dissertation digest #3

2487.

until now, i've never really been very concerned with the number of words that i write in any given writing session or on any given day or period of days.  in fact, until today, i've been a little perplexed by those people who were concerned with the number of words they'd written.  but now i get it.  well, i'm no longer perplexed.  i'm still amazed by those writers who only have to write a 15K word dissertation but i digress.  for the past three days i've set myself a goal--1000 words per day.  i feel short of this goal on saturday and sunday, but i totally blew it up today.  here are some other things i've learned by setting this goal and paying attention to the number of words i've written at the end of the day.

first of all, my writing sessions on saturday and sunday occurred from 10 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon.  i was in my preferred venue for writing and working on my dissertation--in my office on campus--but i was not there during my preferred working hours--anytime after six in the evening.  another problem with saturday and sunday was that i didn't answer the question of what i would be having for lunch and ended up eating nothing at all.  on saturday i wrote 770 words.  on sunday i wrote 684.  both short of the 1000 word goal.

now, my writing session tonight occurred in the right place--in my office--and at the right time--from six to ten-thirty in the evening.  and guess what.  i wrote 1845 words.  furthermore, i didn't start writing right away when i got to campus.  it was probably seven-thirty by the time i actually wrote the first word.  which means that in approximately three hours, i wrote more than twice as much than i did on either saturday or sunday in twice the amount of time.  does anyone else find this curious and frankly, troublesome?

i think there are two possible explanations, and for now the jury is still out on which one is the actual cause.  the first explanation could have to do with the fact that i'm on a deadline, and that deadline is tomorrow.  i told my dissertation advisor i'd send him as much of chapter 3 as i had by tomorrow, 8/31.  he knows it won't be a complete draft of the chapter, so how much i send is really kind of up to me.  he's not expecting a certain number of words or pages, just something.  so while there's pressure, there's not the pressure to get to a specific point.  deadlines always help me focus and produce, and the closer i get to the deadline, the more i can focus and produce.  so the fact that the deadline is tomorrow may be the reason why i was able to write 1845 words tonight (and that's in addition to the 642 words i wrote this afternoon--hence the number that begins this post).  the second explanation could be that i do, in fact, know myself pretty well and have finally taken advantage of the part of the day that is for me, in terms of writing anyway, the butter zone.  yes, it took me a while to get going tonight, but when i finally did, there wasn't really any lull in the writing and i felt like i was firing on all cylinders.  what i wrote isn't brilliant but there were flashes of brilliance and the beginnings of a real direction for this chapter.  to be honest, i'm not sure if it's the first or second explanation that is the real reason for tonight's productivity, and i'll be interested to see if i can continue this kind of productivity after this deadline has passed.  guess i'll have to wait and see.  in the meantime, i'm going to go to bed thrilled by the fact that today i wrote 2487 words.

dissertation digest #2

it's monday. the first day of the fall semester.  seriously, i can't believe this is the beginning of my last year as a student.  forever.  b/c believe me when i say that there is no more schooling for me once this ph.d. is done.

so far, the routine is working.  i was even up before my 'mandatory' wake-up time.  i have written the welcome message for my online class, read through my twitter stream, consumed my first cup of coffee, chatted with a colleague and checked all of my e-mail.  amazing start to the day, truly!  i am even planning to go to the gym at the scheduled time (or maybe a few minutes early) though I must admit that it was looking like i was going to skip today.  but no.  i'm going to make it there.  just as soon as i finish this post.

last night was also a win but that's mostly because my neighbor upstairs is conducting some kind of construction project that involves an electric saw and hammering.  so i actually found myself in my office last night even though i had thought i would just take the entire weekend off to recharge.  i started re-reading a star called henry and got through the first 100 pages.  i will be back in the office tonight to read more and will probably plan to finish the book tomorrow night.  then the goal is to write at least four pages from wednesday through monday, and then revise what i've written on tuesday before sending it to my committee chair.  hopefully i'll have 25 pages to send.

those are the goals and that is the plan.  now all i have to do is execute it!

dissertation digest #1

well, it's the friday before fall semester starts.  i have good news to report: i have completed the course prep for the class i am teaching this fall--the twentieth century novel--which means i can now focus most of my attention on my dissertation.  even more good news, my committee chair says it's okay for me to switch out one of the novels i had planned to use in my dissertation.  so rather than having chapter 5 be on jennifer johnston's shadows on our skin, it'll now be on seamus deane's reading in the dark.  a change i must admit i am rather excited about and it's a chapter that i cannot wait to dive into.  i think i am going to work on it after i finish drafting the chapter 3 which is on roddy doyle's a star called henry, mostly because i think it will be easier for me to move from one irish author to the next rather than going back and forth between irish writer, indian writer. i must admit, i am feeling a lot of excitement over the idea of finally being able to re-focus my attention on my dissertation.  i hope i can sustain that excitement and see it translating into some good writing over the next couple of weeks (dare i hope for months?).

but right now the focus is on chapter 3 and a star called henry.  i did do some reading today in terms of critical scholarship on the novel, not nearly as much as i would have liked to have gotten through, but that's okay.  i might finish off this last book chapter tonight before going to bed.  as far as keeping to my stated schedule, well, i didn't do very well.  i slept an extra ten minutes (which, really, that's just fine) and got up and made coffee and read e-mail and checked in on my twitter peeps.  but then i didn't go to the gym like i was supposed to.  instead i went to campus and made a trip to the library and dropped off and picked some things up from my office.  but then, i did have lunch when i was supposed to, and i did do some work afterward like i was supposed to, and i have attended to chores in such like i was supposed to.  so, it's not all bad news.  plus, it's friday night, which means no work in the office for me.  instead i get to treat myself to new episodes of eureka, haven, and the glades.

goals for tomorrow? re-read as much of a star called henry as possible. in fact, if i could read about 225 pages tomorrow that would be fantastic.  yes, i know, one goal sounds lame, but hey, it's a 350 page book, so getting that much of the book read would be an accomplishment.