OK, the reading, the eye strain, the mind bending philosophical discussions are complete. The postings are made, the reflection papers graded. All that remains is to write the final papers. And I have been working on that. I am running out of time faster than I want to admit. The end of August is flying at me so quickly I am fearful of not having all 3 tombs written and proofed in time.
The frustrating part of writing is finding enough isolation to bury myself in the resources so I can mix and mingle, think and construe, and then apply all that process to the requirements listed. Just when I think I have the right approach, I realize it does not meet the criteria, and I scratch it all and go back to the bin to muddle my hand around in the soup awhile longer, trying to pull out the choice chunks of sustenance for inclusion in some hopefully coherent thesis.
Today, I bury myself in my office long before the building opens. I just have to make some progress. There are many things on my calendar that will prevent me from such focus, so I grab the empty time chunks everywhere I can.
I spread out on every possible inch of desk and counter top. There are stacks of open books three deep just about everywhere I look. How do I stitch all this together? Can I let go of the fascinating stuff and relegate it to some footnote so that I can get to the real meat? There is no other way. Four hours wasted on one little point, all to realize it is not worth including in the main paper.
I push my notes this way and that, trying to shake out the right content. I recall this fact, where did I read that? Back to the original book to trace pages until I find the words I seek. Yes, there it is. I can cite this as authentic. I learned long ago to footnote as I write. What a nightmare to cite after the fact!
I sort, resort, push things around, wring my brain out, type, delete, retype, delete, copy, paste, rearrange, write more, rethink, test it out, read out loud. It is like trying to carry a 3 cushion couch up a mountain of rocks. I am getting there, but it is hard work - slow and laborious. After 7 straight hours, I am finally unable to think any more. I wrap up a few little details, track down a few stray citation pages, and call it quits.
I am getting there. At least on this one!
The frustrating part of writing is finding enough isolation to bury myself in the resources so I can mix and mingle, think and construe, and then apply all that process to the requirements listed. Just when I think I have the right approach, I realize it does not meet the criteria, and I scratch it all and go back to the bin to muddle my hand around in the soup awhile longer, trying to pull out the choice chunks of sustenance for inclusion in some hopefully coherent thesis.
Today, I bury myself in my office long before the building opens. I just have to make some progress. There are many things on my calendar that will prevent me from such focus, so I grab the empty time chunks everywhere I can.
I spread out on every possible inch of desk and counter top. There are stacks of open books three deep just about everywhere I look. How do I stitch all this together? Can I let go of the fascinating stuff and relegate it to some footnote so that I can get to the real meat? There is no other way. Four hours wasted on one little point, all to realize it is not worth including in the main paper.
I push my notes this way and that, trying to shake out the right content. I recall this fact, where did I read that? Back to the original book to trace pages until I find the words I seek. Yes, there it is. I can cite this as authentic. I learned long ago to footnote as I write. What a nightmare to cite after the fact!
I sort, resort, push things around, wring my brain out, type, delete, retype, delete, copy, paste, rearrange, write more, rethink, test it out, read out loud. It is like trying to carry a 3 cushion couch up a mountain of rocks. I am getting there, but it is hard work - slow and laborious. After 7 straight hours, I am finally unable to think any more. I wrap up a few little details, track down a few stray citation pages, and call it quits.
I am getting there. At least on this one!
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