Narrowing Down

As twelve titles would be an extortionate amount to re-pitch to my ACE group, I've decided to follow the second week of MOOC's advice on selecting topic titles, and have narrowed it down to two hypotheses that I will present to them as soon as possible. There is already somewhat of a bias visible, and I know which hypothesis would be within my comfort zone.

Four Paths

I've looked over my spider diagram and considered how they could become essays with longevity and promise. Therefore, I've considered three concepts per subject that I could embark on.

Romanticism 

• To what extent does the landscape and origins of the author affect the piece of Romantic Literature/Poetry?
• The links between Atheism and Romanticism.
• The influence of Lord Byron on the eras poets, playwrights, and authors.

Gothic Literature

• Evolution of Gothic Literature
• Can a modern Gothic text fully emulate the nature of a period-appropriate text?
• The effects of of Walpole's 'Castle of Otranto' and its influence on the genre as a whole?

Medieval Literature

• Does the anonymity of the author effect the impact of the text?
• Different writers' different takes on the tales of King Arthur.
• How influential were the monks who transcribed the traditionally-oral tales?

Shakespearean

• Is 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' an exception to the rigid tragedy-comedy formula?
• Skirmishes over authorship: Did Shakespeare take credit for plays that weren't his?
• Feminism and Lady Macbeth in 'Macbeth'

Initial Ideas

The spider-diagram below should be a familiar sight from the first initial ideas post, and so thusly the points I made in that previous post apply here. Of course, there is a difference: I make reference to Shakespeare's works, of which are a passion and interest of mine, and are partially inspired by the Higher Education Plus talk 'Reading Shakespeare' given by Professor Adrian Poole. Alongside these other essay possibilities, I can at least have some 'fresh' consideration.

A Confession of My Failings Thus Far

To say that I have become idle in regards to the EPQ is an understatement. Even though I can excuse my laxness (and subsequent failing of my most minimal goals) down to a busy, essay-heavy summer, I cannot excuse my deliberate feigned ignorance when it came to even the slightest thought of the letters E-P-Q strung together. I've documented my uncertainty with my original concepts, and the hope I had in reinvigorating it with doing another artifact with close, tendril'd relations to my original idea, finding that these are incompatible with my current frame of mind. To blame it on a muse and throw my hands up in defeat is not my aim, however.

I want to change from an artifact to an essay.

I would have considerable ground to catch up on, and would have to densely-compact it around my studying (for which takes my top priority), with length sessions to feel I can compete with others in my group. I do feel that I can do this. However, this will need to be discussed with my supervisor, so a final decision may take time.

To finish on a low (though hopefully one self-aware enough to seem slightly sardonic), I will recount the little goals I've missed on the 'An Introduction' post:

• Manage your time - I attempted this, and when I possessed a passion for my artifact this wasn't an issue at all. So, one pass at least.

• Be practical - I'm a dreamer at heart, and dreamers are quite bad at realizing the practicalities of something until it smacks them in the face. While I idly thought of the finished product and my glowing pride, I gave little thought to making decent headway until all energy was sapped from me, and highly-personal circumstances made the idea unattractive to me.

• Be thoroughly organised - again, a sting. When I had this 'muse' of mine, I was intensely organised, especially before college broke up for the summer.

• Know what you're doing and when it's being done - have a definitive action plan - while I may have been organised in the beginning, I had little concept as to where I wanted to take my ideas and how I would record it. What little action plan I had was incredibly vague and unhelpful, and leaves me bitter - if I had a better action plan, would I have been able to persevere with my artifact?

• Keep motivated - my motivation waned like the moon and was dreadful to deal with. While I'm usually so spirited and driven with my academic subjects, I suppose my lax attitude towards my create work hindered my motivation and its potency. 

• Enjoy yourself! - If I had done this, I might be recounting a post of how pleased I was with all the work I did over the summer. Simply put, I lacked any form of enjoyment. It was as if even thinking of the EPQ by the latter weeks summoned a Dementor to whisk away any passion or pleasure I could have for the project. My morbid idea was only appealing when I did not have to deal with the realities of the situation, and the nature poetry idea was pleasing when I thought I would be encountering more nature. 

From these observations, I have to take away a heavy but important message in regards to my work ethic. However, if I find it feasible to continue with the EPQ (and I am able to adjust it to an essay), then I will leave myself these bullet points as reminders and motivators:

• Manage your time; work efficiently and intelligently.

• Be practical, but be critical of your initial assumptions of what 'practical' means. Just because a concept seems 'interesting' or 'unique', it does not make it viable or approachable. The less of a clue you have about gathering resources, the greater the probability that the idea is impractical.

• Be organised to a frightening extent: have as many contingency plans as possible, colour-code everything, and have lists longer than your arms of possible sources - but have them sorted alphabetically, of course. Perhaps make a Gantt chart?

• Know what you're doing and when it's being done - have a definitive action plan that encompasses contingencies and human error. 

• Keep motivated even when things seem particularly bleak, and find ways of bribing yourself to complete a set amount of work regardless of its tediousness.

• Try to enjoy yourself, and remind yourself of why you're doing the EPQ in the first place.

The Fourth Option

As I have previously discussed, I have found myself at the conceptual crossroads in regards to the project. This, coupled with unrelated tasks I've had to complete over the summer, have left me with a definite, frustrating writer's block, to the extent that even considering the EPQ in casual thought has given me a minor migraine. Therefore, I've decided to take the fourth option: discarding the theme of grief and emotions, but keeping the core of composing poems.

I'm considering looking at Romantic-era poetry (an interest of mine) for its pastoral, environmental nature, as I hope a family coach trip to Yorkshire should serve as an inspiration, if not a starting point. On the other hand, I could look at the broader theme of nature poetry, encompassing poets from a variety of eras instead.

While I've been neglectful - to which I find myself self-deriding due to this - I hope that altering the theme to something I have a previous interest in should up my morale. Hopefully I can catch up on the MOOC all the while.

At the Conceptual Crossroads

As I previously established, I have an interest in writing a series of poems that build a narrative and reflect different character voices. However, I have found this a difficult task when trawling over half-finished notes, tattered papers, and frayed patience. When dealing with so many voices that struggle to build a cohesive narrative, it's difficult to know where to take the work and what to write about - none of these notes are finished, or a condition I would consider presentable. So, this leaves me at the conceptual crossroads: which path do I take to best suit my EPQ?

Firstly, I could continue with the different viewpoints and have a small collection of disconnected poems dealing with the subject of grief and losing someone, although this has already been a nightmare to plot and to conceptualize characters for.

Secondly, I could have the narrative told through just one character (perhaps a fictional poet?) whose story is told through the different poetry styles as she comes to terms with his/her grief. This makes it easier to build a protagonist and to 'plot' the poems and how they fit together, but removes the inter-connectivity between different characters.

Finally, I could keep these alternating character perspectives alive through the power of monologues, and could write a short theater piece that aligns with my original idea of having the dichotomy between living and dead. It allows easier communication with an audience, and is easier to ground in terms of plot - a series of reminisces and discussions can build towards a conclusion on grief, but massively disregards my previous work on the project, aside from my observance of memoirs and the like (which I need to record on here).

Overall, I'm currently stuck at the conceptual crossroads which is giving me a massive bout of writers' block, and an unwillingness to continue until I sort this out. Principally, I can imagine I'll use the second idea as it's the closest to my original research, although I still need to consider my options. I will continue with the MOOC and hope that I can cement my ideas.

'Developing Your Research Project' Weeks One and Two

Having just completed the first and second weeks of the MOOC, I feel that I need to have a greater certainty in the theme of my poetry, and to experiment with greater fluency as to whether my previous ideas will be rigid enough to withstand. I understand that my project doesn't conform to the academic nature that many of the other projects adhere to (to which I've felt a slight reluctance to complete the second week's activity).

I hope to do further analysis and commentaries on both my own experiments and the style models I begin to adopt, while deciphering a manner to coherently plot a narrative utilizing such a variety of character voices, all of which need to be individual in their own rights.