What's the Word? Weekend #34

It's time for What's the Word? Weekend number thirty-four!  :)



 So let's take a look at this weekend's news:

The Bad News: 
I didn't get into the creative writing program at my college. I was sad about it, but at the same time I saw it coming: 
(1) The program is extremely competitive to get into to begin with.
(2) The advisor a student is usually assigned to if they get in the program is generally a teacher that you've taken from (because they have to want to work with you). I've only taken from two different teachers because of the way my schedule worked out over the past two years (whereas most other applicants have had four different teachers, so that means four different chances of a teacher liking them). Of those two teachers I had, one of them is going on leave next year so he couldn't be my adviser; and the other teacher I took from, though she was amazing, didn't really write the same genre/kinds of stories as I do (which is more middle grade and some low YA).
(3) While I'm sure the program has taken on children's writers in the past, the faculty that I know of in the creative writing program don't generally specialize in children's works. I haven't looked in detail to see the different lists of books that they've all written, but from the books of theirs that I know of, they are generally adult stories OR Young Adult books (but I'd say more regular/high YA than low YA).
(4) I feel like it was only over the past couple months or so that I've come into my own as being a middle grade/low young adult writer, so a lot of the stories that I've written in workshops haven't really been based around my strength of writing kids' stories (except for this last semester). Hence, I wasn't surprised, given the stories I chose to submit in my application, that I didn't get in (not that they were bad, but I think in this semester alone I've written much better/stronger stories).
(5) They typically take more English majors than anything else (which I am not).
Anyways, sorry to give you a long list of excuses/justifications of why I didn't get in, especially since I don't know the real reason. But I'm trying to keep the faith in myself, because not only have students in my writings classes said that they've enjoyed my stories, but people who I don't know that have read my stories (and who are more my attended audience) have also said that they LOVED them and that I'm an AMAZING writer. Plus, my teacher this semester said that I should definitely keep writing, and in an article from 2008 he also reminded readers that none of the faculty members had to apply and get into a creative writing program to be the authors that they are today. 
So yeah, hopefully they're right, because I love writing and I'm going to keep doing it whether I'm in the program or not. 
And I'm happy now to know now that I truly am a Middle Grade writer.



The Good News:
So, after receiving the creative writing program rejection on Thursday, I took a good look at Zulu Tribe, and faced head on the insecurities I had about it (for example, why my main character acted the way that she did). After thinking about it for HOURS and HOURS, I finally decided/came up with a way to combine the general plots of Zulu Tribe, Zumba Dance, and Zebra Stripes in out fabulous plot line that I'm super stoked about writing (because I realized that I really loved different parts of all three stories that I didn't want to let go of). I'm essentially taking the first chapter from Zumba Dance/Zulu Tribe and replacing it with the old chapter one I had for Zebra Stripes. I'm also changing the old characters of Zebra Stripes to be more like those I created from Zulu Tribe/Zumba Dance. 
So yeah, long story short, I have a lot of editing to do. But hey, the old version of Zebra Stripes is about 83,000 words (since I initially wrote it with intentions of it being YA), so at least I know I have a good chunk of words to work with. :)

In other news:

Uh ... I don't really have anything more to say really. Although--oh!--I had my last day of Junior-Year classes on Thursday. I'm like happy about it, but then stressed out because that means that come tomorrow it's time to start studying for finals, which I really need/want to do well on. It's also crazy because in two weeks time, after finals are over, I'll be a upcoming senior in college...SCARY!!!

Well, that's all for this weekend folks! Until next time! :)

X <3 O
This is my year, this is my time, this is my now.