Log for today

I worked in the evening today even though I didn't want to work at all.  Here are the details:


8:04 pm opened document
8:45 pm finished some reformatting revisions (really mindless stuff) for my journal article submission from yesterday (I received an email response from the journal asking for some changes before they circulate it to the editorial board)


= 41 minutes

Log for today

Thank goodness for a rainy day and sore legs.  I saw both as being signs that I should spend several solid hours on my revising/writing/research.


Total time spent revising today: 164 minutes


End result: I finished the revisions to the paper I had been working on and submitted it to a different journal for review!


It is nice to be done with this thing, for now at least.  I hope this attempt is successful.


And starting tomorrow, I can get back to my other project, which is continuing to write a first draft of my most recent research.  I am looking forward to this!

Log for today

9:00 pm opened doc
9:16 pm finished a few revisions


= 16 minutes of revisions/writing


I almost didn't remember to write today (talk about being in a happy vacation mode!), but I can thank my Macalester colleagues with whom I will be participating in a "writing circle" for helping me remember by sending out there number of minutes spent writing today by email.  Our goal this summer is to meet once a week (which I won't be able to do to until the end of June when I return to St. Paul) and email each other every day stating the progress we have made.

Settling into NH

We drove across the country and are now settled into the New Hampshire house.  I'll be here for the next three weeks, and I found the perfect spot to set up my research/writing area:

The space is located in the apartment above the garage at the New Hampshire house, and it is quiet, delightful, and absent of all distractions!  I haven't had such a place to work since I lived in Ohio.  There is plenty of natural light and windows, and I couldn't be happier.


I was going to resume my writing/revising/research sessions tomorrow, but I had time and thought I would work for just 15 minutes.  Fifteen minutes turned into 68!  Nice.  I'll actually be working a lot more than 15–30 minutes a day since I have no other responsibilities while I am here (unlike when classes are in session and I am teaching).  My plan is to work for four hours in the mornings and then play in the afternoons.  And I need to make sure at least 15 minutes of the entire time is spent revising or writing (again following Tara Gray's plan for publishing and flourishing) as opposed to non-writing activities (research, transcription, listening, reading, etc.).


And another little bit of news: I discovered today that one of my articles was cited extensively on a blog by Ethan Hein.  You can view the blog entry here: http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2012/looping-and-stasis-in-medulla/.  After my recent publication rejection, it was reassuring to see that someone was interested enough to read something I had written and reference it. 

Log for today

10:30 am opened doc, got distracted/interrupted
10:34 am actually started working (on revisions)
11:35 am stopped


Time spent writing/revising: 61 minutes


I have no blog entry for yesterday because I didn't write/revise.  Instead I spent most of the day compiling and uploading materials for my upcoming pre-tenure review.


We're headed to New Hampshire tomorrow so I am not sure how much research/writing time I will have while we are on the road.  My plan is to start again on Monday 5/28.  Until then!

Sometimes the hardest thing to face is . . .

A blank screen:

I was attempting to summarize something new that I had read and work it into my essay.  Sometimes I will open a brand new document for this purpose because I don't know how it will all fit into the big picture.  Once I have typed the summary and connected it to my ideas, I will then cut and paste parts of what I have written into my main document.

Today's log:

10:00–10:29 am took notes on the new source (which I read over the weekend)

10:30–10:45 am wrote the summary in the separate document

10:45–11:05 am worked it into my main document and did a few other minor revisions

= 35 minutes of actual writing/revising

I also made a minor breakthrough in thinking about one of the main points of my essay--something that I think will strengthen my paper when I submit it the next time around. . . .

Log for yesterday and today

Looks like I never posted my progress from yesterday (but I did do the work).  So here is yesterday's log:


10:20 am opened doc
11:08 am stopped


results: typed 2.5 pages of new prose; worked for a total of 48 minutes




And today's log:


2:52 pm started some revisions on the paper that was rejected
[little pauses for coffee, etc. between 4:12–4:16, 4:23–4:29, and 5:40–5:42]
6:00 pm stopped


results: compiled reviewer's criticisms using comment features on word to remind me of everything I need to do; did many "sweeps" through the same 23-page document; worked for a total of 2 hours, 56 minutes (or 176 minutes, if you are counting in that way).  


It sure felt like I was working on this a lot longer than I did.  I guess I had been thinking about the sorts of revisions I needed to do ever since I read the anonymous reviewers' comment sheets.  At any rate, for various important reasons related to my upcoming pre-tenure review, it will be in my best interest to revise this paper as quickly as possible and send it off to a different journal for review.  My self-imposed deadline is to send off the revised paper to a different journal by this Thursday (when we will be leaving for our vacation in New Hampshire).

a disappointment and today's log

9:18 pm picked up where I left off yesterday
10:03 pm stopped


the product of my work this evening: two new paragraphs of prose


In other news, I am little bummed because I found out that one of my essays was rejected for publication from a top-tier scholarly journal (after a six-month review process--journals in my field are so slow!).  I had really high hopes for this one, and I guess I'll be thinking about where I should resubmit it, but it was definitely a big disappointment.  Oh well.  I am going to try not to let it discourage me.

Today's log

4:55 pm got started
5:08 pm interruption
5:10 pm back to work
5:19 pm stopped


Summary: typed one long, difficult paragraph; got through just two notecards

Log for today

8:39 pm opened doc
[8:42 pm went to make tea]
9:38 pm finished


today's productivity: typed another three pages of crappy first-draft prose


In other news, today I attended workshops given by Tara Gray, author of Publish & Flourish, and left renewed and inspired.  Plus, I got an email message from the director of Macalester's Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching informing me that she wrote for 60 minutes.  I definitely felt inspired to write for a bit of time before turning in for the night!

Today's log and a confession

First, a confession: I skipped yesterday's writing session.  (That totals two skips in a single week--not great!)


Second, my log for today:
11:05 am opened the document
12:11 pm finished for today; typed another three pages


It feels slow going, though I know I am making progress.  My biggest issue is that with every sentence I type, I know I am creating a crappy draft and I want it to be better.  Normally my first drafts aren't quite this bad. BUT all that matters in this stage is getting the words down.  I should allow myself to enjoy this stage because it is the most open.  I can write ANYTHING I want.  No one is going to read it (not like this anyhow).


So I may give myself the weekend off.  It is commencement weekend at Macalester, and I have engagements related to pomp & circumstance today and tomorrow especially.


Next week we are having a "Spring Professional Activities Workshop" at Macalester, and Tara Gray is the featured speaker on Monday.  I am very much looking forward to her workshops.  Her book, Publish & Flourish, is the reason I am writing (almost) every day for at least 15 minutes.

Log for today

I must confess that I did not have my writing session yesterday.  I let the day get away from me.  Oh well. Today is a NEW DAY.  And here's what I have done:

8:24 am got out my notecards (each idea for my paper is on its own card); labeled and ordered cards according to where they fit in my outline

Here's what my process looked like during the 9 o'clock hour:

10:23 am finished labeling and ordering my notecards

And a picture of the ordered stack of cards:

10:26 am opened document & started writing!

11:38 am typed three pages of utterly awful double-spaced prose (I love the idea of writing "shitty first drafts", thanks Anne Lamott!)

The hardest draft is the first one.

Log for today

9:48 pm more freewriting in my journal
10:05 pm stopped.  Finished another page and a half of handwritten prose all together.

Log for today

I almost didn't do my research session today, but after reading a chapter or two of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, I decided to force myself to write for just 15 minutes.  Part of the difficulty right now is that I must reengage with a research project I intentionally put on a back burner at the end of November in order to revise and finish up the essay I just sent off to a journal for review yesterday.  After so many months, I could barely remember my thesis statement!


So I opened up my research journal and copied by hand my thesis statement from a file on my computer.  And then I just let myself freewrite anything related to my thesis statement.  Here's the rundown:


9:37 pm started writing
9:55 pm stopped writing
Wrote 1.5 pages of prose by hand.  Of this, there is one new interesting sentence/idea.  Not the most productive session, but I have at least taken the most difficult first step in reengaging with my ideas.


I also realized that my notecards (my primary system for keeping track of main ideas, important evidence, and notes from various sources), as well as my old research journal, are at my office at work and will need to be retrieved before I can really get serious about writing this next thing.  I'll do that tomorrow.


Until then!

Log for today

While I am giving the final exam for my Music Theory 2 class ( which is still going on), I had my daily research session.  Here's the rundown:


8:32 am opened document
9:08 am finished revising/proofreading entire document (30.5 pages from where I left off yesterday); got document ready for submission (removed metadata with my name and institution & made .pdf, etc.)
9:22 am sent the essay to a reputable, peer-reviewed journal!


So now this project is, once again, out of my hands.  The journal I submitted this essay to is known for being somewhat slow with its turnaround (I should know, I used to co-edit it!) so I will need to be patient.  But it definitely feels good to have it off my plate for now.


If this publication attempt fails, I will take it as a sign to take the project into a new direction (such as a book).  But let's hope it doesn't fail!

Log for today

2:25 pm opened document
2:40 pm revised 11.5 pages


I've decided to go with my initial plan for my current project and seek publication in the form of a journal article.  If the essay is rejected, then I might consider the book proposal idea I mentioned in my previous post.


Thanks for your support!

And we're back!

I had a great time in Belgium.  My conference presentation went pretty well, and I also managed to have some fun, too.  (Kate has a post about our trip on her blog, if you are curious about the non-academic portion of the trip.)  I got some helpful feedback, and I have already made some changes to my working draft as a result.  I was delighted that Deborah Stein, author of Poetry Into Song, who gave the second keynote address at the conference, attended my talk.  Afterward she asked me if I planned to turn this project into a book, which I had not considered.  I have been focused on making it into a journal article, but her question got me thinking that maybe I should consider writing a letter of inquiry and book proposal for the project.  Regardless, I really want to get this project "out there" through publication, and I would like to accomplish this before I go up for tenure review next year.


So I am back into my somewhat normal routine, though classes have ended.  This means that my goal for every day is to write or revise for at least 15 minutes.  After all of my responsibilities for the academic year end, I will spend the bulk of my time (6 to 8 hours) each day on my research projects.


Log for today:
9:39 am listened again to song that is part of my project in order to revise an example; reorganized some files to find what I needed
9:48 am revised example for paper
10:10 am finished this revision