More Prospectusing (and some wall of shame contributions)

I finally, finally sent my March check-in email to my advisor. It was only three days later than my goal due date, but it sure was stressing me out. It wasn't that I didn't have much to report--I've actually accomplished a lot in the time I've had the past month. It was that I want everything to be neatly packaged and pretty when I send it. (I'm not one to enjoy inviting someone to come in and look at my messy closet.) I got stressed out most by my prospectus progress section.

Last month, I got confirmation of prospectus stuff from the advisor: yes, the prospectus should be useful to me; no, it shouldn't take up more time than is valuable; it will probably not be a complete map of where the dissertation will go; it might, for me, include the basic questions I'm asking, the texts I'm planning to include (maybe even specific scene references), and my theoretical/critical approach (perhaps through what secondary sources I've found useful in my work so far); and it shouldn't probably be more than 8-10 pages.

Easier said than done.

I had hoped to send a rough outline as a starting point for drafting the prospectus, and it ended up looking rather sickly. I finally ended up freewriting "this is what I want to say to you about my prospectus," and I ended up with a decent description of what I've been thinking.* On a week when I've taken two work nights off and felt rather unmotivated to work the other nights, I'm counting the sent email as a triumph.

On the horizon:

1) reading Sidney's New Arcadia (I can't say I'm excited for the expanded version of the already long Old Arcadia, and though Sidney's thigh-wound infection death at age 31 is tragic, I'm not-so-secretly glad that he couldn't finish New)

2) finishing Helen Hackett's Women and Romance Fiction in the English Renaissance

3) taking notes on lots of things (I've had trouble getting in the groove with notetaking--GEW, I'd love to hear more about how notetaking/responding worked for your first writing project)

4) writing an abstract to submit for the "Maternity and Romance Narratives in the Renaissance" session for RSA 2010 (in Venice, Italy). deadline: mid-April. draft deadline: end of the month. I think I'm writing on FQ.

5) continuing to explore my theoretical/critical approach. My current strategy is writing a conversation between me and my advisor. Let me tell you, FakeAdvisor is an excellent Socratic questioner. Any suggestions on how to develop this section of my prospectus?

6) unpack the book boxes that are still piled in the bedroom--I need to uncover the Spenser Encyclopedia, the essay collection Dissing Elizabeth, Mary Thomas Crane's Shakespeare's Brain, and Faerie Queene.

*This exercise has been a good reminder that often I need to refine my thinking through multiple drafts, and not just by tinkering with old drafts, but by actually starting again with a blank page.