The end is drawing near
The end of the year, that is. And the first decade of the second millenium. Damn, has it really been ten years?! Hard to believe.
It's nearing 7:30 a.m. as I write this and it's another cold morning. It was 34 when we got up, but it's forecast to get around 67 today. That will be nice. An element broke in our central heating about two years ago, so we suffer through the winter with space heaters. I've got a parabolic sitting about a yard from me at the moment. It gives a nice laser-beam of heat. At the moment, Valenica has parked her furry butt right in front of it. She doesn't care much for the cold, either.
School starts in five days. Five DAYS! I swear it was just yesterday that I was looking forward to the holiday break and all the tasks I'd get done during my down time. And now the semester is just five days away and that to-do list isn't all that much shorter than before the holiday. But that's the life of a grad student - a history grad, anyway.
I really want . . . no need . . . to begin the semester with the first chapter of my thesis written. I have about six pages done. The chapter needs to be around 20. Not good. Not good at all. I'm not sure why it's proving so difficult to write, exactly. I mean, I could sit here and tell you everything I'm including in the chapter, and the argument I'm trying to make. The chapter goes over the social history of Preston from the late eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries. I know that history quite well. And yet, the pages don't come. I find other things to do, or I sit and stare at the screen. This has become my modus operandi for everything I write for school. And frankly, I'm sick of it. I'm not sure what's happened, but it needs to come to an end. I've got way too much writing to do this semester to continually suffer writer's block.
Besides finishing my first chapter by Monday, I have two other chapters and an intro and conclusion to write for my thesis by the end of March. In theory, that's quite doable. But once I'm in the throes of the semester, God only knows how I'll do. I have a graduate seminar course this semester, too. It's on 15th century Europe and will involve a 20-page research paper. I'm thinking of doing something on the War of the Roses. I'd prefer to keep my focus on Preston, but I don't have enough resources available to pursue that (I don't think). My other class, US Readings from Reconstruction, shouldn't have a huge paper to write. Typically, Readings courses have a historiography. It's about 15 pages, but is usually easier to write than a research paper. But the problem with Readings is, well, you do a lot of reading. We're covering a book a week, and all of them are fairly large. I imagine there will be three or four book reviews to write in there, at five pages each, so that will keep me busy. And, of course, I'm teaching three discussion groups again this semester. So I'll need to do all that reading, class prep, grading, etc. Yes, I'm going to be busy. How will I find the time to get everything done? Will this writer's block fade away? I've been struggling with it since last spring. Enough is enough, already!
Oh well, enough kvetching. Sitting here moaning about not getting my writing done does nothing to help me get my writing done! If only my thesis came as easily as this blog!
Happy New Year, everyone. Here's to a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2010 for us all.
It's nearing 7:30 a.m. as I write this and it's another cold morning. It was 34 when we got up, but it's forecast to get around 67 today. That will be nice. An element broke in our central heating about two years ago, so we suffer through the winter with space heaters. I've got a parabolic sitting about a yard from me at the moment. It gives a nice laser-beam of heat. At the moment, Valenica has parked her furry butt right in front of it. She doesn't care much for the cold, either.
School starts in five days. Five DAYS! I swear it was just yesterday that I was looking forward to the holiday break and all the tasks I'd get done during my down time. And now the semester is just five days away and that to-do list isn't all that much shorter than before the holiday. But that's the life of a grad student - a history grad, anyway.
I really want . . . no need . . . to begin the semester with the first chapter of my thesis written. I have about six pages done. The chapter needs to be around 20. Not good. Not good at all. I'm not sure why it's proving so difficult to write, exactly. I mean, I could sit here and tell you everything I'm including in the chapter, and the argument I'm trying to make. The chapter goes over the social history of Preston from the late eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries. I know that history quite well. And yet, the pages don't come. I find other things to do, or I sit and stare at the screen. This has become my modus operandi for everything I write for school. And frankly, I'm sick of it. I'm not sure what's happened, but it needs to come to an end. I've got way too much writing to do this semester to continually suffer writer's block.
Besides finishing my first chapter by Monday, I have two other chapters and an intro and conclusion to write for my thesis by the end of March. In theory, that's quite doable. But once I'm in the throes of the semester, God only knows how I'll do. I have a graduate seminar course this semester, too. It's on 15th century Europe and will involve a 20-page research paper. I'm thinking of doing something on the War of the Roses. I'd prefer to keep my focus on Preston, but I don't have enough resources available to pursue that (I don't think). My other class, US Readings from Reconstruction, shouldn't have a huge paper to write. Typically, Readings courses have a historiography. It's about 15 pages, but is usually easier to write than a research paper. But the problem with Readings is, well, you do a lot of reading. We're covering a book a week, and all of them are fairly large. I imagine there will be three or four book reviews to write in there, at five pages each, so that will keep me busy. And, of course, I'm teaching three discussion groups again this semester. So I'll need to do all that reading, class prep, grading, etc. Yes, I'm going to be busy. How will I find the time to get everything done? Will this writer's block fade away? I've been struggling with it since last spring. Enough is enough, already!
Oh well, enough kvetching. Sitting here moaning about not getting my writing done does nothing to help me get my writing done! If only my thesis came as easily as this blog!
Happy New Year, everyone. Here's to a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2010 for us all.
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