i have finally opened up my dissertation document (and my non-fic book scrivener file) and must return to the Land of Academia
i know i said in my last post (on jan. 2nd—FOUR days ago) that i was going to go back to work, but then i accidentally wrote another 15,233 words of fanfiction, so. (i mean it, this time.) back to my other passion project!!!!
written january 6, 2024 @ 10:35pm
this post contains the following:
chapter update! | snow globe
milestone! | 100k words written since august 1, 2023
back to the phd grind (for real this time) + goals
before i delve into the “kris is actually working on her doctoral dissertation/master’s thesis paper for her second master’s degree/prep for dissertation proposal defense” topics, here are a final few updates to wrap up the winter break (i.e., fandom extravaganza):
chapter update! | snow globe
to absolutely no one’s surprise, this two-shot three-shot story is now a multi-chaptered fic with four parts.
On July 1st, the lonely house at the top of the mountain was finally sold.
— In which Jack(son) Overland tries his best to befriend his neighbor, one woodworking project at a time. { neighbors-to-lovers!fic, modern-mountain-living!au }
Prompt from @aicosu: Three-word sentences: "Just say it."
ao3 ❆
part i: bushwhacking grandma (13,282 words | aug. 4, 2023)
part ii: barnyard peasant (11,550 words | dec. 20, 2023)
part iii: Scandinavian woodworking techniques (13,163 words | jan. 6, 2024)
part iv: [coming… later!]
thank you! for all of your beautiful comments, replies, reactions on both of the new chapters! 😭🙏
an observation. i’ve never wrote a fic in which the characters are experiencing time more or less the same way i am as the author (i.e., part i is set and written in july/august and published in august; part ii is written during fall and early winter, then published in december; part iii is written during christmastime and then published right after the new year… who knows what will happen with part iv 👀).
milestone! | 100k+ words
click the image to visit the official word counter!
on january 5, 2023, i hit 100k+ words written since august 1, 2023! (5ish months)
(80.13%) fandom: 80,264 words
(16.42%) dissertation study: 16,448 words (does not include emails, grant applications, grading student papers/peer review/peer feedback, slide decks, or data coding and data analysis. 😂🫠)
(3.45%) non-fiction/dissertation book: 3,454 words
fall 2023 was a time of data coding, data analysis, transcription, data cleaning, data annotation, peer feedback/review, grading student papers, and many many grant applications (money!!!!!!)
spring 2024 will be a full-throttle academic writing semester!! all my heaviest deadlines for career-related goals and benchmarks are january, february, and march... 💪🥲
between december 20th and january 5th (16 days), i wrote 37,074 words of fanfiction! 😭🙏
(in other words... of all of my fanfiction writing since august 1st... i wrote 46% of those words in the past two-ish weeks during my winter "break" 😅) CLEARLY, I WAS CRAVING CREATIVE OUTLETS for something squishier and freer than my rigidly structured academic register! and now i've left it all on the internet-table lmao and it is time to return to my ✨Professional Voice ✨
(to be fair, another 48% of fandom writing was completed in august, in the final weeks leading up to the fall semester 😂 the other meager 6% remaining percent was scattered throughout the hectic fall semester—to no one's surprise!)
TO THE DISSERTATION/BOOK, WE GO
back to the phd grind (for real, this time) + goals
here are the things that i must complete by the end of march (though not necessarily in this particular order! 😂):
master’s thesis (#2/in passing): finish final revisions on my (second!) master’s thesis then send it to my advisor for final feedback (if applicable) and approval, so that i can apply to graduate for my (second!!!) master’s degree for this spring
prep hiring ad for potential research assistants so i can find my RA for the spring semester (last semester my RA was soo good and i got so spoiled, gah).
write 1-pager invitation letters to my potential academic committee members asking them to serve on my dissertation committee, and send the letters to my advisor for feedback, approval, so she may send them to the committee invitees on my behalf and Cc me. (🤞 and hopefully they have the time and availability to accept! otherwise i have plans b and c, sigh.)
prepare slide decks for my dissertation defense proposal and rehearse the hell out of it.
schedule said proposal defense/oral exam
update my docs for the ethics board re: data collection updates for round two of data collection.
prepare and rehearse for conference presentation: present my preliminary findings at the Big Conference (which includes making sure i got all my grant money!!)
pick which damn algorithm i will use for my cluster analysis
update non-fiction book along the way based on master’s thesis and dissertation study and everything else that cannot fit in an academic paper or journal article
and then later:
prep manuscript for journal article based on the master’s thesis paper once it’s published in the repository and
publish a few mainstream articles for general audiences as well, to share some findings with the rest of the world and potentially generate some concrete interest for publisher connections about the ✨need✨ for my book 👀
collect new data, transcribe new data, code new data, analyze new data, and write about it 😂😅 / dissertation
and i shall do all of these things while teaching two courses at two different institutions and writing letters of recommendation for my students and writing more grant proposals and doing other university responsibilities
and life! 😂😂😂
thank you for reading and following me on this journey!
i hope everyone’s januarys are off to smooth starts 💖💖💖🙏🙏🙏🙏 i’ll still be on and off tumblr over the next few months, but already i can feel the dissertation-dopamine cravings entering my bloodstream, i.e., suffering but being really happy about it 😉💖
thanks again, all, and happy writing!
