In the writer's group this week several members had "bad" weeks. They described their frustration, their various problems. The funny thing was that even these bad weeks were pretty good: everyone made some progress; one "bad week" involved an article being accepted. In another case, someone made progress on a writing progress, but less than what they had wanted to do.
With enough "bad weeks" like this, these writers will be extremely productive in the long run. Long term progress will take place over many weeks of varying quality, some bad, some mediocre, and some great. A bad week, then, is not even a bad thing. Nobody cares about how little you did during your worst two or three weeks of the year.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Where Did the Day Go? (4)
7:15. I get up and shower, shave today. I check my email. I put my clothes on and leave the apt.
8:15: I find myself in my office somehow with a double espresso in my hand. I write two letters of recommendation and work on the itinerary for the speaker.
9:05. I have been working hard on these things. I begin my blog post about where the day is going and how it went there. I try to think of some ideas for my 11 a.m. class. I realize I have to assign a paper topic today, so I write up that and xerox it. I sign a form that the chair wants me to sign nominating me for some university committee. I space out for a few minutes reading blogs. I still don't have any good ideas for my class.
10:10. I decide to open up my article an work on it for ten minutes. I'm not getting ideas for class anyway. I work until 10:45 on the article.
11:00-12:15. I teach my class.
12:20: I check my email. Eat lunch and talk to colleagues until about 1:15. Xerox some poems for my 3 p.m. class (to read for next Monday). I send a recommendation by fax. I look over what I have to teach today. A student comes in to talk to me. I'm told the fax didn't go through. We'll try again tomorrow.
2:30. I better concentrate on class prep now. I go to to get some coffee after reading for about 5 minutes.
3-4:20. I teach my other class.
4:20. I vegetate for a while. Check the flight status of the flight I'm meeting later. I eventually get so bored I open up my document and do a little more work on it. Curiously, the document has grown by 300 words today, even though I hardly felt I worked on it at all.
5:24. I just idly surf the net for a while.
5:40: I leave for the airport.
7:05: I pick up the speaker from the airport.
8:15: I bring the speaker to the hotel. We have dinner.
9:47. I am back at my apartment. I am not about to do any more work now.
11 p.m. Bedtime.
A busy and productive day. I managed to squeeze in some research between classes and miscellaneous tasks. There were dead times during the day, but really I was pretty busy for 13.5 hours.
8:15: I find myself in my office somehow with a double espresso in my hand. I write two letters of recommendation and work on the itinerary for the speaker.
9:05. I have been working hard on these things. I begin my blog post about where the day is going and how it went there. I try to think of some ideas for my 11 a.m. class. I realize I have to assign a paper topic today, so I write up that and xerox it. I sign a form that the chair wants me to sign nominating me for some university committee. I space out for a few minutes reading blogs. I still don't have any good ideas for my class.
10:10. I decide to open up my article an work on it for ten minutes. I'm not getting ideas for class anyway. I work until 10:45 on the article.
11:00-12:15. I teach my class.
12:20: I check my email. Eat lunch and talk to colleagues until about 1:15. Xerox some poems for my 3 p.m. class (to read for next Monday). I send a recommendation by fax. I look over what I have to teach today. A student comes in to talk to me. I'm told the fax didn't go through. We'll try again tomorrow.
2:30. I better concentrate on class prep now. I go to to get some coffee after reading for about 5 minutes.
3-4:20. I teach my other class.
4:20. I vegetate for a while. Check the flight status of the flight I'm meeting later. I eventually get so bored I open up my document and do a little more work on it. Curiously, the document has grown by 300 words today, even though I hardly felt I worked on it at all.
5:24. I just idly surf the net for a while.
5:40: I leave for the airport.
7:05: I pick up the speaker from the airport.
8:15: I bring the speaker to the hotel. We have dinner.
9:47. I am back at my apartment. I am not about to do any more work now.
11 p.m. Bedtime.
A busy and productive day. I managed to squeeze in some research between classes and miscellaneous tasks. There were dead times during the day, but really I was pretty busy for 13.5 hours.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Trying on a Style
Now that I have one article in the pipeline with no signposting, I feel ok about doing a bit more in the one I'm working on now. I'm going to temporarily relax and write in a slightly less "classic" style, just to see what that feels like again. There may not be a huge difference in the end, but I think it might be useful to "try on" another style in this new article. See how it fits me.
When you are struggling to write well at all, then it is hard to think about your stylistic options. You are trying to get to the one true style, or trying to make it so style is not an issue in the reception your work gets.
When you are struggling to write well at all, then it is hard to think about your stylistic options. You are trying to get to the one true style, or trying to make it so style is not an issue in the reception your work gets.
Speed
The secret to writing fast is to write a lot, even if it takes much more time at first. Speed can only come from a lot of very slow practice.
Fortunate
I am lucky that I can open a document of an article or chapter at any time and do five or ten minutes of work on it. Many writers tell themselves they need at least an hour, or at least an entire day, or five hours, or a week without interruption, in order to get work done. Some writers say they need the semester to be over and have the entire summer in front of them before they are able to work. Or they know that significant work will only happen during a sabbatical. The problem, then, is that they don't bother with shorter periods of time at all. Because they have in their minds a minimum period, they will never even see if they can get lucky too.
If you have a minimum like this in your mind, then re-examine it. If you need three hours, see if one hour is enough. If you need a month, try a week. If you need one hour, try twenty minutes. Just try it once as an experiment and see what happens. You may need to acquire the skill of being able to work for a shorter time, but it is a skill worth acquiring.
If you have a minimum like this in your mind, then re-examine it. If you need three hours, see if one hour is enough. If you need a month, try a week. If you need one hour, try twenty minutes. Just try it once as an experiment and see what happens. You may need to acquire the skill of being able to work for a shorter time, but it is a skill worth acquiring.
Where Did the Day Go? (3)
7 a.m.: Get up, shower, dress.
7:30: I am in the coffee shop reading Clark Coolidge as part of my 9000 books of poetry project.
8:30-:11:15. I am in my office. I work on the article I am supposed to be working on. I see a student for about 10 minutes. I make a phone call and leave a message. I write an email to another scholar with a very specific question. I get an email from someone how invited me to submit an article, with some comments on the article. I answer him. A colleague comes in to consult about something. I go back to the article between these other tasks. Altogether a productive two hours of writing jammed in amidst an hour of other tasks.
11:15: I close my document for the day. I pay my electric bill and look at some recommendations I have to write. Eat lunch. I read a chapter of El cuarto de atrás for tomorrow's class. The scholar I asked a question earlier in the morning responds by email. I read his response and thank him.
12:30: I read more Coolidge. Look again at the recommendations I have to write, making sure I have the addresses and deadlines handy.
1:30. Meeting with librarian about how to put all of my scholarship on line through KU's open access program.
2:20. Now I'm in my office. I email the librarian my cv so she can help me get my publications on line with open access. I blog a bit. Finish the Coolidge book and write a post about that. There are things I could be doing now, but it feels like my midafternoon lull.
3:00. I decide to read my students proposals (revisions). I go ahead and do that. There are two of them to read. Now it's 3:18.
3:19. Coffee break! I talk with the chair of the dept. about the lecture on Thursday, etc...
3:27. I'm back in the office. I send a few emails. Check in with the writer's group. Really, I don't have to do more work today. I can finish class prep in the morning and write those recommendations. A few more things come up in the email.
4:30-5:30. Therapy.
Back to my office to deal with some more email.
6:00. Phone call. Spouse is promoted to full professor! I go have dinner. Will I have energy afterwards to do something else academic? I'll have a drink with Barney at 7:30.
10:31: I'm back home now. I was with Barney at the bar until now, and we ran into Bob and Jessica too. I'll read James schuyler until bedtime.
11:00 p.m. I'm turning in now. Basically I figured out that the day is over at 3:30. If I can do more work after that, that's great, but my real work is from 8:30-12.
7:30: I am in the coffee shop reading Clark Coolidge as part of my 9000 books of poetry project.
8:30-:11:15. I am in my office. I work on the article I am supposed to be working on. I see a student for about 10 minutes. I make a phone call and leave a message. I write an email to another scholar with a very specific question. I get an email from someone how invited me to submit an article, with some comments on the article. I answer him. A colleague comes in to consult about something. I go back to the article between these other tasks. Altogether a productive two hours of writing jammed in amidst an hour of other tasks.
11:15: I close my document for the day. I pay my electric bill and look at some recommendations I have to write. Eat lunch. I read a chapter of El cuarto de atrás for tomorrow's class. The scholar I asked a question earlier in the morning responds by email. I read his response and thank him.
12:30: I read more Coolidge. Look again at the recommendations I have to write, making sure I have the addresses and deadlines handy.
1:30. Meeting with librarian about how to put all of my scholarship on line through KU's open access program.
2:20. Now I'm in my office. I email the librarian my cv so she can help me get my publications on line with open access. I blog a bit. Finish the Coolidge book and write a post about that. There are things I could be doing now, but it feels like my midafternoon lull.
3:00. I decide to read my students proposals (revisions). I go ahead and do that. There are two of them to read. Now it's 3:18.
3:19. Coffee break! I talk with the chair of the dept. about the lecture on Thursday, etc...
3:27. I'm back in the office. I send a few emails. Check in with the writer's group. Really, I don't have to do more work today. I can finish class prep in the morning and write those recommendations. A few more things come up in the email.
4:30-5:30. Therapy.
Back to my office to deal with some more email.
6:00. Phone call. Spouse is promoted to full professor! I go have dinner. Will I have energy afterwards to do something else academic? I'll have a drink with Barney at 7:30.
10:31: I'm back home now. I was with Barney at the bar until now, and we ran into Bob and Jessica too. I'll read James schuyler until bedtime.
11:00 p.m. I'm turning in now. Basically I figured out that the day is over at 3:30. If I can do more work after that, that's great, but my real work is from 8:30-12.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Vandalism
Some vandal broke into my computer and inserted some clumsy, inept prose into a document I had been working on. I know that I could not have written sentences that bad. Curiously, this person seemed to have had intimate access to my thoughts, since I recognize the ideas as my own. Maybe he thought he was doing me a favor by writing some rough notes for me to use later. "Menudo favor..."
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