Tap tap tap…

[ Mood: Sleepy ]
[ Currently: Listening to ]
Taking a quick break from working on a big paper. I’m in my office at Kyushu University, surrounded by piles of books and photocopied articles and notes. This is the big push to finish a paper I’ll be submitting in a couple of days, and presenting at a conference in about two weeks.

It’s nearing 9pm and I can tell I still have at least a half a dozen pages to go. I’m not finding the flow, that mode where it all comes fast and furious. This is largely because I haven’t prepped as thoroughly as I sometimes do. Specifically, I didn’t write out most of my quotes and paraphrases ahead of times, inserting them into an outline. I have to keep stopping to look stuff up.

So I know that six more pages means at least six more hours; no way I’m going to catch the last subway home. I’ll be here all night. Oh well, I have an old but decent sofa, plus a couple of pillows and a blanket that I brought from home months ago, for just such a situation. Called Junko a little while ago to let her know–she’s taking Lili for a walk now.

Right, must eat now. Then back to ferreting out utopian themes in Melville’s novel Mardi.

EDIT: Done! And 10 minutes before 3am! That’s actually really good for me–I usually finish a paper sometime around sunup. All that stuff I tell my writing students about pacing and preparation–hah! I’m such a hypocrite. I just read and think, read and think, make a few notes, read and think…and then write it the first draft in a non-stop white-hot flurry. Eh, it works for me.

superdave