My trusty laptop

I haven't blogged much on my research and writing process except for the random passing comment recently. I am fast approaching a deadline at the end of the month (Friday) and pushing through to the end of this leg of the journey to hopefully continue onwards and upwards. Despite the fact that I was without students to tutor today or other responsibilities that vied for my attention and therefore left free to pursue necessary writing I was easily distracted. Without meaning to go there, I found myself off task constantly. I turned off my email so I wouldn't be tempted respond to a few items that came in, but found myself checking facebook and googling random items - like whenever I completed typing a coherent sentence fragment. By lunchtime I was far behind the pace I set for myself and knew it was time for drastic measures. So I went "old school" and grabbed my notes, a pad of paper (yellow b/c it coordinates with the topic in which I am currently immersed), a pencil, and my "other" laptop - the one that has no internet connection wireless or dial-up - and got some serious writing done in a room that had no computer to lure me back to the dark side. Happily, ideas formed coherent thoughts and complete sentences flowed from my pencil to the paper. Soon I had whole paragraphs and eventually I had pages of writing that helped me complete the draft I hoped for all along. During one of my stretching breaks near 5PM I took a picture of my little set-up and waited to upload it till now. Typing the notes into the computer took some measurable time this evening, but I was able to do some light revisions during the process. Sometimes it takes a change of pace or venue to get me back into the writing groove that often wants to elude me. Today, it was just a matter of getting back to basics and doing it "old school".