Reflections on NaBeCreMo

So, sadly it is December 1st.  This means that our National Be Creative Month is now over.  Here is what I learned through the experience:

1. Even if I don't meet my goals (which I didn't), I still get more done when I set aside time for my academic creative pursuits, rather than letting weeks (or months) go by without engaging in my scholarly work.  I did get a lot closer to my goal (producing a publication-ready essay) than I was when November began.
2. I work best with uninterrupted blocks of time solely devoted for the activity at hand.  This means: no email, no browsers open, office door stays closed.
3. I think it is better for me to set monthly goals rather than overarching, annual goals that I never seem to meet.  I think I will get more tangible work done this way.
4. I like doing research.  

Even though the November challenge is over, I am going to stick with my research schedule (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays 8-9 am and Thursday evenings 6:30-9:30 pm).  I like this special time I have carved out for my work.

Now, I am setting aside (temporarily) the project I was working on in November.  Here's what's on tap for my December goals:

1. Revise and prepare a paper for presentation at the Women and the 19th-Century Lied Conference, which I will be attending in Maynooth, Ireland later this month.
2. Begin seeking copyright permissions and revising a paper I wrote earlier this year for possible publication in an online journal.  (The deadline for this is February 1.)

I intend to continue blogging regularly about my creative academic pursuits.  Thanks again to my loved ones for supporting me.

Checking in: Third-to-last day of NaBeCreMo

It has been one week since my last session.  I got to my office a little earlier than normal this morning just to discover that I had left my remaining sources at home.  So I decided it was a sign that I should actually start writing my essay, which didn't actually happen but I am closer. . . .  My writing process consists of this:

1. Freewrite to generate ideas and hopefully a thesis
2. Study my subject (usually a piece of music or set of pieces) and continue to take notes and flesh out my analysis
3. Gather and take notes on cards from relevant sources
4. Create an outline
5. Re-read and order my cards according to the outline
6. Write the essay

With this process, by the time I get to step 6, the paper nearly writes itself because I have already organized my thoughts (through the outline) and every thought/idea/supporting point has been written on a card.  So I just flip through my cards in order and transfer their content to my document.  So, I am in the middle of step 5 right now.  I have many cards, and I feel like the paper is really taking shape.  I look forward to typing the prose very soon.

Thanks to all of you who follow me for your words of encouragement and support.

Week 4, Day 1

I got an earlier start today, which was nice.  Read and took notes on three sources.  

Came across this great quotation:

"Certainly there are very real differences between us of race, age, and sex. But it is not those differences between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognize those differences, and to examine the distortions which result from our misnaming them and their effects upon human behavior and expectation." (Audre Lorde, "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference," 1992, p. 496)

My research is going in a direction I had not anticipated, and I am enjoying the reading I have been doing.  At this point, I have just a handful of articles and books left to tackle.  I still hope to have a complete draft of my essay before the end of the month.

 

Quick update

Here's a quick update on what I have been up to this week:

• finished scouring notes from sources related to my current project that I had read awhile ago
• read several relevant essays and took more notes

I now have four more sources I would like to read (all four are ones I had not anticipated on reading, but my most recent research has led me to them).  Then I have another book I need to reread before I will feel ready to put my paper together.  

Part of all of this additional research is bothering me because before I know it, the month will be over and I really want to get going on this project so I can have the paper finished.  I guess I am feeling impatient.  For now, I'll keep plugging away.

Today's session

I started a little earlier this morning, which was nice.  I read another source that was on my original list (now I think I have just two more to go, but I haven't received the other two from ILL yet).  I also continued looking through the other bibliography for relevant sources--I am now in the middle of the Ms--about halfway through).  As I go through this bibliography, when I find a relevant source, I go back to my reading notes and scavenge for useful quotes/notes, etc. and copy them onto note cards.  I already have way more cards than I will need, but I need to be thorough.

Thanks everyone for your words of support.  I really hope I can get this essay done before the end of the month!

Reflections on this past week

Well, I had my scheduled session this morning, and I picked up where I left off on Wednesday morning.  Made my way through the Gs on one of my bibliographies.  Found some great, relevant stuff for my essay.

I also read one new and really interesting source I got from ILL (interlibrary loan, which I love).  Although there wasn't anything in it that pertained to my essay, it was an interesting read.

So I am a little bummed that I did not have an extended research session last night.  And actually, I didn't have any session at all.  Normally, I would use the three-hour block while Kate is at her photoshop class for my research, but instead I had a work commitment.  I did not get home until 8:30, and I didn't bring my research stuff so I basically gave up and figured I would just resume this morning, which is what I did.  That means that I have only had three sessions this week for five days, which isn't the best.  BUT I would like to remind myself that before November, I wasn't spending hardly any time at all on this project so in comparison to then, this week was great.

My next session will be on Monday, a brand new start to a brand new week.

Today's session

Today I worked primarily with sources.  I read and took notes on two sources.  My initial list is now down to four sources, but as IU Professor Emeritus Lewis Rowell used to say, "Bibliography begets bibliography," and now I have a few more items to look through before my reading of outside sources will be done.  I also went through another list of sources related to my topic more generally (these are mostly items that I have already read and took notes on, but that I need to consider for this current project).  Anyhow, on this list I am halfway through the Cs, and going alphabetically, I have my work cut out for me.

My next session is slated for tomorrow (Thurs.) night.

NaBeCreMo week 2

It has been one full week since I started my NaBeCreMo challenge.  I missed doing research over the weekend, but considering all the stuff I had going on, it was probably good to have a break for two days.  My session this morning was successful.  Started at 8:02 am.  Ended at 9:02 am.  Here's what I got done:

• read and took notes on another source (6 more to go)
• took some of these new ideas and found a place for them in my outline
• continued fleshing out my "outline."  It is becoming less and less like an outline, and more and more like a paper.  This is good!

That's it for today.  I don't have a Tuesday session scheduled, but I may go ahead and do some research tomorrow night depending on how I feel.  I won't have grading tomorrow night so I will have some extra time I think. 

Thanks, everyone*, for your support!

* = and by "everyone" I mean, my mom, Kate, and Lynn

This morning's session

It was kind of nice this morning to pick up where I left off last night--the ideas were still fresh in my head.  It didn't take me so long to get engaged in what I was doing.  Here's what I accomplished:

• read and took notes on a source (now I have seven left to read)
• put my second transcription into Finale.  I am not as happy with this transcription as I am with the other one I did.  I will need to improve it.
• spent the rest of the time fleshing out more detail on my outline.  It seems like I am writing this paper on the outline, but it will save time to simply do it this way instead of copying all my ideas from my research journal onto note cards and then typing them.  (Sorry Sr. Sheila--may you rest in peace.  She's the nun who taught me the writing process through an elaborate and highly organized note card system.  I still use note cards for taking notes on all the sources I read.  I am glad to have the system.)

So that's it for today.  I am not sure if I will have a session this weekend or not.  Weekends are tough for me because (1) I like to have some time to relax, (2) I have several work commitments, and (3) I will have a ton of grading and lesson planning to do over the weekend, too.  I hope I am not making excuses.  It is just difficult to balance all of this stuff!

Awesome session this evening!

I am so pumped.  I worked for an extended session this evening while Kate was at her photoshop class.  Started around 6:00 pm and just finished my session now at 9:40 pm.  Here is everything I accomplished:

• revised my bibliography and took inventory of the sources remaining (after the one I read tonight, I now have eight sources left to read)
• read one source and took notes
• completed a transcription of one of the songs (the one I didn't get to yesterday)
• took the transcription from yesterday and put it in Finale (notation software) so now it is ready to be made into examples for my paper
• compared the two transcriptions and found just the musical evidence I was looking for to support my primary argument! yay!
• did some crucial freewriting and thinking on several key issues (took up five pages in my research journal) and feel like I made some headway on some issues I had been struggling with
• created a detailed outline for my paper.  This is something I had been putting off because I didn't feel I had refined my ideas well enough to actually write an outline.  (Yet, of course, as we all know, you can't write a decent argumentative paper without a plan.)  Anyhow, now I have a three-page outline and could start writing my paper at any time now.

So I am feeling pretty great about what I accomplished today.  My next session is tomorrow morning.  I'll probably tackle another of the eight remaining sources and then spend the rest of the time getting my other handwritten transcription put into Finale.

Thanks, Kate and Lynn for your ongoing support!

NaBeCreMo day 2

Today I spent the first 40 minutes of my session reading and taking notes from an important source.  That's more time on that than I would have liked to spend on this task (given I only had an hour), but reading the rest of the sources on my bibliography is necessary, and I hope to knock that out before the middle of the month (so I can spend more time actually writing my paper!).

I spent the rest of the time finishing my transcription of the verse I started transcribing yesterday.   The music I am transcribing is rhythmically complicated and there are lots of blue notes (meaning that they don't quite fit in the regular diatonic scale).  But I am pretty pleased with what I have transcribed.  Since I am dealing with two versions of the same song, tomorrow I am going to transcribe the first verse of the other version of the song and hopefully find some compelling differences.

More tomorrow.

Day 1

Today I started at 8:04 and ended at 9:05.  Instead of a word count, I am going for a solid hour of uninterrupted work at each session I have scheduled.  My goal was to start at 8:00 am, but I got aslightly later start than I wanted.  I look at today as a dry run of NaBeCreMo anyhow.  Still, I got a solid hour of work in.

What I accomplished:

• I read and took notes on one source (I have maybe another 8 or so items to read to finish with this aspect of the project--my goal is tackle one at the beginning of each session until I have exhausted my bibliography)
• I worked on fleshing out my analysis.  Without getting into too much detail in this post, I did a lot of work in the rhythm and meter section today, which needed it.
• I started a detailed transcription of one of the songs I am analyzing.  I only transcribed 7 measures, but the rhythm is really difficult!

That's it for today.  I don't have a Tuesday session scheduled, so I will be back at it on Wednesday.

Welcome to my new blog!

Thank you for reading my blog.  I am setting up this blog as a way for me to hold myself accountable as I work toward my creative scholarly goals.  I have my Aunt Lynn and wonderful partner, Kate, to thank for the idea to create this blog.  Starting in the month of November, we are taking part in what Lynn has called "NaBeCreMo" (National Be Creative Month), modeled upon the already established "NaNoWriMo" (National Novel Writing Month) project that Lynn participated in last year and will participate in again this year.  You can read about Lynn's experiences in NaNoWriMo and her other writing endeavors in her blog, "Present Letters."

Instead of trying to meet a word-count goal like I would if I were attempting to write a novel in a month, I am going to try to meet several research goals important to me during the month of November.  I am really trying to push myself beyond what I think I could comfortably accomplish, keeping in the spirit of NaNoWriMo to challenge one's self.  So here is what I am setting out to accomplish:

1. Write/finish/edit the essay I am currently working on (and have been for several years) and submit it to some respectable peer reviewed journal for publication.
2. Write a proposal for a book (a new, exciting idea struck me a few weeks ago that I want to pursue).  I plan to include the essay mentioned as goal #1 above as a sample chapter in this book.
3. Start the initial research and gathering sources for other chapters in this book.

Every day that I work toward these goals I intend to make a brief post on this blog to summarize what I have accomplished.  My working days each week are Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and once over the weekend.  If a daily post seems to be too time consuming, I may switch to a weekly post.  We shall see how it goes.

I am starting my month on Monday (I like starting new things at the very beginning of the week) even though it will be one day shy of November.  I am very excited about this, and I can't wait to get started.

Finally, a note on the title I chose for this blog:

• creative because I feel all original work--whether scholarly or otherwise--is creative in nature, and I don't want to lose sight of the creative aspect of writing interesting prose even if it is research-based non-fiction.
• academic because ultimately the work I am doing serves my professional goals as an educator and scholar in academia.
• pursuits because for me, the word "pursuits" connotes active energy, urgency, and excitement.  Being goal-oriented isn't enough.  Pursuing my scholarly passions is what I am after.