My PhD-writing alter ego has had a very satisfying day. I had a great meeting with my supervisor this morning (after a meeting last week that threw me into existential angst, after which I ended up questioning the purpose of writing a PhD — not for the first time, and certainly not for the last). In this morning’s glorious meeting, my article earned several nods of approval. The writing (that made me want to cry last week) was described as ‘clear’ and ‘well-argued’. The supervisory pen barely got a workout on the article’s vulnerable pages. So the meeting was going swimmingly — with coffees and all — and then it got even better, when a short passage near the conclusion was singled out and given the highest praise a supervisor can give.
He said, and I quote: ‘Oh, this is very good; I really like this’ and he emphasised his point by outlining the passage in question, just in case I wasn’t hanging on every one of his laudatory words.
Joy.
This afternoon I revised said article, and it is now on its merry way to the University of Aberdeen – where, hopefully, it will find a nice prominent home in a certain Important Journal that is published there.
More joy, mixed with relief.
What’s more, I’ve finished and sent my most recent short story to two reliable readers, one of whom has already started reading it. And she seems to like it so far — or, at least it seems that she ‘gets’ it, which is a great start.
Happiness all around.
To cap off an entirely satisfying day, tonight I’m off to a shindig with friends to celebrate the temporary return of our Beloved Mr Sutton from the Wilds of Warragul, so all is good in the realm of the random.
Lisa L. Hannett 