Sunday, August 15, 2010

Thesis Update: Week 10

Sad to say, this will be the last one of these scintillating little posts for now. I know you will miss reading these. Hahaha--not!


Week 10 stats:
Number of words this week: about 6,500
Number of pages this week: 19
Number of total pages this summer: 203

I made it to my goal!

Which just goes to show the value of public ummm...humiliation? embarrassment? Not sure exactly what the right word is here, but in any case, if you have a big goal you're trying to reach, it sure does help to break it down into small chunks and then make yourself accountable in some way.

Proof of that for both Katie and me over at The Skinny weight-loss blog. And right here on this blog, I have to tell you that these little weekly posts have been an excellent motivator. I highly recommend this kind of accountability. Many a Friday night this summer, I would want to just be lazy and sit around, but then I would think, "Oh, no, I have to get ___ more pages written before the Sunday post!" And I'd haul out the computer and get after it again.

What's next with the thesis? It's currently sitting in all it's extremely-rough-draft glory in a notebook in my file cabinet. I think it's curing or simmering or something. In a few more days I'll pull it out and read everything I've written so far, with a bright pink highlighter in hand. I fully expect to highlight no more than one paragraph--if that--per page. Then I'll pull those parts together, and then I'll see where to go from there.

Darling Annemarie (friend, writer, former colleague who has moved away--sad for me) has offered to read for me when I get nerve enough to send her something--not sure yet if that will be before or after the pink highlighter phase--and then...I don't know! I've never tried to write something like this before. 

I'm not going to promise any more weekly updates  Actually, on second thought, I think I will promise to continue the weekly updates. So just ignore what I said back at the very beginning of this post. You can look forward to more of these dandy little Sunday posts. That way I can't get away with just giving up on this project. 

Or if I do, I'll be mightily ashamed.

1 comment:

Mike said...

Kathy, You are a role model and inspiration to all of us who need to obtain HUGE goal.