Thursday, July 5, 2012

Summer Revising Plans

You may remember that last summer I wrote an article, which I named Floyd. Actually, I had an idea near the end of spring semester, finished drafting and revised the article over the course of the summer, and dragged out the cleanup, editing and formatting over all of fall semester because I have a very heavy teaching load. And then finally had it to the point where I could send out the article in March.

Ok, you probably remember this but I am really reminding myself since I have a bad habit of misremembering how long it takes me to actually write and revise something --- not that it's not good in the end, and not that I don't work, it's just that it takes time and was never as easy or instantaneous as I remember it.

However, this year I am not revising an article but a book. I am tired of calling it The Book, the dissertation, the diss, the manuscript, or any such iteration. But do I give the whole manuscript a name? Does each chapter get its own name? Is there some sort of animal that can explain the fundamental nature of the dissertation-revision process, like Floyd the condor did, in his ungainly way, the clumsy and lumpy article-writing process?

What could I possibly use as the proper visual metaphor for the revising process for a bunch of separate-yet-linked chapter arguments? What could ---



 Oh wait.



I guess I'm working on the Green Lion.




Badassitude to commence shortly: Form Chapter One!

2 comments:

Dr. Koshary said...

LOL! Personally, I think "The Book" will do fine, since it's all these complicated things you describe, and everyone who has drafted a book, at the least, will know exactly what you mean. But the Green Lion definitely has its feline appeal. The cats approve, no doubt.

P.S. My captcha is "redRoma." Like "The Shining," but with heirloom tomatoes.

WTG Homesteader said...

Oh poo.

I'm delighted for you that you're working on The Book; I plan that in the upcoming years (after tenure) myself, but I saw that you had a friend interested in doing the 12 week book, and I was hoping I could hook onto that train blogstyle.

But can't wait to hear more about The Book.

~EE