Writing: July 22, 2009

Writing regularly. It is a process.

I'm kind of amazed to find how hard it is even to regularly post, at the end of each day, about the writing or non-writing I've been doing. I feel that getting THAT little step done will be an important part of systematizing my writing process.

To report: I worked on my paper last week. I have only a small pile of articles to read through and incorporate, then general re-writes, then send it out for feedback before submitting.

However, last week I was offered a job, which I accepted, so now I'm excitedly working to finish everything I need to before starting on Monday (Sunday, I guess - since I have to go to Vancouver for training). Things slowed down a bit writing-wise, but not work- or productivity-wise. I was up before 5 this morning, and there would be no going back to bed! Projects include urgent garden stuff; file organization; financial planning; car details; coordinating vacation plans (with husband, friends, employer); seeing people; and work on the house. It is all good. And I'm going to get back to it.

Writing: July 16, 2009

Back to it!

I am nearing completion of my paper on Kyrgyz citizenship. I have a reasonable draft (not solid, but not bad). Now I am finishing a review of the literature to fill in some holes. I've got 4 articles (read yesterday and today) to add. After that, I have 6 - 8 more that are relevant that I'd like to read and add. I also have some smaller items - BBC news reports and others which fill in the cracks.

After this, I have my field notebooks which I haven't actually reviewed in a long time. I want to go through and pull anything extra from that.

There are some notes I need to add to the methods section as well.

And finally, read through and edit, pulling the different sections together.

This really is not a little job, but I can get it done in short order, I know.

Tuesday was not a productive work day. I wasn't feeling well, and spent time reading, working on the house and yard, visiting my family, and doing other productive but not writing-related work.

Monday and Wednesday were great for morning reading, moderate for afternoon writing. Today I got a great morning reading session in and am trying to keep it going :) I also want to head to the library and the bank, and have a couple friends to call ... but the joy of finishing adding this information to my article, and getting this pile of paper off my desk, is also quite a tempting call. Maybe I really can fit it all in.

Writing: July 10, 2009

Thought I had a meeting this morning; I didn't; but I did have a useful and good phone call that went into my writing time. And my desk was really disorganized. And I had some semi-urgent online business to take care of. Most of my morning was spent dealing with these things, creating order, and trying to start work. Then I did. And it was fine. I added a few articles to my article, did a bit of editing. However, it's really clear to me that I need a clean, clutter-free space and a ready-to-go list of what I'm doing that day in order for me to get a jump on work first thing in the morning.

So, that's what I'm going to do. I need to be prepared the night before, so I will be, and I will write. I plan to get a good draft of this article by some time next week and send it off for feedback. Then I can move onto writing the next one, or rather, revising the report into an article.

Writing: July 7, 2009

Refocus, refocus. I've been prioritizing interview preparation and learning for the last few days. That and making space in the file cabinet since we just moved it over and want to merge files. It is amazing how paper can accumulate - I'm ready to let some of it go. Spent a number of hours getting rid of documents I will not read again (practice statistics exams, anyone?) and moving some information to my computer so I could get rid of the rest (list of articles I used for teaching a course on environment & resources - if I ever teach it again, I'll have the list and can also look for new articles. But really, it's not likely that I'll teach it again). And of course, most of what I discarded was printed on one side, so I have a big new pile of scrap paper (yay for re-using paper!).

I'll be back at my writing on Friday, though I have a volunteer meeting in the morning that I will probably attend, connected with the welcoming community project. I left the paper feeling excited to continue, so I'm eager to get back to it.

In other news, plants in pots dry up quickly. We let the basil on the deck go 2 days without water, and it was showing it. Fortunately it perked right back up.

Writing: July 3, 2009

Another good day!
9:30 - 11:30: spent an hour moving a couple bits of info and recrafting my introduction. Now it's kind of interesting and has a good flow. Then read through and revised the lit review section, and switched to APA headings.

Lunch: yeah, read stuff, wrote emails, ate. Got started a bit late. Oh well.

Afternoon: I'm just finishing up now. I found some articles for the lit review, which I continued to revise; found some books and articles related to the topic; revised and sent off notes related to a future project. Now i just need to see if I can access a journal search site from home, and make my list of work to do tomorrow.

Next priorities: reading and adding in articles to the lit review; aligning the literature with the paper; APA format for the references; and preparation for my interview (research, talking with someone, and finding an outfit).

Writing: July 2, 2009

I have some writing I gotta wanna gonna get done in the next month and over the summer. So I'm going to post each day about my writing process as a way to increase my accountability and motivate me towards getting it done.

Today: I'm working on a paper on Kyrgyz citizenship. I started writing at 9:35 and worked pretty steadily through until around 11:35. That's my planned 2-hour morning writing slot. I described the model, finished writing up the findings and did a rougher version of the conclusions.

Lunch kind of took over after that with reading blogs and making hummus and checking email and doing dishes. Then I went to buy bulk goods (because Thursday is 10% off day) which lead to a stop at one of my favourite thrift stores "Bibles for Missions" which was having a store-wide 50% off sale ... so it was 2:45 before I was home, then spent some time talking with M, then it was almost time to leave for my haircut (in preparation for next Thursday's job interview). This describes a fairly typical afternoon of productivity but procrastination.

I did sneak in about 10 minutes of editing in the afternoon, and I'm going to do a bit more tonight. Then make a new list and start fresh tomorrow.

Things I've learned about writing

1. Make a list the night before of the writing I'll be doing the next day.
2. Create a timeline of my writing projects for the next month to keep me focused, inspired and on track.
3. Set aside time to write. Schedule it. Write it down.
4. Write in the morning. If I start writing in the morning, I may continue in the afternoon. If I don't, I may not write that day.
5. Use qualitative data software to manage and move my data around, rather than working with hard copies of interviews. Others will not agree, but I realized from a recent project how much easier it is to have quotes from interviews sorted by the software: I can find and copy exact quotes, can pull together all similar quotes in a few strokes, and can count up occurrences of particular themes. Trying to do this on paper is needlessly time-consuming.
6. Remember how much fun writing is! And how satisfying completing writing is!
7. Have a writing group, writing partners and even a writing coach. They will motivate you and provide accountability.
8. Create a clear, uncluttered workspace.
9. Share your writing with others. Send out drafts to others and review each others' work.
10. Have deadlines and fun get-aways before which you must complete certain projects. This invariably gets me writing much faster than I do otherwise.

Some reminders to myself of what helps me get my writing done. Now, back to my list for the day!

The 3 Rs

Writing, Renos and Rgardening

I'm sure there's a great word to describe landscaping, gardening, etc. that begins with an R ... regardless, these are my 3 big activities of late. I'm writing a paper/ preparing a presentation for a conference this week at the university. Only 1 full day left to work on it. Indeed a test for procrastination!

The work on the house continues - today was cleaning out the pantry and fooding it, general cleaning and reorganizing. Tomorrow Mick's going to work on the bathroom tiling - I may help - and we've got our priority list down to keep getting this house more and more livable. But just the cleaning etc. we did today makes it feel so much better.

And my personal favourite, the yard. A friend's mom was cleaning out her garden and gave me some lovely flowering perennials - yay!!! Those are nicely populating our new front bed. Another friend got back from an intensive planting session where, over the course of a month, she got acres of food started for this year. She's offered to help with ideas and planting! I did a second seeding for our greens - lettuce, spinach, arugula (one of my personal faves). Then, I went plant-crazy on Saturday and brought home a couple boxes of landscaping plants, herbs and vegetables - plant sales are irresistible to me. And then a friend had a friend with some tomato plants to give away, so we picked those up last night. Still have some extra if anyone is interested.

I've been steadily putting the vegetables in - since we don't have a new veggie bed, I'm mixing them with the front flowering bed. I weeded out one set of paving stones and put down some more pearlwort - we are hoping it rapidly takes over. I've placed the other plants where we want to plant them - maybe next weekend we'll get another load of rocks (to make raised beds) and dirt. I'm going to transplant the mint somewhere cooler and add cilantro (which has not been super successful yet). And we have a good idea now for one bed on a side of the house. It's along the tenant's walking path, so it would be nice to make it presentable.

So much to do! Top priority tomorrow, though, is the presentation. It will be DONE and AWESOME by the end of the day.

Mind the mind gap

So now I've gotten rid of Minesweeper. I must say, while I wouldn't go back, and I'm glad I have the will-power to move towards eliminating these time-wasters, it leaves a bit of a mental blank space. I often used those games as a way of letting my subconscious process things; as a way of gathering my energy before starting something new. Now that gap is just a gap.

The gap is gappiest right before I start work on challenging projects. I sit down at the computer, maybe check email (okay - probably always check email) and then the gap emerges: how do I get from those starting-up activities to actually doing the work? I don't know why I resist settling down to do things that I find rewarding when I tackle them. I find my mind and fingers wandering in a million directions, delaying the actual commencement of the challenging task. And that is frustrating to no end!

Now that I'm increasingly mindful of the gap, I'm hoping I can identify ways to eliminate it. Stay tuned ...

Songwriting Rule #43

If you have a really cool line - a particularly clever turn of phrase, exceptionally effective image - use it as a throw-away line in a verse, rather than a repeated line in the chorus/ tag line at the end of verses. Because you are so cool, and your audience is so cool, they only need to hear it once to get it and appreciate it. If you repeat it, it kind of implies that's the best you could do, and you're going to use and re-use it 'cause it's your ace. Instead, you want to chill out by using something simple for repetition that they'll like, but that shows, once again, that you're TOO COOL to make a big deal about your chorus. You're just sharing your thoughts.

Well, that's one of my song-writing tips. Hope y'all enjoy it.

No turning back

I did it.

In the interests of productivity, and the well-being of my right elbow, I have deleted Spider Solitaire from my computer. I just emptied the recycling bin - the final step. That sucker of time, turn-to when my mind goes blank, crutch when I don't want to work, is now out of my life.

It's amazing to me how easily my mind would slide from "this is hard" to Solitaire. When working on things on the computer, as soon as my brain faced a challenge bigger than the tiniest of bumps, it would look for an escape route. Yes, I can say that playing solitaire did perhaps potentially provide some benefits - the type of repetitive activity that let my mind wander and figure things out on its own. But that same repetitiveness can come from more productive activities - doing the dishes, cleaning the bathroom - with even greater efficiency, as they involve getting away from the computer screen, and moving my whole body, not just the poor afore-mentioned elbow.

Now when I'm working, and my mind wants to run away from the work, its usual escape route is gone. I now have to pause, reflect, refocus, and get back to work. It is good.

Writing

I think it's starting to work! I'm attempting to work on my writing every day - specifically on my stories from Russia. I've been doing this for about 5 days now, and it's starting to feel more comfortable. I've taken as my job simply to put the stories down. Making them interesting - that will come. And just giving it an hour a day, that's all I need to do. 9 - 10 a.m. I think this is something I could get addicted to.

Writing

Today, I began to write. I've been writing for a while, but today I began, in earnest, to write up my stories of my experiences in Russia. Yesterday I finally organized in a coherent way my emails and letters and notes from my time in Russia, and I realized it is time. I miss Russia. I want to write about it. Even though there are other things I want to do, it is time to write. So here I go.

The Perfect Tool

After watching another episode of Sex & the City, I realized that Carrie's desk is PERFECT. A simple rectangle with strong legs, a single shallow drawer just under the top, lovely medium-toned wood.
Yeah, they don't sell Carrie's desk in this town.

Two days ago, my mom & I hit all the 2nd hand shops in town. Found two remote possibilities: an old formica dining room table with metal legs - but really, too big. And an older electric sewing machine - one of those that folds into the body of the desk. It was BEAUTIFUL: the most lovely honey-toned wood, solid, strong legs. It made me happy just touching it (in spite of the dust). And it had two functional drawers to the right. And only $30. However - too small. Sadly. If I had a home, I would have bought it, but it was too small, and why buy something that does not meet my needs?

So today, my dad & I hit all the rest of the furniture stores in town. Keeping in mind my "no cheap crap materials" rule, the cheapest we found was $319 for a not bad desk. But not really what I wanted. Store after store - utterly exhausting. Fortunately, he had found four table legs in the garage that he bought a few years ago, so he's having a friend make a table for me. Which might come in at $300 - but it will be MINE, and it will be WOOD, and I will love it.

And I will write.

Writing is Therapy

My new career path involves staying home. The plan: buy a desk, set up an office in my bedroom, and WRITE. Write those articles I've been working on for years; publish something from my master's thesis that's been sitting around for a decade; work on the fun book projects I've had over time. I love to write; I love the process, coming up with ideas, finding the best way to say something, and creating a product that is meaningful and communicates with others.

Then why is it that no sooner do I sit down to write than I'm overcome with anxiety and depression?

I look at things on the computer and get overwhelmed with insecurity about my career, my potential, how I'm doing compared to friends & acquaintances, whether I have any abilities at all as a writer or a professional, if I have any original ideas to share ... etc. etc. It brings out all my worries. Which, I think, is why I need to do it. Force myself to face those things, process them and move forward. Because otherwise they will continue to dog me and slow me down from becoming who I want to be.