Manuscript-A-Palooza, Week Four

This week, I had three big tasks: 1) finish revisions on the DJ chapter, 2) receive feedback on a full draft of my new "Backstage" chapter and make a plan for revisions, 3) and complete research and an initial draft of a section for my final chapter, on the actress Sarah Wilson.

I'm happy to say I made it through the first two fairly early in the week, but am still struggling with working through this new chapter quickly. As you'll recall from last week, it was also a challenge to get Jane Lessingham written up in a week as I spent so much time doing different Burney searches for her. Wilson is presenting some of the same issues.

"You've cracked my pipkin, Sir" said she, "pray marry me and mend it," 1777 -- this isn't any of the actresses I'm writing about, but it's in the right time period so thought I'd offer you something from my Pinterest board about the book project today.

In part, it's because research for this one is coming from so many small, disparate sources. There are no extensive biographies of these women, and the biographical data that does exist is not always cited or explained fully. I thought I'd given myself a jumpstart by gathering what I could about them on archival trips over the last year or so, but...not as much as I'd like.

So in the coming week when I'm supposed to be moving on to Mary Wells and wrapping up Backstage revisions, I'm finding myself not really done with either Lessingham or Wilson. My aim is to devote the morning today (the University is closed) to jumping into those Backstage chapter revisions and getting as far as I can. That should give me a clear picture of how much more time I think I need on this in the rest of the week; my hope is I can wrap it up sooner rather than later and clear my writing time to just focus on this new chapter.

My afternoon and evening today will be devoted to getting everything arranged for the last two weeks of classes, some grading, etc. Between today and time around office hours and meetings the next three days, I'm hoping to set myself up for being able to make a complete work schedule for the book, teaching, the comprehensive exam I oversee, thesis projects, end of year events, etc. etc. (also known in my undergrad days as a "Done is Good" list).

It'll be a packed month, but it's always been helpful to me to be able to see a big-picture plan so I can better focus on the tasks each day requires.

How are you tackling the end of the semester?