Overcoming the Dementor

Dear November 2014 Annalee,
You do finish your essay mostly on time. While editing it throughout thanksgiving break, do not despair. Things turn out okay. All that editing work is so appreciated when you accidentally sleep in too late the day it's due and only have an hour before you have to walk into class. As you frantically try and put in the correct MLA formatting and rewrite those last couple sentences in that terrifying hour, know that your essay does not suck. Honestly, the suckage is 0%. So good job!  But that said, it still could be better. I can't believe you missed writing "a" and "the" a couple times.
Now if only you would have actually wrote the 30 book reviews as you read them this semester.  That all-nighter was not a fun time.
Love,
Your Future Self

After crossing the finish line for my papers, I usually feel like a dementor sucked out all the love and fire I had going into it. But this time, that did not happen!

The Drawing Board and Back: A Procrastinator's Tale

Remember when I wanted to write about male narration? Here is what it was like trying to research it:

 

There truly is very little to say about narration. Like there's nothing. How did I think I could research and write so much about it?! A couple weeks ago, I met with my professor, and we commiserated over the awfulness of writing essays over a topic you aren't interested in. It gave me the push I needed to let go of an already decaying corpse of an idea and restart at the drawing board. I promised myself I would start researching again to look  for something else, but then life and fear stepped in, and I resorted back to my procrastinator ways: avoidance, excuses, distraction. With a week to go, the manic fire of do-die lit and, hallelujah, I found a good question: How are Asian Americans portrayed in YA Lit?

And okay, I know: Why in the world would I, a white, conservative southerner, be writing about minorities?