Writing…
So, I’m finding that there are times that I’m writing, and it’s a very workmanlike process … every paragraph is pieced together with a topic sentence, a few sentences of backup, and a transition to the next paragraph. Frankly, much of my writing last month felt like this – I was getting it done, and and struggling along, but there wasn’t really much joy in it. It had to be done, and that was that.
Something a little odd has happened to me in the past week, though: I started to soar. I don’t quite know how to describe the sensation – it’s almost like the feeling I’ve had when dancing, when I so lose myself in the joy of the dance that I’m not consciously trying to move my body. Rather, my movements just flow out of me, coming from somewhere in the core of my body rather than my head.
My writing has been feeling like that lately – I just sit down, know exactly where and how to pick up the thread I left for myself, and the words just pour out of me. I’ve been writing huge amounts, and it’s good, clear prose.
I’m thinking that part of the reason for this is that the stuff I’ve been writing over the past week (basically, my third chapter) is more narrative than much of the second chapter. I also feel like I’ve just got this stuff so solid, and I know exactly the argument I want to lay out, that it’s all crystal clear in my head. Feels really good, even if it looks like a file cabinet exploded in my little study, with photocopies covering every horizontal surface and tacked up on most of the wall space within arm’s reach. It’s interesting – alongside my clarity about what I’m writing is this near-photographic knowledge of where every article and every interview quote is sitting in this mess of paper. I can visualize them all, and I find myself reaching right for the document I need even before I consciously realize I’m doing so.
Speaking of photocopies, I had a funny moment today – read a trade article about an old video convention from 1981, and I realized that of the nine people quoted, I’d personally spoken to eight in the past year. As a historian, it’s a good feeling to realize that you did in fact manage to choose the right people to talk to, and that you’ve got a good handle on what one of my advisors would call the “core set” of actors involved. Go me.