). Wish me luck.
So far the summer has been a whirlwind of preparing for the Residency and falling face-first into non-assigned books (Just finished “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros, and now I’m reading “The Wolf Den” by Elodie Harper) so I can’t quite believe it’s already July.
Anyway, if you’ve made it this far perhaps you can tell that my brain is a little chaotic right now. Thanks for sticking with me, and I hope you’re finding lots of good books to get lost in!