Scholarly writing has more or less migrated to the SMT blog. I'm moving the best of my previous posts and stupid tricks over there. Substantive posts on literary matters will mostly be at Arcade, in a slightly more formal register. Bemsha II will soon start up: it will be the blog for my jazz course. Very brief observations will be hosted at Facebook, only for my 60 "friends." The original Bemsha Swing will remain open for business too, for other ad hoc blogging projects and as my basic on-line diary and page for advertisements for myself.

I have a new blog, Stupid Motivational Tricks, to which I will be migrating some of my posts on scholarly writing. The blog will itself be an SMT designed to help me get this second book on Lorca done. If you read Bemsha mostly for scholarly writing tips, you will want to follow SMT as well (or instead).

Today's SMT is to let your writing neuroses work for you instead of against you. Imagine if you were shadowed by an obnoxious person who was constantly telling you you couldn't do what you wanted when you wanted. You're about to work on something and this person says, sorry, you aren't allowed to work until a half hour after dinner, or when the sky is cloudy, or when you aren't waiting for the plumber, or haven't had an argument with a family member for 24 hours. Pretty soon you would tell this obnoxious bully to get lost. Yet chances are you are already doing this to yourself, with arbitrary and restrictive rules, some of which you probably aren't even conscious of. You feel your best work will be done under ideal conditions.

Those rules are the product of cognitive distortions. What you want to do instead is substitute a new set of neurotic rules that are actually not counter-productive. Go through your current rules and find the one or two that actually helps you. Keep those. Then invent a few more along those lines. I'll give some examples in a subsequent post.

I see the first hour of work in any given day as a way of maintaining the project and making minimal progress. Anything after that is the "bonus," where the progress will be substantial. So if I am able to work an hour, that's great. An hour and 45 minutes is like an hour of maintenance and 45 minutes at time-and-a-half. This method allows me to snatch significant moment throughout a busy day just to get up to my hour, and then everything else is just extra.

Progress will seem slow when judged by hours and days, but rapid when judged by months and years.

Words have a power of their own. For example, I found myself using the ridiculous phrase "iron will" about myself, as in "I have an iron will." Obviously I don't, and the phrase sounds silly. Yet somehow that phrase worked for me and allowed me to persevere on a day when it seemed unlikely. Some people derive power out of affirmations of weakness, abjectness, and powerlessness, I've never understood it, but there you go. If that works for you, go for it.

In college I used to buy my textbooks early and read them from cover to cover, or at least as far as I could get, before the semester started. Then I would re-read them as the term progressed. That way I was never behind in my reading, and could read much more of what I wanted to read in addition to my course work. One semester, for example, I read the complete novels of Henry Green. I probably don't assign enough reading to my students because I assume--falsely--that my students are like me and will read much more than I actually assign them.

My attitude toward deadlines is that they lead to an illusory perception of time. For example, suppose someone asks me to review a book and gives me four months to do so, when the actual time I would really need to complete the task is, at most, 15 hours of work. So that 15 hours is to be spread over 4 months, or 2,800 hours? In practical terms, the book review will be writtten either fairly soon after the book is received, or right before the deadline. Or, in the worst case, after the deadline. I prefer to do a given task as close to possible from when I agree to do it, even if I consider myself quite busy at the time. The reasons are several: you get the book in the mail and are curious about it. You might as well read it then, while still curious, and write up something immediately. The time closer to the deadline might be just as busy as now is; there's no reason to predict otherwise, so really you are making yourself less busy in the future, freeing yourself up for other opportunities. You also would have to read the book another time, because by this time you've forgotten it completely.

I have missed a few deadlines in the last year or so, whether internally or externally imposed ones. It is never a good thing to do, but it still may happen even to someone with my attitude. My preference is to ignore deadlines in the positive sense: they should never come up as an issue because I am always way ahead of them.

There is an illusion that the work product will be better if it is turned in later. But a book review on which I've spent 15 hours will not be better simply because I spent those hours later rather than sooner. In fact, I would bet that procrastinators turn in writing which is on average worse than non-procrastinators. It is better to hurry at the beginning, hurry to get started, than to hurry just to be late anyway.

When I set a self-imposed deadline for something, I allow myself plenty of time, and then get the job done quicker than I anticipated. So I might give myself two weeks for something that I end up doing in two days. Then I can congratulate myself for making that deadline with so much time to spare.

Some people need deadlines in order to motivate themselves, to create a sense of urgency. They are unable to work up to full speed unless they have that sense of nervousness about making the deadline. I understand this and have myself been such a person at times. What I am suggesting is a different kind of motivational trick: make a game out of starting early, of clearing things off your desk as soon as they arrive. One effect, I predict from my own experience, is that you will be actually doing more but won't have the sense of overwhelming "busyness." You can still complain about how busy you are and how much work you have to your colleagues, in order to maintain your reputation, but you can feel calm on the inside.

Writing is a continual struggle with one's own laziness. That is the reason for the stupid motivational tricks. It's a matter of tricking oneself into actually doing the work. Today, for example, I'm trying to get this Guggenheim application written. You'd think it would be easy to write a 1000 word proposal, especially since I have 800 words already written. Grant applications are the hardest thing to write, though.

Here is the data from the Gamoneda article. I found I was being inefficient by planning too many days of work: I would putter around on a day when I thought things were going well. So I'm going to try to finish today on day 18. You'll notice once I hit 10 days and 5000 words my focus changed to number of pages of complete sentence, finished prose. The word count crept up gradually to over 6000 words over 7 days, then jumped down as I eliminated extraneous material as I move into finishing mode.

I can still use days 19 and 20 to revise and refine, but I don't need those extra 10 days in my plan.

Plan: 30 days of writing. More or less 5,000-6,000 words. Average about 500 words a day for the first ten days, then 10-20 days of revision. It's to my advantage to write more rather than less, in view of book project. The accordion article. Last page of text should be page 22 + 1 page of notes 1 ½ pages of bibliography. 2nd phase: revision. [3rd phase, if needed, more revision.]


Day One: June 24, 2008. 246 words. (Goal 500)
Day 2: June 30. 1,018. (1000)
Day 3: July 1. 1,721. (1500)
Day 4: July 2. 2,314. (2000)
Day 5: July 3. 2,874. (2500)
Day 6: July 4. 3,362. (3000)
Day 7: July 5. 4,016. (3500)
Day 8: July 6. 4,160. (4000)
Day 9: July 10. 4,759. (4500)
Day 10: July 11. 5,011 (5000)
***
Second phase: 10 days of re-writing.

Day 11: July 12. Finished up to beginning of page 8. 16 pages of text total, not including notes. (5115)
Day 12: July 13. page 13 finished 18 pp. (5590)
Day 13: July 15. page 14 finished. 19 pp. (22 total with bib.) (5806)
Day 14: July 16. page 15 finished. 19 pp. (22 total with bib.) (5883)
Day 15: July 17. page 15 finished. 19 pp. (23 total with notes, bib.) (5961)
Day 16. July 18. through beginning of page 16 finished. 20 pp. (6081)
Day 17. July 19. 16. 20 pp. (6301)
Day 18. July 20. 18 pages finished. 19 pages of text out of 23 total. (5957)

Two things that are necessary to write are

1) Starting.

2) Continuing.

To write, you must at some point begin to write. As the song says, I've flown around the world in a plane, I've settled revolutions in Spain, but I can't get started with you. Starting is a lot harder than continuing. In fact, once you've started, it is hard not to continue for at least a little while. You can easily trick yourself into an hour or so.

So if you're not writing very much, you might want to analyze whether your problem is a starting problem (attack) or a continuing problem (sustain). If you have no starting problems, you are better off than most people. All you have to do is trick yourself into continuing for long enough. If you have no problem with sustain, but can't get started, then try to just begin by telling yourself that you'll only write for five minutes. Then, once the five minutes are up (you've already started!), you can just keep going. Or not. But at least you've practiced your starting.

If your problem is exclusively sustain--you begin to write frequently but cannot concentrate for long--you have several options. Analyze what is it that is interrupting you. The phone rings? Thoughts of self-doubt? (external or internal). If the cause is external, then try to eliminate it. Write after baby is in bed or before she wakes up. Turn off cell phone. Don't check email. If internal, then make a conscious effort not to listen to those voices telling you you can't do it. Make a list of excuses you make not to continue, and refute them one by one.

I couldn't face the computer yesterday so I did my 2 hours work on the project in the library, with just books and a pen and notebook. I was reading Michael Magee's book on American pragmatism, Ellison, jazz, Frank O'Hara, and Emerson, since I was making a point that piggy-backed on his overall argument to some extent. (You know the book I mean, I'm sure--Emancipating Pragmatism: Emerson, Jazz, and Experimental Writing (Modern & Contemporary Poetics Series))

Of course, the writing today went even faster and better than normal. I had more to say after taking the day off. So taking the SMT of the day is to take a "change of pace day" without interrupting continuity. A change of pace day means no computer for me. For you it might mean using the computer instead of writing long-hand, or opening up a new document and writing random notes that don't form part of the chapter you are writing. I personally feel the need of momentum, so I hesitate to take a day off completely, but there are many things that can be done if you feel you can't face the chapter you are writing on any particular day.

Another good tactic is to write emails to scholarly acquaintances with specific questions during part of your writing time. I try not to abuse the patience of any one individual, but I've found that usually people like to be consulted a bit. They know they will get their name in my acknowledgements. And who reads those except to find YOUR OWN NAME?

I have a pedometer on my belt, a computer on my bike telling me how far I have gone (as of yesterday), and a running word count that I keep on my book and print out each month. So the SMT of the day is keep track of how much you do.

My strengths as a writer:


Writing itself. Prose. That's the bedrock. Got prose?

Work ethic & habits.

Self-confidence.

Ability to choose interesting critical problems.

Intellectual curiosity and knowledge of subject matter.



Weaknesses:


Disorganization of physical workspace and research materials. Lack of system for constructing bibliography and keeping track of references. I'm not a very good archival researcher, tending to work mostlyl from published sources. I tend to construct and argument first then find the citations to back it up a posteriori. I have a hard time finishing projects and dealing with publishers. I'm not good with getting permissions and the like.

Other things I have difficult doing: coordinating many different tasks during the same day or week. Deriving courses from my research. Limiting my commitments to a manageable number.


Rather than addressing all these weaknesses at once, I am starting by getting a better handle on the actual physical space in which I work. I'm starting by spending at least 15 minutes a day on this.

The "Seinfeld method" suffered a bit over the holiday season. My first streak was over 140 days. My second was 2 days, December 27-28. Now I am on day five of my third effort beginning on December 30. What was my downfall?-- travel home from California. Driving one day to see my Mom in Davis and stopping in Berkeley later to show my daughter the campus.

The idea is to string along as many days as possible in which you work on a major project or projects for some substantial number of hours, preferably at least two hours. It's like a marathon made of many tiny sprints. It works for me; Sure, I would have gotten something done anyway, since I am on leave, but I doubt I would have written 60,000 words in a little over five months. Having a leave is a good way to get nothing at all accomplished, since time seems to spread out in amorphous stretches that don't necessarily demand to be filled with work.

Here's another motivational trick for Thomas Basbo/ll [can't get that slash to pierce the letter o, sorry]

Do things quickly. For example, if I get two articles to review for a journal, I will read them the same day I get them and write up my reports within a day or two. Why? I am likely to be more busy, not less, at any given moment in the future, than I am right now. Waiting for a time when I am less busy is not all that productive. And by doing them now I am making myself less busy in the future too, since part of feeling "too busy" is having a lot of things still to be done. Also, having "more time" to do something is not helpful if it is a routine task that can be done fairly quickly. You are better off if someone gives you less time to do that kind of task, because then you end up having more time--for something you'd rather be doing.

If I am asked to review a scholarly book I don't let any time pass between reading the book and writing the review. I begin to formulate sentences of my review as I read, and then the review is essentially "written" in my head by the time I finish the book. I can write a 600-word book review in less than an hour after finishing the reading.

However, you should never work on a book review or other minor project instead of your main project in your minimum number of minutes of writing per day. Work on your main project first. Then you can do a few other things later on in the day, a letter of recommendation, the review of an article, a blog post... If you wait till your desk is cleared to work on your major project, then you will never work on it.

So to summarize: do minor writing tasks quickly, but not at the expense of the big enchilada.

Here's one thing I do: if I finish a chapter, as happened today, and I still have another ten minutes left in my scheduled writing time, I immediately start to work on some other section of the book. I don't just celebrate and stop working for the day. It's a way of letting the momentum carry you forward. That extra ten minutes of writing will produce some extra ideas in the shower the next morning.

***

You've all heard of the professor who doesn't publish much, but his/her work is of high quality, etc... That's always seemed counter-intuitive to me. Such people do exist, as well as the proverbial academic who turns out huge quantities of bad material. But the general human pattern is that if you do more of any activity you'll get better at it. If you're good to begin with, you'll get better. Even the mediocre overproducer will probably get better over time. The brilliant person who writes one or two articles will never get to the that 10th or 20th article that is even better. So my second stupid motivational principle of the day is that quantity, intelligently managed, produces quality.

***

I have some horrible work habits too. When I talk about how much I'm getting done you should understand that I am a lifelong procrastinator, very disorganized, who could have produced several more books in my career were it not for my essential laziness. I've always had the drive to publish, and have done enough for a successful academic career, but until recently I was not husbanding my efforts very effectively. I was actually holding myself back.