The writing process

is not exactly pretty when it comes to my efforts. Its more like a rough draft followed by innumerable rewrites and edits. And my progress is made further with paper and pencil than with simple keyboard and screen display. Call me "Old School", but slow and steady finished the race, right? Well, that's what I tell myself in order to keep on going.

TGIF???

I missed the memo that it was Friday and the five o'clock whistle blew an hour and a half ago. I got so immersed in some curriculum writing I just missed it. Guess that's what happens when Jimmy Buffett isn't your next door neighbor and your office isn't in Margaritaville.

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".