Getting to know you

I’m delighted to have so many people interested in the Sept-Dec 2012 writing group, even with 10 days or so to go until our first official check-in.  I know some of you from past groups, but we haven’t all been in the same groups, and there may be some new people here, so I’d like to go around the room and have you introduce yourselves.  Feel free to comment on any of the following, or add your own thoughts about yourself and your work:

Where are you in your career?  What sort of institution(s) do you work for or study at?  What’s your big-picture goal, not just for this iteration of the writing group but for 5 or 10 years out?  What challenges do you face in making time for (or expanding!) your writerly identity?  To whom or to what would you most like to apply some of Dame Eleanor’s Anti-Bugge Power-Writer Spray (https://dameeleanorhull.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/writing-group-week-2-bug-spray/)?

Starting a Spring 2012 writing group

Several people were interested in continuing our online writing group: Zcat, JaneB, Trapped in Canadia, Ink, Matilda, Rented Life, Good Enough Woman, and Contingent Cassandra.  Anyone else who’d like to join in?  Please leave a comment.

Here are the parameters for this iteration of the group.  It will run from now until Friday 4 May.  That’s 14 posts, which takes me to the end of LRU’s spring semester.

New posts will appear on Friday.  Comments will close Sunday night (US Central Time).

If you’re going to join, please commit to posting every week, even if you have to admit you haven’t done anything.  It makes it much easier to keep track of who’s in the group.  We’ve all had bad weeks.  Just face it and move on. 

Join up by commenting on this post.  If you can pick one project to focus on, that’s ideal.  I can’t.  We’ve all had non-ideal semesters.  Tell us what you’re going to be working on during the spring, and then set a goal for this coming week (that is, what you want to achieve by Friday 10 February).

From 10 February onwards, when you post a comment, please use the following 4-paragraph format: 1. Last week’s goal. 2. What was achieved toward that goal. 3. Comments/analysis of what worked or what went wrong. 4. Goal for the next week. 

I’m going to put my goals in the comments like everyone else.  The main body of the post will contain the theme for the week.  This week’s theme—isn’t it obvious?—is “new.”

We have a new(ish) year, new(ish) semester, new blog, new writing group.  I have a clear desk and a clean study, thanks to my tidying over winter break (I also cleaned my closet).  I have put in my calendar and spring class plans how many hours each writing assignment should take to grade, which is a new thing for me (and I have not yet done the grading hours I am supposed to do today, because I have been procrastinating with research [not a new phenomenon] and creating this blog [procrastination via blog is also not new]).  Two out of three things I want to work on this spring are not new.  OTOH, I am pushing one into a position from which it can spring forward, and another will be renewed through attention to new sources.  And the third thing really is new.  Mostly.  Well, hey: spring itself isn’t really new.  It comes around every year, after all. 

What’s new with you?