The Dissertation is Done

After working on it for what seemed like forever (4 months), I finally handed in my dissertation. It was a project that I really struggled with, I had to confront a lot of negative feelings about my own writing, feelings that I still feel even after the submission. I feel so anxious about this piece of work that I have put so much time and effort into. I'm scared that it is just not good enough. There's also a part of me that knows I am a good writer, but I won't be able to reject those negative thoughts until I get feedback. So I'll just have to wait.

Despite this, I'm really excited to continue the work that I've started, whether that be creatively or academically. It really holds a special place in my heart, and I had a lot of fun writing it (although it may seem otherwise). Over my masters degree, I've finally been able to explore the horror genre in a way that I didn't during my undergrad, and it makes me so happy to see the outcome of that on a 100 page word document. For now, I want to take a bit of a break from academic work, and focus on my own writing.

Since studying creative writing at university I haven't written a single piece for myself. I want to spend the next few months planning a novella that I've wanted to write for a while. It's an adaptation of a piece I did a while ago, but I really want to try my hand at writing long-form. I just want to prove to myself that I can do it. For the foreseeable future, I'll be researching and planning a piece for myself, rather than for university.

I know this was only a short update. I'm quite worn out at the moment, and have just been trying to spend these last few days recovering from the stress. I'm aiming to start my novella in November (just in time for NaNoWriMo), and I plan to keep you updated along the way. For now, I'll be catching up on reading.

All the best,

Talia