1. be really excited about it, which includes thinking overambitiously: you are going to read so much and distill it so elegantly and incisively and come up with such great insights and blow everyone away!! you are probably going to change the face of not only your field but your discipline as a whole!! and it's going to be SO MUCH FUN!!!!
2. start to read, and get instantly discouraged.
3. start to write, and be even more deeply discouraged.
4. stop reading and writing for project, and look at celebrity gossip, shopping and makeup review websites.
5. pluck those eyebrows, chewbacca!
6. read a bit more for the project. be very critical of what you read.
7. realize that feeling critical is just a reaction-formation to feeling helpless in the face of this intractable project.
8. feel like all you'll ever be able to do is critique other people, not make things yourself.
9. think about other people who do exactly this and feel critical of them: now your reaction-formation is really starting to bloom!
10. just fucking write something; anything already for crying out loud!
11. feel really proud of yourself for having some words; reward yourself with several episodes in a row of "veronica mars." you know what it's like to make something!
12. repeat steps 1-11 at least three times, all the while turning the project over and over and over in your mind, coming up with clever phrasing that you'll ultimately not use. also, refuse social invitations and otherwise clear your calendar.
13. now it's time to revise. print that shit out, go to a panera with your green pen, and cross shit out and rewrite by hand. be annoyed by all the 30-50 year old earnest white guys in pleated dockers with cell phones on their belts and remember that you LOVE not having a 9-5 (or 8-6) job.
14. type in those changes and give the piece, to, say, your own personal spouse to read over.
15. resent him or her for his or her really good suggestions that are a bit more substantive than you were hoping for.
16. work them in.
17. repeat steps 13-16 at least two times.
18. proofread.
19. send it off on its merry way!
20. reflect on how it was ultimately really doable and why don't you do that more often?
4 comments:
21. go sit on a beach for a couple days with a satisfying sense of accomplishment
i am so seriously.
OH. MY. GOD. Minus the spouse, this is pretty much my exact process.
I'm hoping to get a journal article mailed off within two days. Loved your list...needed a laugh right now!
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