Writing goals

[deralte]

Written here so that I might laugh at my naivete later in the year...(am thinking in ellipses today btw)

Original stuff
Need to rewrite entire book. The plot is still good, but writing is no longer recognizable as my own and certain characters characterizations are erratic. Goal is to rewrite the first 75 pages and beyond by Christmas.

Get some short stories published, particularly the ghost story and the horror story (if I could ever find the horror story since my hd seems to have eaten it...)

Fanfic Stuff
Sands of Time: Finish before June 21st, 'cause I'll be damned if I'll be writing a fic that takes place in fifth year after that book comes out...It should only require another 4-5 chapters to finish. I can manage that...

Uric: Work on Goblin Uprising. Revise Wild Hunt yet again. Get a beta who knows grammar better than I do...Finish sixth-year Uric story. Three more chapters and I could finish off Uric's Fantastic Adventures as well. Would really like to finish Goblin Uprising and write story involving the wizarding secrecy act of 1692...go wizarding politics!

Intersections in Real Time: I sometimes ask myself what possessed me to start this story...bloody AU of Harry's first year...will be as long as the first book probably but I'm not going to be writing it any faster...don't care that it's my most popular story on ff.net...I like cheese...

Altered States: Put up latest chapter after beta. Write final chapter, but since it requires Havenward's physical presence to co-write, doubt it will happen soon. Would like to get this fic done since we've been writing it for about three years now...and I really don't care about the story anymore.

Muppet Mayhem: Only needs one more chapter. Why can't I write it? Would like to finish it so I can stop thinking in the X-men fandom...

Blackadder:The Pure-blood Years: Need to rewatch Flashheart eps over and over. That's the only thing stopping me from writting the next chapter. Plotting out the rest of the chapters would be a good idea as well.

Dear Diary: This story is ridiculously simple for me to write (It's very easy for me to get into the mind of a young tom riddle...scary actually). Will write another chapter when I have the time and/or when I'm depressed.

Azusachan: Will I ever finish this fic? Probably not...

HP/Discworld: Need to plot out the rest of the story so can finish writing. Want desperately to write about the Patrician.

No sucumbing to requests for sequels unless Uric related. Everyone will remain as in character as I can keep them. I will write parodies whenever the mood hits me (and seriously want to lambast Lucius atm but cannot bring myself to read enough cliched fics to do so) and will, if possible, find the time to write some more historical fic.

Comments

[maria-futura.livejournal.com]

Have not read it (Made in America), but I will certainly look it up.

I really don't know enough about linguistics to decide yet, but what (I think) they do sounds like what I enjoy doing. I'm still not positive where a linguist gets a job in the "real world" except in a university setting -- any observations? Do you know any linguistics specialists?

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[deralte.livejournal.com]

I've bumped into ancient linguistic specialists on occasion. Never had a real talk with one, but if you specialize in ancient languages you basically spend a lot of your time - translating foreign texts, and identifying linguistic origins (or sometimes the other way around) through placenames and anachronistic words in the modern day languages. There's a lot of focus in the archaeological world on the origins of writing.

Linguists who specialize in modern day languages have a couple of jobs they always get. There's still a marktet for translating books to and from certain languages (look at HP...). Big companies also pay a lot of money to have their technical documents translated. I guess other jobs for a linguist would be speach therapy, working as an interpreter or teaching someone another language...and that about exhausts my knowledge of linguists...:)

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[maria-futura.livejournal.com]

Specializing in ancient languages is EXACTLY what I want to do. I would LOVE to research and translate ancient texts. I'm not sure if UK's (University of Kentucky) courses actually do that or not -- I keep trying to get in and TALK to some of them, but their focus appear to be on attracting 17 year old freshmen future dropouts rather than keeping the students they have, so I've yet to get an appointment. ;)

(Initially I was going to specialize in writing - still am, but not beyond an MFA. The initial plan was to get an MFA toward creative writing and focus on teaching English as a foreign language for my PhD, but linguistics is more and more appealing. The downside is I just don't know much about it.)

Of course, perhaps I will finish the book, sell it, become fabulously rich, buy a castle in Scotland and a handsome doctor husband, and never have to worry. ;) My only regret is that I cannot also pay Richard Harris to star in my movie (sniffle!).

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[deralte.livejournal.com]

At least you can pay Alan Rickman...though I'd settle for Ewan McGregor (It's been a running joke b/t me and my friends that one of the characters in my book looks like him, despite being an evil bastard...)...want a castle in Wales personally:)

I think one of my older brothers went to UK...Anyway, if you can't find courses about what you want to do (and this can be hard. It's why I finally chose to do archaeology in the UK) you might want to consider going abroad either for your masters or just for a year. Courses here are a lot more specialised on certain things like that.
Most of the linguists I encounter are archaeologists who specialize in linguistics, but I'm sure it can be done the other way around. This may be a strange suggestion, but watch a few history documentaries and note down what university the linguist (if there is one in the show) came from, and then go examine that university...
-Ariana (who's going to stop babbling now...and are you online (through AIM, or MSN messenger, b/c we might as well move this to a chat?:))

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[maria-futura.livejournal.com]

I think one of my older brothers went to UK...

Neat! I live about ten minutes from it.

I have considered going abroad, what little research I've been able to do into it. I've considered Oxford, even, if not for my Masters for my eventual PhD. I would love to go abroad if I can figure out a way to pay for it (and something to do with my aging horse in the meantime! *sniff*).

It's not a strange suggestion at all It's important to remember names and places. I watch those sorts of shows often, but not often enough to see the same people twice, and if there is a university mentioned, it seems to be Oxford! (bangs head against desk)

I was online, but my computer died (upgraded to Windows XP Pro earlier in the week and have had some trouble). I'm spacegirlg on Y!M and have ICQ #6312649. I rarely open MSN when I'm not at work and never open AOL IM if I can avoid it, but my names on those two are:

msn: spacegirlg (brumbygal@hotmail.com, even though I can't even open that email addy anymore, so don't send anything there) and AIM: khpgrrl

I will be in and out most of the night. I'm sure I will catch you eventually, though :)

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[deralte.livejournal.com]

Let's see, some of the major Uni's in Britain are: Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, York (they are so behind on technology there it isn't even funny though...), Edinburgh, Nottingham, London uni, Glasgow and a few others whose names I don't remember but are probably named after the major town they are within like all these others:)

Oxford can be really weird about post-grads...I'd suggest doing some heavy research and even visiting before you go (it's very..uhm, posh...). You have to apply to cambridge and oxford early as well.

As for Australia, the only uni I can remember off the top of my head is Melborne...just keep in mind that their seasons are reversed so that they're celebrating the summer holidays atm...

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[maria-futura.livejournal.com]

Meant to ask you and forgot - know of any good schools in Australia? ;)

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[maria-futura.livejournal.com]

Going through my old emails and found this...

The Univ. of Chicago has a really really really interesting Linguistics program (studying Hebrew, Hittite, all of that old stuff...). I really still dont' even know who to talk to. Everyone I've talked to about that seems to be of the "modern application" variety (speech pathologists, etc.) and that is NOT what I want to do... Have had a successful talk with the TESL chair at UK, but they only offer a MA and I don't want to stay in KY anyway.

Still wanting an MFA in creative writing too. Hmph.