Pins and Needles

I have really never been a very patient person, and I have been doing a lot of waiting lately. I’m not handling it all that well. I become obsessed with thinking about it, check my email incessantly, and grab my phone as soon as I get back to my office to see if anyone called. It’s unhealthy. I know. But I’m not likely to change.

The thing that has me the most nervous right now is the writing workshop I applied for. Yes, I finally made myself sit down and write a short story (this is why I have been MIA for so long – that and a mini-vacation). It was an insightful process. Honestly, I don’t know that I’ve ever written a work of fiction that was that long. I’m sure that I had creative writing assignments in my high school English classes, but I’m sure they weren’t almost 300o words (2,918 to be precise). I am fairly certain that I wrote no works of fiction when I was in college. As a business major I think I had to take freshman English and that was it. It never occurred to me to take a class outside of my major just because I might enjoy it (at least, one that all my friends weren’t taking also, like bass fishing…yeah, true story). So, to actually finish a story of such length is an accomplishment for me, and I am patting myself on the back.

Accomplishment that it may be, I still really want to get into the workshop! I keep wondering how many people applied. Did he get a flood of writing samples at the last minute? The application deadline was yesterday, and the professor emailed me and said he would get back to me in a day or so. I have been trying to define what constitutes “or so” since I got the email (see paragraph 1). But the course starts next Wednesday, so I don’t have that much longer to wait.

I’ve decided, though, that I’ll be OK if I don’t get in. Writing the story lit a fire under me. I wasn’t 100% in love with what I wrote, but as a first attempt, I’m pretty proud of it. The writing process itself was kind of a rush. I don’t want to stop. I’ve already started thinking about other ideas for short stories. I’ll keep you posted on how it all turns out!

Stuck

I have been feeling a bit stuck lately. I’m not sure what my next step should be. After the huge let-down of not getting that job, I have been a bit crabby and depressed. I have been spending more time at work because I need to make up for July’s below-average billables (this was not because I was not working – rather, the law clerks were getting all of the new projects and I literally had nothing to do. Hard to earn any money when you are paid by hour you bill). I did create a website for my photography business, but what I really want to focus on is writing a short story.

One of the colleges in town is offering a creative writing workshop for members of the community. You don’t have to be a student of the university and anyone can apply. A professor teaches the workshop, you are given assignments, and it’s only $200. However, the course is limited to 15 students and you have to apply by submitting a writing sample. While the requirements are “no more than 15 pages”, I know that I probably need only 3000-5000 words. I keep telling myself it should be easy to do, yet I can’t make myself sit down and try writing. I can’t even think of a good idea to write about.

The applications are due September 15. I had hoped to get something started this weekend, but here we are at the close of Sunday and I haven’t even opened my word processing program. I did, however, manage to bill 7.9 hours. Something seems a bit off there, don’t you think?