As I wait patiently to hear back about comments on my MFA thesis, I am reminded about my BFA thesis. I’m not saying academia is even a way to go in writing, my favorite writer (and secret reader/editor) never finished the 8th grade and lives in a shack in the woods in Eugene, Oregon and it takes us months to send mail back and forth to one another. That being said, I decided it was time to dig out the old BFA thesis, which was a novel told in short stories called, wait for it, wait for it, (I’m blushing while trying to even type it, alright here I go): “Baggage.” Go ahead, laugh.
Anyway, the point here is that while I wait for comments back on the current thesis, I have already continued revising and moving into yet another draft, and I started to wonder, was the BFA thesis I’d written six years ago any good? Were there any choice “cherries” I could pluck out and place into the newer work? How much had I grown as a writer?
The answer, dear readers, is that holy crap, I was a mellow-dramatic 21 year old. Will I feel the same way about the current novel? Doubtful, I’m older now, but still. If you had a thesis, what have you done with/to it? If you didn’t, do you ever peruse old notebooks or do you live and let live with the filing-cabinet?
Yours,
the author of “Baggage: a novel told in shorts”