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I'm sitting here, with my cup of tea, watching the snow that fell this morning on the half-melted remains of the last storm, and contemplating what the hell I'm supposed to do next.
I just hit a fairly pleasant milestone: I completed the first draft of my final substantive dissertation chapter. (For the record, this means I have an introduction and a conclusion to knock out, and some revisions; some of those revisions will take work, and some of them will involve a good reread and a few days of pacing around and red-penciling.) At the same time, since I'm unscheduled this semester, I don't have pressing needs like syllabus writing, teaching, grading (although, oops, I haven't uploaded last semester's grades yet...I should do that), meetings, or the assorted detritus that fills up one's time. But these two facts conspire to result in a great floundering period. What, precisely, should I do next? Where should I go? What are my priorities? Even once I've chosen a new project, how do I frame my progress on it?
I usually start out using these floundering periods as a way to play catchup. Yesterday, I went on Proquest Dissertation Abstracts and searched for "Arab-American," and did some searches to find dissertations that looked interesting. (I now have two whole dissertations sitting on my Kindle, and a bunch of the Proquest samples, and a couple of others that have made it into print to go find in paper copy. Whoo hoo.) I also used the excuse of a trip to Manhattan with only one scheduled event to run by the library and return old books and pick up new ones. (Amazingly, of the 3 books I went looking for, I only found one. And yet, also amazingly, I left with three books. Oh, Library of Congress system, never fail me with your suggestion of interesting and related texts.) So, that's sorted. But this only gets me so far.
The problem is that these gap moments are a great way to get stuck. Oh, I can't possibly start on $nexttask (and, by the way, that I used that syntax to phrase this problem is entirely due to hanging out with People What Write Code here on DW, so, thanks, I guess), because I have all these dishes to wash/books to read/navels to gaze at. Oh, I should really be making that chapter an article/turning that old paper into an article/writing more abstracts for more conferences/whatever, so I should start on that, except I never do, I just kinda...stare. I don't have time to get stuck. Stuck is bad. Very bad.
So now it's time to break out of Stucks-ville. I mean, maybe I'll spend this weekend reading other people's dissertations and drinking tea andbeing emo contemplating my goals as a dissertation-writer. But on Monday, I need to sit down and take the train to Productivity Junction.
I've already picked my next task: writing my introduction. (The conclusion I'll save until after I've revised the whole thing.) This is my vague plan for how to get started:
As you'll notice, I run out of steam mid-plan there. I'm sure that the later steps should be somewhere on the order of WRITE ALL THE THINGS, but...does anyone have any techniques they use, in order not to lose a bunch of time to this transitional moment?
Not that a little bit of tea-and-emo ever hurt anyone.
I just hit a fairly pleasant milestone: I completed the first draft of my final substantive dissertation chapter. (For the record, this means I have an introduction and a conclusion to knock out, and some revisions; some of those revisions will take work, and some of them will involve a good reread and a few days of pacing around and red-penciling.) At the same time, since I'm unscheduled this semester, I don't have pressing needs like syllabus writing, teaching, grading (although, oops, I haven't uploaded last semester's grades yet...I should do that), meetings, or the assorted detritus that fills up one's time. But these two facts conspire to result in a great floundering period. What, precisely, should I do next? Where should I go? What are my priorities? Even once I've chosen a new project, how do I frame my progress on it?
I usually start out using these floundering periods as a way to play catchup. Yesterday, I went on Proquest Dissertation Abstracts and searched for "Arab-American," and did some searches to find dissertations that looked interesting. (I now have two whole dissertations sitting on my Kindle, and a bunch of the Proquest samples, and a couple of others that have made it into print to go find in paper copy. Whoo hoo.) I also used the excuse of a trip to Manhattan with only one scheduled event to run by the library and return old books and pick up new ones. (Amazingly, of the 3 books I went looking for, I only found one. And yet, also amazingly, I left with three books. Oh, Library of Congress system, never fail me with your suggestion of interesting and related texts.) So, that's sorted. But this only gets me so far.
The problem is that these gap moments are a great way to get stuck. Oh, I can't possibly start on $nexttask (and, by the way, that I used that syntax to phrase this problem is entirely due to hanging out with People What Write Code here on DW, so, thanks, I guess), because I have all these dishes to wash/books to read/navels to gaze at. Oh, I should really be making that chapter an article/turning that old paper into an article/writing more abstracts for more conferences/whatever, so I should start on that, except I never do, I just kinda...stare. I don't have time to get stuck. Stuck is bad. Very bad.
So now it's time to break out of Stucks-ville. I mean, maybe I'll spend this weekend reading other people's dissertations and drinking tea and
I've already picked my next task: writing my introduction. (The conclusion I'll save until after I've revised the whole thing.) This is my vague plan for how to get started:
- Set a clear self-imposed deadline. The one I'm working with right now is "a draft introduction, partial and with gaps where necessary, before I leave for my visit to my in-laws in two weeks." Possible (I'm a fast writer, and I'm planning on having the intro clock in around 25pp, so that's not too many words) but will require concentrated effort, and won't screw me if I don't meet it.
- Write a detailed outline, complete with suboutlines. By which I mean, I should list the parts of the chapter, and then the sub-parts of each part, and if I can outline the sub-sub-parts that's even better. This is my technique for writing quickly. If it's a matter of filling in holes, then I just fill them as the mood moves me, and eventually fill them all, put them together, and then edit the crap out of it (moving sections, rewriting where I've used things twice or been inconsistent, changing the framing argument where I've written myself to a new one, etc).
- Um. This is where I start running out of techniques.
- ...
PROFITDISSERTATION.
As you'll notice, I run out of steam mid-plan there. I'm sure that the later steps should be somewhere on the order of WRITE ALL THE THINGS, but...does anyone have any techniques they use, in order not to lose a bunch of time to this transitional moment?
Not that a little bit of tea-and-emo ever hurt anyone.