Weekly Update…

There were moments this week where I felt really engaged with the readings I’ve been doing for my Lit Review and others where I wasn’t sure if what I was reading was going to be beneficial for my thesis. I remember that in conversation during our first group meeting we talked about the research that I would be finding not necessarily affecting or directing how I would be developing my characters. I had to remind myself that because at times I felt like I had to adjust my novel according to what research was saying. However, research was not always saying that same thing. It is extremely beneficial for me to see different perspectives and this way have the knowledge and confidence to lead my novel where it needs to be.

This week, I had the opportunity to talk about my thesis with some friends and coworkers. While many of my coworkers have been asking about how my thesis is going, I had not felt confident enough yet to explain what I was aiming to accomplish for my thesis. I was able to talk to some of my coworkers about it this week and actually explained to them my goals and how has my process been going. The conversations went better than I expected. I actually now know about this person (a friend of my coworker) that is working on writing her book where she’ll be telling the stories of a variety of females from different races and ethnicities and how has their relationship with their mothers shaped who they are today. I might be participating in the research the author will be doing and perhaps become one of the participants that tell their story in her book. Hearing about her book got me more excited and motivated about my novel. As I talked with my coworker about my thesis project, she had really good questions for me that got me thinking about how I’ll be developing my story. She asked me if I’m going to talk in my novel about how my characters cope with having divorced parents and celebrating special life events such as birthdays, holidays and graduations. She also asked me if I’m going to be showing how my characters’ relationship is with their siblings as opposed to how is their relationship with their half-siblings. These were subjects I’ve been touching upon and developing in my novel and I was excited to see she showed interest towards them.

Overall, I feel I had a good week working on my thesis. I am still excited and motivated to work on it. I am nervous about the deadlines and the fear that I might experience writers block or lack of motivation to keep going. However, I am just trying to stay as positive as I can and keep going with the process.