My Life, Planning Stages.

As the rest of my peers at Champlain College in the guinea pig class of 2011 sit worried or angry, or some combination thereof, about the dreaded, ambiguous Capstone Project that faces us in the coming year, my fellow writing majors and I sit back and smile to ourselves.

We hope.

Champlain has done a fabulous job of making everything up as they go, which means we students get updates on the fly on a need-to-know basis (not sure about you, but when my tuition money is funding you, I consider everything "need to know"). So while I'm supposed to be excited over the freedom allowed to Professional Writing majors in our capstone because we will be working on a project of our choosing, I'm wary. I'm waiting for that one loophole or forgotten detail that's going to throw a wrench in the gears and get all us writers up in arms. It'll be like finding out that Michael Collins signed a treaty giving us freedom, just to later find out we're still under the oppressive thumb of the British.

But I'm supposed to be brainstorming what I want to do for Capstone. Some proposed ideas have been a "coherent piece of text, such as a one-act play or the first four chapters of a novel," a collection of poetry or songs, an extended piece of investigative reporting, and an eBook or web project. But I'm a commitmiphobe, and the idea of tying myself down to one piece of writing for an extended period of time makes my chest tighten. I don't do the long haul. Poetry, though, that I could get into. And though the world is a better place when I don't sing, if I wake up one morning spewing lyrics, I could team up with April Payne. Investigative reporting makes me nauseous, and I'm still working on getting better with the Internet. We're in couples therapy.

I know! I'll start a small publication. It'll be perfect for Capstone, exactly what they want: I'll put together a staff of talented writers, get myself a graphic design team, recruit submissions from writers around the area, edit until it's flawless, publish in print and electronically on a kickass website, organize events, gather up a dedicated and enthusiastic following...oh, wait. I've done that already.

Seriously, though. It was something I loved while it lasted, and would have been a great capstone project if I hadn't started it my freshman year and if it hadn't already run its course. Combining two of my loves, though--editing and travel writing--maybe I'll put together an issue of a travel writing magazine. Really work with writers, rather than just a quick copyedit, to perfect their pieces. This way, I get another piece for my editing portfolio, a capstone project, and they get polished pieces for their portfolios--or to send out for publication.

I've also started writing a lot more poetry. That burning rush that you're supposed to get as a writer? The feeling that you'll combust unless you get the words down? Poetry is the only form of writing that has given me that. On the train to Howth, after rotting in the city and not writing more than two lines of a poem, I was hit again. I had to scramble and rip apart my backpack to get to my Moleskine. As I scrawled out the last two lines as quickly as I could, I couldn't stop a laugh from escaping my lips. I felt as if light was beaming from my pores as I reread what I had written. So maybe I will make a collection of poetry. Of course, I was kind of hoping to take Jim Ellefson's Advanced Poetry Seminar, and I'd do that in there. But it's an idea.

Hmmm. I'm supposed to have three things, aren't I? I really do love editing. One thing I learned from Kathy Johnson in my Copyediting class is that every word that's written--ever--needs to be looked at. Maybe I could find some freelance work and get myself a few copyediting clients/projects. That would be way cool.

So, that's my plan for now.