Contradictory Composers

I actually worked today. On my dissertation. Miracle of miracles. After boring Peter to death last night about what a miserable waste of paper my dissertation is, I decided I needed to lighten up and stop being a punk about this project. For today anyway. So while I worked this afternoon I opened a blank word file and every time I felt desperate to leave the chair I typed something on the new file, which I named "hassles." I averaged an entry about every 28 minutes or so, between 3 to 10 sentences in length. Entries covered a range of subjects---worried comments about a searing burning sensation in my esophagus, despair that I could never get through a muddled section of text, lists of possible blog topics---and somehow this seemed to help. Progress was made. It won't work tomorrow though. I've learned not to count on set processes.

And speaking of no set processes...Saul Bellow's editor wrote a piece about editing him for Slate this week. I especially liked one section where Saul made a change she suggested but railed against it while doing so. These are the contradictions I love in the editor/writer relationship.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Interesting process for getting work done. I usually just get up and grab something to eat...maybe your method will help me lose weight!!!

Kate DiCamillo had a process of writing 2 pages a day...that was it. It got her a Newbery! But then again, she was writing fiction. Not sure her process would work for your task at hand.
LH said…
I'll try it. I seem to do well when I stir things up a bit, but all the writers I read about thrived on routine.
I'll see you tonight at the pasta bar???
p.s.
I don't think you need to lose weight.

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