Getting As and Completing Manuscripts

Well, I’ve gotten the grades back for my final papers of the semester.

For one class, we were given the text we would write a research paper on, but we could choose what we wanted our thesis to be. When I sent my teacher my thesis proposal earlier in the semester, she said she didn’t think I could support the thesis. I’m thinking now that I probably didn’t explain my thesis very well because I was confused by her feedback, but I wasn’t going to try and come up with a new thesis. Especially when my research was cumulating a lot of really good information that supported my thesis. I decided to plow ahead and write the paper, knowing that my professor didn’t think it was a thesis I could defend.

I got an A+ and a perfect score on my paper. My professor said it was a superb paper and that I articulated my argument, and supported it, splendidly.

To say I felt vindicated is an understatement. I don’t claim to be an academic prodigy, but I’ve written a lot of research papers in my life, and I’m really good at it. Plus, I love research. Like, to the point that it thrills me. So I know that I can take a relatively blah thesis statement and turn it into an interesting and well written paper. It’s just one of the things I excel at. And I’m glad I trusted my instincts because I really thought I was gonna bomb that paper, and instead I crushed it.

On my second paper, I got a 96%. It was far more of an opinion piece since it relied on a lot of my personal experiences with purity culture. And while my other teacher liked the personal narrative within the paper, she did say that I didn’t quite connect my subject with the book I was writing my paper on as strongly as she would have liked. And granted, that was a really hard part of that assignment. The book itself was hard to read in that it brought up a lot of issues regarding gender roles and the way feminine desire is often portrayed in fiction (especially by male authors), and this made the paper difficult to sit with for long periods of time. I think I probably rushed some sections because I don’t like taking my psyche back to my evangelical days.

But, I still got an A, and the professor said that she agreed with all of my assertions about the text, and that the paper was still very powerful. That also felt really good.

And now that I’m on winter break, I’m pretty much obsessed with doing absolutely nothing. I mean, besides work and writing and chores. I can’t even believe it, but I only have one more chapter to write before I complete the fourth draft of my novel. Like, holy shit. My manuscript is already 104,000 words(ish), and I have at least three more scenes to write. And then another round of revisions to go through before I send out the manuscript to beta readers.

I’ve never, ever, gotten this far on the writing and revising of a novel. I’ve only ever drafted the previous novels I’ve written. Those projects were abandoned, which sucks, but they also laid the ground work for this book, and it will be the first one that I take all the way to publication. And then, the sequel will be next. I’m so excited to start that book!

There’s only a few days left in 2022, and I am going to make them count in the ways that are best for me.

Happy Holidays. Here’s to the coming year!