204,471 words in the manuscript (ugh, I’m trying to make that number go DOWN at this point, not up!). Editing chapter 24 of… I think I either have 67 or 68 chapters now.
Hi, how are you?
I’m good, thanks. But I just had an insane effing week.
No, I don’t really want to talk about it. But I’ll give you a quick thumbnail sketch: A friend of mine died in a really dark and tragic way. My guiding teacher was out sick with the flu all week, so I took responsibility for running the show, even though it’s only my second week there. Grad school’s spring term started. And at the end of the week, LT also got the flu.
I didn’t want to edit only eight chapters this week; I wanted to edit more like 20. However, quality over quantity, and I’m happy with the work I have been doing. Also, although my progress is slow, my progress has been steady.
Given my week, I’ll take that.
Furthermore, my guiding teacher should be back at school this upcoming week, which means my workload at the high school should be reduced just a little bit.
But then there’s ed and his TPA.
Guess what’s due in 5 weeks??
If you said “Your edTPA?”, then you would be correct!
What is the edTPA, you ask? I could tell you, but I would rather provide you a bunch of memes about it so that you can share in the emotional experience that is the edTPA, instead:
I could keep going. I won’t. Google “edTPA memes” if you are so inspired.
In a nutshell, it’s about three videos, roughly 30 single spaced pages, and $300 that determines whether or not you will earn a teaching credential or not. Gone are those lovely days when all a future teacher had to do was pass an exam and be done with it.
And basically every teacher candidate ever hates it and lives in fear of it and…
does it anyway.
When deciding how long it would take me to edit Soldier of Dorsa, I admit that I kinda forgot about the edTPA. Similar to how I kinda forgot about grad school when I had my initial plan to publish this darn book six months ago.
Nevertheless, it’s gotta get done — both Soldier and edTPA. So buckle up, folks. The goal remains the end of February for both projects — a novel and a teaching license. Here we go.
5 Comments
ryan · January 20, 2020 at 2:29 pm
lol. Thats funny. It seems like Soldier of Dorsa wants to be a massive and huge book thats over 200,000 words. If thats so then let it be that big. I was going to say your book may want to be one of the biggest or longest books ever but when I looked those up this doesn’t even come close.
Some books had word courts in the millions. I was like, damn
you can try to edit it down but if it wants to remain this huge then let it be
and editing only 8 chapters is good progress especially for what you described happened and what you are preparing for
I considered trying to be a teacher once and I looked into what teachers have to deal with from the state, school administration and parents and then the children themselves and I said HELL NO.
There would probably be youtube videos of me berating an arrogant children who decided to be an ashole on a consistent bases and then me punching the dad out when he tried to make excuses
I have zero patience so I stayed away from that field
Kris Walls · January 20, 2020 at 3:31 pm
You are truly amazing. Hang in there you are doing great.
Sarah · January 21, 2020 at 3:11 pm
I’m so sorry about your friend, and I hope LT’s feeling better soon. It’s hell week here too but for entirely different reasons. Best of luck on the EdTPA, I’m sure you’ll do great!
Feedback · January 24, 2020 at 3:40 pm
Can you comment on whether the audio will be released with the book? I know it’s a cost item so sometimes there are logistic delays and other times the author can’t afford it until hard copy sales are incoming. Thanks for all you do.
The Real Person!
It won’t be released at the same time, but there WILL be an audio version eventually. I think I’ll post about that in the next progress report, so thanks for the idea. 🙂