Finally

[posted a day after writing, due to crappy internet service at home]

Slowly, getting back into it. 499 words on chapter three today. Only about half of them are new. But it's still words on the page. And a little momentum will carry me forward into tomorrow, when I'd like to write about twice as much.

I think I have a handle on part of what this chapter's going to be about. So far, it doesn't look like it's going to be the most interesting chapter – I'll have to blog about that later. But for now, it's two minutes to midnight, I'm tired, and I WROTE WORDS.

Does size matter?

(Quick work update: I've just finished reading for the first section of the next chapter. Tomorrow: new words, I swear.)

I've been reading some of Interesting Development's dissertation chapters, in part to offer commentary, but also so I'll understand more about his work (all together now: auww!). One of them that I've seen is rather long – over 20,000 words, not including notes.

I know there's a lot of variation in how long or short a writing project of any kind is. But it got me thinking about how my own work measures up. Seems that most academics feel either that they write "too short" or "too long." I'm one of the former. My dissertation was about 250 pages long; I've never published an article that cracked the 20-page mark in print. And yes, I have feelings of inadequacy about this.

On the other hand, I've heard plenty about how publishers in the humanities want shorter book manuscripts – fewer than 100,000 words, they say. And you'll notice that my little word counter (stubbornly unmoving, lo these many weeks) is calibrated to an MS of 95,000 words. But sometimes I wonder if I'm really writing a book, or just a pamphlet.

Of course, at the 44,500 words I've got so far, I won't even have that. Crap. Time to get writing.

Attractions and distractions

I promise that this blog, which I started out to ruminate about the first-book process, will not become a chronicle of my personal life. But indulge me for one post:

A couple of weeks ago, I noted that there had been some Interesting Developments in my life that were keeping me from blogging. As I write this post, one of those Developments is sitting three feet away, working on a writing project of his own.

Huh.

With the exception of one protracted and very long-distance relationship, my entire academic career (including grad school) has been more or less as an unattached person, which was fine. I wasn't sure how I could have fit another person into my schedule anyway. That, however, appears to have changed at present. The distractions are manifold, and I won't go into them in detail. But I have to say, sitting at my desk and working while someone is near you doing the same thing has a nice, companionable feel to it, and I'm actually getting more work (though less blogging) done this way. It's strange, but who knows? I might just be able get used to it.

(Next post will return you to your regularly-scheduled non-personal stuff.)

Logical Proof for the Existence of Santa Claus

Okay, this is a few days late, and going to be fairly esoteric, but since many of my readers are medievalists (and at least two recovering medievalists), I present:

A Logical Proof for the Existence of Santa Claus.

(And remember: I never claimed to be anything other than a big nerd.)

Romancing the Nervous Breakdown

I have never been one of those truly driven scholar-types. I have admired them, however. In fact, what held me in thrall was less the accomplishment than the craziness that fueled it. Example: at age nine (or thereabouts) I saw the movie The Paper Chase (the one where John Houseman intones, "You get grades the old-fashioned way: you earn them"). I fell in love with the idea of law school. Not with being a lawyer, mind you, but with law school: the stress, the challenge, the idea of pushing myself to the breaking point, then just a bit beyond. I think it's something akin to the mentality of people who run marathons.

As it has worked out, I have seen what this looks like in academia, and I'm not really it (except on those rare occasions when I am). I enjoy pure entertainment, company of other humans, walking in the rain, browsing bookstores, or just sitting in coffee shops just watching the world go by far too much to be that kind of scholar.

But I have to confess that I still find a perverse romance in it all.

Girl Scholar Does the Holidays

Dateline: Home City

Today, 36 hours after leaving Fellowship City, I finally finished the last of this semester's errands -- you know, the semester I'm on leave? Yeah, that one. Anyway, the grad exam reports have been faxed in, the article MS sent off (later than I'd like, but not too late), and I'm traveling with work, because nothing says "Christmas" quite like two fragmented former dissertation chapters and a stack of articles.

Am I the only one who does this? Travels with work, I mean? I don't always actually do the work, mind you, but I've long ago ceased to be able to travel without at least three photocopied journal articles for every five days of vacation. It's a sickness, I know.

In other news: all but one of the presents (mom -- dear god) has been purchased, and I say thank the gods for Amazon, which will ship directly to the family homestead, where I can wrap them as they arrive. I am also lusting after a couple of consumer purchases for myself that I know the family won't be able to afford. And I helped dad decorate the tree tonight... and learned that there is a fine line between tree feng shui and OCD.

On leave, my ass.

So, I thought that being on leave would make it relatively easy to keep up a blog. But here's the dirty little secret about being on leave: You aren't, not really.

In the past two weeks, I have graded two graduate exams (okay, one, and am in the midst of the other), devised an independent study contract for a student of mine that I'll be supervising next spring semester, even though there will be someone else as instructor of record, written a couple of letters of recommendation for a former student trying to get into a Ph.D. program, and kept up with correspondence on a couple of issues at home having to do with salary and my teaching when I return. I've also got my annual review in the back of my mind, but I'm just not going to worry about that right now. Can't possibly.

The point is, even though I'm two time zones away from my home campus, I'm still working.

In other news: I finished the revision of The Never-Ending Article, and would have sent it off today if I'd have gotten out of the house before the post office closed. I've also been preparing to leave Monday to spend holidays in Home City, and been dealing with a flu of some kind. And to add to things, there have been Interesting Developments in my personal life. Huh. Wonders never cease.

All in all, it's been a busy couple of weeks. I have been lax about keeping up with my fellow med-bloggers out there, but I figure that this is a busy time of year for everyone, so hopefully all will be forgiven, as I send what I hope will be regular dispatches from Home City.