Discussion Topic 3

I think the greatest success of my internship has been editing my Supervisor's soon to be released book.  My Supervisor is a fantasy author and she is about to release a new book that is a spinoff of her last series.  She wanted to make this book a jumping on point for people new to the setting.  I wasn't tasked with editing in the traditional sense, but, as a person who hasn't read her big fantasy series yet, I was supposed to read the new book and mark places where she could better introduce new readers to the setting and make recommendations about how to make the book more newbie-friendly.  

This was my greatest success for me because I really felt like I was contributing in a way that was unique.  It would have been hard for my Supervisor to find someone else with the familiarity with her genre, experience as a writer, and who hasn't read her other books.  I think she would have had to find a non-writer to read her books, and while that would have been fine, she wouldn't have received as helpful recommendations as I was able to provide.  I don't mean to brag, but I think that is the reality of the situation.  More than that, my recommendations are going to be appearing in a book that will be read by a lot of people.  This was my greatest success because of the impact this work would have and how uniquely my abilities were suited to its completion.

I think the primary strength I am developing is creative confidence.  My own confidence in my ability was shaken in this past semester.  I wondered if I was regressing not progressing in my ability and that had me questioning a lot of things.  I feel like my energy to create has dulled as I have gotten older and I still doubt if writing will ever be as easy for me as it felt like it once was.  In this internship, however, I was given the opportunity to do a little comparative study.  I put myself up against more experienced writers and found myself not falling too far behind.  I obviously wasn't as good as some of the others I have worked with, but I was not a bumbling mess by comparison.  I need to grow but I am on the right track.  You need to have some confidence to create because your biggest adversary in the act of creation if you are like me, is yourself.  I have been keeping myself down and this internship has helped me to to get back up.