OK, in case you haven't been watching TV, listening to the radio or reading the comics, the school year has started. For me, classes started on Wednesday. My schedule would seem pretty light this semester, 2 classes, one meets M and W from 1:30 - 3:30 and the other meets only on W from 6:00 - 9:30 pm.
That 9:30 thing is a doosy. That's my theology class - world religions. It looks like it will be fun, but a lot of work.
The other class is "Text analysis in ASL and English: Interpreting skills 1" (that's a mouthful - I think I'll just call it Laurie's class). I've had this professor before a couple of times and have found her to have HIGH expectations - and the skills to get us there. She's a good professor in that she is approachable and reasonable if you tell her about problems as soon as you see them (like I'm working at Ren Fest this month and will have a hard time finding 5 hours to go meet Deaf people). She expects you to try everything - you'll get more points for making mistakes than not trying. She expects you to make mistakes, and then learn from them. Which is all fine and well and will help me become a better interpreter, but in the meantime it means this class is going to be a lot of work.
Anyway, I've survived this week. Wish me luck on the rest of the semester.
I recently posted my story "Lady of Swords" on the OWW, and it has been slowly gathering cirts. Very slowly.
Last night I finally worked up the courage to read the 2 crits I have recieved, and they were painful. The first complained that the plot was too straight forward and wanted to see more differenciation between the characters. The hardest word to read in that crit was "predicatable" which was used several times. He also questioned whether the story was appropriately within the genre which came out of the blue as far as I'm concerned.
The other was the harder to take. She'd rated my plot at the lowest possible level. Said that my characters were all stereotypes and complained that the whole story was just male bashing and uninspired. (OK, I'll admit men don't get the best light in that story, but they aren't all clods). Then she said some things that made me wonder if she actually read the story or just skimmed it. She complained that one character wouldn't have been disrespectful of the lady when that character was in fact being very respectful - but someone else was whispering disparages. She complained that all the women were orphans, but they aren't. So now I'm left to wonder whether this critter is worth listening to and it's my fault that she didn't get it, or was it her fault for not reading closely enough and making assumptions that are belied by the text.
Either way, a story I thought would just need some polishing, needs a complete overhaul. And I was in need of some serious hugging - fortunately Sweetie was able to provide the hugs.