November Writing
Looking ahead, the week is full. Work in the morning, snatches of time in the library, visits to Gaudi architecture with my parents, meals at home. Looking back, the weekend was fuller. Walks along harbors, roads, parks and waterfalls; a 90th birthday celebration.
My 700 words a day has been a challenge, made just 3 days of the goal so far. But I think of them as October practice. Now it’s really November, and a Monday, and I’m excited about keeping up the writing this month. I find there is rhythm and flow to writing with a goal of 700 words a day. So my next hour includes a warm cup of Chai tea and writing. And each morning this week will be the same.
Do you ever write with a goal in mind? What kind of goal works for you?
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Actually, just recently I have started to think about writing as part of my job, that is, as something I need to plan instead of as a simple creative act (which it is, also). Because in the last week I have been a little bit stuck on this task, I have tried different strategies: writing short memos about the topics I am struggling (this helps me because it allows me to write freely in terms of style or structure); making conceptual maps about the whole paper, and so on. I read the other day about your target of writing 700 words per day, is that on the same paper or any writing works?
November 4th, 2009 at 2:27 am
I decided about a year or two ago that writing was part of my job as well, that I was always going to need to write, and that I needed a regular writing routine as a result. Right now I’m working on ideas around my dissertation data collection, not any particular paper. I’m thinking of the 700 words a day as being a space to think through and develop my ideas right now. But my hope is to keep it up and use it when I’m writing papers, when I’m writing my dissertation, etc. I guess it’s kind of writing as a way of thinking, developing ideas, and as a way of generating text for future papers.
Good luck with your writing Irenka, I hope it gets easier! The things you’re doing area all things I do as well when I’m working on big papers…memos, conceptual maps, lots of notes and brainstorms…