Several topics for discussion come to mind this week: current favorite writing spots, anticipated pleasure reading for this summer/winter, best habits for establishing deep focus on TLQ matters despite looming big things (like kids' birthdays, international travel, or a dreaded meeting). But instead of these, I just want to share an observation. In a way, it continues on with the topics from the previous weeks, so I apologize if I'm beating a dead horse.
Lately, I've spent some time listening to a podcast about science fiction and fantasy writing, and on this podcast (The Coode Street Podcast) the hosts interview SF writers. I've been amazed by the matter-of-fact confidence of these writers. I'm not sure I've ever heard writers talk the way these writers do. They say things like, "Well, I only have about 10,000 words left to finish the book, and I know where it needs to go, so I should be able to do it in about four days." Or, "I was really having trouble with the story, but now I've solved the problem, and it's good." They also get commissions for stories. An editor will say, "Hey, I'm putting together an anthology of robot stories, will you write one?" And the author will say, "Sure, I can write a robot story." And then they do.
I've also been reading some books about writing. I started re-reading Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, and I also re-read Ann Patchett's long essay, The Getaway Car. I'm struck by how much more matter of fact Patchett is about her work. She takes a butt-in-the-chair, work-the-problem approach that I like, one that reminds me of the SF writers. (Of course, Lamott's "bird by bird" philosophy also suggests the "work the problem" approach, but her book focuses quite a bit on the "tortured writer" identity/experience.)
Reading and listening to these writers also makes me think back to the final days of my thesis writing when, three days before submission, my supervisor told me that my conclusion struck the wrong tone and needed to be re-written. There was no room for writer's block or despair. I just had to work the problem. In fact, the whole last month felt like that. I remember saying to my husband that I felt like an Apollo 13 astronaut (with much lower stakes, of course).
When it comes to writing, I am trying to take these SF writers and Patchett as my models right now. Butt in chair. Make progress. Practice. Get better. It doesn't have to be perfect. Work the problem.
I don't have a specific prompt for this topic. In your comments, you can riff off my observation, or share one of your own. Or maybe you can talk about how you've successfully "worked a problem" this week. And I highly recommend The Getaway Car.
I hope DEH and heu mihi's travels are going well! (Anyone else traveling that I've forgotten?)
Contingent Cassandra
--work in some kind of activity -- garden, swim, weights, walk -- on at least 4 days.
--look at upcoming 2 weeks or so for opportunities for full break days (July 4 weekend should yield some, but can I find another 1 or 2? I really need them).
DEH
House: long list . . . do as much as possible, type the rest of the list and send it to Sir John.
Teaching: finish Blackboard stuff for summer course.
Research: plan UK work, answer an e-mail.
Self: keep up stretching, cardio, weights; dentist, haircut, massage.
Get on plane Friday night with passport and suitcase.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
Walk forty minutes a day.
Hydrate and keep track of it.
Finish annual review (quickly becoming TRQ).
Pack and plan for conference (also quickly becoming TRQ).
Touch sabbatical outline and application every day.
Follow book plan for the week.
GoodEnoughWoman
1) Finish emptying study and paint it to suit its future resident (my son). This will involve taking a LOT books to my campus office, etc.
2) Make belated father's day photo album for my dad.
3) Yoga 2x, Swim 1x.
4) Read a little of "Bird by Bird." Write 3x for 15 minutes.
5) Read two short stories.
6) Visit mom for an hour. Find a night to invite parents over for pizza.
heu mihi (for post 7/10)
1. Read through chapter 5; revise as needed
2. Read through chapter 2 and sketch out revision plan/ideas
3. Make progress on the Mess At The Heart of Chapter 2 (MATHOC2)
humming42
1 write 5x
2 read 5x
3 set summer goals and deadlines
4 do more yoga
JaneB
1) clear off my desks at home and at the office
2) condense the various lists on postits and in scrappy bits of notebooks into ONE LIST
3) send emails about all the meetings on the various lists
4) outline ProblemChild paper 2 for both parts
5) resist sugar, go to the gym once
Karen
Finish the marking! (not strictly TLQ but will make me feel soo much better)
Hold 30 mins on Friday for planning, 30 min for reading, 30 min for writing.
Make a visible change in house or garden (weather dependant) over the weekend.
KJHaxton
(1) make cake
(2) finish writing plan and work on the first tasks
(3) progress on knitting
(4) exercise each day - physio exercises and walk of 2 - 3 miles. Yes, irrespective of the heat, do it before 11 am or after 10 pm if necessary!
Matilda
1) Revise Chapter 1.
2) Revise the outline of Chapter 2.
3) Continue to work on the main material on Chapter 2.
4) Make it a habit to do 5- minute-exercises several times a day.
6) Continue to try to find more ‘my own 15 minutes’. When I can find my time?
Notorious, PhD
1. Writing: 2,500 words on Hot Mess Chapter. This will bring me close to the projected word count I need. I'd like to do more, and I think I might be able to, but I want to keep this one achievable.
2. Research: ONE source collection combed through. This was a very valuable thing this week.
3. Body & Mind: 3 yoga + THREE morning meditations. This quieting the mind in the morning can only help with the writing.
4. Decluttering: Toss or file another 30 things, this time tackling the stacks of important documents at home.
Susan
1. Good draft of both syllabi for the fall, and library reserve lists in
2. Get desk organization back in shape.
3. Return comments on grad student papers (I graded to get grades in, didn't provide comments)
4. Get myself moving more.
5. Keep reading
6. Do something fun this weekend
Waffles
1. Finish RSA presentation and practice it to death
2. Review med student’s paper
3. Revise NIH grant (since I am transferring it to my new university - I have to revise it for that university; I want to get this done this week so that the funding doesn’t get delayed)
4. Write search string and run searches for other scoping review
5. Keep trucking with first scoping review (this is a beast - 8000k+ publications that I have to sift through)
I'm presenting at a conference tomorrow morning - and I am nervous (brought my ativan, so that will help!). It will be the first time my mentor will have heard me present - so I want to do a really good job!!! think good thoughts tomorrow 9a-10a mountain time in the US! :)
ReplyDeleteLast week
1. Finish RSA presentation and practice it to death - DONE (and almost actually done - presentation is on Monday)
2. Review med student’s paper - DONE
3. Revise NIH grant (since I am transferring it to my new university - I have to revise it for that university; I want to get this done this week so that the funding doesn’t get delayed) - DONE
4. Write search string and run searches for other scoping review - DONE
5. Keep trucking with first scoping review (this is a beast - 8000k+ publications that I have to sift through) - DOING! Got it down to 2500!
I'm at a conference this week till thursday - so my goals for the week will be modest - one of which will be to circle back to my master plan and get back on track!
Next week’s goals
1. Figure out goals
2. work on R&R for election paper
3. Work on reducing scoping review further
4. recuperate from conference!!!
Sounds like you made great progress this past week! And next week as a light week sounds realistic, given what you've just done.
DeleteSending you good vibes and peaceful positive energy for your conference presentation.
DeleteThank you - the presentation is over, now I can enjoy the conference! It went pretty well except I couldn't scroll through my notes in presenter view, which was discombobulating. My mentor was a bit muted in her comments (she said it was great - later said it was the best presentation in the session) - but a friend of hers (a dean!) said it was fantastic and was really effusive, so that was really nice. It will be helpful for me to present in front of people who could potentially offer me jobs later on.
DeleteGlad the presentation went well, and people not invested in you were impressed. That's great.
DeleteSo glad your presentation went well. That's fantastic. And it sounds like working from home is going well, too! I hope you're able to use the conference mojo effectively as your recuperate and move forward.
DeleteThat's one of the most useful things about NaNoWriMo, for me - it really emphasises each year that sitting down and DOING is the crux of writing. Which is partly why I've begun to frame all the words I type that relate to work as writing - the emails and the handouts and the like - because I am writing every day, and I need to think of research writing as part of that, not as something "special" that needs "special" preparation or is "especially" hard...I mean, I'm still very distractable and some days I just DO NOT WANT and don't, but that's true about everything, pretty much, not special to writing...
ReplyDeletelast week's goals:
1) clear off my desks at home and at the office no, it was very hot one day and I didn't go into work or do work or chores, I napped and read and disliked the heat. It rather set back what I had planned...
2) condense the various lists on postits and in scrappy bits of notebooks into ONE LIST yes
3) send emails about all the meetings on the various lists yes. of course, actually ARRANGING the meetings is not so easy...
4) outline ProblemChild paper 2 for both parts did part 1, so half
5) resist sugar, go to the gym once no and no
analysis:
The weather is back to seasonal now, but the very hot weather at the start of the week kind of threw me. Also the long drawn out end of semester is getting painful, and I'm tired in that "pressure reducing but not gone" way which means one turns up and does stuff at about three quarter speed at work and then flops at home, without really relaxing. Oh well. We are slowly getting there... I keep telling myself... This coming week is a bit of a pain as I have a two day trip to CrowdedCapital (which means stuff like packing, cat catching etc.) at the end of the week, and meetings of various kinds, so not so much TLQ time of my own (I don't work very well on trains).
goals:
1) clear desk at office at least
2) eat well and get enough sleep
3) outline ProblemChildPart2Paper2
4) set resit work (this will be TRQ sometime soon, but no deadline has actually been set, so if I get it done NOW it won't be a nasty last minute surprise).
Clearing the desk might actually help. I mean, not if you do it all week long, but I find a clean work space helps me work. Not the same for everyone, but you never know.
DeleteI very much like the idea of not positioning academic writing as special, because writing is writing. Thank you for sharing that--I am going to try to adopt that view and see where it takes me.
DeleteI really want to do NaNoWriMo this year. I've got an idea, I've got some characters worked out and a vague plot. I really want to do it this year. I've been trying to write some short stories lately just to keep my writing up...
DeleteI like the idea of reducing the import of academic writing, making it lower stakes sounds like a sensible way to actually persuade me to do it. I try to view manuscripts as slightly more structured blog posts - I seem to have no problem waffling rubbish and hitting publish on the blog, so why are manuscripts different?
At least the weather is worse (better?) this week! I'm enjoying the cool.
Perhaps having the "down time" day helped you be more productive elsewhere? I think that when I don't do that, I just start to spin and thrash without making progress. That has kind of happened today.
DeleteAccomplished this week: I got my 3 days each yoga & meditation, and finished one source collection that nearly freaking killed me. BUT... I only got 1,000 words of my low-bar 2,500 finished. Which brings me to:
ReplyDeleteWork the problem... I like that. Okay, so my problem this week (as evidenced by my inability to clear a deliberately low bar) is something I know about: when I Apply Butt to Chair, the words come. When that chair comes with access to internet, they don't. Too many times this week I thought "It's summer! I'll get up early and do my work at the local café!" NOPE. Doesn't work. So this week, working the problem means that my morning writing happens at home. Afternoons & coffee shops (and their manifold distractions) are for afternoons, once the writing is done.
With that in mind, I'm setting *precisely* the same goals for this coming week as for the past one:
• Write 2500 words on Hot Mess Chapter [start point: 12666]
• 3 days yoga; 3 meditation
• finish reading 1 major source collection
• Toss or file 30 things
Let's see if I've learned anything.
I love that you have a Hot Mess Chapter. It reminds me of a very dear friend from graduate school who was a self-proclaimed (and proud) hot mess herself...creative, brilliant, crazy, wild.
DeleteGreat name for a chapter! (hello and welcome to the group as well). I love working on trains because there is no internet access - get so much done!
DeleteNotorious, is there something you could do to your home desk/office area or morning routine that would make a morning at home feel uplifting/rewarding rather than confined/isolated?
DeleteAs I continue my lifelong quest to write more, I have found comics artist and writer Jessica Abel to be a useful voice in getting me to think differently about my work. And in my slightly fanatical purchase of discounted e-books, I picked up a book by Natalie Goldberg, whose Writing Down the Bones was very helpful long ago. I’ve added that to my goals for the week.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1 write 5x: I’ll say yes, but much of it was writing-related, which also counts.
2 read 5x: Yes, and since lately this is a given, I won’t include it as a goal.
3 set summer goals and deadlines: spent time with this but still uncertain what to work on
4 do more yoga: no
Analysis (or confession):
I deliberately haven’t mentioned my beloved Revised Book Project, because I have struggled so to finish it. I finally wrote the front matter and sent it to the editor yesterday, then received a prompt autoreply saying he has left the publishing house. The autoreply did provide the name of the new editor, to whom I composed a letter today asking if she would be interested in looking at the manuscript. There is a big lesson learned here about not meeting deadlines. I’m not despondent because I know the manuscript is well written and the material is very timely. I just don’t want to have to shop the book around. So the week ahead is a little uncertain, depending on what might happen with RPB.
This week:
1 write 5x
2 decide what projects to work on this summer
3 set writing and research schedule
4 follow up with co-author
5 determine status of Abandoned Project
6 read a chapter of Natalie Goldberg’s book
Fingers crossed for quick and easy outcome for RPB.
DeleteWith you on not wanting to shop a book around once you think you have a home for it... that really threw me two years ago.
DeleteSusan, did you have a positive outcome in the end?
DeleteYou will have a good reply, I am sure.
DeleteCongrats on sending off the book! And, I too, hope you get an encouraging reply from the new editor. *finger and toes crossed*
DeleteI have Goldberg's book in my campus office. Let us know how you feel about it. I haven't read it in a while.
Topic: I need to think about it more, will be back later.
ReplyDeleteLast week
(1) make cake - nope
(2) finish writing plan and work on the first tasks - nope
(3) progress on knitting - yes
(4) exercise each day - physio exercises and walk of 2 - 3 miles. Yes, irrespective of the heat, do it before 11 am or after 10 pm if necessary! - yes
Analysis:
Poor husband, he's not got his cake yet. I feel very bad about this. I'm very easily distracted and simply forget when I intend to do this. I got distracted about the writing plan because I was trying to get reference management software working on my computers. After spending the best part of a day using one bit of software, it broke at around 4.50 pm and this effectively erased all the effort I'd put in. There was some pretty serious sulking.
Progress on knitting somehow translated into 'need 14 more balls of wool for this project, oh and a bigger cable for the circular needles (200 cm cable)'. Not sure how that one happened but something about not knowing how to jump from red wool to blue wool without purchasing purple wool. It's going to be a really big blanket. I also finished a small scarf I was working on with some sparkly green handspun wool.
Exercise seems to be the easiest bit! I manage 6 out of 7 days walking, mixture of 1 - 2 and 2 - 3 miles, trying not to do two long walks on adjacent days. Physio exercises - still do them but they don't challenge anymore because I've got sufficient mobility back. I think.
This week:
1. create writing plan and teaching prep plan, do first tasks
2. cake...make the cake
3. knitting - blanket on hold until new wool arrives, start something with purple handspun wool (thinking a scarf but perhaps with angled ends
4. finish small tasks for professional commitments that aren't work
Ugh, software malfunctions! Feh. Sorry to hear about that.
DeleteImpressive knitting progress on what sounds like delightful projects! Also impressive commitment to the walking. I've been terrible about exercise for the past week.
DeleteBest wishes for the cake!
My travels are going wonderfully well so far, thank you!
ReplyDeleteTopic: I always feel it's easier to write fiction (feel I must duck and cover saying that, though, since it's not as if I've finished a novel) because the writer can simply make things happen. I'm reminded of Carolyn See writing about a problem in one of her books: for plot reasons, someone had to make a left turn onto a road where IRL there is a concrete wall separating the lanes, so that a left turn would be physically impossible. She said she spent weeks trying to figure out how to deal with the situation, and finally simply wrote "They turned left. Traffic was terrible, but they managed it," ignoring the wall. In scholarly work, if there's a wall, I have to deal with it.
How I did:
House: long list . . . do as much as possible, type the rest of the list and send it to Sir John. YES (list typed and e-mailed from UK).
Teaching: finish Blackboard stuff for summer course. YES
Research: plan UK work, answer an e-mail. YES
Self: keep up stretching, cardio, weights; dentist, haircut, massage. YES (slacked a bit on cardio and weights but got to the gym a couple of times in a busy week); all the rest done.
Get on plane Friday night with passport and suitcase. YES (forgot my raincoat, however)
New goals:
Self: organize a couple of short sight-seeing trips.
Teaching: Organize a couple of tours for students.
Research: Review 1000 lines of translation. Make progress on MMP-3 revisions.
House: type packing list and e-mail it to husband.
I've already had a long conversation with Sir John about household stuff, and exchanged several e-mails, so I'm not exactly completely free of house/moving work. But it is bliss to leave the hands-on, daily stuff to someone else and have five weeks in which I get to be just a teacher and scholar. One of my friends said, last week, "Friday night you can leave for fairyland," which was a nice way of putting it. But I feel rather that this is my real life, where I get to work to my full potential, with minimal housekeeping and distractions, and life in the US is a trial to endure until such time as I can win through to this amazing library. But maybe that's the essence of fairyland, that once one is there, the real world seems but a pale imitation of life as it might be.
Well done on your pre-leaving week! I'm glad you are feeling good about your tim in the UK, too. Do you get to have sufficient time for yourself so that you aren't student managing too much? I've always wondered if being faculty for students abroad is stressful.
DeleteWorking the problem. Yes, I think that's important. Yesterday I saw a note on twitter about a newspaper blog that I decided I wanted to write something for, and spent the day writing a draft (1000 words or so, not quite right), enough so I could send a query to the paper. And I just made myself write, and when I had a problem to solve, I solved it. (What was hard was trying to summarize the whole book, but focus on why it matters right now.) Like JaneB, I do a lot of writing - email, memos, etc. that I don't think about when I am thinking about "writing". (Sunday afternoon went to writing a draft letter for church.) And it's helpful -- I think when I start writing research stuff, it goes fast because I am always writing.
ReplyDeleteGoals last week:
1. Good draft of both syllabi for the fall, and library reserve lists in NO
2. Get desk organization back in shape. A LITTLE/ MORE TO DO
3. Return comments on grad student papers (I graded to get grades in, didn't provide comments) DONE
4. Get myself moving more. DONE -- Two good walks, work in garden, helped by the fact that it's cooled down a bit.
5. Keep reading YES
6. Do something fun this weekend YES
Analysis: Well, I was going to do the syllabi yesterday, but instead I drafted a scholarly blog post. Which is constructive. Otherwise, I slowly made my way through the to do list, which was made more complicated by meetings I had to go to. I want a week with no meetings!
Goals for this week (limited, because I have a meeting all day tomorrow, and on Friday I'm going away for the long weekend.)
1. Get rough drafts of syllabi done
2. Find out how to set up my personal website, start designing it
3. Keep moving
4. Keep reading
I think it's great that you wrote the blog post. Have you written for that type of media before?
DeleteI hope you have a good trip for the long weekend and that soon you will have A WEEK WITH NO MEETINGS.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI am coming late this time. How are you?
On topic, I am writing my clumsy, winding idea on writing.
My friend’s supervisor once said to my friend, who was at that time having a hard time to write her thesis, ‘If you struggle with writing, it must be because of your ideas’. It seems to have meant that if don’t have good ideas, you will struggle with writing. I thought ‘Oh, I see! I need to have a good idea first’ at that time, but now, I do not totally agree with the theory. I think, you write as thinking, not thinking first, writing next. Then, however, what does it mean that I am facing my PC trying to write, but words do not come up?
This week’s goals:
1) Revise Chapter 1. - still some works to do.
2) Revise the outline of Chapter 2. - nearly done.
3) Continue to work on the main material on Chapter 2. - done.
4) Make it a habit to do 5- minute-exercises several times a day. - Well, this week, not reallu done.
6) Continue to try to find more ‘my own 15 minutes’. When I can find my time? - Quite good.
Analysis:
I am still working on the revision. I have materials, I know which part I need to work on, but the idea!
Next week’s goals:
1) Finish revision of Chapter 1, at least so-called 2nd draft.
2) Finish constructing the outline of Chapter 2.
3) Meeting with my mentor.
4) 5- minute-exercises several times a day.
5) Find ‘my own 15 minutes’.
Have a wonderful week, everyone,
It sounds like you are making good progress on the outline for chapter 2! I hope your meeting with the mentor this week is productive and helpful as you keep moving forward.
DeleteMaybe if you tried to write something else as "warm up"? As Susan was saying, other writing helps the research-based writing flow.
Thank you for your comment, GEW.
DeleteI tried 6-minute-writing for a while, but somehow I forgot to do it. I will try again.
Topic: Well, I haven't been putting my butt in the chair this week (or much at all lately), so I haven't been working on writing problems. But I'm feeling optimistic for the coming weeks (although maybe it's easy to feel optimistic when I'm not writing very much).
ReplyDelete1) Finish emptying study and paint it to suit its future resident (my son). This will involve taking a LOT books to my campus office, etc. DONE.
2) Make belated father's day photo album for my dad. NOT DONE. Feeling bad about this.
3) Yoga 2x, Swim 1x. ALMOST DONE. The second time I tried to go to yoga, the class was cancelled, so . . .
4) Read a little of "Bird by Bird." Write 3x for 15 minutes. SOMEWHAT. Wrote 2x.
5) Read two short stories. DONE.
6) Visit mom for an hour. Find a night to invite parents over for pizza. VISTED. But then realized house is too disrupted for hosting right now.
Last week I did fine. My daughter was at an afternoon acting camp about 20 minutes from our house, and I was able to steal a 2-3 coffee shop hours during the week (between drop off and pick up).
However, this week is going badly. I've been completely focused on kids and house. I haven't taken time to exercise or write. I'm tired. I'm not sure if I can get time for exercise an writing this week. Surely, I can. Time to pull out the Bugge Spray. Maybe this is the "problem" I need to "work": How to say, "Dear Family, I am leaving the house for a couple of hours. You are now on your own."
This week is halfway done and will be very house focused.
This week:
1) Finish moving son into his new room.
2) Clear and paint daughter's room (with daughter's help).
3) Swim 1x. Yoga 1x. Walk dog 3x.
4) Write 2x for 15. Brainstorm short story ideas (I have decided another summer goal is writing a short story, but I haven't written one in a long time.)
5) Take donation items to charity shop.
6) Clear out most of stuff stacked in hallway. (Even though I have no idea where I'll put it.)
You have always worked so hard for your children, family and house. All are surely very very important, but at the same time, where is your own time? I know....
ReplyDelete