November 17, 2008
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Wow
It is amazing what you can get done without internet.
I went to the Classics Faculty Library today (Indiana Jones is a fellow of the Classics Faculty in Cambridge, so said I could go in there, and give his name if there were any problems. As it was, no-one bothered to ask who I was, although my Oyster Card set off the alarm at the entrance). Nice and quiet, no internet, and the Book is now substantially longer and rather more structured. Plus I discovered that I'd already re-written one of the chapters that I thought needed rewriting (you see how often I get to work on this thing?!)
Tomorrow there shall be some tidying, some correcting, some note taking. I must say, though, that if one has been waiting to write a chapter for about three months, when one finally gets the opportunity, it does tend to flow out rather more quickly. If you know you only have five days in which to do some work, and then there may not be an opportunity for close to a year again, you tend to write. None of this "well, I can only write with a Waterman pen, at a Louis XIV escritoire," or "I must have a shed in the garden, a blanket, an American legal pad and a yellow pencil." No. You get on with it. I have written in all sorts of places, at all sorts of times including, bed, a bar, someone's sitting room, on a coach, in a library, on the sofa (my preferred spot), and, after a rather debilitating batch of writer's block, on the train from Highbury & Islington to Camden Road. Today I put my head down at elevenish, and surfaced round about threeish when I realised that I ought to have some lunch. The Buttery served me very well, with a baked potato, baked beans and tea for about £3. This meant that I could squander most of the rest of my food budget on books in the Haunted Bookshop. I now have rather too many copies of 'School at the Chalet', but my new copy is about 68 years old, and has a frontispiece.
I am also rather losing patience with those of my acquaintance who have been writing up their PhDs as long as I have known them (i.e. years), and who still haven't managed to get done. Indiana Jones put his head down, and got on with it, and I respect him greatly. He submitted in time to read the last Harry Potter without that hanging over him.
Supper. Am hungry. And I want to watch
I don't know what I want to watch. Entertainment.
xxx
Comments (6)
Scrabble!
As one who tried for years to write a dissertation, I can testify that it can be a disheartening and lonely experience. It's even more difficult to admit that you won't be finishing it and attempt to find something new to do with one's life.
If you ever need any items to assist with your writing, i.e. American legal pads, let me know and I'll ship them over.
@mauvely - my dissertation is a pile of rubbish, I'll freely admit it. The Book is mostly probably bilge. But I get so jealous that other people have managed to arrange their lives so that the writing is the first priority, and, at the same time, they miss deadline after deadline for submitting that thesis, or the first year report, or whatever. It's a luxury I wish I had. I imagine that giving up a dissertation is as hard as admitting to someone that, actually, you don't want to marry them (and I did that six and a half years ago - it's partly why my dissertation is rubbish!).
Mum bought me an American Legal pad, a la Roald Dahl, at the Roald Dahl museum. I must be picky or something, as I prefer using it for notetaking instead of writing! ~x~
I have a friend who dedicates her Sunday's to writing and she has an atelier-type unit she shares with some code monkey's that she escapes to. Of course, she too has been writing her novel for I don't know how many years now, but is convinced she is down to the end and almost ready for her first pass revision. We'll see...
I think my whole lack of writing a disseration was that I couldn't just write the rubbish, which needed to get out of my system first. Lots of perfectionism and consequent writer's block issues. I did learn much about myself but too late to realize that I should have gone to law or business school instead. I could go back, but I've spent too much time in school.
I'm a happy sponsored research administrator, grant analyst now.
@mauvely - I think that's precisely the problem one of my friends has. If he'd just get things written, and passed by his supervisor to see if he's on the right track, instead of agonising over each sentence! I will say that the Book has changed somewhat dramatically in structure with each iteration. Hopefully, I'm heading towards the sentence tweaking stage. I really, really hope. ~x~
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