That's the thing with writing --- you can have a new and different problem or distracting time-suck every day! Yee-ha. Yesterday I felt I couldn't work because I had the wrong books out and the wrong stuff printed (the grass is always greener on the other side of the dissertation); today I couldn't get the momentum to get moving. It was cloudy and cold (ok, chilly --- I have no weather cred, living in CA) and I was still tired at 7 so I got back under the covers for just an instant and the cats climbed on me and started purring and it was all over right there.
When I finally did get up I tried working at home but quickly realized that most of the stuff I really needed (See? Greener again!) was at school, so I went in. I worked up a rough start of a paragraph, about 200 words, before my tenuous sense of willpower snapped and I started procrastinating in various ways. (Look, my desktop icons are now alphabetized!)
After a while I went back and started a quote dump --- culling through my booknotes and previous notes/outlines and copy-and-pasting anything that seemed vaguely relevant. In the course of this I discovered that a lot of material that I thought I had paraphrased or copied out was not there ... if what I am remembering is actually from those books. Which means that I get to do this "greener" process all over again tomorrow, including the ever-fun "search the library for books you know it has but have mysteriously disappeared" game. It would be nice if I could get 600 words (about 2 pages) tomorrow, but I will be happy with one page.
Did I say the grass was always greener on the other side of the dissertation? I meant moss. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to roll that fucker over.
7 comments:
imagine me in stitches right now barely into my first cup of surprisingly weak ass coffee.
hey, if you need more distractions, you are welcome here to find my desk. Really, it's here. Under... this... mass of... junk. Somewhere.
Woo! 200 words! Go Cog! Gogogo!
200 words are 200 words. Go Sis go!
(Just remember: we must have a blogger meetup at the conference so dreadful I dare not speak its name.)
ooh, can i join the blogger meet up party, too? earnest can vouch for me. :-)
Whoohoo me! Whoohoo words! Whoohoo blog cheering section!
Belle, that definitely sounds like good after-lunch work to me ... I'm looking for a part-time job, if you're interested.
ee: You're going to the Conference of Voldemort Studies too? How cool! Maude can come along if she brings some protection from the dark arts.
me too me too! i want a blogger meet up at saurmon's mount doom.
Post a Comment