Writing a one year master thesis, how it all ended!

As can be read below I have finished a one year master thesis! What I forgot to write about in the last post was the later months of the writing.

All right, so there I was, I had spent 2 (two) years on this project, and had no feeling of getting closer to the finish line. Actually, I had decided to put in another six months and then take a break. So, yeah, I was tired of it, real tired! During the summer working and writing, I had searched and found a theory. At the end of the summer I had submitted a draft to my supervisor, and as always I got several pages of notes from our meeting. I was not done! Now autumn had come and I worked with the notes and sent in another draft, got some notes back about 3 (three) pages worth. This had been our way of working, me submitting drafts and getting notes, working with the notes, making a new draft and submitting it, and so on.

About this time or perhaps some months before, I got this feeling that maybe I was not worthy writing the thesis. Possibly I had not shown myself worthy for the Saami god that handles the animals and is closely tied to the bear (Leib-olmai), or perhaps the bear himself did not think of me as worthy. So, I sent an e-mail to a Saami academic with these thoughts and she answered nicely and gave me some thoughts to ponder. But the thought of my worthiness lingered and I almost went out to the woods to sit there with a drum trying to make contact…!

However, without visiting the woods I started working with the last notes. At this time I had finished my work and could spend whole days with the thesis. When I was done with the notes, I realized that I needed to do some more work with the theory and method section. So I did that. Now I had to redo parts of the analysis. I had also read through a really good thesis that used the same method, so I “borrowed” that structure for my thesis. This meant that the introduction chapters also got revised. When I had done that I sent a draft without the discussion and conclusion chapters, because I wanted to see if I had done some progress or not. It seemed that I had done so! Now the time had come to write the discussion and conclusion! And when I had made a new draft with them, a light of hope was lit that I just might be able to submit it for the seminary in January!

I am not sure what it was that got me to do some good thesis writing that autumn, if it was the thoughts on my worthiness towards the bear, or if it was something else. But it really felt like I was on my way moving forward, which had not been the case for some time…

And now for something completely different! After the seminary I went to a café to sort of pick up the pieces and to get some food, and also to write down my experiences of the day. Later that evening I met up with some friends for an event called Drink and draw. It is an event where boys and girls meet and drinks and draws! Well, the first comic made by the gang that evening featured me and here it is!

The Writing as a craft.

Uh, oh, that title is promising something that I might not deliver...

As I've written before I've enjoyed this period of writing, earlier when I drew Pilgrim, these ideas that I've now turned into scripts were kind of stealing time from the drawing. I almost felt that I was cheating on Pilgrim when I was toiling with these ideas.

I think that is why I've enjoyed this writing period, because I've been able to focus on these scripts. I do like to focus you see, I usually tell people that I'm a guy, in that way, that I have trouble doing multiple things at the same time... like I can't walk and chew bubblegum at the same time... It's an exaggeration, but with a smidge of truth!

Today my scripts will be done, sort of. They will now get some rest and hopefully later today I will look at the scripts for the teasers.

Take care!

P.s What about the writing as a craft then? Oh, I almost forgot!
Something I've been thinking about is that, as some writer pointed out somewhere, writers start out as readers. I think of it as a spiral, you read, you get inspired, you write, and then when you go back to reading, you understand more because you have garnered more wisdom about writing since you started writing yourself. So you read more and you write more and the spiral continues. And along the way your writing has improved.

I believe writing is a craft, one that you can hone and develop, through reading and writing.

The power of literature is that a person by making signs on a paper/document can create worlds and communicate ideas and information about life or whatever, just by making these signs on a piece of paper/document.

Off curse I'm writing this as an amateur writer, in the very sense of the word, someone that loves what (s)he is doing. I can't (yet) say that I'm a writer, just that I've studied some literature and written something along the way... This said I do have trouble with labels, like when can you say you are a writer, really? Or when can you say that you know something, for real?

Oh, I better quit now before I write something that I really can't deliver...!

An article about creative people...

Some weeks ago I got an article sent to me about creative people. Since I was not that impressed with it, I'm not going to link to it... But it got me thinking! And my mind played a trick on me...!

A few years ago I attended a retreat at Lilleskog. One of our teachers were the very wise man Magnus Malm, you could even call him a sage... for you not knowing about him, he is a writer of what we in Swedish call uppbyggelselitteratur (literature-to-get-get-you-on-your-right-path-with-a-smidge-of-inspirational-issues). He is writing within the christian faith tradition. As a writer and lecturer he has a knife-sharp intellect, with a knife's edge of humor.

We had a talk and he gave me some pointers about creativity, in his case writing. I've always thought that I wrote those pointers down. This morning I looked through the notes from that retreat and I didn't find anything about those pointers... My mind tricked me!

So here are his pointers, as I remember them...
We talked about the creativity, and how I wanted to get there but ultimately didn't got there. At the time I sent applications to design schools and art schools, because I thought I had something to contribute, and they seemed to think that I did not...

Anyway, what Magnus Malm told me was this:
A lot of people think that they will write "that book", on their vacation or when they retire. But that is not how a book is written! You just don't sit down in front of your computer and write a book. No, a book is written on napkins, tissues, receipts, and various pieces of paper. These notes can then be transformed into a book.

That is how I remember what he said...

I took this to my heart, and started to have notebooks in my backpack so that I could write down ideas. Although it took some time before I used them... These scripts that I've written recently has started out as notes and then ordered in the computer.

So what has this memory given me?
1) I always have notebooks with me or in my proximity.
2) I try to keep myself open for new ideas and when I get them I write then down.
3) I create documents on my computer where these ideas are further worked on and developed.

Maybe this will be of help to you, I hope so, it sure has helped me!

Take care!

Writing continues

I've been enjoying this period of writing. As I've written before it has gone smoothly. Today I might be done with my current script, well so far as to be ready to send it off to my friends to read and to give input.

I've been thinking about the theme of this script, it's in the horror/thriller genre, can I do it? Will it work?

A funny thing with the horror/thriller genre is that it only works, when it works. When the reader gets frightened/scared. Hmmm, maybe it's a drama with some slightly scary moments, or with a smidge of scariness...

Take care!

Feedback on the script

Last week I wrote about the feedback that I was going to receive this week. This tuesday we met and my friends told me everything that I needed to work on... Well, to tell you the truth the list wasn't that long, but there are some stuff that I need to work on.

My writing on my next script has been progressive and today I'm going to devout myself to my third script... third script you ask? Can't you count? Well, when I was drawing Pilgrim, I finished another script, that is script no. one, the script that I sent to my mates is script no. two, and the one that I will write on today is no. three!

But why do you write three scripts, isn't it better to concentrate on one thing at a time!!!!
I'm glad, you asked! During the drawing on Pilgrim, I constantly got these ideas for my upcoming projects. Which is always fun, but also takes time from the current project. To get these ideas out of my system I decided to devout myself to my writing these months. So far it's been very productive, and it feels great to already have received notes on one of the scripts.

Take care!

Writing done?

Last week I put the last touches on the script that I wrote about. This week I sent it to two pals of mine, they are going to read it and give feedback to me. That means that it might be done or that I need to fix some things that I've missed. When I'm working on something I tend to be a bit blind, that I don't always see what is clear to someone who has not been starring at the project. That is why I let my friends read or look at the stuff that I do. Without their look, the projects would not be half as good as I think they are. And not least it boosts my confidence, which sometimes fluctuates... So letting someone else read or have a look at your project is something that I truly recommend.

So what is going to happen to the script if it's done you ask?
Well, if it's done, and I mean done-done, I will print it out and put it in a folder and let it age on my book shelf! The script to Pilgrim was aged almost two years, before I began drawing it!

Today I'm going to get back to the clean-up that I'm in the middle of...

Take care!

Writing

Well, last week I did clean-up, which I'm going to continue with this weekend. But today I'm going to devout myself to a script that's been laying around for awhile.

I let my friends read it a couple of months ago and I've been processing the feedback that I got but I haven't really had a day when I've written on it, it's just been small ideas scribbled down on a piece of paper. Maybe I'll get done with it today?

What's it about you ask?
Well, it's kind of hard to tell, because I don't want to give too much away. It's kind of a relationship drama, and following your dreams, leave town or stay behind kind of thing. I see it as a comic, but lately I think it could actually be a short film... We'll see about that, the future will tell what's it gonna be.

Take care!

/P-G

The process of writing

I don't see myself as a writer (not yet anyway). But it's something that I enjoy doing. After a while I usually send the piece to some friends that I trust, and who knows what they're doing, and I ask them to give feedback on the piece. I do this to ensure quality in the project and to get some new pairs of eyes on it. Because I get a little bit blind on my own text, and the new eyes that read the text can tell me things that I can do to get a better result. We usually do this a couple of times, depending on the project. I write, they read, give input, I write, they read etc. My experience tells me that it's a good and easy way to get a better result. But even though I trust my very well chosen friends, I must feel free to sometimes follow their lead and to sometimes say no please, because it's my project, and I must be at the helm! 

Yesterday was a day when I met my friends that had read one of my scripts. Now I'm going to think on their input and see what I'm going to do with it. I also showed them the first pages of Pilgrim, the comics project I'm doing at the moment. I got some good input on that one as well. After yesterdays session I think I've gotten a little bit further on the road to being a writer, and why not, since I fill my sketch books with writing and not sketches... and from the input yesterday I got that the script could easily be transformed into a novella, and also that Hemingway was name dropped! ;-)

Take care!