Gold Star

I went out and bought myself a $1.89 pack of gold (and red and green, etc) stars, and am putting one on the calendar for every day I write 300 words. Starting today. First gold star!

I'm at the library now, where I just cranked out that 300 words between a takeout sushi dinner and a lecture I'm going to attend at 8:30. I also made a plan for upcoming writing sessions: tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday.

Last week I went to see my advisor for the first time since the beginning of the summer, and it was a very good thing to do. I gave her the eight measly pages I had thrown together out of all the disconnected fragments of the summer, and she gave me many practical suggestions on where to go from there. She also wants to see me every three weeks this semester, with a new 10-15 pages to give her each time. Our next appointment is for September 10.

I've been writing about the epigraphs in Middlemarch. That's going to be a section of my George Eliot chapter. If you asked me today what my dissertation is about, I'd say it's about the use of poetry in novels. Of course, what my dissertation is about is remarkably unstable. I wonder if I'll know what it's about even after it's done?