As I am coming to the
end of a part-time
EdD, I am feeling the
pain of bringing all my chapters up to standard, and creating a whole thesis,
rather than a book of stand-alone pieces. The analogy of assembling a
wheelbarrow rings true: first make sure all the parts are there, then tighten
it up (Wolcott, 1990). Through this final bit, I’m going to have to draw on everything I’ve
learnt about writing in order to get to the finish line. I thought I’d share
some of my learning with you, in case you find it useful in your situation.
It seems to me that
when sitting down to write there are three usual scenarios:
- You can’t settle, it’s boring, you don’t want to do any work because it’s the weekend and you’re tired, and everyone else in the universe is having fun. ("Maungy", as we say in Yorkshire)
- You have tried numerous ways of structuring something and ways to generate ideas, but you are getting nowhere. (Thwarted)
- Engagement, flow of ideas, productivity, happiness, the sun dappling on the wall as your half-drunk tea starts to go cold. (Joy)
Scenario one, where you are distracted, needs a
strict approach, which will lead to Scenario three (Joy). How restrictive you
need to be depends upon how bad your state is. If it is acute, then it
might be a scenario this bad:
You know that in
order to start you need to find a reference and extract the ideas from it to
get going, but you have been faffing about in guilty misery for ages. So, face
it square on, bribing yourself that if you find the article, you can
momentarily think about something else. Once you have found the article, and
get into the ideas it should get better. Continue with tiny, tiny tasks and
commensurate rewards.
Other Practical Ways
to a Resolution
My colleague Andy Tattersall reminded me about using a table for writing my discussion chapter. It
proved a life-line in finding a way to speed up the writing process, by
splitting the job of writing the discussion into two processes (once I’d got
over Scenario two). Other ways to tackle Scenario one are: to use the pomodoro technique, a writing retreat, or split the
day/session into quadrants and allocate a task for each one, factoring in mini
and larger breaks.
Scenario two, where you are working but getting
nowhere - in my experience this can go on for ages (days or weeks) and is
equally awful, but in a different way to Scenario one. There are lots of
solutions to this one as well, and come in two types of not-mind blowing strategy.
Get structural examples
Look at other theses and see how the authors have
structured the chapter you are working on. This can reveal: what sections are
most commonly included, how long they give to each section, the quality of the
writing, a laugh, lots of things. Compare a few and a picture starts to build.
Another one is to read a few blogs / sections of methods textbooks / talk
to other people writing the same kind of thing / speak to your supervisor. In
all these approaches, ask specific questions, and seek specific information.
Then leave it all to percolate, which brings me to the second part of how to
respond to scenario two:
Walk away, leave it
alone and go and do some exercise, go to church, play the saxophone or whatever
floats your boat. It’s well known that if forced, tacit ideas retreat, but
leaving them alone and re-acquainting yourself with your family and friends or
getting absorbed in a film might just do the trick. Next time you write,
Scenario two might have shifted, revealing a structure that is working;
and once you have that, you know it, increasing your confidence and leading you
onwards to Scenario three: writing joy and a less irascible you (for now).
Of course the
challenge is to diagnose when it really is Scenario two (thwarted), and not
just taking off because you are hurting with the pain of scenario one (Ms
Maungy).
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Image by Mingo Hagan “Scream”
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mjhagen/
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Happy writing, and if all else fails, try writing about why you can’t write.
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