Friday, May 30, 2008

It's been awhile...

Wow-I hadn't realized how long it had been since I last wrote.  Here's what's been going on:

1.  I have completed 2 major revisions of my novel, Sisters.  It's now as polished as I can make it for right now.  I sent in the first 20 pages for my residency workshop at Vermont College (which, by the way, is only 38 days away).

2.  After sending in those pages, I put the manuscript away and will not be looking at it again until after school is finished, unless I can convince my advisor to accept and critique it with the first packet.  

3.  I have begun to work on my new middle grade novel (I think I'm channeling a 13 year old girl...)  I am 12 pages in so far.

4.  I read the prologue and first 2 chapters last night at our library (along with a few other talented writers reading their work) for the 300th anniversary of "Ridgefield Writes".  I was nervous, of course, but not as bad as last time I read my work for an audience.  I guess it's true that it gets easier each time.  At least that's what I hope!

In my next blog, I will describe how the low residency program at Vermont College works, since it's only a little over a month away (did I mention that?).   

9 comments:

PJ Hoover said...

So great to put it away for a good amount of time! There's probably nothing better when it comes to revisions. But why is this so hard?????
Congrats on the 12 pages!

david elzey said...

38 days?!! I still have a packet to finish, and paperwork to fill out, and then there's the workshop materials to read! And here I was thinking there'd actually be some down time!

See ya in just over a month!

Dawn Buthorn said...

Thanks for the congrats, pj. I think it's so hard to put our manuscripts aside because they're our babies! At the time we put them in a drawer, we LOVE them and think they are perfect. But deep down we know that when we pull them out later we will see all their faults. And that's sad. But necessary.

David, Yup, 38, now 37, days left! How long before residency do we get the workshop materials? I'm just wondering how long I'll have to read all those pages. See you soon.

david elzey said...

if memory serves, the workshop reading will come about a month before the rez, so sometime in the second week of june.

Annette Gulati said...

Congratulations on being accepted to Vermont College. I know someone else going this year. I can't wait to read all about your experiences there.

Dawn Buthorn said...

Thanks David, I figured it would be soon.

Thanks, Annette. Who else do you know that's going? It's nice to know a few names before I show up-I may even have "spoken" to them on the Vermont College forum.

Sheri Perl-Oshins said...

That's great about Vermont. Please do post more about it. I would love to read more as you are going through the process.

Dawn Buthorn said...

Thanks for stopping by, Sheri. I will definitely post throughout my whole experience at Vermont College. Michele Regenold got me hooked on her blog as she described her experiences there, and really influenced my decision on which school to choose. I'm hoping that other people will read my blog and find it just as helpful, or at least entertaining!

Janet Fox said...

Dawn - can't wait to meet you at Vermont. I'm going to try and blog on my experiences there, too - maybe we can do a tag team approach.

And yes, now I can check in to their site more often!

(with this new satellite, I feel like I'm driving a Ferrari...)