Monday, August 31, 2015

In Which I Talk Monstrous Characters In Kidlit

In my MFA program we have two theses. When you're in your third semester you write a critical thesis, which is where you do a lot of research and reading and write a paper on your topic of choice. Similar to any other MFA program. And then when you're in your fourth and final semester you complete a creative thesis, which is pretty much what it sounds like 80 pages of polished, publishable creative work (this can vary some if, say, you're a picture book writer or a graphic novelist etc)

I'm in my fourth semester right now which means I'm working on my creative thesis and means I completed my critical thesis last semester.

When you're done with the paper, then you have to give a 20 min lecture on your topic, which was something I was not looking forward to at all, but then by the time I got there, I wasn't nearly as nervous as I thought I'd be.

So I got up (I was the first to go out of my class) gave my lecture, answered any questions (and I was so glad I was able to answer them. I was worried people would ask me crazy smart questions and I'd be like, bahdunno. But that didn't happen) and then I was done. And I felt great!

The lecture was recorded and I thought I'd share it here in case anyone wanted to watch it or if you wanted to know a bit more about how some kidlit authors create monstrous characters.

 



4 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

You looked like you were having fun with it. Plus you sounded really confident. Good for you!

Hart Johnson said...

Oh this was fabulous! Well done!

Rena said...

Great talk! I enjoyed it. You could do another... Just kidding, I know how crazy those big presentations at the end can be. And you handled the questions at the end very well. (so professional!)

Leandra Wallace said...

You did awesome! I'd be a stutterey mess. Love that your Mom read Stephen King to you. =)

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