writer's block isn't my only enemy..

... my degree is. Bloody LL.B. It is hard enough to write when you do not have to do acrobatic magic(k) tricks to find the time. I am finally at a good place in my writing. I am writing that book I have always wanted to write, the way I have wanted to write it because well now I realize that I can. But I still have 'life' to work out and my degree takes up such a huge part of it. In the next three weeks end of semester exams will start... the last batch of exams I take before I am awarded my LL.B. And yes, I want to ensure that I am leaving this place with First Class Honours. The problem is that I am in such a precarious position because of a C I managed to get in Real Property II two semesters ago sighs and makes sad face. I'm either going to get this First Class or a really high Upper Seconds. I intend to get it or die trying. pauses for dramatic effect. With this said, I am now putting in at least eleven hours of studying per day for the next month and a half or thereabout. It doesn't leave much time for anything else I enjoy. No writing, definitely no gym (and I have a slowly extending tummy to prove) and I barely squeeze in half an hour with Rosetta Stone every day to improve on my German (something has got to give right?). So what do you do when you've got so many things competing for you time? How do your prioritize? Despite what people think, I do not believe that this LL.B is any more important than working on Arabesque or any of the other novels in my mind, or my poetry of my journal. It is just that (and this how I ended up getting a Law Degree to begin with) the LL.B is practical. Let's face it... I won't make money from writing. I do not intend to make money from writing. And I am completely fine with that. Writers do not writer to become rich and or famous. Or as my Creative Writing Mentor has said time and time again, "No writer who has written slowly with the intention to get rich and famous and not from a genuine love for the craft will ever make it. I agree with her. I guess I want to be published so badly because I want my writing to be validated. If a complete stranger were to read one of my novels and say to me, "Damn I liked this story", I'd be beyond Cloud 9. I'd hop on that back elevator that not many people know about and glide right up to Cloud 20.
So considering my passion in life isn't likely to support me, I needed a career - I needed something to pay the bills. I guess the major question I still struggle with is: why Law? It is not exactly the laid back career which will leave a lot of extra time for writing. But what can I say, I was making this choice when I was seventeen: the thought of being a Lawyer seemed uber cool and I got in, so I ran with it. The fact remains is that, although it is not my love but a spawn of my practicality, I am here and I am not the type to do a half assed job at anything. So how do I manage 'going hard or die trying' for my First Class Honours and actually working on my First Draft of that Novel I have finally garnered the courage to write. The answer is apparently a lot more simple than I thought - it involves a Redbull, fierce willpower, determination and a couple less hours of sleep.
Wish me luck.

Tschüss!!